Workshop at Ahveniston koulu

On December, 17th, we went to Ahveniston koulu, in Hämeenlinna, to develop an activity with students.

This activity was inspired by a course I've attended in Coursera early this year called Tinkering Fundamentals: A Constructionist Approach to STEM Learning. This course was provided by Exploratorium, "an eye-opening, playful place to explore how the world works", in San Francisco, CA.
The activity we developed with 9th grade students at Ahveniston koulu was the creation of a scribbling machine. We gave them some ideas about the connection between drawing and movement, and we showed an example of such a machine. After that, they were free to create with the available material their own machines. We acted as facilitators, showing them how to solve some problems when necessary.
For me, it was a very interesting opportunity to see joy in learning, and the connection between arts and engineering through free experimentation.
Finns are so quiet (specially when they need to speak in English) that sometimes you don't know if they are really enjoying what you are doing. I hope these students enjoyed this activity. :-)

Here are some photos.

The environment, the classroom of Math.

As pointed out by the Exploratorium guideline for this activity, the environment has a important role. The classroom was just perfect, because it's comfortable, with good lighting and worktables, and students could see the work of their colleagues.

A very short introduction

Hands on!

First tests

Play time: everybody together!

And now, the video.

Very clever students! Congratulations for them all!

I'd like to thank the support from HAMK, specially Maaret, Marja, and Juuso, and also the teachers at Ahveniston koulu, Tove and Marika. Special thanks also to my colleagues Rodrigo (IFMS) and Carolina (IFRN).

Visit to the Playful Learning Center - University of Helsinki

On Dec, 15th, we visited the Playful Learning Center, a new space at University of Helsinki for research and development of learning solutions for the 21st century.
This laboratory was established last September through a partnership with Rovio.

Visit to the public library in Ivalo

On December, 13th, we visited the public library in Ivalo, Lapland.
Ivalo is the administrative center of Inari, the largest municipality (regarding area) in Finland.
The whole municipality has a population of approximately 7,000 inhabitants, and Ivalo, around 4,000.
In addition to this library, there is another one in the village of Inari (at the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos) and a bus library (kirjastoauto) that visits different places in the municipality.
Here are some photos of the library. Besides paper books, it lends CDs, DVDs, e-books, audio books, and sports equipment. Yes, you can go to this library to borrow skis. :-)
I've asked the librarian how many people frequented the space. She told me that almost everybody, since books are expensive in Finland.

Typical clothes of Sámi people

Space for children to listen to stories

The Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa, translated to Finnish ("O banqueiro anarquista")

Audio books

Skis to lend (for a period of 15 days)

Visit to Ivalon lukio

On December, 12th, we visited Ivalon lukio (Ivalo upper secondary school), in Ivalo, municipality of Inari, Sápmi (or Lapland) area, in Finland.

Entrance of Ivalon lukio

Inari is the largest municipality in Finland and Ivalo is its administrative center. The whole municipality has a population of approximately 7,000 inhabitants, and Ivalo, around 4,000.
There are four official languages spoken in the municipality: Finnish, Inari Sámi, Northern Sámi, and Skolt Sámi.

Typical clothes of Sámi people

We were warmly welcomed by the headmaster Ulla Hynönen, which is also teacher of English. I'd like to express my gratitude for her attention.
That day, there was a show of Northern Sámi music by the band Ravggon. I really enjoyed the music, even without understanding a word in Sámi.

Waiting for the beginning of the show

The school has approximately 90 students. Around one third of them study Sámi as a first or second language. This is a challenge regarding the small number of students, but they solve it through technology. A Sámi teacher in Ivalo teaches students in Rovaniemi by using web conferencing softwares.
We visited the 1st grade class. Ulla had previously asked students to organize some questions using padlet. Their questions regarded climate in Brazil, our spare time, northern lights, impression about Finland, etc. It was very nice to talk with them. Their main complain about living there is the small size of the village. I understand their point of view, of course, but there you find two supermarkets, cinema, ice hockey hall, library, and a public swimming pool, what is unimaginable in a Brazilian city of the same size.
We observed in this school the same high standard of bigger schools in Southern Finland. For instance, they can choose to study the following languages: Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi, Northern Sámi, German, French, Russian, and English. Students also have the opportunity to visit CERN, in Geneva.

One of the classrooms

Chemistry classroom

Students' space

Students' space

Teachers' room

Teachers' offices

We visited briefly the music classroom. At that moment, there was an audition session, where each student should sing in the acoustic cabin for assessment by the teacher.

Music classroom

Update on 2015/01/21: Students have also posted an entry about the visit at https://ivalonlukio.wordpress.com/2014/12/19/brazilian-guests/

Educação cristalizada como valor básico

Para mim, são os pequenos detalhes que dizem a verdade sobre qualquer pessoa (e sociedade, como ficará claro a seguir).
Meu filho esteve na Finlândia comigo por três meses. Em todos os momentos em que fui apresentado à alguém aqui, quando descobriam sobre sua estadia, a primeira pergunta era: "Ele está indo para a escola?". Pessoas de diferentes lugares e profissões, mas sempre com a mesma primeira pergunta. E quando eu respondia que sim, parece que havia aquele alívio, "puxa, que maravilha, é na escola que uma criança deve estar" (obviamente não com esses termos, mas a gente aprende a ler os finlandeses).
Como já comentei antes, a Educação está arraigada nesta sociedade como um valor básico e universal.

Criticizing the Finnish model

It's been hard for me to find big problems in the Finnish model of education and society. But here are some issues I've collected talking with people from different backgrounds:

• The upper secondary system gives so many freedom for students (to choose the courses) that they become lost.

• Finnish people think that speaking only English as a foreign language is enough. They need to learn more languages, to grasp different points of view.

• For the first time in a moment of crisis, government has made budget cuts in Education. It will bring harmful consequences in the future.

• Young people are forgetting History. This is serious specially regarding European events between the 1930s and 1940s.

Visita à empresa Soil Scout

No dia 27/11, visitamos, Rodrigo, Christiano e eu, um dos sócios da empresa Soil Scout, no município de Ulvila. Agradecemos ao prof. Markku Kippola pela oportunidade.
Johannes, o sócio, é filho de fazendeiro e especialista em tecnologia agrícola. A empresa Soil Scout é uma startup que desenvolveu tecnologia de sensores abaixo da superfície (enterrados). Atualmente, os sensores monitoram temperatura e umidade. Ficam enterrados entre 10 e 30 cm e transmitem os dados para uma estação coletora. Da estação coletora, via GPRS são enviados para um servidor na nuvem. O usuário pode acessar os dados a qualquer momento. O tempo de vida dos sensores é estimado em mais de 15 anos.
Um mapa do campo de teste, em Ulvila, pode ser visto no site da empresa. É possível visualizar a série histórica de cada um dos sensores.

Mapa do campo de testes da Soil Scout

Conversamos um bom tempo com Johannes sobre aplicações do sistema. É muito importante para uso racional da água e tem, portanto, um apelo forte para as mudanças climáticas que estão acontecendo.