Carousel Learning, Retrieval Practice, Homework, Assessment and Long-Term Plans

Starting to Use Carousel

We are in the very early days of using Carousel Learning as a homework platform - initially in the Science faculty but soon across the whole school (although I first used it in the very early "trial" days with a Y8 class who are now in Y11!). I've been testing it out on all my classes - year 7 to year 12 - and it's been fascinating to see how students have reacted in various different ways to this new way, for them, of doing their homework.

I'm currently trying to plan the best way of our faculty exploiting the benefits of Carousel Learning, and I'm writing this blog post as a way of organising my thoughts and hopefully encouraging feedback & debate from other users.

Question Banks

One of the great features of Carousel is that you can create your own set of questions. This provides the ultimate in terms of flexibility, but it also could potentially mean loads of work creating question banks. However, there is also the "Community" where existing question banks have been shared by other Carousel users or by premium content providers. So you can download an editable copy of someone else's question bank and make it suitable for your school - then share it within your school if you have a "Platinum" account.

I spent quite a bit of time looking at the available question banks and matching them to our curriculum in Science from KS3 to KS5. It's amazing how much stuff people have already created and shared. A huge "thank you" to them.

Inevitably, when you look at "other people's questions" there are thing you would like to change, questions you would ask in a different way, or errors you need to correct. This means that the community question banks will certainly need modifying and cannot necessarily be used directly "off the shelf". If you keep changing the questions in a particular question bank then this has some knock-on effect, e.g. you cannot copy an existing quiz (because the file it references has changed). This has led me to believe that it would be better to create a larger group of smaller question banks (perhaps limited to a single topic) instead of a massive single question bank covering everything.

Linking to Long Term Plans

We have created "long term plans" that attempt to detail, for each topic in each year group, what students should already know, what this topic will teach them (in terms of declarative and procedural knowledge), what misconceptions we might encounter, what vocabulary students might need to learn and which questions students should be expected to be able to answer if they have "learned" the topic.

For example, this is an extract from our long term plan for Y7 Forces:

Previously, the "Questions" were a set of questions created by teachers that students might be expected to be able to answer after completing the learning sequence. Now, I propose that the questions are an individual Carousel question bank: in this case "Y7 3.1 Forces". Here is an extract from the question bank:

Typically, I would expect there to be around 50 questions for each topic in the long term plan - though many will be the same question asked in different ways. 

Homework

For each topic in the long term plan, the weekly homework for each class will then be retrieval practice using Carousel with the questions from the relevant question bank. By having a relatively small set of questions (maybe 50 in total but probably less than 30 truly distinct questions) for each topic it means that "revise topic" instead of "revise questions" can be introduced earlier than if the topic contained hundreds of questions.

Should the homework be exclusively on questions covered in the week's lessons?  Or should we include things coming up or things recently covered? Having a large question bank with multiple topics offers the greatest flexibility in this regard, but a smaller question bank on a single topic has other benefits (e.g. the file will be changed less often).

One option is to set multiple smaller homework tasks with questions set from different question banks in each task - some from this week, last week, previous weeks etc. This of course leads to other complexities and reasons for students not to complete their homework.

Assessment

We tend to use AQA's "Exampro" to create assessments for all year groups. This has the advantage of being able to choose past questions with appropriate levels of challenge, maths, practical skills etc. but means that much of the curriculum in untested in assessments. We have recently augmented this with a set of MCQs and tick-box/word-match questions before the Exampro section.

I think that once we have a Carousel question bank linked to each topic it makes sense that the assessment asks every (distinct) question from that bank. It has been said that the vast majority of GCSE questions are "recall" - whether recall of basic facts or recall of procedures - and so building the recall questions into every assessment would appear to make sense.

Thoughts

We know from multiple studies that retrieval practice is far more effective than the students' preferred methods of study (re-reading, note-taking, highlighting) and so any method that embeds retrieval into student habits is a positive step.

Building retrieval into homework from Y7 using a platform such as Carousel Learning will create good habits amongst students. Using the same questions in homework and assessments will build confidence in students' base level of understanding.

Thanks for reading.

Comments, suggestions and advice from other Carousel users very much appreciated.

FIFA - Maths v Physics

It seems that we sometimes have an issue with students being taught a method for solving questions in maths lessons which they are then unable to apply to solving similar problems in physics lessons.

In our science faculty, we have adopted the FIFA method developed by Gethyn Jones and described here: FIFA Calculation – e=mc2andallthat (physicsteacher.blog)

We have also discussed with our colleagues in maths how they solve equation-based questions.

So, in my lessons now, instead of starting with a physics question, I use an abstract maths example, but apply FIFA. e.g.:

and I then apply exactly the same method to a physics question, e.g.:

We then look at an example where we need to "Fine tune", but as a maths question first. In this case we follow our maths method by saying if B is multiplied by 5, then we divide B by 5 - and we do the same to the other side of the equation.

We then apply exactly the same method to a physics formula. e.g.:

Early days of implementation - but so far, so promising.

Changing KS3 Science Lessons

After recently posting my embryonic thoughts on how we might consider changing the way we teach science at KS3, I heard from another teacher who had been developing another approach. For details please see the Quarky Teacher's post here: https://twitter.com/QuarkyTeacher42/status/1477596036734631941?s=20

Although to create a complete, resourced, KS3 curriculum in this fashion would be a huge undertaking, I am really taken with the idea of teaching based on a specific domain, rather than lesson by lesson through a set topic in biology/physics/chemistry.

As an example, consider a series of lessons (say taking a half-term) ostensibly talking about space, but in actuality covering a much wider range of KS3 subjects.

Transporting Astronauts and Supplies to and from the International Space Station

The teaching and learning sequence could cover the following:

• the solar system, the relative positions of the Sun, Earth, moon, other planets and the ISS;
• how the ISS remains in space even though it experiences the Earth's gravitational field;
• the concept of free-fall and how objects of difference masses fall with the same rate of acceleration;
• mass, weight and gravitational field strength;
• the consequences of zero air resistance;
• atmospheric pressure and how it changes with height;
• the forces required to lift a spacecraft beyond the Earth's atmosphere;
• the combustion reactions of rocket fuel and the forces generated (exothermic reactions, gas pressure etc);
• the effect of mass on the force required and the use of staged rockets;
• the speed of rockets and satellites;
• distance-time graphs;
• relative velocities as spacecraft dock in orbit;
• the effect of living on the ISS on the human body; 
• how is oxygen, water, carbon dioxide etc managed on the ISS;
• how can plants grow in space, how can Earth-like conditions be created;
• photosynthesis, respiration, pollination;
• air resistance causing friction and heating on re-entry;
• how parachutes decelerate the descent to a safe rate - terminal velocity.

This is just a first idea for one particular topic as an example and it needs a lot more thought, careful mapping to the National Curriculum and integration with relevant practical activities to build "working scientifically" skills.

Re-thinking Science at KS3

Why I am I thinking about this?

What happens to the enthusiasm for science in students as they move from KS3 to KS4? Why are many students keen to do practical work in science? Why do we never have enough time to answer students wider, science-related questions?

What do we see in many Y7/8 students?

When we teach science to a class of 30 year 7 students, it is clear to see (in many of them) real enthusiasm and interest. The students are bursting with questions  and they are eager to have immediate answers. As teachers, we want to answer their questions, dispel their misconceptions and misunderstandings and satisfy their curiosity.

However, the questions never end (they really never end) and it is impossible to make sure that all your class understand your answers. Before you know it, half your lesson time is gone and you haven't even started on your main "learning objective". You have your short & medium term plans to follow, there are several groups following the same scheme of work, heading towards the same end of topic assessments, and so you cannot afford to fall behind. You have to move the lesson on, stop answering questions and focus on the content you are supposed to be teaching.

Are we doing a practical today?

Every KS3 lesson starts with at least one student saying "Are we doing a practical today?", followed by their face dropping when they realise that the answer is "no". It is clear that some students see practical work as a fun alternative to doing written tasks whether or not it actually benefits them in terms of their overall education. However, it is also evident that many students are enthused by the thought of practical lessons in science - again irrespective of whether or not there are any actual educational benefits.

So what I'm saying is ...

We have many students who have a real interest in science at KS3. Lots of students see science as a lesson where they will do practical activities. The science teacher is seen as a font of all scientific knowledge that some students would like to tap into. We seem to be letting them down (in terms of their hopes and expectations) in some respects because we cannot spend time either answering all their questions satisfactorily and we cannot make science lessons all about the practical tasks.

Why do we do what we do at KS3?

The National Curriculum for KS3 Science lists around 140 topics to be covered in Chemistry, Biology & Physics along with 20 points about "working scientifically". You can imagine this being translated into a minimum of 160 lessons. In my school we teach 3 science lessons per week at KS3 - so well over 100 per year. In other words, at some level the KS3 science National Curriculum content could be "taught" in less than 1.5 school years.

So what decisions have been taken to create a KS3 science curriculum that expands the National Curriculum content to 2 or 3 full academic years? Which topics have we covered in more depth? Which extra topics have we added? Have we done things to aim the content towards KS4 and GCSEs? Are we "spiralling" our curriculum to come back to topics at more detailed levels each time?

I assume we are all to some extent doing all of the above.

Could we do it differently?

These are just my initial ramblings, but what I am thinking about is:

1: A core set of lessons that cover the National Curriculum in around half of the time available at KS3.

2: Regular assessment based on well-structured, diagnostic topic MCQs given at an appropriate time - not artificially lined up with all the other classes in the year.

3: Removing time-limited, short-term, lesson by lesson curriculum plans so that it doesn't matter if you spend half a lesson addressing interesting, relevant questions.

4: A huge increase in the amount of time spent planning practical investigations, doing practical experiments and writing up their results. Spending large amounts of lesson time on "working scientifically" so that methods, graph work and errors etc. become second nature.

What is the point?

The reason for suggesting that we think about these changes is to encourage more students to maintain their enthusiasm for science well beyond year 7. Even if the evidence is clear that doing practical investigations has no actual benefit in terms of a student's ability to answer practical-related questions in exams, the student's enthusiasm for studying science could be increased.

Similarly, if the science lesson is seen as the place where all the student's questions are answered then it will encourage more students to see the subject as useful and relevant.

In terms of GCSE success, interpreting and understanding graphs along with analysing experimental data, identifying errors and discussing improvements to methods are basic skills that many students find difficult. If we can address these areas in more depth at KS3 then perhaps these skills will seem considerably less daunting.

Boardworks Animations on a Windows PC without Adobe Flash Player

When support for Adobe Flash Player was ended in January 2021, (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/update-adobe-flash-support) the only way to use Boardworks animations has been to install unsupported versions of Flash Player. This path is strongly discouraged by Adobe and school IT departments because of the inherent security risks.

There is an open source, produced by volunteers, Flash emulator available at https://ruffle.rs/ that can either run standalone on your computer or be installed on webservers.

In theory therefore, it should be possible to run the Boardworks flash animations using Ruffle.

I have managed to do this with a couple of our school PowerPoint presentations that include Boardworks animations. This is how I did it.

1, First of all, take your Powerpoint file containing the Boardworks animation you want to use and make a copy of it in a new folder on your PC.

2. Change your Windows setting so that you can see file extensions. 

3. Rename your file to change the .pptx etension to .zip

4. Now when you double-click on the file instead of running PowerPoint it will open it as a zip archive.

5. Open the .zip file. Open the ppt folder inside and the activeX folder inside that.

6. You should see some files ending in .bin (e.g. activeX1.bin). These are the files that contain your Boardworks Flash animations.

7. Copy the .bin files to a new folder on your PC.

I found this page http://blog.interrupt3h.com/?p=250 which explains how to extract the Flash files from a .bin. and provides the script that I used. To do this, you need to install php on your PC.

8. Download php for your PC from here: https://windows.php.net/download#php-8.1 (I used this one https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/php-8.1.1-Win32-vs16-x64.zip)

9. Copy the installation files to a suitable directory - e.g. c:\php8

10. Set the path environment variable to include c:\php8 - like this:

11. Now you need to create the script file that will extract the Flash (.swf)  files from the .bin files. I copied it from here: http://blog.interrupt3h.com/?p=250. You can paste the text of the script into notepad, but it need to have these starting and ending character added: <?PHP (at the start) and ?> at the end. So the full file is:

<?PHP

//Script to extract SWF files from pptx files (once unzipped)

//Set up file type an extension for checking</code>

$FWSMarker = "FWS";

$extension = ".BIN";

// Start parsing directory

if ($handle = opendir('.')) {

echo "Directory handle: $handle\n";

echo "Entries:\n";

/* Loop over the directory searching for all files */

while (false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))) {

/* Check for file extension*/

$filename = strtoupper(rtrim($entry));

$entry_len = strlen($entry);

$entry_pos = $entry_len - strlen($extension);

/* If .BIN search in file for FWS*/

if (substr($filename, $entry_pos , strlen($extension)) == $extension )

{

echo "Found entry $entry that is a .bin file \n";

$newhandle = fopen($entry, "r");

$contents = fread($newhandle, filesize($entry));

$marker = strpos($contents, $FWSMarker);

if ($marker != 0)

{

echo "FWS Found at position : $marker\n";

// truncate file from before FWS marker

$newlen = strlen ($contents);

$contents = substr($contents, $marker, ($newlen-$marker));

// get SWF file length from SWF header and reverse (little endian)

$swflen = substr ($contents, 4, 4);

$swflen = strrev($swflen);

//convert file length into something php can work with

         $act_len="";

         for ($i=0; $i<4; $i++){

          $newchar=ord(substr($swflen,$i,1));

          $newchar=strval(dechex($newchar));

          $act_len=$act_len.$newchar;

          }

         // convert from hex to dec

         $act_len=hexdec($act_len);

         echo "Actual SWF file length : $act_len bytes\n";

         /* Truncate File to that length*/

         $contents=substr($contents,0,$act_len);

         /* Save New File */

         $newfilename = $entry.".swf";

         $newhandle = fopen($newfilename, 'w');

         fwrite($newhandle,$contents);

         echo "SWF file outputted to $newfilename \n\n";

         fclose($newhandle);

                 }

        }

    }

   

//Wrap it up and exit

   

    closedir($handle);

}

?>

12. So you now have php installed on your PC and you have created a PHP script file (e.g. mine is called "findswf.php". I placed this file in a folder called scripts inside my php8 folder. You have copied the .bin files from your PowerPoint into a new directory.

So now you can run your PHP script. 

13. Run a Windows CMD prompt and navigate to your directory where your .bin files are stored.

14. Execute your PHP script by typing php c:\php8\scripts\findswf.php

15. This has now extracted your swf file from activeX1.bin and created a file called activeX1.bin.swf. This is your Boardworks Flash animation.

16. Install Ruffle from https://ruffle.rs/#downloads

17. Run ruffle and select your newly created .swf file for it to open.

18. Ruffle should run your animation ....

This now allows you to play the animations on a PC.

In theory, your IT dept could install Ruffle on their web server and centrally locate all the extracted .swf files - this would allow the animations to play on any web browser with the Ruffle extension installed (eg for Chrome) on your school network.

Hope this is useful.

Update: instead of using the Ruffle flash emulator, there is an Adobe product (Adobe Flash Player Projector - for development & debug) that is still available to play standalone .swf files. Please read the Adobe terms of use before using. https://t.co/OgN12PKrIv Thanks to @https://twitter.com/gerryleo1964 for pointing this out.

Creating a complete set of self-marking AQA GCSE science homework tasks using MS Forms and Teams.

I am attempting to create a complete set of self-marking homework tasks covering the complete AQA GCSE science specification (both combined and separate sciences).

The idea is to use a Microsoft Form (MS Form) with a set of multi-choice questions (MCQs) for each individual point in each science specification. The forms could then be used as MS Teams assignments for homework. Each form would also include a short video explaining the specification point so that the student re-visits what was taught in the lesson before attempting the homework task. (This is also helpful for students who have missed the lesson).

The MCQs would start off just asking questions that are either the same as, or very similar to, those shown in the video. Later questions would ramp-up the level of challenge. Points for the MCQs would be based on the difficulty of the question - so a single mark for the straightforward questions and two marks or more as the challenge increased.

An early example of what I want to achieve can be seen here:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ShareFormPage.aspx?id=1XlCeQt-h028e-zs2qVKgM_Jc84nIKlFqrv16czMISJUQUdWMVpTSzVXWks4RVg5SEdXVUE4V0xSTi4u&sharetoken=WlgosJzLoqjHBqnhmoBk

The videos that are embedded in the MS Forms are those created by Shaun Donnelly (https://www.freesciencelessons.co.uk/) and I have used them because they are short, focussed and matched closely to the exam specification points. Shaun has said he is happy for me to use his YouTube videos in this manner.

In each form, the first question is always for the student to watch and rate their understanding of the video. This means that the student can give me feedback on whether or not they "get" the topic and if I see a high percentage of students reporting a poor level of understanding on a particular topic I can address it in class.

As questions become more difficult, I also intend to add "I do not understand how to answer this question" as one of the MCQ options. I feel that this is more useful than making a student guess when they really do not know how to work out the actual answer. An example of this can be seen here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ShareFormPage.aspx?id=1XlCeQt-h028e-zs2qVKgM_Jc84nIKlFqrv16czMISJUOVJZRUpDSEFUMzJaUkowUVBETVJVNVYzTi4u&sharetoken=ibq5jHIVQs8rZ22olxL7

I am intending that the homework tasks are set in the weeks following the initial teaching of each topic. This creates spaced retrieval on top of any similar activities done in lessons. The same homework tasks can be set again at later dates to provide further retrieval opportunities.

Using the Insight function built into MS Teams, it should be possible to build up a useful picture of how the learning of each specification point is developing by class and by individual student. Using appropriately created Teams or by analysing on external spreadsheets, it should also be possible to analyse the performance across whole year groups.

With a complete set of homework tasks covering the whole of the GCSE specification then over several years I hope to develop a more detailed understanding of which topics are learned well and which less so; and therefore be able to develop my teaching appropriately to improve student outcomes.

It will take me a long time to complete all the Forms for all the specification points for all of GCSE Biology, Chemistry and Physics (separate and combined, foundation and higher), but at the end there will be:

• a reusable bank of homework tasks across the whole science curriculum for KS4
• self-marking, spec-linked homework ready to use for all of Y9, Y10 and Y11
• standardised marking to allow better understanding of performance across whole year groups (and eventually compared to previous year groups)
• MS Teams Insights to allow analysis of the homework data in a standardised manner.
• homework tasks that will be consistent both for students to complete and for teachers to set and analyse.
• ready-made homework that can be used as part of a spaced retrieval activity

I am willing to make all of the MS Forms available for any other teachers to use and I am hoping that other teachers would like to contribute to getting this completed by doing some of the Forms. If we could find several teachers for whom this would be a worthwhile tool, then the forms could be completed much more quickly.

If you would like to help, then here is a guide for creating the MS Forms:

How To Make The Forms

This MS Form shows an example of the proposed homework.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ShareFormPage.aspx?id=1XlCeQt-h028e-zs2qVKgM_Jc84nIKlFqrv16czMISJUOFJJTllSSTdUV09NQ09VM1JLN1pHWUZJOC4u&sharetoken=ibq5jHIVQs8rZ22olxL7&wdLOR=cA8FBC05E-7A88-4579-8B5D-7D92A3083962

Title: the title of the form should reflect the specification point being addressed. In this example it is part of “4.1.1.2 Changes in Energy”. Because this point covers multiple items, the title further identifies this homework as looking at “Elastic Potential Energy”

The Video: the first question of each Form is the video. In the example we are using Shaun Donelly’s videos. We should embed the videos in the same way in every homework. Make question 1 a star rating question using the text “First, watch the video and rate your understanding of it (1 star = poor, 5 stars = excellent).”, then click on “Insert Media”. Select video and paste in the appropriate YouTube link.

The Questions: For subsequent questions, base the first few on video content (1 mark each) and then increase the difficulty for higher marks.

More difficult:

When appropriate, allow the student to select an option indicating that they do not know how to answer the question.

Sharing: Once you have created your quiz, create a link that others can use to duplicate it.

Using: when you wish to use a quiz, click on the link in the spreadsheet and then click “Duplicate It” to make your own copy that can be assigned in Teams to your classes.

The spreadsheet with the links is here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12_gKJh5U79NJqLPiM3KqNDEzS4SvSq9RyA6Kf7nAGyw/edit?usp=sharing

Making a "Free" Wireless Visualiser / Document Camera

In my teaching to date (two training placements) I've never used a visualiser in my lessons, or indeed even seen one used by other teachers. However, online I see lots of people singing their praises and discussing which are the best ones to use; and I've seen many people using them during online CPD courses.

I don't know how many teachers at my NQT school use visualisers, or if any of the rooms that I'll be using come September are equipped with them, but I thought I'd have an experiment at home to see how they can be used. I remember seeing someone on Twitter talking about using a mobile phone as a document camera and linking it to their existing visualiser software, so I thought I'd see if I could do something similar for as low a cost as possible.

It was a remarkably quick and easy job. Here's how I did it:

• there's a free app called "CamOn" available for Android phones which is designed allow a smartphone to be used as an IP camera. It makes the phone's camera image available either by using a web browser or a program that can view video streams. I installed this on an old smartphone.

• I spent just under £3 (including P&P!) on eBay for a phone holder with a flexible stem that can clip onto the edge of a desk. You can angle the phone's camera to point wherever you need.

• I installed the free Video LAN Client (VLC) software on my Windows PC and told it to view the CamOn stream from my phone.

 

That's all there is to it and it seems to work very well. You can play around with VLC so that it uses the full screen or only part of it if you want to project your visualiser image alongside a document on your PC.

A couple of technical details:

CamOn makes the phone camera video available at http://a.b.c.d:8080 (where a.b.c.d is the local IP address of the phone, and this is shown on the CamON screen display).

You can tweak setting within CamOn to change frame rate, video size, white balance, focus options etc.

If you use a video streaming program such as VLC, then you can access the stream using RTSP by entering the stream address: rtsp://a.b.c.d:8080/video/h264

You will need to confirm with your IT people that this will be allowed on your network if using in a school.

I've seen some people online using CamOn to create a video input for OBS when recording their own videos and I know lots of teachers have used OBS for their online lessons.

Teacher Pay Rises - Some Context

The public sector pay rises that made news headlines today included those for teachers in England. They were presented as a "new" increase and somehow connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in fact it was the detailed announcement of pay rises that were first put forward by the government in January 2020. This is an implementation of the recommendations made by the School Teachers' Review Body, whose report has also been published today: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-review-body-30th-report-2020.

The pay award is skewed to give those on lower pay scales a larger percentage pay rise than those at the higher levels; this is part of an effort to attempt to recruit and retain more people in the teaching profession.

The reaction by some people to today's announcement on radio programmes and in social media has shocked me. I've felt the need to calm myself down by writing this blog and putting the rise into some sort of context - mainly for my own sanity.

I did my engineering degree in the 1980s and worked for almost 20 years in the electronics industry. By the end of that period, I earned a good salary with lots of benefits including private healthcare, 5-weeks paid holiday, a generous, final-salary pension scheme etc. At no point do I recall anyone trying to tell me that I was overpaid, or that I didn't deserve any of the pay rises or benefits that I was given or that my job was cushy. Perhaps this is because I was working in the private sector and because people didn't generally feel that they understood what my job entailed? 

After spending the last decade working in my own business I have just spent a year training to be a teacher, completing a PGCE in secondary science. I love physics and I really want to try to encourage more young people to be interested in learning science.

So, now I am about to start work as a newly-qualified teacher. I'm using the same degree qualification that I gained 30 years ago; I've topped that up with a year at University gaining a PGCE. I won't be starting at the very bottom of the teachers' pay scale, but just to put teachers' salaries in context: my starting wage will be approximately 42% of the salary that I gave up when I resigned from my engineering job in 2007.

On top of that, I know that teaching will be a much more challenging role than my previous jobs in industry, and I will have far greater responsibility: I will actually be responsible for part of a young person's education. And yet now I am opening myself up to the kind of criticism I have seen today?

We need more teachers. We need more people to enter the profession. I'm really saddened to read the kind of anti-teacher comments that I've seen today because they will only serve to put people off taking the kind of steps that I have just done.

I guess this will pass as yesterday's news, but we really need, as a country, to elevate the status of the teaching profession.