Automation- robotisation

1. The Global Approach / 2. Sequential activity method

METHODOLOGY FOR AN APPROACH TO SCIENCE AT THE PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL (5TH AND 6TH GRADE).

"ELECTRICAL HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES"

The proposal set forth by CREACTION and its academic partners is based on a global approach related to an activity method principle. This linkage between elements of knowledge and an educational approach based on experimentation develops in four sequences, each of which has a specific intention.

1. The Global Approach


It comprises the following elements:

An exploration of language
The words that represent and signify concrete things have to be recognised and understood. Understanding words, such as tool, gearing or fairing, for example, is a way to name things, to make them exist and correspond to an imagination, to allow for dreaming. It is also a way to ensure that words inspire "a taste" for technological discoveries.

An exploration of history
Objects evolve with time. They are dependent on the evolution of science, technology, research, and of new needs and uses. There are correlations to be found between objects and people's life at a certain period in time. Interest for science may arise from an "encounter" with inventors (Edison, Bell…) through the history of objects.

A transcultural exploration
Other places, other objects, other customs, other needs, other cultures, these can be explored through today's "exchanges". Taking an interest in the forms of representation of everyday elements in different cultures and different countries, is understanding the interrelations between uses and objects. The preparation or the consumption of a meal, for instance, are key moments to understand and get acquainted with other techniques, other instruments. Thus, the differences between the Savoyard fondue, the Chinese wok, the Mexican barbecue or the Spanish mocho, whether culinary, chemical or instrumental, refer to different methods based on tradition, available resources and exchanges. These all form cultural legacies, which were transmitted, may be combined and recombined, and are evolving. This makes it possible to shed light on the ways in which objects are used, as well as on their disappearance or evolution.

An exploration of science

Household objects put us directly in touch with technical realities:

- In physics: movement, lever arms, heat, cold, surface tension, waves and electric power.
- In chemistry: food and food preservation, fermentation phenomena. Discovering the acetic fermentation of alcohol by observing drosophilas on a layer of vinegar, or the different ways of cooking food, is also getting in touch with household "objects".

2/ Sequential activity method

1/ Choose a maximum of three study themes according to the availability of documents and objects that may be used for the research. Carrying out a concrete analysis of an object's evolution through time using "control" examples.
2/ Ask children (and their parents!) to look for documents (advertising images, catalogues, amateur photographs, etc.) and objects (available at home, for example) that may enhance the discussion and concrete experiences.
3/ Ask children (and their parents!) to look for documents (advertising images, catalogues, amateur photographs, etc.) and
objects (available at home, for example) that may enhance the discussion and concrete experiences.
4/ Have the children observe and analyse these objects, describe, handle, disassemble and reassemble, deconstruct, recombine, represent, etc. them to discover the mechanisms meeting particular functions, their relationships and families, as well as to set out scientific and technical principles on their origin.

Research and explorations translate into:

• A glossary of new terms to be able to call things by their name. A good knowledge of the technical term gives confidence and further stimulates interest for technology. Keep an up-to-date computer illustrated lexicon.
• The drawings, which "express" the understanding we have of the technical object, to represent and invent it.
• Synoptic tables to show the object through time, its relationships with other objects, its materiality, the processes involved in its production, how it is disseminated, how it vanishes and sometimes reappears to be reincorporated for new purposes in other times and in other places (museums, collections, decoration, second-hand market, etc.)
• Three-dimensional works A gearing may be explored and analysed through toys or scale models for "demonstration" purposes.
• Built schemes and discovery experiences (the water drop and the oil drop, effort reduction…). This type of experimentation provides the children not only with knowledge but also with true confidence in the face of the technical phenomenon.
• Inviting one or more specialists to shed new light on the theme, to carry on complex experiences or to talk about the history of an object.