Power of experiential learning

Debbie Jacob

THE JULY/AUGUST holiday is the time for students to unwind from school, but not a time to put learning on a shelf. The idea is to have fun but engage in experiential learning. Active learning combines academic and practical experiences.

Here are some ideas for experiential learning:

1. Find tropical plants that thrive in the heat: Most students are interested in saving the environment. Use the long holiday to research projects to meet this goal. One interesting project is identifying plants that survive and thrive in the hot, dry season. The internet has much information about the best plants to survive drought in temperate climates. Challenge yourself to find local plants that will beautify your yard and conserve water during our dry season.

2. Grow a kitchen garden: One way to help your family save money is to start a kitchen garden. Do your research to find the best spot in your yard for a small garden. What kinds of plants, soil and sunlight do you need? How do you create a successful grow box if you don’t have a yard? Sharpen your research skills, save money, be productive and help your family with this project. Help a neighbour start a kitchen garden and you’re engaging in community service.

3. Commit to community service: Community service offers invaluable learning experiences. Match your interests with the needs in your community. You will learn selflessness, empathy and self-confidence – all values you can’t get from a textbook. Universities in the US pay close attention to community service in students they accept, so it could benefit your chances of getting into university.

4. Experiment with sleep: Getting enough sleep is a challenge for all teenagers, so make better sleep your holiday research project. Find good books, internet articles and academic studies that show how to improve your sleep. Check Google Scholar for you research, collect the information you need and devise a plan. More sleep will improve your concentration and health. Consider these books: Restful Sleep by Deepak Chopra; Eat to Sleep by Karman Meyer, or Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. When I was a librarian, my students enjoyed their research projects on sleep and found them beneficial.

5. Create a fitness habit: Unless you are into sports, fitness can get ignored during the school year. The misconception that sports or exercise take time away from studying is unfortunate. Exercise energises you, keeps you calmer and more focused. It helps to fight depression. Experiment with different sports or exercises to see what you enjoy; then figure out how to make exercise a routine.

6. Explore your family history: When you’re a teenager, it’s difficult to imagine what will be meaningful to you decades from now. But trust me, in the future you will look back and wonder about your family tree. This is the perfect time to do that research. Knowing your family’s history can be an exciting and rewarding pastime.

7. Write your family’s oral history: Take charting your family tree a step further by interviewing as many relatives as you can about their lives. Record them so you can preserve their voices and stories. Creating your family’s oral history will help you to develop interview and research skills. Indexing your interviews will develop organisational skills.

8. Experiment with cooking: No one thinks of all the benefits of cooking. Find new recipes to develop research skills. Explore a theme: more nutritious meals, desserts with less sugar, high-protein meals, food for better concentration. Come up with your own themes. Experiment with new biscuit, candy and bread recipes that make good gifts – especially for Christmas. The possibilities are endless. Cooking is also a good way to practise maths skills. Doubling recipes or cutting them in half becomes a lesson in fractions.

9. Keep a diary: Social media and our push-button, high-tech world have conditioned you to live in the moment. Keeping a diary forces you to appreciate those moments often taken for granted. When you make a schedule for diary entries, you create discipline. Recording your inner-most thoughts, fears, feelings and special events can be therapeutic. Keeping a diary might not seem important now, but a diary captures a slice of your life that you will appreciate reading about in the future.

10. Devote time to reading: Develop the habit of reading this holiday. Visit your local bookstores, research summer reading lists online, check international newspaper articles with summer reading lists. Create your own list and reading plan.

Many fun-filled, experiential learning activities can be packed into this long holiday. Experiment and enjoy.