This, unfortunately, is exacerbated further during their formal education, through the general lack of practical work carried out in the science classroom.

Why is this?

There are many reasons behind this of course - lack of facilities, lack of resources, lack of teachers, lack of time, excessively large class sizes, the list goes on. However, even in schools that have few reasons to hold them back, little or no practical / experimental work is done. Anecdotally, one possible cause for this, postulated after conversations with my recently qualified colleagues; it appears that we have slipped into a feedback loop.

Students do few (if any) experiments or practicals in science during grades 7 to 10, when they get to grades 11 & 12 this does not facilitate them doing more practical work as the skills necessary have not been developed. At the end of their secondary school years, these students, who have never done much in the way of science experiments, choose to train as Primary & Secondary teachers. In UOG (anecdotally) it appears that little time is given to conducting experiments or training teachers to prepare and carry out experiments in the classroom. The result is that our new teachers come into a system where they never did experiments, their tutors never did experiments and therefore there is little chance that they will carry out experiments with their classes (never having experienced the importance of practical work themselves). This cycle repeats and reinforces itself.

In my limited time with my Physics class, I attempted to carry out as many practical experiments / activities as possible, ranging from the extremely simple (a temperature curve for melting ice / heating water) to more complex. Many were successful, some were less so but in all cases the skills of my students were woefully inadequate based on the level that they are expected to demonstrate. (My apologies to my 12A of 2014)

Students were, on the whole, unable to make reliable and accurate observations; they were unable to make sensible hypotheses when establishing an experiment; they were unable to isolate and control an appropriate variable / parameter in the experiment; they were unable to present an ordered, logical and clear report on the experiment / activity conducted.

Of course, in my opinion, this was not due to the students' failing but to our failing in not developing the necessary skills beforehand. This is of course partly due to the limited childhood exposure that our students have had, the lack of practical / experimental work prior to grade 12 Physics lessons, the difficulties imposed by time / class size/ materials / facilities / training etc.

Be assured that despite the difficulties my students encountered, the overwhelming response from my class has been that they have benefited greatly from the inclusion of the many experiments / activities that I was able to incorporate into their lessons. Students stated that they were able to understand concepts quicker and better and were less likely to be confused when they were introduced to the theory or calculations involving it. Students were motivated and intrigued by the experiments that they were able to carry out, they were encouraged by having a concrete experience that enabled them to "see it", as was often quoted.

So what can we do?

Firstly we need to accept and understand that experiments are essential to the teaching and learning of science. We must make it our priority in class to attempt to give our students a concrete experience that relates to the topic. We must improve our skills in the area of conducting practicals / experiments. In our school we must use the excellent materials and facilities that we have to the fullest.

Practically, we can insist that the school ensures that services to all laboratories (gas and water) are maintained in working order. We can organise / catalogue the resources that we have and arrange them appropriately so as to facilitate their use - we have a great deal of materials but staff don't even know that it is there. We can employ a technician to help us prepare the labs for students to use - an ex-student of ours that we can train to help us. We can insist that science programmes clearly elaborate when (and what) a practical activity / experiment is to be carried out by students or the teacher. We can establish a club to encourage STEM activities to help and enable our students to develop some of the skills they require to think "scientifically".

These are just some of my thoughts that have arisen from my teaching of 12A Physics this year. This piece is my opinion and is not meant to reflect on any person or student. It is put out here to provoke some thought on the matter and to encourage other staff or students to express their own opinions, in the hope that together, we can improve the learning experience for our students in Mount Hagen Secondary School.

David Ogles