In the two recent installments of 2017 Innovation in Education Fairs I conducted a science workshop for teachers and administrators. The workshop covered imparting critical thinking skills by getting students to tackle open-ended questions. In the workshop, I discussed critical thinking skills and how they can be imparted to students by having them tackle open-ended problems. I actually had the participants engage in a simple activity to generate open-ended questions based on the observations they recorded during the activity.
The presentations were mostly successful as evidenced by the testimonials the participants provided. Click here to read the testimomials from participants at the Kathmandu fair and here for those from participants at the Pokhara fair.
Incidentally, I speak both English and Nepali in the workshop.
I have used the activity featured in the presentation in the past with my students, of course. Click here for an adaptation of the activity as a form 4 IGCSE chemistry task. Click here for an an adaptation of the activity as a MYP Year 4 Chemistry task, which is pretty much the same as the IGCSE task. Click here for an adaptation of the activity as an IB Diploma chemistry activity.
