Introduction
My name is Conroy Hall, CEO and founder of Scienmalab and currently an acting senior lecturer in the science and mathematics department at Church Teachers’ College, Manchester, Jamaica. Today, I proudly present to you a new and exciting business venture that will inspire positive change in the teaching and learning experience of mathematics and science teachers and students from the early childhood level to the postgraduate level across the Caribbean. This venture will also greatly assist teachers and students across the globe in improving the pass rates in these perennially troubling subject areas by making the process of acquiring the required knowledge and skills a very exciting technological experience.
Scienmalab is a free social network for science and mathematics students that is equipped with a virtual lab for science and mathematics simulations from the early childhood to post graduate level. This social network will spark and maintain the interest of those who utilise it as it couples the important topics in the subject areas with attractive new trends in technology. It will definitely erase the phobia that many students have for mathematics and science and thus develop learners who will aspire to making mathematics and science a component of their professional life. This social network will be very useful for distance learning and mlearning. No longer will science and mathematics teachers and educators have to spend long hours searching the internet for materials for students, the answer is with Scienmalab. Further, this venture will erase the stressful episodes faced by teachers and students in seeking to locate appropriate questions for tests and examinations as Scienmalab is designed to handle that too.
As you proceed through the presentation of this venture, you will discover how effective and efficient Scienmalab is and how it can transform a dull mathematics or science class, and ineffective distance learning into interactive and enjoyable sessions. This information will undoubtedly convince you that Scienmalab is a viable venture and a ‘must have’ social network for teachers and students.
The Educational Problem
As a mathematics and science lecturer at a tertiary institution in Jamaica and a writer, reviewer and marker of Mathematics, primary school Science and Physics for Jamaica’s national examinations, I became aware that students have a major problem with grasping key principles in science and mathematics. Also as an internal and external assessor for both mathematics and science student-teachers, I also observed that student-teachers are also experiencing grave difficulties in facilitating learning in these subject areas. This is due largely to insufficient resources and their inability to demonstrate the applicability of mathematics and science to real life situations. This explains the reason students perform so poorly in both mathematics and science and the reason so small a number of students pursue courses in mathematics and science at the tertiary level.
The Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination reports over the last decade show that students are performing poorly in mathematics and science. The CSEC Physics examination report for 2010 shows that 38.7% of the candidates obtained acceptable (grade 1-3) and there was a significant decline in the performance of candidates in experimental skills. The CSEC Chemistry report for 2010 shows that candidates performed poorly in the areas of qualitative analysis, and planning and designing.
The poor performance of students in science and mathematics not only affect students in the Caribbean but other students across the globe. For example, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) report shows that mathematics and science students in Ireland are performing poorly. A report on the 2008 Olevel examination in mathematics and science shows that 47.8% and 30.8% pass mathematics and science respectively with physics showing least percentage of candidates passing. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2009) reported that the number of students graduating with science, engineering and technology degrees in 2007 shows that Ireland is placed third highest out of 29 countries with a percentage of 14.8% of the total number of graduates followed by Austria (15.2%) and Germany (15.7%). This data shows that science and mathematics are significantly affected across the globe.
McKinsey and Company (2007) reveal that one of the main drivers of discrepancy in the educational outcomes across the globe is the quality of teachers. The ECFSN (2008) argued that more efforts need to be made by the Ireland government in improving the quality of math and science teachers. Frykholm and Glasson (2005) cited that teachers of mathematics and science need to be enrolled in courses that will enhance their knowledge of pedagogy and content of both disciplines.
The Best Solution
Scienmalab will undoubtedly solve the problem of low performance in science and mathematics by addressing the major problems of lack of resources and the need for improvement in the quality of teaching-learning experience. I have effectively used virtual labs in lab classes at my institution so as to develop students’ experimental skills. Hence I am convinced that the virtual laboratory component of Scienmalab will provide the well needed laboratory facilities in many educational institutions especially those of developing countries. Administrators, educators and students will no longer have to worry about insufficient equipment or reagents, inadequate laboratory space, health issues and security problems because Scienmalab will provide institutions with a wide range of virtual labs. Administrators can therefore redistribute expenditure to other educational needs.
Scienmalab will also provide educators and students with ebooks on various courses in mathematics and science along with worked science and mathematics examination past papers for CSEC, GCSE A level and Olevel, Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) University of the West Indies (UWI) undergraduate and postgraduate. This will greatly assist in saving precious time as they no longer will need to spend long hours surfing the internet for resources. Everything they need for success in science and mathematics will be at the Scienmalab site. Furthermore the library component of the site will be equipped with other resources such publications in mathematics and science. Teachers can therefore keep abreast of the latest information, methods of delivery and practical applications of the subject areas to real-life situations, without expending huge sums of money on the purchasing of textbooks and journals.
Why would science and mathematics teachers and students spend long hours travelling to onsite tertiary educational institutions when they can use Scienmalab to participate in online workshops through its social network facilities such as audio and text conferencing in private domain? Scienmalab will offer educators and students the opportunity to conduct private social interactions in online discussions. It will allow teachers and students to share notes, links and files (audio and video) and to send assignments, grades, conduct polls and post any item in its public domain at any time convenient to the users.
The Product and Platform
Scienmalab is a social network with a virtual laboratory and library for mathematics and science courses from the early childhood to post graduate level. The virtual laboratory covers the mathematics and science syllabuses from early childhood to post graduate levels of the educational institutions in the Caribbean and across the globe. Scienmalab’s virtual lab is well developed and composed of more than 100 research-based interactive simulations for the teaching and learning of science and mathematics. All the simulations are supported with materials such as sample pre-lab questions, marked scheme for labs and clear laboratory procedures. These simulations are available to all countries across the globe and are translated into 49 languages. Each simulation is based on Java and Flash platform. In addition the virtual labs can be downloaded freely to systems (MAC, Windows and Linux PC).
Scienmalab’s social network for teachers and students site is translated in 14 different languages. It offers private and public micro-blogging platforms that are analogous to the services provided by Facebook, Twitter and Edmondo. However this social network is mainly created for science and mathematics teachers for the Caribbean educational system. Its intended use is to enhance the teaching-learning experience in the classroom, and to facilitate regular workshops between teachers as well as educational institutions. Scienmalab is more secure than Twitter, Facebook and the other social networks; students, parents and teachers are provided with the option of make their conversations public or private. The conversation among participants on Scienmalab social site can be either text or audio.
Scienmalab will allow users to share notes, links and files among themselves. Each user is provided with 10 Gigabyte of memory. In addition, teachers or educators can send assignments and grades, conduct surveys, analyze and report on a survey and post any type of message to include announcements and invitations. Furthermore Scienmalab allows teachers and educators to write test items and administer tests to students and publish their grades immediately after completion of the test. Also Scienmalab’s users can views worked examination past papers, read journals, access downloaded eBooks in the library space. Educators and teachers can post tests, journals and other material in the library to be viewed by all users. Also all communication both text and audio will be automatically saved for one year.
Future Potential
My intention is for Scienmalab to be used as a distance learning and mlearning option and to provide educational services to commerce, industrial and education institutions across the globe. Also Scienmalab intends to incorporate all curriculum disciplines and will consist of learning materials that can be used by all teachers and students across the globe and will not limited to the Caribbean.
Local and Global Market
Scienmalab is suitable for teachers, parents and students at all levels from early childhood to university level. The content and facilities are geared mainly for the Caribbean countries and most Commonwealth countries but the site can be used by people from other countries. Scienmalab adequately addresses the needs of its consumers which consist of everyone who at some time is exposed to mathematics and science.
This site not only caters to institutions that have been battered by financial disasters and those which have very poor science infrastructure but also distance learning. Scienmalab was created with the capacity to provide facilities and contents for online courses in the sciences and mathematics. Thus institutions could use this medium to provide training and certification through distance learning to a wide cross-section of people in the Caribbean and the Common Wealth countries. This venture has risks but I am of the view that it will do as well as Edmondo, Facebook and Twitter.
Competitors
My main competitors will be Facebook, Twitter, Phet, Yenka, YouTube, Edmondo and Linkedin. However, the consumer need for improvement of the teaching and learning experience in science and mathematics will undoubtedly cause this venture to be economically viable and and to hold its own market within the Caribbean and in the future, across the globe. The various products that Scienmalab offers will allow it to stand out and to spread its reach across the globe. The product is unique and caters to specific needs in our educational system. In addition, because of the value that Scienmalab brings to the educational system, it will not be blocked by some educational institutions as like some other social network.
Conclusion
Scienmalab is a technological cutting edge that will definitely meet the needs of its intended users. It is the first of its kind, in a market desperate for a product of this nature. It should therefore attract many users and be a profitable venture. As research studies in the use of educational tools continues, I think Scienmalab will be the master in its field and will be around for a long time to come.
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