Giving up Saturday to go to school?

Teachers know they are doing something right when students ask to come back to school on a Saturday. Violeta Kuleta, a teacher at Pristina/Prishtina Hilmi Rakovica Primary school,says that one of her best days at work was a recent weekend when her ninth grade students came to school on the weekend because they were so eager to finish a science project.

After attending a science workshop organized by USAID’s Basic Education Program, Violeta had introduced project-based learning in her science class, which means to get students involved in making or developing something that involves the principles they are learning. She asked the students to build an energy transfer mechanism to demonstrate different types of energy, using recycled waste material.

The young scientists divided up the tasks of developing and building the mechanism, but by the end of the school day on Friday, they were just at the point of actually assembling the device. They were so anxious to put it together that they asked to come back on Saturday. The school gave its consent, so the students spent five hours, working non-stop without lunch, until the job was finished!