In order to have children in PaPa’s Pad to have opportunity to do scientific experiments to deepen their learning, we held a 5-day science camp in 2019 summer. This camp was designed by Huang Lieh-ho Volunteer Team. Members of Huang Lieh-ho Volunteer Team, on average over 60 years old, had started designing activities for this camp 3 months before summer vacation.
The theme of this summer camp is “Water-Liquid.” We had 3 dates for the camp sessions, starting from July 15th. The camp was held at Shanfong, Longgang and Shulin in turns. The course content guided students from simple to difficult, step by step to complete a series of project learning. The children understood how difficult it is to obtain water resources for livelihood through picture book stories. To enhance children’s learning interests, we let children make giant bubbles by using detergent molecules. Furthermore, “Making your own Butterfly Pea drinks” is the children’s favorite activity. By using the color change reaction of Butterfly Pea water which turns red when mixed with acid and turns blue when mixed with alkaline, we had the children to test various beverages in the market. They added lemon juices, baking soda, etc., making their own drinks. The drinks they made were colorful. After the experiments, the children drank their own drinks and shared their findings with each other. This activity was very popular with them.
(right)Children knew what “detergent molecules” is through making giant bubbles.！
On the day of graduation, a series of scientific competitions were organized, including “Scientific Ping Pong” derived from Bernoulli’s principle, “Water Polo Pass” requiring power and balance, as well as ice-crushing “Solid Water Game.” The team members had to cooperate with each other within the time limit. Through repeated failures and falls, students gradually developed their own strategies to succeed in each checkpoint.
but also include team competitions.
Through teamwork, children could share their thoughts with their peers and learn from each other.
Not only children learned a lot from this camp, silver-haired volunteers also benefited from the camp as well. “It was very important for us to learn how to ‘let go of children’ and wait for them to discover things themselves” shared by one of the senior volunteers, Yu-in. “As a grandmother, I am used to spoiling my grandsons and granddaughters. I give them whatever they asked. However, in this camp, I was stopped and reminded by the supervisors whenever I wanted to give the children the answers of their assignments directly. In the beginning, I thought teachers were too harsh for the children, but I had been the same strict with my son, too. The most important thing is let children discover and learn by themselves. All we should to is accompanying them and waiting for them patiently. Thanks to this camp to remind me of this. Thanks to the foundation to give me this opportunity to learn” said by Yu-in.
