Author: Beata Jarosievitz
Origin: HUNGARY
Implemented in: Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania
Its aim is to teach students the basic principles of electric motors by building a working model of an electric motor for classroom use. The lessons start with a short pre-questionnaire that the students need to fill in order to show the teacher how much knowledge they already have on this topic. Then the students are divided into groups of three. Each group chooses one experiment and collects the required materials from a little box, and each student within the group is assigned a role: a reporter, a camera person and a presenter who has to create a short presentation on the experiment. The work of the students starts by watching a video on an experiment which they have to reproduce. During the reproduction the students have to follow their roles. The mechanical construction experiment is filmed with a digital camera by the camera operator, the video can be embedded in the presentation that the reporter creates, and the third student will finally have to present the whole experiment to the class. The added value of this GP, as stated by the creator, is that “students are able to make their experiments alone; they can discuss in teams and even argue about a scientific topic during their observation. Students are involved in the teaching of the new material, and they start to learn to predict before they conclude their observation.”
Success stories
According to all the teachers who implemented this GP, their students enjoyed creating mechanical constructions very much, as it was motivating for the students to construct something themselves that is functional at the end. A Czech teacher mentioned that during the hands-on construction exercise some of his students realized that they were not very good at handiwork, as they are not used to it. This made them realize that they should try to do more things by hand instead of by computer whenever this is possible.