“One of the best school kits I've used to date - accessible to all the different student levels - engagement was high amongst the class. Some of the clues very easy and others at the extreme end. Instructions good and online group really helpful. Students enjoyed.”
“We really enjoyed it, the kids were engaged with the code breaking. I had to make sure that I understood all this first and decided that the kids could do all of them instead of just working on one clue (I enjoyed it too). This was a great way to start too. The buzzy plane was hard because the wires were thin and trying to strip it back was tricky, with a few snapping. Maybe if this was already done for us, we would have been more successful. Only 3 buzzed.
Overall the kids and I learnt a lot about Jean Batten and perseverance while having fun.”
“My class loved this Schoolkit. From knowing nothing about Jean Batten, to understanding her challenges that she had to overcome to reach her own goals.
The children were all engaged in the lessons and everyone wanted to continue after finding the secret message in the monsoon clouds. It was very hands on, lots of team work and suited a wide range of children.”
“This was a great kit to use with Year 7&8 students. It does require a bit of frontloading with the students to understand the story of Jean Batten. The School Journal story Hine-o-te-rangi was perfect for this. Take some time to read the instructions for preparing all the parts - hiding the clues, blowing up balloons and I found that I needed to prepare all the buzz motors by exposing the end of the wires. This kit is very well put together, all the little details and materials were engaging and interesting. We callled it the Jean Batten Challenge in class and it was challenging, but great fun and some really good learning along the way.”
“Really enjoyed the kit, and the students loved it too. The initial search in the classroom for the lost box was a lot of fun, as was the way they worked together to solve some of the puzzles and break codes. They really enjoyed making and testing paper planes, and we had some fun flying these in different classroom competitions. The morse code task was a bit confusing online, as it seemed like some of the morse code on the website wasn't quite accurate, and one other thing we struggled with was getting the plastic coating off the wires for the buzz planes. But overall, this was a great kit with a lot of learning and fun! Thanks very much.”
“This Jean Batten kit was fantastic! Very engaging and lots of fun, small group work. The buzz planes were a fun STEAM style project to end the unit.
The kids liked earning the puzzle pieces and it was neat how it came full circle, back to the beginning.
Our school were looking at the theme 'Stories' this term so the unit fit in perfectly with that and helped the kids learn Jean's own story.
We worked on the unit throughout the term but I think if I did it again I would do it over a couple of days as an intensive project to keep momentum.
Thanks very much School Kit, your kits are amazing!”
“Thanks SchoolKit for a really fun resource. The students learned a lot about Jean Batten and the history of aviation - as did I! Aside from the curriculum integration, I was really impressed at the way the kit encouraged positive teamwork around new and exciting activities. I made some small adjustments to suit my older students, like cutting the final puzzle into much smaller pieces, and this was easy to do. Thanks for putting together a wonderful kit around an important person from NZ history.”
“Jean Batten School Kit even made the report comments for the students! They thoroughly enjoyed the secret codes and were all engaged firstly against each other to find the clues and then working together for the rest of the time sharing their ideas and gaining a better knowledge of the difficulties Jean Batten endured. I took got too engaged as did the DP who came in to see and we both forgot to take photos of the badge presentation but they all wore them with great pride asking if they could keep them on their uniforms.”
