Abstract
During the period 1990-92, some students in Forms 1 and 2 in a secondary school participated in a project designed to encourage personal growth and academic learning through activity and direct experience via the senses. The Form 1 students disassembled and examined used appliances and built simple electronic circuits relevant to daily life. The Form 2 students built and operated a computer-controlled electrical train set. Electronics was used as the medium because of the relative ease of selecting teaching materials at progressive levels of difficulty; the ample opportunities for constructive and creative thinking, problem solving, and hypothesis testing through empirical experience; the possibility of immediate feedback; and the importance of electronics to students' daily life and Hong Kong's technological progress. Individuals varied greatly in their ability to benefit. The Form 1 students benefited more from passive activities like disassembling objects than from constructing them. The Form 2 students gradually developed an interest in the mastery over a system supposedly well beyond their academic level. Students' motivation and desire to learn were found to be the crucial factor in making learning fun and successful. Such project could be implemented as a weekly extra-curricular activity with no disturbance to the traditional curriculum. It has the advantages of providing an environment for students' academic and personal development, and offering job satisfaction to teachers who may have been frustrated in their attempts to attain the two educational goals simultaneously.
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