All 2021 NSMQ finalists fail to correctly arrange parts of human digestive system in Dubai

All the 2021 final teams of the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) failed to correctly arrange the parts of the human digestive system during a tour of Dubai.

The students who toured the Sharjah Museum in Dubai as part of the prize package for being finalists in the quiz competition failed to apply their theoretical knowledge, thereby highlighting the need for the inclusion of more practical sessions in science training in Ghana.

According to a report on myjoyonline, even though three finalists from Prempeh College, PRESEC-Legon and KETASCO, demonstrated their excellent knowledge on the NSMQ stage, their deficiency in the practical aspect was exposed during the tour of the museum.

“At the Museum, various practical illustrations of scientific experiments are displayed to court the interest of young people for the sciences. From physics to chemistry, and from biology to other science disciplines, visitors are allowed to try their hands on the setups to appreciate the reasoning behind each experiment. For their first turn, the three teams from Prempeh College, Keta SHTS and PRESEC-Legon won the admiration of their colleagues in the school for putting up better interactions during an electricity show,” the report on myjoyonline revealed.

However, all three teams failed to correctly arrange the parts of the digestive system, leaving teachers who accompanied the students visibly worried at the apparent gap in their practical knowledge.

“We have the same model there but they don’t actually fix it, they just study it and they don’t go through that kind of steeplechase of fixing it; that is why they are not used to it. From here, we will make sure at least those down there learn how to fix it. Going forward, when we go back, we will inform the teachers so that when they are teaching them models like this, they will allow students to be actively involved by fixing themselves,” one teacher said.

The students were at the Museum as part of an all-expense-paid trip organised and sponsored by Adansi Travels.

They started the tour from Nairobi in Kenya where they visited a giraffe centre and a carnivore restaurant.