The Karen Refugee Committee-Education Entity (KRC-EE) promotes improved access to quality education services for refugees from Burma. KRCEE administers both basic education (separately funded) and higher education, through the Institute for Higher Education (IHE) in six of the nine camps.
During a needs assessment at a workshop in October 2016, IHE science teachers told us that they hadn’t had the opportunity to learn about conducting experiments. They also told us that they didn’t have many materials to use for experiments in their low resource settings. Furthermore, the textbooks they use had gaps in content and some were misprinted so that the students couldn’t see the diagrams clearly. The result was the science teachers conducted few experiments and relied on rote teaching.
In response to this, the World Education Technical Support Team, in cooperation with the KRC-EE, has developed four science resource books based on the 2010 KRC-EE IHE science textbooks. The resource books include large color pictures, critical thinking questions, and links to related science videos that are included on USB memory sticks. The memory sticks also include additional science resources related to conducting classroom experiments and relevant content background information. Each of the 9 Junior Colleges were provided 4 resources books (1 book for each subject: SCI 151, 152, 251 and 252) as well as 1 memory stick and one kit box with materials for conducting experiments.
13 teachers (9m/4f) 
were trained in using the new resources on May 17-18, 2017. The training focused on building teacher confidence through practical teaching and the demonstration of science experiments. The training supported teachers to diversify their teaching techniques and worked to provide thorough and frequent feedback during practice lessons where teachers utilized the teaching aids. By using these resources, the teachers’ goal is to increase student interest and engagement through interactive teaching methods with a focus on fostering inquiry. Each teacher had the opportunity to demonstrate 2 experiments as well as teach a 15 minute lesson using the pictures and critical thinking questions contained in the resource books. The teachers now have the necessary tools and training to be able to effectively teach science using multimodal instructional methods!
