“Good engaging topic that the students were interested in and a great variety of challenges. The only difficulty I faced is there weren't enough of each resource. With a class of 30, and only 6 electric planes, it made 5 in a group difficult as most of the kids didn't get a chance to put them together. The directions were explicit enough, e.g. taking off the plastic bits on the wires - the kids just pulled not understanding they needed to only take the small end section off, and then the motor part was unusable. And with there being no "spares"that was their group's chance done. I also think the teaching guide could have been more detailed as it sounded fine and I was organised but ran into a few problems that could only be identified during the learning. I think there could be more linking between the activities so that it made sense to the students why they were doing what they were doing.”
“What a great selection of activities. Just a few things to point out. You mentioned helium, I wondered who has helium in their school? We don't and it was a big effort (even for some Yr 8 helpers) to blow up so many balloons. I also have 3 children who ended up in tears because of the noise. (Year 4 children). It was mentioned that it was Year 4-8 but there were several activities which were really difficult for the Year 4 level- the Morse Code and the sephamore flags (some mini flags might have made this easier) From a Year 4 teacher point of view, some parts were too difficult for the children to do independently. Sawing the end off the toothbrush also was a problem due to the lack of tools in the school, our caretaker has limited supplies at school. However despite those negatives , the children loved most of the activities as it was so different to what we have been doing. Apologies for the lateness, I found the email in my spam box, had wondered when it was arriving.”
“Very engaging topic and great idea for students to solve a range of topic and STEAM puzzles. The kit was perfect context for our Voyagers topic. Most of the activities were innovative and interesting, although popping the balloons activity seemed a bit gratuitous and the waste created by all the balloons did not really warrant the learning that was gained by the activity. The kit instructions for teachers were difficult to follow - a zoom meeting to go through elements of the kit (like you offered for the As I saw it kit) might have been useful.
Overall - a range of great experiences for the students - thank you!”
“In my room it was a bit challenging to find space for kids to move around and explore but we made it happen. The resources were great and built the classes curiosity to research more. It led in well to our report writing. Children even started looking at what might of happened.”
“The hands on aspect was great, students really enjoyed it. I found some parts hard to figure out so maybe some video tutorials for teachers about how it could look? The paper planes and buzz planes were a real hit! They also really enjoyed the first code cracking part as well.”
“This kit was absolutely fantastic. My class enjoyed the various challenges that were put forward to them. I found the kit easy to follow, had a wide range of experiences and suitable for different capabilities in my classroom.
We particularly enjoyed the buzz planes and using the map and coordinates.”
“Our school really enjoyed using this kit! It took a while for us (teachers) to get our heads around the activities but once we had it organised it was fantastic!!!
We really enjoyed the range of hands on vs. thinking activities in the kit and relating it back to Jean Batten as a real life kiwi role model!
(I had HEAPS of photos but unfortunately my baby dribbled through my phone and I lost all my pictures!!! super gutted!)”
