Like every other organization, COVID-19 has radically changed our approach to Operation Einstein.
As a STEM Education non-profit that treasures face-to-face interaction and the relationships forged with our beneficiaries, we had to make the difficult decision to suspend our sessions.
In the next few months, Einstein will begin to gradually re-introduce our various programs such as small group sessions, but the road ahead remains paved with uncertainly.
Nevertheless, COVID-19 has also given us pause to really reflect about the future direction of Einstein, and look for new ways of doing things. After all, the Chinese word for crisis is 危机, which means both 'danger' as well as 'opportunity'.
In future posts on this blog, The Einstein Diaries, and on our COVID-19 advisory page, we'll share more about our plans for the year ahead!
But for this post, we'll focus on highlighting some of the amazing science opportunities that COVID-19 has provided.
Online Resources
With the proliferation of Home-Based Learning, a ton of amazing online resources to support this new normal have emerged.
A lot of super cool stuff have now been made free online (YES, 100% FREE), and these can be incorporated into future Einstein programs/electives or even your own school/home projects!
For the bunch of us who develop the Einstein Curriculum and STEM Camps, a key struggle has always been to come up with cool yet easy-to-do demos that kids can replicate at home.
Because our sessions before COVID-19 were always fully booked, we were only able to visit each center to conduct our programs once a year.
As much as we try to inspire the kids we work with, we often only have two hours with them, and that's often not enough to really change their attitude towards science and learning in general.
Starting with our 2-Day Camps with North-East CDC and CDAC in 2019, we've made it a point to incorporate cheap and easily available materials into our various hands-on demos and experiments.
And we'll also provide each kid with the list of materials and detailed instructions so he/she can go back and show off the activities to his siblings and friends whom we may have been unable to reach.
After all, our Einstein teaching philosophy is based on the Feynman Technique which believes that we learn best when we try to teach a concept to someone else.
We thus hope that our beneficiaries can continue a sustained engagement with science through sharing what they've discovered through our programs.
So this post is targeted at both our beneficiaries and our volunteers who would like to continue working on really cool stuff at home.
To save y'all some time so you can quickly get ready to start on these DIY projects, we've compiled a special list of what we think are the 3 Coolest Resources available right now!
1/ KiwiCo
STEM Subscription Boxes
KiwiCo specializes in STEM subscription boxes that are specifically geared towards STEM education for kids and teens.
While their boxes are rather expensive, they've recently come up with a free KiwiCo blog where they provide suggestions for weekly DIYs.
Each project comes with a comprehensive list of materials for each experiment and the estimated time required.
Like what we've been trying to do at Einstein, these materials are commonly available around the house so anyone can just follow the detailed steps and start work!
KiwiCo has also curated a series of stay-home camp programs that parents can work on with their kids! There's a different theme for each day and most of these resources are free so check out their camps here nearer the school holidays!
2 | Science Centers
Digitized Videos and Exhibits
We know Science Centers can be rather disappointing.
The Singapore Science Center's exhibits, workshops, and guides are sadly rather inaccurate or boring, and we're trying to fill these gaps in STEM education through our programs here at Operation Einstein.
But many science centers around the world have released their own videos or digitalized their exciting exhibits, and here are three recommendations that you can check out!
3 | Dyson Foundation
44 Science and Engineering Challenge Cards
The James Dyson Foundation has developed extensive Home-Based Learning resources such as the Dyson Challenge Cards which can be downloaded as a pdf below!
There are 22 science challenges and 22 engineering challenges, and detailed instructions are provided for each challenge.
While the scientific explanations can be rather sketchy, you can always reach out to us if you have any questions about the various challenges!
Dr Roger Lewin once said, “Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.”
We hope that with the above resources, you can have a great time working on your exciting DIY projects with your friends and family! Happy experimenting!
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