Executive Summary : | The project aims to enhance children's imagination, problem-solving abilities, creativity, motor skills, and scientific attitude by preparing, recognizing shapes, understanding their relationships with sizes, lines, angles, surfaces, solids, space, and figures. It also aims to build concepts of 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D figures/objects, improve imagination, problem-solving ability, creativity, motor skill development, and build self-confidence, appreciation, and passion in mathematics.
Imagination is more important than knowledge, as it fosters cognitive and social development. Early childhood education focuses on critical thinking skills and creative problem-solving abilities, which can help curtail the fear of solving mathematics and create passion in mathematics. Learning mathematics through active exercise using shapes is crucial, as folding geometrical shapes simplifies learning and provides an experiential base for learning with enjoyment.
The project uses a child-centered methodology for developing mathematical skills like reasoning, problem-solving, widening the horizon of imagination, and creating passion in mathematics by unfolding and folding shapes. A manual containing learning content designed by experts will be given to participants for use and concept building. In each workshop, 100 students and 50 mathematics teachers from 50 schools from five districts will directly benefit from the project. Participating children will gain a new avenue to nourish their imagination, creativity, self-confidence, mental ability, logical thinking, intuition, analysis capacity, and construction in studying unknown shapes. This will help them develop scientifically in future studies and research. Teachers will also carry these low-cost mathematical shapes to their respective institutions and utilize them in their schools, neighboring schools, and science exhibitions.
The project's outcome is limitless, but mostly used by students and schools in the area. Institutions from which students and teachers participate will get the idea to organize similar activities for other children and expose shapes to school science exhibitions as needed. Teachers will also share the project with the community and lend expertise to institutions and organizations as follow-up activities.
Five types of monitoring are used: organizational, academic, financial, host level, and overall supervision. Feedback from participants, experts, and the Science Centre will be evaluated through questionnaires, expert analysis, and dissemination.
The hypothesis is that active learning process enhances imagination, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities in children, leading to scientific temperance for society's development. |