Hands-On Learning Ideas for Remote School

When people think of Zoom classes, they often envision a student staring blankly at a computer screen looking bored. But we work with our teachers to avoid the Zoom room doldrums by incorporating as much hands-on learning as we can into their digital learning experience.

Below, we’ve outlined some specific ideas about how to make digital learning “hands-on” and some of the potential obstacles we’ve run into that can easily be avoided.

What’s “Hands-On” Learning?

Hands-on learning isn’t necessarily the same thing as project-based learning (although there’s certainly overlap). Project-based learning is a teaching method that involves students learning by actively engaging in real-world projects, and the teacher acts more as a guide to help the student through the projects and the results may be shared with the wider public.

Hands-on learning (to us) is less of a formal teaching method and more describes how we want students to be interacting with what they’re learning: ideally, by engaging with the material in as many different ways as possible, including hands-on projects and games involving multimodal ways of learning.

Often these projects come in the form of science labs, videos that students put together or other activities that involve manipulatives, and more than just the student reading or writing.

The Challenges of Hands-On Learning in a Remote School

Teachers who want to incorporate hands-on learning into their classes need to plan ahead. First, they need to make sure that both the student and they themselves have the tools they need for whatever project they’ve planned. Second, they need to make sure the family of the student is on board to help, if needed. Often with hands-on learning, students require a bit more hands-on support (and potentially oversight if lab chemicals are involved). Third, the teachers need to make sure the student can complete the project either in the virtual class or for homework (and present the results to the teacher for assessment).

Messy projects probably won’t work well around a computer screen and/or keyboard, and teachers will need to plan ahead with their students to ensure they have a plan.

Overcoming Challenges

Here are some ideas around how to overcome some of the common set-backs around hands-on learning in the digital classroom:

1) Keep it simple: a hands-on project doesn’t have to be complex and can involve a few basic items from the kitchen. Use limited materials to keep the experience less overwhelming for everyone (including parents!). A lot of great books out there provide great fodder for generating ideas using household items.

2) Consider kits: there are a million and one pre-made kits out there that keep the mess & amount of planning to a minimum. Also, consider monthly boxes with hands-on resources!

3) Consider digital hands-on: older students can get into more digital tools like the Google Science Journal, which allows students to record their observations & experiments in a digital way. Websites like this one are hands-on without requiring physical materials. There are so many creative ways to think of learning outside of workbooks, lectures, reading & writing.

In Conclusion

Whether it’s a poster board, a podcast, an art installation, or a live presentation, we’re all about helping our teachers incorporate hands-on learning into the digital classroom. Just because students are working remotely right now doesn’t mean they should be sacrificing getting a little messy every once in a while. Want to learn more about how we incorporate hands-on learning into our digital classes at Pacific Preparatory?

Contact us today to schedule a consultation.