What do our 9th grade students think about their science projects?

The information in this article is related to my previous one. Here. Every time after completing a project, we ask our students to reflect on their work. You can read some of the students’ responses below.

What are the first thoughts about your Chemistry project and your performance at Open day?

Arthur: I’m honestly very happy with it.

Defne: Firstly, I had mostly negative thoughts (what if the mixture goes wrong or get spitted somewhere) because our topic was looking much harder. But when you do the experiments 2 – 3 more times or read the instructions more concentrated it is not that hard.

Adam: My thoughts are probably mostly positive because a lot of parents could see what their kids are doing and learning every day in school, what kind of interesting and scientific projects we do and also family could come and take a look.

Anna: My thoughts about this project are mostly positive. Our presentation was good and pretty. The workshop was working well. It was fun to do the experiment.

Emmy: My thoughts are mostly positive because we did a great job presenting the presentation and also many people showed up at our workshop, and we had a chance to explain it to them so now they understand.

Tadeas: Positive, especially that we learned a lot of people that neutralization reaction it’s not just in chemistry but also in everyday life.

Martin: When we were doing the experiment, I was satisfied to see good results.

What were the most difficult moments for you and what made them so?

Alex: Trying to learn the slides without reading them.

Adam: My most challenging moments were when I was explaining my project to other people because it was hard for me to express myself.

Martin: Presentation, because I had to memorize.

Arthur: The hardest part for us was that we had to thoroughly clean each test tube after the experiment. So, it was difficult to have two people at the table all the time.

Lorenzo: Explaining and maintaining the workshop.

What is the most important thing you learned personally?

Lorenzo: To be able to present better.

Defne: How to do ionic equations through real life chemical experiments and how to work efficiently when you are on a team.

Arthur: How to improvise. That’s a skill I haven’t had to utilize before, and how to manage to practice it.

Adam: I learned that even if you are scared to present to other people you have to overcome your fear and try your best.

Anna: I learned that you should not always expect that everything will work out exactly as planned.

Emmy: I have personally learned that it is important to know how to divide the work equally so that everyone is working, and no one is overloaded or doing nothing.

Alex: How to solve problems involving mixtures of solutions using the butterfly method.

What would you do differently if you had to solve the same problem again?

Alex: I would manage my time better.

Emmy: I would make more posters so people could understand the project better and also they could see how much work we put into this project.

Adam: I probably would have learned to explain better what I knew because I knew the topic, but I had a hard time explaining it.

Arthur: I would make more posters to attract more visitors and also practice the experiment more.

In our opinion, this type of work helps students develop analytical skills, critical thinking skills, rethink the stages of the project, its qualities, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities for improvement, which is very important when doing experimental, research projects.