Providing resources and lessons for hard to teach subjects in lockdown – Mayku Teach

As teachers plan their lessons during half term, @MaykuTeach helps by providing curriculum level lessons in the #STEAM subjects  

The prevalence of home-schooling during the lockdown period has meant that despite best intentions, lessons have become stunted. As teachers plan for their lessons upon the second half of term, educators are in need of effective resources to reinvigorate the curriculum, deliver engaging lessons and, supplement teaching in the classroom of a post-COVID world. 

With only reception, Year 1 and Year 6 due to return to return to school on 1st June, there are still millions of children at home who will need to continue to learn at home, following the curriculum as well as they can. With this in mind, Mayku has developed an online portal, dubbed Mayku Teach, which provides teachers with a host of easily accessible lesson plans, practical curriculum and an online community of educators to provide support and valuable resources. Mayku Teach dramatically minimises lesson planning time, and engages children by offering a range of practical classes which follow and elevate the curriculum of all STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics).

What can an Ice Lolly teach us about the states of matter?

Getting children to make an ice lolly and then observe its changes of state is a straightforward and fun way to teach them about materials and their properties.

Mayku’s Ice Lolly lesson plan is made up of five 55-minutes sessions investigating the properties of materials and working out what we can make with them, allowing children to develop their enquiry skills using an open learning process. Pupils will first be introduced to the differences between a solution and a suspension by looking at the ingredients of an ice lolly in their liquid state. They will also plan their experiments, taking into account how to do this in a fair way and how to draw up a hypothesis.

They can also make a mould for their lolly using the FormBox, taking into account the correct health and safety measures and how to master the machine itself. By the time their lollies have been made, they will have observed each component and material in a number of states. They will have discerned the difference between a liquid and a solution and will know how to evaluate materials based on their functions. 

What can a humble sun dial teach us about the universe?

Over five one-hour lessons, pupils will make their own sundial and use it to tell the time. During the design and creation of the dial, they will be taught the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth, using tennis balls and chalk. This leads to describing the Earth’s rotation and orbit relative to the Sun.

Finally, with their completed sundials, pupils will track the movement of the Sun and use observations of the direction and distance the shadow has travelled on their sundials to tell the time. Any theory learnt in this lesson can be extrapolated outwards to include a more general discussion about the Solar System and its mechanical properties.

Alex Smilansky, Co-Founder and CEO of Mayku Teach, comments on the platform and discusses the need for educators to be supplied with resources and support at such an uncertain time:

“The return to schools presents a considerable challenge for educators and pupils alike – children will be returning to the classroom having had a very different home schooling experiences, classrooms will be imbalanced, and teachers must devise new strategies to deliver effective lessons and enable all children to learn effectively. 

“It is now more important than ever that teachers have access to the support and resources they need to ensure they can deliver engaging and effective lessons, whilst still remaining on top of the curriculum.

“The resources and the community of teachers developed by Mayku Teach will help any teacher to quickly and painlessly devise exciting and engaging lessons for their returning students, and will provide vital structure in an uncertain and difficult time.”