Private Ohyu Gakuen Girls' Junior and Senior High School (Ohyu Gakuen Educational Corporation: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo) is known for traditionally having a large number of students going on to science, even among all-girls junior and senior high schools. We asked the school's science department to write an article about the school's science education and the educational strategies they use to nurture a love of science in girls.
First, learn to like science
One of the reasons why people feel they are not good at science is that it is about things that cannot be seen. For example, how can we help students understand and become interested in things that cannot be seen, such as atoms and electrons? We believe that thinking about this is the first step in cultivating a love of science. Therefore, at Ouyou Science, we try to avoid students feeling that they are not good at science by "learning from things that can be seen."
In the first year of junior high school, we only teach biology. Through observing plants and animals that are "visible" to the naked eye, students become aware of the wonder of living things and the beauty of nature, while at the same time asking simple questions such as "Why does this happen?" We want students to realize that science is not just a subject to memorize, but a way to understand the world around us.
In the second year of junior high school, students take classes in physics, chemistry, and earth science. In these fields, students are required to be able to understand the "invisible" and abstract theories and concepts. To take their science studies a step further, we teach students the idea of "forming a hypothesis and testing it," and we believe that this way of thinking is a very important part of learning science.
Started Physics of Thought in 2014
First, in the second year of junior high school physics, we learn "Hypothesis-Verification Experiments: Why?"
When teaching high school students, there are quite a few who remember what they have learned, but when it comes to things they have not learned, their thinking stops and they are unable to apply what they have learned. Some people think that if they just remember the formulas, they will be able to do something. Science is a subject that requires creative thinking. We thought that the lack of creative thinking was due to a problem with the education they received in junior high school, and we decided that they needed training to improve their thinking skills during junior high school.
In society, there are no set or prepared tasks. First, it is necessary to become aware of and find the task. Then, in solving the task, you must move forward through repeated trial and error, asking yourself why it is not working and how to make it work. To do this, in addition to knowledge, it is necessary to acquire "thinking and judgment skills" and "initiative and collaboration", so we started a "hypothesis verification experiment: Why is that?" with the aim of raising this awareness in second-year junior high school students. After conducting experiments and lectures based on the contents of the textbook from April to December, the program will run for two months from January.
Rubric evaluation was also introduced in 2015. By evaluating themselves and being evaluated by others at the same time, students are able to develop an awareness of initiative and collaboration. In 2016, themes in unstudy fields were also introduced, such as "XNUMX. Create a launch pad that allows the super ball to land in the same place no matter how many times it is launched," "XNUMX. When weights (batteries) are placed inside a can, find out what rules apply to the way the weights are placed, the number of weights, and the way the can rolls," and "XNUMX. Record on tape a dynamics cart running on a horizontal plane and a slope, and find the rules."
Students watch videos created by teachers, choose a topic that interests them, and decide on a "topic" for each topic in their team. They then formulate a hypothesis for each topic and discuss in groups to come up with an experiment and the tools they need to prove that hypothesis.
Finally, the students will consider whether their hypothesis is correct based on the results of the experiment. If things don't go as expected, they will think of other ways to proceed, and will continue to discuss the results as a group until they arrive at an answer.
However, the goal is not to get the right results. We believe that the process of learning from failure is what makes science learning fun, and is an important step in cultivating scientific thinking. When an experiment goes well, everyone is overjoyed, and when it fails, there is a lively exchange of ideas, with questions like "Why?" and "What if we try this?" It is very encouraging to see.
We also value the exchange of ideas within the group. Sharing the results of experiments and discussing how to improve the results deepens individual thinking and allows students to incorporate different perspectives. Communication within a group is essential in science classes, and this interaction enriches learning.
From the third year of junior high school, "The Physics of Thinking"
From the third year of junior high school, students will study the mechanics field of high school physics. However, the style in which teachers lecture has changed significantly. For example, in the first class, students will observe the movement of an object when it is dropped from shoulder height until it hits the floor.
Group A (spherical objects)
Super ball (small), super ball (large), ping pong ball, rolled up paper ball
Group B (flat objects)
A textbook, B5 copy paper, an unfolded handkerchief, and an uninflated balloon
Divided into
・Observe phenomena and events carefully and value your intuition
・Draw a diagram or other diagram to show the path you have taken and share it with others
- Expanding our thinking from the path shown to us by others to arrive at an answer
With this in mind, students will observe the movement of objects under various conditions and organize what they have in common and what is different.
This will help students deepen their understanding of "inductive thinking," which involves experiencing the process of deriving the physical laws that determine the movement of objects, and "deductive thinking," which involves applying discovered physical laws to the movement of objects that have not yet been explained and inferring experimental results and the reasons for them.
Since implementing the "Physics of Thinking" course, I feel that the number of students who are able to think for themselves when they encounter difficult problems or problems they have never seen before as high school students has increased. In addition, I have often seen students consulting with their friends instead of asking questions right away.
What Ouyou's Science Aims to Do
The key to liking science is to actually get your hands dirty, conduct experiments and observations, and learn from them. By seeing the phenomena occurring in front of you with your own eyes, thinking about them, formulating hypotheses, and verifying them, science becomes more than just a subject; it becomes a tool for gaining a deeper understanding of the world around us.
Acquiring scientific thinking methods not only helps students gain scientific knowledge, but also improves their problem-solving abilities in everyday life. At our school, students are divided into humanities/arts classes and science classes in their second year of high school. The ratio is 2:1 every year, but the ability to have questions and think about how to solve them should be an essential skill for living in the future, even for students who choose the humanities or arts courses. This is also the hidden aim of "The Physics of Thinking."
