On the 22nd of March 2023, I had the pleasure to interact with my Form 5 Science students at GBHS Pintchoumba in North Cameroon.
My goal was to equip these students from a remote area, with the skills necessary to execute a successful project using Arduino and digital electronics. Given that there was so much to cover within a short time, it was crucial that each student be comfortable with programming basics. Thus, it’s extremely advantageous for students to already have a foundational understanding of what programming entails.
It made teaching the Arduino language and using the reference tools significantly easier for both them and myself. I taught them assuming there was zero previous knowledge of electronics, but those who had earlier on experimented with circuits in their Physics class were significantly more advanced.
I found that a number of students were extremely ambitious with their ideas in comparison to the skills we had covered. For those who were clearly planning a project that was beyond their means, I will take the time to sit down with them and help them scale down their idea to something that is more manageable, thereby setting them up for success.
Teaching them how to execute a task is one thing, but teaching them how to think is an entirely different ballgame. The biggest challenge for me was translating the notion that projects should have a purpose and their work should have meaning.
- Elisee Jafsia'23 | Fulbright TEA Alum
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