The art of acquiring new skills and knowledge from the world around us can be termed as learning. But the way we are forced to learn with the current educational system is consequently a burden to the students rather than a fun learning experience. Remember the days when as a kid we would have asked our parents “why that is” to everything we saw and did not understand. But now, students in schools wouldn’t dare to ask their teacher why and how a topic of chemistry like polymers and organic chemistry. Our approach to learning is something which I believe, has to be changed. Let us look at some fun learning practices and techniques which empower the student for a better understanding of the topic.
- Memorizing the Periodic Table: To drub the issue of memorizing, it is best to come up with a personal algorithm which will be appropriate to your personal essence and caliber. For some people it might be using mnemonic sentences, for some, it might be making the list of elements into a song or for some even relating each element to an image and making a story out of the sequence.
Here is an example of a mnemonic device:
- Happy Henry Lives Beside Boron Cottage, Near Our Friend Nelly Nancy MgAllen. Silly Patrick Stays Close. Arthur Kisses Carrie.
- H He Li Be B C N O F Ne Na Mg Al Si P S ClAr K Ca
First 20 elements of the table as the prefix of each word of the sentence.
Similarly, learning the Latin names of elements will also help you to recall the element when in need.
- Cooperative construction: When kids team up to create something together with blocks, they must communicate, negotiate, and cooperate. Do these social skills activities make a difference? There is. In one study of patients with high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome and autism, school children attended a one-hour session of group construction play once a week for 18 weeks. Compared with kids given special training in the social use of language, the kids in the construction group showed greater improvement in their social interactions. Other research indicates that the benefits of these experiences last for years. In the real world, good team working skills are a must to get a project done. Thus, encourage and engage students to learn through group activities.
- Play Mobile Games: In the current day and age, there is no point in regurgitating knowledge on a piece of paper. Applying the knowledge you know is what matters. Students need to be able to find, analyze and use information on the fly. What games bring to the forefront is their interactive nature, testing the user’s skills to solve problems, be it simple or complex, the user’s skills are tested. A Well-designed game will draw learners into virtual environments which look and feel familiar so that they can quickly make the connection between their real-life work and the learning experience – this feeling of relevance is especially important for adult learning.
Thus, we have seen a few simple yet effective learning practices for fun learning rather than dull learning. To learn more fun ways to learn difficult topics like nomenclature of organic compounds and to know about how technology integrated learning techniques are helping us form more fun learning practices, check out this YouTube channel-