I want to learn how to teach a technical subject like engineering effectively and expand my knowledge in the field of social science and psychology.

- New ideas and methods in teaching

I probably learn best through constructivism [1] and cognitivism [2] by taking in new knowledge and construct them based on previous understanding(constructivism) and mentally digesting the information(cognitivism). 

-Showing where a new concept introduced belongs to in the big picture.

I have realised that different individuals learn better using different learning theory. Therefore, it is important to use more than 1 learning theory when appropriate.

Utilizing the right learning theory can be very effective. But constructivism [1], connectivism [4] probably has to be faciliated in some task based activity. This isn't always simple for a teacher to create such an activity. For example, during the workshops at the Bioengineering Taster Day, the delivery of the activities required the assistance of multiple UTAs.

Good use of constructivism [1] and behavorism [3] in the ventilator and spine workshop. Students interacts with different models(ie spine, lung model), observe changes, construct the reasoning for it and then retrieve Physics knowledge learnt in school to explain why things happen. Students 'learn by doing'

Work Cited
1. Golder, Joydip. “CONSTRUCTIVISM: A PARADIGM for TEACHING and LEARNING.” IJRAR1903214 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, vol. 5, no. 3, 2018, ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR1903214.pdf.

2.Main, Paul. “Cognitivism Learning Theories: A Teachers Guide.” Www.structural-Learning.com, www.structural-learning.com/post/cognitivism-learning-theories.

3.Cherry, Kendra. “Why Behaviorism Is One of Psychology’s Most Fascinating Branches.” Verywell Mind, 14 Feb. 2022, www.verywellmind.com/behavioral-psychology-4157183#:~:text=Behaviorism%20is%20a%20theory%20of.

4..Siemens, George. “Connectivism.” Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies, 2020, www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Connectivism-Siemens/308a143efd0b0cc0b50266ba24fdf24d29d2e80f. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

The activities and lectures at the Bioengineering Outreach day were made in such a way to inspire students. 

My ability to articulate difficult and complex concepts in a really simple and easy to grasp way. Furthermore, I did like to improve my classroom management skills. Previously when I have tutored kids aged (5-12), this was something I struggled with.

Demonstrating passion and positivity about my degree so hopefully that will impact the students we reach out to in a positive manner.

Works Cited
1. “MyGOV - the Government of Malaysia’s Official Portal.” Www.malaysia.gov.my, www.malaysia.gov.my/portal/content/29552.

1.“The Power of Play.” Froebel Trust, www.froebel.org.uk/about-us/the-power-of-play?locale=en-us. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023.

2.Wikipedia Contributors. “Gamification.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification.

1.“UG SOLE.” Imperial College London, www.imperial.ac.uk/students/academic-support/student-surveys/ug-student-surveys/ug-sole/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023.

I find this a fascinating subject to read about. It seems to suggest significant implications on our productivity when we are in a 'flow' state. Isn't it a dream for every teacher that every student of theirs are deeply engaged in their lesson?

Therefore, I decided to do more reading based on how this could be used in the classroom. Based on the article, Eight Tips for Fostering Flow in the Classroom[3], I wrote a few a few reflections and takeaways on how teachers can promote flow in the classroom.

-The right skill to difficult ratio is key to help students reach flow. This means that lessons need to be personalised. The right amount of 'challenge' needs to be personalised to a student/group of student.

- Helping students to 'enjoy' and making learning irrestible
a. "Genius hour" was an initiative that was started by Google [4]. Google allowed their  employees to spend 20% of their time on personal pursuits as long as it aligned with the company goals. Perhaps something similar can be done where an hour is dedicated each term for students to pursue a 'side project' they are interested in under the guidance of a teacher.

b. Gamification [5]
Gamifying a lesson plan can be very powerful. I guess that is why games are addictive.

c.Utilise educational field trips
I remember my time as a primary school student, where my teacher would bring the class out to the school garden to teach us a thing or two about plants and the ecosystem. This ties in to the experiential learning theory [6] where students are encouraged to participate in different activities by which they gain new knowledge.

Works Cited
1.Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.” ResearchGate, 1990, www.researchgate.net/publication/224927532_Flow_The_Psychology_of_Optimal_Experience.

2.Oppland, Mike. “8 Ways to Create Flow according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [+TED Talk].” PositivePsychology.com, 16 July 2019, positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/.

3.“Eight Tips for Fostering Flow in the Classroom.” Greater Good, 2012, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/eight_tips_for_fostering_flow_in_the_classroom.

4.Mason, Rob. “Genius Hour: It Works for Google Engineers, Let’s Try It with Teachers!” Medium, 5 July 2019, medium.com/@rob.mason/genius-hour-it-works-for-google-engineers-lets-try-it-with-teachers-afc08f8ea50b.

5.Wikipedia Contributors. “Gamification.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification.

6.“Experiential Learning Theory.” Western Governors University, www.wgu.edu/blog/experiential-learning-theory2006.html#:~:text=What%20is%20experiential%20learning%3F.

Chatting with Chloe about our experiences in the Bioengineering department as an undergraduate, helped me to remember the importance of keeping a growth mindset in our academic pursuits. How can we as educators instil a growth mindset in students, so they can be resilient through struggles and reach their full potential? Perhaps, sharing our stories to inspire them.

1.Collins, Dave, and Áine MacNamara. “The Rocky Road to the Top.” Sports Medicine, vol. 42, no. 11, Nov. 2012, pp. 907–914, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03262302.

During my time at the hackathon, I was able to participate in multiple activities including practical workshops, brainstorming discussions and group discussions. I could observe the clear use of constructive alignment[1]. The event culminates in a ‘pitch off’ between teams to a panel of investors. This form of assessment was clearly communicated in the beginning of the event. The event organisers clearly described the main values and aims of the event that they hope participants take away, that being Ideation and Innovation, Testing Viability, Communicating Ideas and Developing a Product. The learning activities took the form of workshops, group discussions and work. The topics in the workshops reflected the main values and aims of the event. Workshop included topics in Ideation, ‘Validating your ideas’, Market Research, “How to Pitch” and Cogniss – a no-code platform tailored to build Digital Health products. Formative assessments were dispersed throughout the event, including time to interact and discuss ideas with the speakers and participants were also encouraged to get peer feedback between groups. The final summative assessment came in the form of a pitch/presentation to a panel of investors where teams are assessed on four main areas that reflects the aim and value of the event and the learning activies. These are Innovation, Viability, Communication and Development of the Product. 

In terms of teaching theories, I saw a number of aspects being applied effectively. Collaborative problem-solving was encouraged within teams which is in line with the connectivism theory[2]. Teams were encouraged to pursue a project that they are passionate about in line with the guidelines the organisers created, which I felt helped to encourage ‘playful learning’- a theory put forth by Friedrich Froebel[3]. During group discussions, teams were clearly ‘thinking out loud’ and asking each other questions which ties into the cognitivism theory[4]. Teams demonstrated cooperative learning [5] during the initial team building sessions, as they chatted about their strengths and interests and find ways to complement each other. During the final presentation when teams were given the opportunity to pitch to a panel of judges, it utilizes the experiential learning theory[6].

Regarding the summative assessment, I recall that the overall quality of pitches was satisfactory, with all teams scoring over 60% as announced after the evaluation of all pitches by the event organisers. This showed that overall teams understood and satisfactorily meet the learning outcomes as defined in the “Judging Checklist”. This suggest that overall, the learning outcome, learning activity and assessment aligned well. According to the post-pitch announcement, the winning team scored 81/100, indicating that it was a strong pitch with an innovative, viable and well-developed solution. The 1^st and 2^nd runner-up teams scored 75/100 and 73.5/100 respectively indicating that both teams presented a viable solution. In comparison, my team scored 61% with 12.5/25 for innovation, 16/25 for viability, 17.5/25 for communication and 15/25 for development. Specifically, the judges expressed how our idea could quite easily be implemented by other companies and therefore scoring us much lower on the innovation criteria.

Additionally, to the best of my recollection, there were 3 teams that were absent on the first day of the event and on the following day, another 2 teams dropped out. This lack of participation showed that there was a lack of engagement from these participants. However, I felt that the teams who stayed were engaged and committed with this hackathon. Workshops were very lively with lots of interactions going back and forth between participants and speakers.  I felt that the organisers considered the different learning styles of participants and catered to them. Slides from speakers could be shared to participants beforehand to allow participants to take notes and not shared only a few hours after the workshop.

One of the main successes were the high-quality workshops delivered by impressive speakers. However, given that participants come from different degrees and have different levels of experiences in medical technology and startups, the speakers could have given stronger introductions to get everyone on the same page. The experiential learning theory [6]can be used during the coding workshop to make it an interactive one instead of just the speaker delivering content and post-event mentorship to successful teams would have helped student continue to build on their work during the hackathon. As the event organizer, it is important to find a fine balance between scheduling impactful and relevant talks and workshops but give enough time for teams to meaningfully work on their ideas. As one of the participants, I felt that our time working as a group were often interrupted by another workshop that was scheduled. Perhaps, running a few workshops back to back, will allow teams to have larger but less frequent chunks of time to work on their idea together.

 At the end of the event, it was nice that the organisers for several talks that covered different the startup and Medical Technology communities they can be a part of, such as Imperial Enterprise Lab[7], Kickstart[8] and Jumpstart[9].

Through my participation in this hackathon and reflecting on my experience, I have come to realise that it is important to be aware of the different needs and interests of my ‘students’. It is important to conduct ample research in these areas, before designing an activity. The use of experiential [6] and social learning theories can make learning very fun and engaging and therefore more effective. This involves hands-on learning activities and lots of teamwork while providing a supportive learning environment where students are not afraid to make mistakes and fail. This is something I will consider in designing my teaching activity at Eltham Hill School. Lastly, it is important to always be passionate about developing my knowledge, skills, and experience as a teacher/educator. After all this is the kind of mindset, I did hope my ‘students’ can develop.


Works Cited
1.Biggs, John B. “Aligning Teaching for Constructing Learning.” ResearchGate, unknown, 2003, www.researchgate.net/publication/255583992_Aligning_Teaching_for_Constructing_Learning.

2.Siemens, George. “Connectivism.” Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies, 2020, www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Connectivism-Siemens/308a143efd0b0cc0b50266ba24fdf24d29d2e80f.

3.Tovey, Helen. A FROEBELIAN APPROACH: Froebel’s Principles and Practice Today. Froebel Trust, 2017.

4.Adedeji, Maria. “Cognitivism: Your Guide to Cognitive Learning Theory.” Growth Engineering, 28 June 2022, www.growthengineering.co.uk/cognitive-learning-theory/.

5.“Cooperative and Collaborative Learning: Explanation.” Www.thirteen.org, www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index.html#:~:text=In%20cooperative%20learning%2C%20students%20work.

6.Kolb, David. “Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development.” ResearchGate, Prentice-Hall, Jan. 1984, www.researchgate.net/publication/235701029_Experiential_Learning_Experience_As_The_Source_Of_Learning_And_Development.

7.“Imperial Enterprise Lab | Explore. Connect. Innovate.” Imperial Enterprise Lab, www.imperialenterpriselab.com/.

9.“Jumpstart - Startup Careers Programme - Home.” Www.jumpstart-Uk.com, www.jumpstart-uk.com/.

8.“Kickstart Global.” Kickstart Global, www.kickstartglobal.com/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

1.“College Values Project.” Imperial College London, www.imperial.ac.uk/human-resources/values/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

What are some contemporary issues that might have impacted this Medathon? As I revisited the ‘tracks’ that were presented to us during the hackathon, I came to greater appreciation of the importance some of the science communication issues that are key for a successful medical hackathon.

One contemporary issue that relates to science communication in the Medathon, involved the challenge of communicating complex scientific concepts during the pitches to a panel of judges. Engaging students that mostly come from a STEM background and judges from a business background can be challenging due to a difference in their expertise. A study has shown that the presence of jargon in scientific communication impairs one’s ability to process scientific information, leading to a lower level of persuasion and support for technological adoption.[1]

In a time, when there is an increasing amount of misinformation and pseudoscience[2] in the media, it is key that the pitches are communicating evidence-based nature of their ideas and held to a high level of scientific rigor in the development of these new medical innovations. As we in the scientific community would be familiar with, scientific research often involves a degree of uncertainty, which needs to be accurately conveyed without any use of misleading language. 

Furthermore, as the participants of this Medathon, it is key to consider other key science communication issues that might affect the communication of our proposed medical innovation. This include but are not limited to medical decision-making[3] and cultural and language barriers on conveying scientific information[4].

This reflection has helped me to be more aware of the importance of communicating science in an evidence-based way during the future learning activities I design. It also highlighted the importance of 'translating' complex scientific jargon to words and ideas that are easy to understand.

Works Cited

1.Bullock, Olivia M., et al. “Jargon as a Barrier to Effective Science Communication: Evidence from Metacognition.” Public Understanding of Science, vol. 28, no. 7, 28 July 2019, pp. 845–853, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662519865687.

2.Hansson, Sven Ove. “Science and Pseudo-Science.”
Plato.stanford.edu, 3 Sept. 2008, plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/?fbclid=IwAR0juDraNYRt3Liag9d_A6D7CAxJMGIZ1PrdudutLuGS-b-_aMLjeRwljQc#SciePseu. Accessed 8 Oct. 2022.

3.Khanfer, Riyad, et al. “Medical Decision-Making.” Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, 2013, pp. 1209–1210, link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1005-9_1295, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1295.

4.Al Shamsi, Hilal, et al. “Implications of Language Barriers for Healthcare: A Systematic Review.” Oman Medical Journal, vol. 35, no. 2, 30 Apr. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201401/, https://doi.org/10.5001/omj.2020.40.