Thursday, August 6, 2009

Primary students lack interest in natural sciences

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 08/06/2009 11:22 AM | National

Eleven-year-old Ghina Ramadhani delighted in an experimental display at a science exhibition in Jakarta on Wednesday, jumping on and off a mat wired to a showerhead, turning it on and off in the process.

However, the sixth grader from a school in Tangerang, Banten, maintained that she did not “have much interest in the natural sciences”.

“I’m not that keen on studying nature; I get goose bumps whenever I see organs or bugs.”
She prefers the more “daunting” subjects, such as mathematics, because it “requires me to wrack my brains, which is fun”.

Ghina says she loves puzzles, and loves solving them even more. The natural sciences, she says, are less puzzling than mathematics.

The National Education Ministry has become concerned in recent years by the fact that fewer people are taking their university degrees in natural sciences, making it harder for Indonesia to compete globally in agriculture and other related sectors and raising concerns over the absence of competent people to maintain the country’s natural resources.

It seems, however, that the lack of interest in studying natural sciences actually starts early on. Ghina is not the only primary student to find little challenge in the natural sciences.

Steven Kasemetan from a school in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, says he dislikes the subject because “all I have to do is read the books and memorise them”.

“It’s no fun,” the sixth grader says, adding his school rarely allowed the students to experiment.

Slamet, a teacher from state elementary school SDN Menteng 02, said students were easily bored if the teachers were only giving them theories without showing them how the theories apply in their daily lives.

“When students can associate, for example, how water flows with their daily showers, they will understand better and faster,” he told The Jakarta Post.

The problem with teaching natural sciences these days, Slamet said, was that it included little creativity.

Teachers, he added, sometimes failed to provide a way for their students to see the fun side of the subject, whether by engaging them in experiments or playing games.

During his 12 years of teaching not only has he employed those two methods, but he also lets his students conduct small research projects.

Moreover, his method includes an interactive computer-based program that allows students to learn their lessons while playing games.

“Some of my students also build their own experiments using used materials,” said Slamet, who is also a counselor for his fellow teachers in the natural sciences.

He added he would also take his students on walks around the school complex, which has around 7,000 different kinds of plants growing.

On Wednesday, his school’s booth was rated the best, based on its creativity, display and interactivity, by a panel of judges at the exhibition“If the teachers are creative, the students will be too,” he said. (adh)

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