The mobile Newton Room in Northern Norway is on the move again. Teacher Simen Nyutstumoen believes that students learn better with practical and in-depth teaching.
RISØYHAMN/NORWAY: Since September 2023, the portable education solution has been in Risøyhamn in Andøy municipality in northern Norway. All kindergartens and most grade levels in the municipality have visited the Newton Room from September to December.
The Mobile Newton Room in Norway gives the three northernmost counties a taste of the Newton Concept.
The mobile Newton room in Norway was realised in collaboration with SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge and Samfunnsløftet in 2019, and since then, it has travelled around Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark.
The goal of the project is for as many as possible to experience the joy of STEM education, and for the communities in the three northernmost counties to get a taste of what Newton can offer them.
Simen Nyutstumoen (31) has been a Newton Teacher in the room along with Lotte Nordmo.
Learned new things
Daily, Simen is the contact teacher for 9th grade at Risøyhamn school. In addition, he teaches mathematics in 8th grade and natural sciences in 6th, 7th, and 10th grades.
He says it has been a completely new experience teaching in the Newton room.
"What was most fun was to see how engaged the students became when they worked with practical setups all day. They have enjoyed themselves a lot in the room, and they have expressed that they have learned a lot of new things," says Simen. He believes that practical teaching, which goes in-depth on a topic over a long time, engages the students, and Simen experiences that they learn better.
"A very common statement from the students has been 'Can we come here more often?', and 'When is the next time we can come here?'"
Wanted to Work More with Programming
In Risøyhamn, four Newton modules were taught: “Search and Rescue”, “Life of a Bumblebee”, “Robots and Circumference”, and “We Explore Energy”! In total, 220 children visited the Newton room during the period.
"One of the things I remember best is from 'Search and Rescue', where a group of students let their creativity run wild, and throughout the day, both the LEGO robot and the programming became completely different and more advanced than intended. The students and the teachers greatly wanted to continue working with this when they returned to school, so we helped them find a website where they could buy the LEGO sets they needed," Simen recounts.
The mobile Newton Room consists of two expandable containers that can be set up anywhere there is electricity and water access. When connected, they form a classroom of 70 square meters with, among other things, a lab, retractable amphitheatre, and workstations.
Good Evaluations
All class teachers visiting Newton conduct an evaluation afterwards. In Risøyhamn, 100 percent stated that they believe the teaching in the Newton Room contributes to their students achieving goals in the curriculum. 100 percent also agreed that the students got to use different or additional equipment in the Newton Room than what they have access to at school.
Simen thinks it would be very fun to work as a Newton Teacher in a permanent Newton Room. "I imagine it would allow me to focus on the most exciting part of being a teacher, namely engaging the students and teaching subjects in a practical way. So if I got the opportunity to work in a Newton Room, I would say yes to that," Nyutstumoen concludes.
The mobile Newton room has now moved to Lyngen municipality in Troms, where it will stay until May.
Read about the international Mobile Newton Room
