Learning Through Play presentation, How Best to Engage Our Students in 2022-23, Digitally Enhanced Webinar Series, University of Kent
This work was prompted by the question of how we ask questions of our students that keeps them interested but isn't the same formula for every session.
With engagement as the initial focus, inclusivity then became a further consideration; how we ask questions and pitch our content in a manner that is not exclusive to one group of students.
This presentation considers some methods for engaging students in this manner.
The core focus of the initial part is around asking questions in more playful ways to engage with students, feeding from the templates that quiz shows so helpfully offer us.
I go on to discuss briefly some ideas about posing those questions in the contexts of physical demonstrations (using LEGO) and video games. These themes are expanded on below.
Engineering, as with many STEM subjects, has a very practical and applied aspect to it. More importantly though, many students learn through doing,, whether it be practice questions of experimental work. Whilst we simply can't have practical aspects for every single principle we teach througout the course; there jsut would not be sufficient time for them all, we can offer a range of demonstrations to supplement the practical work. When using demos, there's the obvious fact that they need to be clearly visible, which can be a challenge with large groups. Of greater importance is the need for students to engage with the demonstration, recognise what it's trying to convey and use this to build their understaning. If we can create demonstrations that already have an aspect of familiarity for the students, we're one step closer to both engaging and building their current understanding. By using everyday objects and particularly in this example toys, we can tap into a common fact that we were once all curious children, to stimulate new learning at a higher level.
The video considers both the practicality of demonstrating with small LEGO sets and how this might be used in a large lecture hall as well as pre/post resource development ideas using LEGO Studio to start conversations.
What do you think this LEGO model is meant to be?
Describe how it works.
Which key equations from the topic do you think we'll apply to this model?
Start to use those equations to develop your description of the model's movement.
How would change your mathematical description of the model based on what you now know?
If people were added to the model, what difference would that make to its movement?
Now design you own model [optionally using Studio] of something which uses similar dynamic principles and describe its motion mathematically.
As with the physical demonstrations above, if we can engage students in areas that they are familiar with already, we can build on some of that familiarity. Particularly in earlier years in higher education, the background and experiences of students will be more diverse (later in the programmes they have had some common experience of the preceding academic years).
Video games offer a common environment in which principles can be demonstrated and discussed. You can also change the rules (gravity doesn't have to be 9.81 m.s^-2). Students can see something, possibly very difficult to demonstrate physically, and be asked what difference changing variables would make, that again might be difficult in real life to show. The video game context offers familiarity, looks to (re-)kindle playful curiosity whilst developing application of complex concepts that can then be built on once firm understanding is embedded.