By Silvia Kist

During the school holiday in July 2009 in Rwanda, students and teachers from Nonko, Rwamagana and Kagugu Primary Schools returned to their classrooms for a week to participate in Rwanda’s first XO Camp.

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Learning Team designed the XO Camp with help from the Rwandan RITC Core Team. The goals of the XO Camp is to give students the opportunity to work on something fun that they would not be able to work on during school and to continue capacity building for teachers. The XO Camp, within the basis of rich learning activity, is designed to provide an example of interesting and challenging things that can be done with laptops and to create a vision of powerful uses of computers for teachers and school managers.

These rich learning activities relate to the growth model that OLPC and the Government of Rwanda are building for the laptop initiative in Rwanda. In this growth model, it is important to create powerful exemplars, which are centers of innovation and reflection about laptops and learning. The enthusiasm and the lessons learned in these centers are used to spread the transformation across the school system (see David Cavallo’s paper, Models of Growth: Towards Fundamental change in learning environments).

We have had 3 XO Camps that ran simultaneously at the primary schools: Matsiko Project, Newspaper and Game Programming. We are spotlighting the Matsiko Project in this entry.  The Matsiko Project was created to introduce a different approach of the way the learning happens.  The idea behind the Matsiko Project is to offer an opportunity for a group of students to express their curiosities about the world and to conduct investigations about subjects that are meaningful to them.

The principle of the Matsiko Project is to engage students in their learning process: developing the spirit of investigation and critical thinking about the questions that come to their minds.

As part of this learning process, our intention is to instigate students to question and then to investigate the question by researching in order to understand HOW the things work or WHY some things happen.

By creating experiments and models using the laptop was a way for the students to express their understanding about the topic and to verify the problems and the gaps in their understanding.

In practical terms, the Matsiko Project aims to develop a group of students that will:

• Question
• Investigate the question(s)
• Create models and experiments using the XO laptop
• Create reports about the discovery that can be shared with other student

In July 2009, in Kagugu Primary School, we selected a group of students from P4 and P5 to come during the school holiday.  We worked with the students 4 hours per day for a week in the Matsiko Project.

To engage the students and to instigate them to express their curiosities, we used a book called, Curiosity is the Award Itself or Ibihembo  bya matsiko (in Kinyarwanda).

The book tells the story of a very curious girl, Glory, that suffers from a disease called “accumulated curiosity” and shows the solution that her family found to help her:  the whole family will do investigations.

On Day 1 of the Matsiko Project, we copied the book to the students’ laptops and we told them the story.  After the students heard the story, they read by themselves and looked at the images.

Shortly afterwards, we asked the students questions about the story:

• Did you like the story?
• Do you know someone who is curious like Glory?
• Who is curious like Glory?

Most of the students knew someone like Glory, the book’s main character: themselves, cousins, friends, brothers and sisters.

Then, we asked:  “What are you curious about?”

Since all of the students started talking and saying their curiosities at once, we decided to ask them to write only one (the most interesting curiosity) in the Write activity on the XO laptop.

Afterwards, the students read their curiosities aloud to the class and here is what they were curious about:

1. Why are some people white and others black?
2. Why do the people in Rwanda speak Kinyarwanda and others speak English?
3. Why do some people in Rwanda speak English?
4. Why do white people know many things and blacks do not?
5. Why are some people short and others tall?
6. Why do some people have short noses and others long noses?
7. Why do black people don’t have the same hair as white people?
8. Why do we need to use clothes?
9. Why do white people look like Chinese?
10. Why do Rwandese people have black skin?
11. Why are Chinese like Japanese?
12. Why do people have different colors?
13. Why did God create people with different colors?
14. How can I be rich?
15. How can I learn better?
16. Where does the sun come from?
17. Where does the sun go when it is night?
18. Why don’t we have sun at night?
19. Where is the earth?

It is important to stimulate the students to keep questioning (even the most simple questions). The basis of scientific discovery is the skill of an individual to question and then mobilize to find the answer. The development of knowledge begins by good questions.

Since we had a short period of time to work and few resources to work with, we decided to have the students choose together one curiosity to start a small investigation.

The students chose the following curiosity to investigate: Where does the sun go when it is night?

As with traditional investigation, before the research, the students took notes about their hypothesis for that question and then they registered the question and their hypotheses about it in the Write activity on the XO laptop and shared them:

Students’ previous ideas about the question were, as follows:

• Ryihishe mu bicu.   It is hide on the sky.
• Ryhishe inyuma  ylukwezi.    Hidden behind of the moon.
• Rihinduka ukwezi.    The night, it changes with the moon.
• Riba riri mu kirere.  It is going into the sky.
• Riba ryagiye huko ryikaraga.   It goes and turns.
• Rijya mu mubumbo imbere.  It goes inside the earth.
• Rijya mu yandi masi.   It goes to other planets.
• Rihishaga iriyuma y’umubumbe.    It is hidden behind of other planets.

To register the hypothesis or previous ideas is an important step for the students to figure out what they know about, what they think they know and to compare with what they are learning.  Sometimes the previous idea makes sense and is confirmed by the investigation. Sometimes the previous idea is false, but the process always shows the students’ thoughts. Through this process, we can see how the students’ thoughts changed and how much they learned. Most of the students had good hypotheses.

Jean Piaget, who studied children development, said that children are like little scientists, who are always trying to make sense of the world around them. They have a lot of “theories” about how things work. Their theories are logical and show their thoughts. Questions come from the gaps in their theories.  Our role is to understand these thoughts, to try to do an intervention to put them in contradiction and to guide them to arrive at a better explanation by themselves.

On Day 2 of the Matsiko Project, we started by observing the sun and its position in the sky.  We discussed the sun’s position in the sky at different times of the day.  For example, where is the sun during the middle of the day? Where is the sunrise? Where is the sunset?

During the observation, two false ideas came up: the sun is small and the sun moves.

Next, to check if their ideas were right, we directed the students to research information on the Internet, on Wikipedia and in the offline content of Browse on the XO laptops.

Since the Internet was not working well, we decided to look for information on the XO laptop and we found a book about the solar system with images.

In the images on the XO laptop, the students could see that the sun is bigger than the earth and that the earth and other planets turn around the sun and the earth turn around itself.

At this moment one question came up:  If the sun is bigger, then why when we look at it in the sky, it looks small? One student said that it happens because the sun is far away.

Then, we went out of the room to check to see if this information was correct: We did an experiment to understand why things far away look like they are smaller. For the experiment, all the students used Record to make a video of the globe.  In the beginning, the globe was close up and it looked big. Then one student started to walk with the globe her hands and the farther the globe moved, the smaller it looked.

Through this exercise, it was possible to understand why things far away look smaller. Other   information that students found reading the solar system book was that there are other planets, too.

In addition to that, one student found out that the earth turns to make day and night and it takes 24 hours. Then, the students used the globe to simulate the earth movement to make day and night.

On Day 3, we started to use Squeak/ Etoys, an XO laptop’s activity. The idea was to use the Squeak/Etoys so that the students could represent their knowledge about the solar system up to this point.  With Etoys, students can draw objects or import from other activities and put some commands for these objects (turn, move, sound, etc).

The representation/simulation about the solar system is very important because during the drawing and programming we can see how the students understood the concept that we were working with.

To start with Etoys, we asked the students to draw an object and in this case, the sun, and “to keep”  (this is a “command” in Etoys). After they had drawn the sun, some kids played with the sun making it smaller or bigger and also used some simple commands, like making sound and turning.

On Day 4, as we took into consideration that the students had first contact with Etoys the day before, the idea for the next activity was to simulate the earth’s movements.

First, the students went to Browse to find the earth image and copy to clipboard. Afterwards, they dragged and dropped the earth image in Squeak/Etoys. In Etoys, they had drawn the sun. Next they painted the background in one color and “keep” (“command” in Etoys) and then they opened the “Halo”

and then the “Viewer” for the earth and next they dragged and dropped the “turn by” (“command” in Etoys for programming) and the earth turned.

When they finished their simulation, they shared with their classmates and we compared their simulation with what they had learned.  There were some problems like the size of the sun and the earth and about the movement of the earth and also the sun.

We discussed again which is bigger, how much bigger is the sun, and what is the earth movement, if the sun moves. We also used the body to simulate these movements.  The students arrived at the conclusion that the sun is bigger than the earth and does not turn. The sun remains in the same position. It is the EARTH that turns. During the night the EARTH shows another part of the sun.

We also took notes of the information that the students had learned:

• Our planet is called EARTH.
• The SUN in bigger than the EARTH.
• The Sun looks small in the sky because it is far away.
• The EARTH takes 24 hours to turn.
• The EARTH takes 365 days to turn around the Sun.
• The Moon turn around the earth.

After the discussion, the students came back to Squeak/Etoys to correct their projects. They made the sun bigger than the earth and the moon smaller than the earth and put movement to the moon to turn around the earth and the earth to turn around itself.

They also wanted to put the movement of the earth around the sun, but it was not possible during this time because to put two movements to earth required complex programming and the students were only just beginning to get familiar with Etoys.

To do the model and to reflect about the model was a precious moment of learning. Before the simulation on the XO laptop, the students appeared to understand, but when they expressed by simulation, they realized they did not understand initially.

This means that it was necessary for the students to express their own ideas by doing, even committing mistakes. By debugging the models, the students face contradiction with their previous theories and this is a way to build new knowledge.  That is what we call, Constructive mistake.

In the beginning of Day 5, the last day of the Matsiko Project, we explained that they would present their projects to other classes. Then we discussed the conclusion to our investigation’s question, and we simulated again the solar system using their body to pretend to be the sun, the earth and the moon.

After that, we asked the students to open their projects made the day before, but most of them decided to make the project again. It was nice because it showed that they were able to make it by themselves and even help their classmates.

In the middle of the day, we asked some students to go into the other classes to talk about their projects, about their questions, hypotheses, conclusion and also to show the solar system simulation in Etoys.

The Matsiko XO Camp finished with students presenting their projects to other classes and sharing learning.

To present the projects is also another important part of the learning. When the students are able to explain in their own words, it shows their understanding. Their understanding builds confidence.  Also when the students share their projects, they are sharing their learning, by “teaching” other students.

Other Possibilities

Another strategy of the project is to develop the students’ literacy in Kinyarwanda and in English. When we create projects that engages students, they read and write with enthusiasm. We can take advantage of every moment to give students an incentive to read (and make sure that they understand what they read) and to write on their own (and there is no copying) about the investigation.  We can bring reading materials about the “project question” for them to read.  We use Write often as a way to express ideas.  We start by writing the question and the hypothesis, but it is important that the students produce some texts about their ongoing comprehension. Some texts should be revised by themselves and also by their classmates (they can exchange the XO laptops).  We can use students’ mistakes in their writing activity as an example to teach better ways to write. Or we can do a correction of the text all together. We can ask, “Instead of writing this,  how could we write better to express the same idea? Another thing we can do is to use the project to teach some words in English. We can create a list (short dictionary) with the main words about the investigation.  We can do it together on the blackboard, but always asking the students what they think and what is the translation. Or, they can create short dictionary on the XO laptop (using Write, Etoys, Memorize, Record, or Scratch) or we can also create a poster to put on the wall. If the school has a server, we can create a blog where students can write a diary about the evolution of the project (their own ideas and their comprehension) or even to do a report about the project.  In this way students from other schools can read it.  This is the best way for the students who are starting to write to improve their writing: writing that will be read.

Popularity: 11% [?]