Sciensation Pedagogy Program

Problem Statement: How do redesign our curriculum/pedagogy/assessments so as to induce a philosophical understanding of the subject.

Requirements:

1. Insights/Universal Principles: Insights over information, universal principals derived out of the inventory of facts.
2. Connecting the dots: How does the student apply this knowledge in an other context?
3. Assumptions- more from less for more: Fewer laws which can produce more logical predictions which could in turn explain a lot of phenomenon.
4. Intuitive Presentation: An analogy/metaphor to implant the abstract formalism into the students' worldview.
5. Strategy: Improve the child's understand of strategy and decision making. 
6. Discovery Thinking: The context of the discovery can be presented so that the child learns the process of a discovery and can experience the eureka moments and the elegance of the concept.
7. Research Questions: The student can be exposed to research questions, explored by the academia.
8. Problem Solving: Analysis of the curriculum material can be followed by a synthesis project where the student solves a problem or creates something.
9. Academic Rigor: The student shall be asked to present and all his arguments shall be critically questioned for evidence/proofs. Questions shall reveal the conceptuals gaps  of the child's understanding.
10. Inquiry Based Learning: The curriculum can be transformed into questions through which the child discovers the concepts himself. Assessments can utilize higher order questions which test the understanding of the thought process rather than the content (open book assessments could be preferred).
11. Philosophy of X: The educators can be provided material which helps them in understanding the Philosophy of the discipline, which could promote an elegant, simple and appliable understanding of the discipline.
12. Worldview: The lesson plan must foreshadow how the class could evolve it's worldview.

Examples:

Insights/Universal Principles

1. "Second largest kindgom chooses aggressive warfare while the number one player chooses defensive warfare. The next few empires can choose flanking warfare while small groups are better off engaging in guerilla warfare"
   
   This is Jack Trout's retelling of Claussewitz's strategies as described in the book "On War". This idea can be applied in a variety of contexts. It explains how a player can attack other players, basis the amount of resources he has. Veerappan would be better confining himself inside Nallamalla forests whose terrain remains his strength and his adversary's adversary. Google better focus on defending its user base from invaders, they needn't attack any competitors head-on, which only gives them mileage.
   
2. "Constitution: A body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed."
   
   This could be presented through inquiry based learning/discovery thinking approach. Discussion starts off with questions around why we need to live in a society and why we need collective action. We then discuss need for permanent institutions and procedural convictions to establish authority and hence the constitution. The various aspects of the constitutions can be defined by brainstorming a constitution for governing hobby classes.
   
   A problem solving activity could be handed out at the end of the session, with students working on ammendments/ appendices or may be a constitution of their own.
   
3. "To introduce the concept of electron delocalization from the perspective of molecular orbitals, to understand the relationship between electron delocalization and resonance, and to learn the principles of electron movement used in writing resonance structures in Lewis notation, known as the curved arrow formalism"
   
   Middle monkey game could be used to introduce students to the idea of delocalization. An analogy could be constructed- ball: electron, boys: atoms and middle monkey: electrophile. The students could then appreciate why electron charge delocalization is essentially, keeping in mind the subatomic electro-magnetic interactions which govern the electron dynamics.