For children in refugee camps in Greece, learning mostly comes in the form of informal education. To expose children to a science curriculum, Blossom Hill Fellow Erika Gillette has developed science kits that transcend language barriers. Science is a great way to support math and language instruction for children who have experienced interruptions in their education due to war and conflict. Elpida, a Greek teacher who uses Erika’s science kits to teach refugee children from Afghanistan and Syria said:
It is very important for them to learn science and they seemed very eager to do so when we introduced the science related material to our main language classes. It helped them develop their interest and talents in science, learn about the world and how it works while supporting them at school and boosting their performance.
In one of Erika’s science kits, students measure, observe, and collect data on the amount of air in a balloon and the amount of time the attached hovercraft is in motion. Students do multiple trials with different amounts of air and calculate the average. They learn that the more air is in the balloon, the longer the hovercraft is in motion. They then make predictions using their data to determine how long it would travel with twice the amount of air. #BHTurns10
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