At Dubai National School (DNS), an international school that teaches kids from Kindergarten to High School, teachers were on a mission to bring to life Mathematics and Science curricula. Using innovative, creative lesson plans that are both exciting and engaging to students, teachers at DNS are instilling advanced learning practices that nurture the skills and values to allow them to thrive in their future careers. Through the use of SAM Space and SAM Blockly, one teacher (Yasmeen Badawi) explains how she and her colleagues used SAM Labs’ STEAM and Learn to Code to connect real life with everyday classroom learning.
To foster creative thinking and student innovation.
One of the challenges faced by teachers in a traditional classroom environment is finding a lesson plan that allows students to approach problem-solving challenges through methods they are not accustomed to (Yasmeen Badawi) from Dubai National School says,
“Our mission as Dubai National School teachers was to transform students’ learning environment to be fun, engaging and full of challenges. SAM Space is a great technology platform that urged our students to be creative and innovative.”
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How kids approached the challenges of each lesson objective.
At the centre of each STEAM and Learn to Code lesson, (Yasmeen)’s students had to take a project-oriented, step-by-step approach, using assessment and teamwork to address the challenges of the lesson objectives,
“From defining problems and finding solutions to dealing with mixed equations and applying the
information, students learned about technology and engineering along the way to figure out
the best solutions.”
Real-life context through STEAM and Learn to Code solutions in the classroom.
Demonstrating to students how their learning fits into their everyday lives, as well as experiencing the connection between multiple subjects on their curriculum, takes students out of the confines of the classroom and gives much-needed context to their learning,
“This is precisely what we were keen to do at Dubai National School where we converted many of the skills mentioned in Mathematics and Science curricula, and connected them to students’ real-life and transferred them into successful experiences and projects.”
Impact of SAM Space in exposing students to the creative process.
“These various skills reflected positively on the students’ confidence, personality and development abilities. Overall, we found that SAM Space is the best platform that exposed our students to the creative process, offering meaningful collaboration, increased critical thinking in finding solutions to real-life problems.”
Who are SAM Labs?
SAM Labs provides everything you need to deliver the most engaging STEAM and Coding learning experience in your classroom. We give educators the tools and support to make the most of their lessons, making learning interactive and engaging.
By Yasmeen Badawi
