Hands on learning is the best way to learn! Being places and actually doing things helps me understand school subjects better than any textbook, and taking grade 12 Classical Civilizations on my Greece program with Global Summers Academy this summer proved this to me. Textbooks can teach you information but they can’t make you feel like you do when you actually see it for yourself. When I was in Greece, I wasn’t just reading about ancient civilizations, I was walking around the places where ancient people used to live. My teacher explained the places we visited and knew so much about the history. Going to museums while learning about what we were seeing made the lessons more exciting and easier to remember than anything I’ve ever learned from a regular lesson in a classroom.
Another reason why hands on learning is great is because it keeps me interested and not bored. When I’m reading from a textbook my mind sometimes wanders and I have to reread things to try to learn the information. But in Greece, I was surrounded by the real life history I was studying. When our teacher brought us places, he told us interesting stories and had us do scavenger hunts to discover new things. It was so much fun! Learning while actually looking at the artifacts made everything easier to understand, I got to take cool photos and will remember this for the rest of my life.
Throughout the course, me and the students also had to teach the class. Each of us got to research an ancient site and create a presentation where we taught the rest of the class about the place we had learned about. While I felt like I understood a lot from doing my research, actually being there really made me understand it even more. I couldn’t believe how big, beautiful and ancient these places were. I felt like my presentation came to life because I could point to the different parts of the Ancient Angora while explaining them. Textbooks will show small pictures or give descriptions, but standing in front of the sites from thousands of years ago makes the information real. Being there to explain the things I had learned made me
feel like everyone was interested in my presentation way more than when I used slides in a classroom.
My experience in Greece also proved that hands on learning creates learning that I won’t forget. When there was something I didn’t understand, I could ask my teacher right away. This helped me remember the museums, the historical sites, and the artifacts. I also found that I had more questions than I would in the classroom. Usually I just listen and take notes but in Greece, I was actually curious about things and wanted to know more. Feeling interested in learning is not something that happens to me when I’m at school.
Overall, hands on learning helped me understand more than any textbook ever could. Seeing artifacts, museums, and ancient sites was way more interesting because I was there, experiencing it all for myself. Being there doesn’t just teach you information, it gets you interested and helps you to actually understand it. Hands on learning is hands down, the best way to learn!
Thank you to Student Ambassador Noam G. for writing this blog!
