Discovery

Swotting on Screen

Swotting for School Certificate has taken on a new face via the Internet, in an interactive revision programme believed to be the first of its type. New Zealand secondary school students used the Passing Potential material to revise their work in five subject areas -- science, maths, accounting, English and a Macbeth module.

No other country has a supplemental teaching program which allows students to work at their own desk and become their own tutor in this way, although similar state-of-the-art systems are currently being developed in universities in Europe and the United States, and also by the US defence forces.

The science program, which covers earth science, physics, chemistry and biology, was written by a team headed by Sean Cleary, formerly a teacher at Avondale College and now doing a PhD in physics education, and Alison Goldman, a teacher at Long Bay College whose specialty is earth science.

In the interactive one-on-one studies, students answer questions and receive feedback on their answers. If an answer is incorrect the program shows the students where they were wrong and the reasons why. Students can go back and forward at will, not only learning the material as they go but also learning how to handle information and how to answer similar questions in examinations. Questions follow and compliment the New Zealand examination syllabus.

International interest has been shown in the programs with the science module already sold into Sweden.

"The solar system is the same the world over, so is Pythagoras" says Gillian Lander, director of Textus Publishing Company which developed the Passing Potential material. "Science and maths are universal and the material is similar almost anywhere in the world.

A free sample is available on the Web at http://www.form5.co.nz/