Science

I have always loved science because it is all around us, and I mean, I did major in Chemical Engineering after all, but I had never realize how much work it was to ‘simulate’ or singlehandedly prepare a full week of lab practicals for over 30 students at a time.

The week before last was the most exhausting, yet most productive week of my teaching responsibilities.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were the Form IV NECTA lab practicals for Chemistry, Physics, and the second group of Biology, respectively.  When Eric was here, he was the only permanent science teacher at Mwatisi, which automatically made him the head of all the science departments.  I am already the head of the Math department, but now that he is gone, I am officially the head of all the science departments as well.  That also meant I was the main/only qualified teacher to prepare all the lab practicals.  I was entirely happy to do it, but it was extremely time consuming.  Luckily, I had done most of the practicals before (thanks to all the labs I took in university) and Eric was able to prepare me enough to do the prep work on my own, but just the time and effort alone was what Tanzanians would call a “kazi kubwa” [big job].

About one month before the NECTA practicals, every secondary school in the nation receives confidential instructions from the Tanzanian government about what materials and/or specimen are needed for each practical.  Then, 24 hours before each science subject practical, another set of confidential and advanced instructions are sent to the school so that the lab technician (in this case, me) is able to prepare the specific chemicals, solutions, or the labeling of specimen necessary.  Biology was the easiest to prepare because most of the specimen were already collected and prepared before we received the 24 hour instructions, Physics was not difficult either, but Chemistry (one of my favorite subjects in school) was so elaborate.

Since the Chemistry practical was on Tuesday morning, Monday and Tuesday were the most tiring for me.  I spent all of Monday in the lab from 7:50am to 6pm weighing and preparing all chemicals and solutions that would be used for the practicals, labeling equipment, and setting up the three stations for each of the three experiments the students would have to do: titration, qualitative analysis, and chemical reaction.  Mind you, almost all of the solutions had to be prepared and diluted to the specifications in the instructions.  I felt like a true scientist, or more like a mad scientist, mixing chemicals in a lab all day.  I even had a large, white lab coat that was passed down to me from Eric!  :D  The next day, I woke up at 5am to get down to the school, to start lighting up the jiko and kerosene burners to use a heat source for the hot water bath.  Please keep in mind that my school does not have electricity or a gas tank for Bunsen burners, so it had to be done manually.  There would be over 30 of the total 60 students in Form IV that would be taking this exam, so we had to have two 3-hour sessions.  As the lab tech, I had to be on call for everything so I was not able to teach my other periods during the practicals.  There were a couple of issues in the very first session but then I improvised and things seemed be getting better.  The second session was not as successful by the end of it because the kerosene burner’s wick lever was getting stuck.  Then after both sessions were finished, NECTA required me to perform the titration and chemical reaction experiments and answer the questions to create a marking scheme specific to our school’s resources.  Although the students were allotted 50 minutes for each experiment, I had to do both of them as quickly as possible and place it in the envelope before the invigilators (what are the equivalent of proctors in the states) could close the seal on the test papers’ envelope.  Once the invigilators left, I still had to clean up the lab and prepare for the next practical – Physics.

That day alone took a toll on my energy, but I knew I still had two more practicals before the end of the week.  Luckily, the practical for Physics was only setting up for two questions: plane mirrors and Archimedes’ Principle.  It took much less time than Chemistry by a long shot, but there was a slight problem with the mirror stands that Eric and I ordered to be made by the local carpenter.  The order was not finished, so we had to borrow mirrors and stands from a nearby school, Mwakaleli Secondary School.  By the way, this type of situation (of borrowing and sharing resources in schools) happens very frequently.  Classic Tanzania…  Biology’s prep on Wednesday was very quick, entailing the making labels for each specimen (marked by letters) and making sure each work bench had enough of each.  Though I woke up at 5:30am for the Physics practical day and 6am for the Biology practical day, the practicals (two sessions each day) went quite smoothly and I was not required to do any marking schemes after the practicals!

Needless to say, the theme of the week before last was science, every waking hour of the day for a week. I truly felt like a scientist!  Although I was fatigued by Thursday evening, I had never felt more thankful of being an engineer and a woman of science.  My engineering degree and science classes over the years truly paid off, and I saw the direct results of science education.  That is one reason why I love doing what I do here – teaching science and math subjects, and simultaneously showing Tanzanians that science isn’t scary.  Most students are intimidated by science and engineering because they feel that they are unable to do it, but after speaking to a few students after the practicals, they seemed quite confident in how they did!  And as an advocate of science and engineering, I plan to continue promoting science by starting a couple of clubs at school that have been inspired by my experience in the SEEK (Student Engineers Educating Kids) organization that I was in during university.  I am hopeful, and more updates will come shortly!