Grade five students attending Mashabo, Mainstay Lake, Bethany, Capoey Lake, and Hackney Primary Schools in Region Two are now equipped with science instruments needed to engage in Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE), thanks to a partnership between Youth Challenge Guyana and U.S oil-giant ExxonMobil.
With funding from ExxonMobil, and administrative and academic support from the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), Youth Challenge Guyana presented the five schools with two Inquiry-Based Science Kits each.
“The inquiry-based approach helps the children to develop their reasoning, their critical thinking skills, and allows the teacher to have greater involvement in the classroom with the children,” Youth Challenge Guyana Executive Director, Dimitri Nicholson told the Guyana Chronicle in a recent interview.
He explained that each of the 10 kits has instruments and chemicals used in school labs to allow for practical experimentation in classrooms.
“The kits have supplies that you would find in a lab but on a smaller scale, so things like thermometer, test tubes, alcohol lamps, chemicals, and supplies of that nature that help the teachers to be able to do experiments with their children in the class,” Nicholson explained.
In addition to the kits, the grade five teachers attending the identified primary schools completed a one-day training programme. It was explained that the training was an introduction to the methodology for inquiry learning for science. The training was conducted by NCERD.
Since 2013, Youth Challenge Guyana has been collaborating with ExxonMobil Guyana to provide the science kits to schools across the country. Since then over 30 schools across Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Six have benefited.
“Over the years teachers and parents have lauded the initiative which helped to enhance the learning experience of the children and all of the schools reached have shown a favourable improvement in science scores, showing an average increased performance of more than 10 per cent,” the Youth Challenge executive director said.
He noted that Youth Challenge Guyana has maintained frequent dialogue and monitoring of teachers, using the kits in schools to ensure that the grade five students are benefiting from the initiative.
Youth Challenge Guyana and ExxonMobil have been in partnership since 2012 when they collaborated to give support to women entrepreneurs in the country. Capitalising on the partnership, Youth Challenge Guyana requested ExxonMobil’s help in filling a void that existed in the education sector back in 2013.
“Youth Challenge Guyana saw that within the education system or within the education sector, as part of our work there was a demand for greater inquiry learning in the primary schools in regards to science, because teachers were doing a whole lot of what might be considered “chalk and talk.” They were not using the most effective method to teach science in the classroom so as a result, we approached Exxon for a different approach outside of women’s entrepreneurship,” Nicholson explained.
According to him, since the introduction of the Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) project in 2013, over 500 children have benefitted, and it is expected that this year, an additional 150 children would benefit from the kits.
