At a very young age, James Atta was taken from his parents’ home to live with his older brother. His older brother, who had to take care of James, had a positive impact on his life in many ways, one which included an interest in Science and pursuing it while in training college.
James teaches STEM at Essaman JHS. His students are about a hundred and twenty and he has sixteen years of teaching experience to his credit. He plans to be an educator until retirement. James has been a member of GAST since 2011 and has benefited immensely from meetings and networking opportunities. He loves his job, especially the fact that it deals with studying and learning about the environment.
As a STEM educator, he finds the area of study necessary for social development. In his opinion, with adequate resources, the teaching of STEM can be less difficult for teachers and more interesting for students. His students inspire him when they understand what he has taught and apply what they have learnt.
James heard about the JUNEOS Challenge through the Central Region Science Coordinator. He was excited by the idea and introduced it to his students who enjoyed every bit of the experience. One of the best moments of his entire teaching experience was during the filming of his students performing their experiments. He believes his students will do very well when their results come out.
The JUNEOS Challenge has helped James to use a more practical approach to his teaching. It has also helped him explore ways of interacting with his students. He believes the Challenge is of great use and benefit. It is also a good way to introduce STEM to students and keep them interested in the subjects.
Mr. Atta is of the opinion the JUNEOS Challenge should be made available to more schools. He hopes that in their plans to expand, the JUNEOS team are able to organize science lessons for teachers to train them on using improvised tools for practical lessons. He also hopes that the program becomes one of the best educational programs on television.
The whole project has taught him not to limit the capabilities of his students, and he would love for other teachers to learn and experience this.
Article by Elizabeth Johnson.
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Elizabeth Johnson works as a researcher and project manager with Dr Monk and volunteers the rest of her time with the Writers Project of Ghana where she takes up various roles such as radio show production, social media management and administrator for their annual literary festival. She is a published writer who writes both fiction and non fiction and has won awards for her work.
Waaaw!