The Virtual Switch: Galileo

Galileo

For those of you who don’t know, Galileo is a term-long intitivate that only year 9’s experience that also happens to be the last year for camp (unless you take Outdoor Education in VCE) which Dante and I both had to miss out on. I remember I had no clue what I was getting into when I found out I was doing Galileo so I felt quite curious and nervous on what was to be expected. That’s where we come in. Galileo is based on 2 assessments (but they’re good, don’t worry) where students choose a topic that they are interested in (can be literally anything you want but I did psychology and the brain), then focus on an issue regarding that topic (for instance, mine was the way nutritional marketing was affecting the consumer’s decision to purchase a product) and finally an innovation/solution to solve the issue. In between these tasks, there are exciting excursions and activities to participate in, ranging from rock climbing to taking a visit to the Magistrates court. Alongside this, there are also 3 extraordinary teachers who are the funniest and chill people you will ever meet in your high school experience which just adds to the whole experience. 

Our experience

Since covid hit our country, Galileo had to be changed. Drastically. Our experience was very different to the people who had it in Term 1. We had to do it online. I mean, we could sleep in, turn our mics and cameras off but it wasn’t the same. You could see that the galileo teachers were trying their hardest to maintain some fun and excitement through the term, but at times, I think we all had enough and just wanted to be back at school. We had to miss out on excursions, face-to-face activities and camp so it wasn’t the best of times. However, the teachers would hold weekly kahoots and some padlets to share baby photos and lunches (it was so hard to recognise the teachers!). Overall, what made it interesting and unforgettable were both the teachers and students. We were all going through the same thing so we just had to hold on tight and not let go.

Interview with Trent and Ester

Dante; How was the online Galileo experience, just in general?

Trent; Very different, obviously, we lost a lot of our connection to the wider community that we normally have so it was difficult to do any community service, we had to cancel camp, so we lost a lot of the core Galileo experiences.

D; Did the students adjust well to the online Galileo experience?

Ester; I’d say that my impression was the students adjusted really well to online learning, especially given it's something we haven't had to do before, and they all really took it in their stride that they wouldn't have the same experience as previous Galileo students and made the best of a challenging situation.

D; What did you have to change from your usual style of teaching?

T; So a new thing we did was rather than going to places, we got experts to do zoom calls with the kids, we did some trails like to the NGV like we would normally do but replaced it with a virtual experience, I guess we had to make it more individual than group work since group work would be quite challenging online, we had to adapt more of our lessons to be more student led, rather than having a teacher at the front of the classroom, we had to change our google slides, we had to communicate with students in a different way, so we used google hangouts.

D; What was it like not being able to see students in person?

E; It was so weird! It was really weird! And, it's so nice to be back at school and getting to meet a lot of the kids we taught online in person for the first time, I guess the hard thing about Galileo is at the beginning of the term you don’t know the students, you meet them for the first time, so not being able to meet them in person before teaching them online was really tough, a lot of students are a lot taller than I thought, and I think I am a lot taller than they thought, so it’s been really nice to get to meet them in person for the first time.

D; Was this style of learning possibly beneficial or possibly too easy for the students?

T; I think it helped work towards some of our goals in Galileo which is taking responsibility for your own learning, so I think it placed more emphasis on the students being more organised, and more independent.

E; I think like everything there’s a range, like maybe some activities for some students were too easy, and for some those activities might be very challenging, on the whole because we changed the style of delivery and made it more student centred, we had to make sure that students could follow along and information was accessible to them. So in that sense we’ve probably had to make some activities a little bit easier because we wouldn’t be able to be there to support students through the more complex time. But another really good thing that we could do in online learning is we had a lot more of a chance to differentiate which means some students that are really excelling in certain areas, we can give them extra activities and more complex complicated work and then for some students if they’re finding a particular task really challenging, we can adapt that task to make it a little bit more appropriate for them.

D; Do you think the students missed a crucial portion of Galileo without being able to do the excursions, going to camp, community service?

T; I wouldn’t say they missed a crucial part because I still think the curriculum stayed the same, more or less except for those things, but I think excursions and camp add to the experience of Galileo but I wouldn’t say they’re crucial. It was obviously very disappointing  that they couldn't have that experience that other students have had.

Last word of advice for y’all

Dear future galileo students,

Take our advice to make Galileo better than ever. 

First, always ask for help! Don’t feel shy, don’t feel cool, when in doubt just ask for help. Either from teachers or students, there is always someone. Otherwise, your work won’t be done and it will just begin to pile on one another. This is your time to shine and relax, so go for it.

Second, do the work. If you put your effort in it won’t be hard. Galileo gives a hint of what freedom is. You have the choice to write anything you want because there is no right or wrong.

Third, when doing group work, don’t let one or two people do the work, all participate and do it together. It will benefit you and the group members, resulting in an effective outcome for your work.

Use these wise words from us to get the ultimate experience of what Galileo is really about.