Engineering is Elementary is a program designed to be used within Elementary Schools to relay the concepts of Engineering, using a hands-on approach. Two experienced teachers from Boston Museum of Science arrived in Gulu last Saturday evening and will be teaching two of their 20 modules to two groups of students.
The first stop on Sunday morning was breakfast at San Kofa Café to fortify ourselves for shopping in the market for custom designed clothes in the local African fabrics.
Orientation at the school, for Kate Sokol and Erin Fitzgerald started on Sunday afternoon with a complete tour of the campus, including visiting the inside of each dorm and classroom, the athletic fields, the kitchen and the small pine forest planted in 2005 from seedlings. Every room was orderly and swept spotlessly clean. As far as the eye could scan, there was not a single piece of trash. Our hosts, Rev Ochola and Deputy Headteacher Dolly Oryem gave a detailed history of the school, including events leading up to their Centenary in 2014.
Sixty students in two classes of 30, inclusive of blind and visually impaired students as well as sighted along with six established Science teachers attended the 90-minute sessions. The students learned the definition of Technology and what an Engineer does. Then, they were given Technology in a Bag, everyday objects which they explored to describe and analyze.
Teacher Erin and Teacher Kate have fully embraced the experience and are taking their breaks with the teachers and observing classes of the regular schedule when they are not teaching. Their flexibility and professionalism is astounding. Northern Uganda is already benefitting from "hands-on" instruction.
