Triple Science Case Study: An Alternative Approach to Homework

From triple science support, this case study illustrates how a school has challenged students who reported finding science uninspiring, irrelevant and “easy but boring”. They used personal learning and thinking skills and a different approach to homework.

The case study includes some background information about Thurston Community College (Suffolk), their use of student questionnaires to identify opinions, and the introduction of optional stretch and challenge homework using varied and creative ideas such as cars of the future, puzzles and experiments involving food in the home. The school also provided feedback in novel ways such as prizes, letters to parents and critiques on how the work would be received by the scientific community. The success has been measured in terms of proportion of students (20 percent) choosing to carry out this optional study.

Note
This resource has been included in this collection for teachers’ use, however it may contain some information, particularly relating to Government policy, which is now out of date.