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Developing chemistry board games for fun and interactive chemistry learning for high school students in rural areas of East Kalimantan
Project Leader: Dirgarini Subagyono
University of Origin: Doctor of Philosophy, Monash University
Collaborating Organisations: -
Project Locations : Kalimantan Timur
Activity Type : Training, workshop or seminar
Sector :Development studies, Education management, Education and training
Project Rationale:
Chemistry is one of compulsory subjects for high school students in Indonesia. However, chemistry is often considered as a difficult, complicated and sometimes boring subject by students, especially for those who live in rural or remote areas where access to adequate educational sources (e.g. books, internet) is difficult. Chemistry teachers often found it challenging to change this reputation and need some efforts to improve the level of student interest not only for learning chemistry but also for understanding the concepts. The challenges faced by chemistry teachers are unmerited because chemistry is very important in everyday life for many types of application, such as food industry, medicine, clothing industry, household chemicals, petroleum industry, water and sanitation, etc. A lack of understanding in basic and general chemistry can be detrimental for the society and environment. For example, several incidents and accidents happened due to misused of chemicals. It is thus important to teach basic and general chemistry concepts to high school students to avoid this thing to happen in the future. It is essential for teachers to create suitable learning environment to increase student interest on chemistry. Chemistry teachers need to be creative in delivering some chemistry concepts to students and do not only use the conventional ways to teach students using textbooks. With the increase on the level of subject difficulty, students will lose interest on chemistry. A method in chemistry learning using game tools is potential to be applied to create fun and interactive learning environment.
Another problem that the project will address is the lack of direct student to student interaction or student to teacher interaction because of the use of gadgets or smart phones. Some students tend to be stuck with their gadgets, playing electronic games and do not communicate with their friends. As a result, they show no sympathy and empathy to their friends and be shy. Therefore, it is very important to be back to basic and play the non-electronic games, so real interaction among students while playing the games takes place.
Project Beneficiaries:
The direct beneficiaries are 30 chemistry teachers and 60 high school students within the rural area of East Kalimantan.
Priority Development Area:
Human development for a productive and healthy society
Links with Australia:
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