Education Perfect engages middle school students in science
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Lanna Derry, Head of Department for Science, describes the impact that Education Perfect has had on students at Tintern Grammar, instilling in them an interest in science and a sense of confidence in their own abilities to achieve success.
Located in Ringwood East, a suburb of Melbourne, Tintern Grammar is an independent, Anglican day school from Early Childhood to Year 12. Lanna Derry is Head of Science and Agriculture and currently teaches Year 7 Science and Senior Chemistry. She oversees the science curriculum and is leading the replacement of textbooks in Years 7 to 10 with Education Perfect. EP is now the only external resource used in middle school science and has also been thoroughly embedded into Physics at Years 11 and 12.
The Step Change
EP had been used extensively and successfully across Tintern Grammar’s Language Department for over a decade, when the Science Department was offered a demo, “I was instantly hooked and the customer service was wonderful. The EP team supported all our staff to get up and running, and whenever anyone new decided to give it a go, I could just request training and EP would look after them. The Director of IT took over the admin side and we now have a whole school subscription.”
For Lanna and her team of science teachers, EP offered them a reliable, easy to use and most importantly an engaging way to set classroom based and home learning tasks for students, “We started with the teaching and learning content and then consolidated our use of EP over Covid by transferring our paper based testing into the platform. All our revision went online too.”
Encouraging students to enjoy science
Lanna describes her students’ enthusiastic response to EP, “They love it and are completely addicted.”
She puts this down to the clarity of the resources,
“I don’t think it is the gamification of the programme that motivates them, more that the quality of the resources encourages them to get ‘into’ science. The content is bright and attractive and this appeals to the students. Information is also presented in easy to understand chunks and they get immediate feedback on whether they have got something right. They don’t have to wait for a teacher to respond.”
The short and spaced repetition of the content, although the students are not aware of it, supports this process, “The students have really embraced this aspect of the software. Walking around the classroom, I notice how they will all keep their focus on a slide for the required short period of time. This approach is very manageable for them, and again far more appealing than a lengthy piece of text in a book. The readability of the content and the range of ways that the information is presented also encourages the less literate to engage.”
Making the most of EP’s fun features
Lanna uses a number of EP’s more interactive features, further motivating the students. The favourite is Dash, a single or multi-user revision activity where students are asked to answer ten questions as quickly as they can, and then they can compare themselves with other students in class, the school, or even externally, “They love Dash. We have also entered the global challenges, not just in science but across other curriculum areas too, and our school has done very well. When we were locked down during Covid – and Melbourne was locked down for months – these activities allowed us to maintain a connection with our students, helping us provide pastoral support.”
Other staff have also established fun routines using EP, “Our amazing Physics teacher has a steady quizzing routine, setting short sharp quizzes all in EP, and the students love this and don’t even feel like they are being assessed.”
Positive learning outcomes
It is always hard to pinpoint what factor in a classroom is contributing to improved student outcomes but Lanna believes that EP plays an important role, “I think EP makes the students feel confident that they can ‘do’ science and that is so important in my curriculum area. It is half the battle.”
Summary
Tintern Grammar stands for academic excellence and confidence. Teaching staff in the science department have been pleased to see that Education Perfect is ticking both these boxes. The quality and format of the content in EP is engaging students and growing their confidence in a subject area that can be undermined by the myth that it is one of the more ‘difficult’ subjects. Thanks to EP, Tintern Grammar students are not only enjoying science but are confident that they can succeed.
