Pedagogy with a board game to instill Ecofriendly education
Pedagogy is a tool in education that utilizes more relatable factors that aids better comprehension from students and using said factors as a vehicle to teach complex lessons. The very basics of pedagogy found in kindergarten lessons. The cognitive lessons of teaching the alphabet; A is for Apple, B is for Ball, C is for Cat etc. The act of using an apple, ball, or cat to fittingly relate with the alphabets aptly educates the pupils better.
The method is similar as the students get older. However, it varies in the application. Too often the purist use of pedagogy is relegated- the factors must be relatable. This is essential because in psychomotor exercises the learning process takes a subliminal turn. An activity with a piece of oblique background information could surprisingly inform the subconscious of those that partook in it. For example, many Football ( Soccer in the US) loving African teenagers think themselves not good in European Geography. Unbeknownst to them when they are quizzed on European cities; they are amazed that they can mention a high amount of over 50 European Cities. They only need to apply lateral thinking with the Football clubs they know; Manchester United, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, AC Milan etc by deducting the Uniteds, Real, FCs and Bayern they can list a lot of European Cities by heart. Football is a vital pedagogical learning tool for European Geography or at least a curious case.
Mr. Nkimusowo Ojong is a Nigerian teacher currently on a graduate research study at Saitama University. His work is called Asymmetrical Biotargeting of Mosquitoes. It entails the use of nature to repel or annihilate Mosquitoes. The plants’ Drosera and Aldrovanda are insectivorous plants that literally eat adult mosquitoes and mosquito larva respectively. Cinnamon and the Chrysanthemum flower are different because they’re both secrete organic chemicals that repel or in the long term immobilize mosquitoes. Cinnamon emits a strong aromatic compound called cinnamaldehyde that repels mosquitoes. Chrysanthemum produces the best low toxicity chemical Pyrethrum to repel mosquitoes and when synthetically enhanced Pyrethrins or Pyrethroids can kill insects by activating the sodium channels of the insect’s nerve cells.
He used the popular board game in Africa, Ludo to enact a pedagogical template for these plants. The four plants are graphically visible as a quartet of squares within a larger square of the board game. The game has gained renewed popularity in the advent of the COVID19 global pandemic that has forced families to stay indoors.
