10 great websites for HD science videos

When my school recently installed new HD interactive touch screens, I realised that I was going to have to change a few things. David Attenborough has produced some amazing natural history programmes. However, a poor quality, pixelated clip of him, along with some flowers blooming in the desert following a brief period of rain, uploaded by the BBC to YouTube several years ago, was no longer going to cut it on these HD screens! 

Via Pixabay

I therefore decided to go through my bookmarked websites to consolidate those with high quality biology videos and animations, as well as look for new sites with good quality, HD content. It was also important to me that these sites were uploading their content specifically for educational purposes. I don't want illegally uploaded clips that may be taken down at any point by their copyright owner. Although fair use of copyright material generally allows use for educational purposes, I feel it is better to avoid potential issues by using material where permission has been explicitly given. This also helps to model good digital citizenship for students. 

So, in no particular order, here is a curated list of excellent video or animation resources, along with a brief description of what each site offers. They are mostly life sciences-oriented, although some are more general science websites. 

Your Genome 

Excellent, high quality animations covering various molecular biology topics, including DNA replication, protein synthesis, and the molecular basis for cancer. It also has short videos with interviews with practising scientists, plus some great hands-on activities.

HHMI BioInteractive

A multitude of resources on a wide range of life science topics. I have found the ecology videos and activities relating to Gorongosa National Park, in Mozambique, particularly helpful and engaging. There are also very useful evolution and natural selection resources, for example the activities based on real data from rock pocket mouse populations and their adaptations.  

Big Picture 

This site also has a variety of life science resources, including videos, animations, and activities. The videos and animations are of a very high quality, for example this animation about the sliding filament theory of muscle contraction. There is a particular focus on making links between cutting-edge science and the wider implications for society as a whole. 

Stated Clearly

A website with high quality animations by Jon Perry, focused mainly on giving clear explanations on various aspects of evolutionary theory, natural selection, and genetics, for example this one about how cooperation between species evolved. My students also really enjoyed the animated RNA molecules in this video about the RNA World Hypothesis! 

Deep Look

Punchy, extremely high quality HD videos on various different biology topics. I particularly like the mosquito biting video, which I have used to introduce the topic of mosquito-borne disease. The hummingbird's flight in slow motion is very useful for engaging students on the topic of animal movement, while this video looks at squirrel behaviour. 

Amoeba Sisters

Lots of fun, high quality animations covering all of the key biology topics. These videos would be great for flipped classrooms. They could also be used to introduce topics, or for review at the end of a topic. 

It's Okay To Be Smart

A wide range of science videos, including biology, grouped by subject. For my students, who are all Thai and therefore English language learners, the speed at which the presenter speaks could pose a challenge - fortunately, the videos have closed caption subtitles which can be switched on if necessary. 

StemBox

This YouTube channel has videos based around practical STEM activities aimed specifically at making STEM more accessible to girls aged 7-13 years. There are lots of good ideas here that could be used for introductory science labs for younger kids, or at summer camps etc. 

Draw Curiosity

This YouTube channel by Ines Laura Dawson features an eclectic mix of videos on a range of science topics, such as why two sexes evolved, and how to build a cyborg beetle. Ines also has a Draw Curiosity website with more videos and blog posts.  

Frank Gregorio

A range of videos set to uplifting, awe-inspiring music by Frank Gregorio. I use the Introduction to Biology video as an attention grabber when I see my new class of Grade 10 students for the first time at the start of our three years studying biology together, and it always prompts a round of applause! 

Bonus tip! Don't want YouTube comments below a video you want your students to watch? Use ViewPure to remove comments and other distractions from YouTube videos!

I hope this list of websites is useful. It would be great to hear suggestions about other, similar websites that I've not included!

Ditch That Textbook!

Ditch That Textbook is the brainchild of US Spanish teacher Matt Miller. Although the 'ditch' approach, as the name suggests, obviously advocates moving away from a dependence on textbooks, it involves much more than that - it is about ditching a textbook approach to teaching and learning. Matt's website is full of useful blog posts that suggest many different ways to approach ditching. 

The 'DITCH' part of Ditch That Textbook is in fact an acronym which stands for:

• D - Different - trying out different approaches to pedagogy in the classroom
• I - Innovative - coming up with new ideas, or modifying great ideas from other teachers, without being afraid to fail now and again
• T - Tech-laden - making use of the latest digital technology and incorporating it where appropriate for the material
• C - Creative - giving students the opportunity to explore their own creative potential
• H - Hands-on - giving students more opportunities to engage in active learning

Ditching is a great way to customize materials for classes to make them more relevant for your own particular students. For example, if we are studying invasive species in my biology class, instead of using examples given in the textbook, I can provide my students with case studies based on invasive species here in Thailand, such as water hyacinth. In our evolution topic, I can draw on the most recent research into the evolution of resistance to antimalarial drugs on the Thai-Cambodian border. 

As can be seen from the acronym, the use of tech tools forms an important strand of the ditch philosophy, the 'T' standing for Tech-laden. The use of learning management systems like Moodle, and more recently Google Apps for Education (GAFE) tools, like Google Classroom, lend themselves perfectly to a ditching approach. Another great way to ditch using tech is through Hyperdocs.

I was already moving away from a reliance on textbooks in my classes when I discovered the weekly #DitchBook chat on Twitter. By participating regularly in this chat, I rapidly accelerated my ditching journey. Although I still find the need to use textbooks in class occasionally - plus students find it useful to have reference materials in one place in our exam-heavy system - I am using them less and less. 

A new 6-week Ditch That Textbook study group will be starting soon on Twitter, using the hashtag #DitchBook. The Team Ditchbook stalwarts, including Sandy Otto, Karly Moura, Chantell Manahan, Rachel Marker, Sean Fahey, and of course Matt, are always happy for new ditchers to join the chat! The first chat is on June 23rd 10pm EST / June 24th 9am Bangkok time.

Assessment for Learning

I recently completed a free online course on Assessment for Learning (AfL) in STEM teaching. The course was put together by the UK's National STEM Centre, and was hosted by Future Learn. I'm hoping to try out a few of the techniques I learned about this coming semester.

                Image source: Flickr user Ken Whytock                                     

AfL is essentially a type of formative assessment, designed to give teachers a rapid picture of how many learners in their class have understood a particular topic or concept. A draft version of a paper co-authored by one of the course co-ordinators, Dylan Wiliam, can be found here. 

The main thrust of this course was aimed at helping teachers of STEM subjects to gauge whether or not their students have understood a particular scientific concept. It highlighted common misconceptions students have when learning science, and provided ways to diagnose these misconceptions in real-time in the classroom. 

One handy technique that was advocated was the use of hinge point questions (HPQs). These are questions, often multiple choice, that relate to specific misconceptions in order to identify which students have understood a particular concept, and those students who may need additional teaching in order to fully grasp the concept or to address the misconception. The HPQ is given to the whole class. Various ways may be used to collect responses - students could hold up numbered cards, or enter their responses into an app such as Google Forms, for example. 

The options for these multiple choice questions should be considered very carefully, and be set up in such a way that it is unlikely that a student could guess the correct answer. They should also provide the teacher with a snapshot of their students' understanding that is quick and easy to interpret. 

To give an example, a common misconception that arises when students are talking how evolution and natural selection operate is that organisms 'adapt themselves' to suit their environment. A hinge point question that could be used to tease out this misconception might be as follows:

• Which of the following statements are true about convergent evolution, for example the similar body forms seen in both sharks and dolphins? (You may choose one or more from the following options):

1. The ancestors of dolphins and sharks adapted themselves to life underwater during their lifetimes, and passed these adaptations on to their offspring.
2. Dolphins and sharks have similar body shapes because they both evolved from the same common ancestor.
3. Some ancestors of dolphins and sharks had similar traits that enabled them to successfully survive and reproduce underwater, and therefore these traits were passed on to their offspring.
4. The ancestors of dolphins lived near water and therefore adapted themselves to life underwater.

The correct answer, #3, could in theory be guessed by students, and there is no fool-proof way to prevent this. One possible solution would be to provide more than one correct answer. However, this would make interpretation of the results more difficult and time-consuming. During the AfL course, participants were encouraged to develop and submit HPQs of their own, which were then compiled and may be accessed here. 

AfL can provide benefits to both learners and teachers. Learners can benefit since HPQs can help them to focus on their own learning - what they know, and what they need to know, thus helping them to develop their metacognitive skills. Teachers benefit since they can get an idea of the level of understanding in a classroom, gain insights into differentiation strategies that may be required, and what scaffolding may be necessary in order to develop learners' understanding and begin moving it to a deeper level. 

Three reasons behind common misconceptions in biology

Recently I saw a link to an interesting news article about biology students' misconceptions of the subject. When I read the article I noticed that many of the misconceptions identified chimed with observations I have made of my own students' misconceptions. Intrigued, I downloaded the original research article on which the news item was based, which can be found here. The authors identify three common underlying causes, or cognitive construals, for these misconceptions, each of which I will look at in turn.

Rafflesia, a parasitic plant (Photo credit: Dick Culbert)

1. Teleological thinking

The first common underlying cause of misconceptions, teleological thinking, refers to our need for causal stories behind the observation of phenomena, based on the assumption of goals, purposes, or functions. An example of this underlies one of the most common misconceptions I come across from students when teaching evolution. Here is a sentence I might commonly see from a student who is explaining the evolution of the body form of dolphins:

'The ancestor of dolphins walked on land but lived near water. Eventually dolphins adapted themselves so they could swim in the water'. 

Here, the student is assuming a purposeful effort from a dolphin ancestor to change itself into a form more suited to a life aquatic. Clearly this represents a fundamental misconception of natural variation, natural selection, and changes in the makeup of a population over time. Individual organisms cannot 'adapt themselves' to their environment. Natural variation in a population means that some individuals may be better suited to their environment and are therefore more likely to survive and reproduce. The traits that make them more fit for their environment therefore become more prevalent in the population. 

This is a tricky concept for native speakers to express correctly, and would seem to be linked to the underlying teleological misconception that evolution is a purposeful process. For my students, who are ELLs, they have to cope with both the difficulty of the concept and the use of language to correctly express it. Knowing the nature of this misconception, however, will enable me to help learners address these issues when they encounter them in the future. 

2. Essentialist thinking

The second type of misconceptions are related to essentialist thinking - a set of assumptions an individual may make about concepts, such as the idea that a particular feature of a system is solely responsible for defining its overall identity. In biology, an example of this would be the misconception that all plants are photosynthetic. Rafflesia, the plant which produces the largest flower in the world, is parasitic and does not make carbohydrates through photosynthesis. In fact, in biology there is frequently an exception to every 'rule'. Thus we need to help move students' understanding away from the idea that systems or processes need not be defined by a particular characteristic most of them share. 

3. Anthropocentric thinking

The third misconception occurs when biological phenomena are viewed through an anthropocentric, or human-centred lens. A common anthropocentric misconception which I have been battling for a long time now, and remember being used as an example of science undergraduates' misconceptions during my MAEd, is that plants take in food from soil via their roots. This misconception can be addressed simply by asking students if this were the case, why then are there not enormous holes in the ground at the base of every tree on the school grounds? However, knowing that the underlying, anthropocentric reason for this misconception - that all organisms, including plants, must 'eat' food in a similar way to humans - is helpful, and provides a means for approaching similar anthropocentric misconceptions. 

Summary

The insights afforded by understanding the underlying causes of common misconceptions among biology students are both interesting and helpful. Interesting, in that these misconceptions would appear to be widespread, irrespective of culture or language (although there may of course be some communities where they may not be present. Helpful, in that by understanding the underlying causes of these misconceptions, it can provide biology teachers with a means with which to address them. In turn, once learners become more aware of these causes, they too may be able to spot them more easily and avoid falling into these common traps. 

I would love to hear others' experiences of common misconceptions and ways of dealing with them. 

Professional development - up close and personal

Last week the #AsiaED slow chat on Twitter, which was moderated by Simon Youd, discussed personalised professional development & professional learning (PD/PL) for teachers. This week Simon is continuing to moderate, but with a different approach, and has set the challenge of creating a post, video, or podcast reflecting on last week's chat. 

By coincidence, it is now exactly 12 months since I started blogging, and so this is an ideal time for me to reflect on the impact blogging has had on my PD/PL over the last year, and whether it will continue to have an impact in the future. My original plan was to blog for a year, just to see if I could write and share my thoughts and reflections on a fairly regular basis. I've managed to do this, averaging over two posts per month on my blog. 

In addition to writing for my own blog, I've also written a number of guest blog posts for other sites, for example here. Contributing posts to community blogs, rather than just to my own, has resulted in some great feedback from teachers around the globe. Sites like BAM Radio Network's EdWords blog, Innovate My School.com, and Pedagoo.org, are all great places to submit pieces to. 

A number of contributors to last week's #AsiaED chat mentioned the importance of creating content, rather than simply being passive consumers of content. This is something that is increasingly recognised as being important for our learners, so why not for us as educators too? I have found blogging to be a useful way to reflect on my practice - what works, what doesn't - and use these reflections to hopefully improve my practice moving forward. So, whilst it began as a bit of an experiment, I plan to continue blogging for the foreseeable future.

Although writing blogs can be time-consuming, I've found I am getting slightly quicker at it. I was also concerned to begin with that I would find it difficult to find material to write about, and occasionally I do publish the odd photoblog! However, another important change for me this year was when, in May, I signed up to Twitter. Since then, interactions and conversations I have had on Twitter have provided inspiration for many of my blog posts, for example here. 

In fact, apart from when I studied for my Masters in Education, Twitter has provided me with the most useful PD/PL I have experienced since becoming a teacher. Education chats on Twitter, such as #DitchBook, #INZPirED, and of course #AsiaED, have proved particularly helpful. There are many educators using Twitter who are incredibly supportive and generous, both with their ideas and resources. So again, Twitter, which for me started out as something of an experiment, will continue to be one of my main go-to places for PD/PL.

Other ways for personalising professional development obviously include attending relevant education conferences. In the last 18 months there have been a couple of useful conferences held locally that I've attended, and these have been helpful. I also gave a presentation at the recent Google in Education Summit here in Bangkok. 

So to summarise, I feel that blogging has helped with my professional development, by providing a concrete way with which to reflect on my teaching. Participating in Twitter education chats has also given me much to think about in terms of PD/PL, as well as a very supportive and helpful PLN. In the coming year I plan to continue blogging, both on my own site and for community blogs, as well as continuing to participate in Twitter education chats. 

I'd be interested to hear others' views on their most effective PD/PL...

Blog Wednesday - A new initiative at my school

A few months ago I came across a great idea, Blog Friday, described by one of my Twitter PLN, Rory Gallagher. Inspired by this, last week I started Blog Wednesday at my school. The basic premise is that every Wednesday I will circulate one of the many interesting educational blog posts from the blogosphere to my colleagues. I will attach a brief commentary, and seek thoughts and opinions from my colleagues. 

Blog Wednesday at my school

The aim of this initiative will be to circulate blogs that are positive, reflect good classroom / school practice, or more general student / teacher well-being, as well as blogs about broader professional development issues. Sometimes the post may be topical, for example we are having a digital citizenship week soon, so I will circulate a blog post relevant to that topic. Sometimes I may circulate a post that is controversial, while other times it may simply be a post that is of interest to some or all of my colleagues. 

I teach biology in an English-speaking program for Thai students. Therefore the first post I chose for Blog Wednesday was about something all of my colleagues could relate to, bilingual education, by Dr Matthew Lynch. The post outlines five important features that a bilingual education can afford learners, such as improving lifelong learning skills, breaking down international language barriers, and improving collaboration. 

Amongst colleagues who responded to this initiative the feedback was positive. There were a couple of teachers who spoke to me about the idea, and four who replied to my email. Of the four who emailed responses, two colleagues wrote at length about theoretical studies of bilingual education they were aware of, and drew parallels with their own experiences as parents of young bilingual children. 

Why blog as an educator?

There are some great posts here by Amy Hollingsworth and here by Jessica Lifshitz which outline many reasons why blogging can be helpful for educators. Since I began this blog at the end of last year, I have personally found it to be an extremely useful way to reflect on and to develop my own practice as an educator. During that time I have also written various other posts for different blog sites, which is another great way to gain ideas from leading educators. I have collaborated with top UK ed-blogger Rachel Jones for her blog, been invited to post at BAM RadioNetwork EdWords blog by education author Rae Pica, contributed to InnovateMySchool.com, and even been quoted in The Guardian!

I plan to continue blogging myself for the foreseeable future. I also aim to continue with the Blog Wednesday initiative for the rest of this semester and the next, through to the end of this school year. After that, maybe more of my colleagues will be blogging too!

When is student collaboration simply a division of labour - and how can we avoid this?

As educators we are often told that collaboration is one of the key skills we need to instil in our learners. Collaboration is frequently referred to as a 21st century skill, although many educators might (rightly) argue that it is a skill that has been taught for many decades. I think one of the reasons that collaboration has come to be seen as a 21st century skill is partly because there are now so many tools available to foster collaboration among learners, both inside and outside of the classroom. However, what does collaboration in education really mean? I have tried a number of ways to encourage and foster collaboration in my classes, and I have seen both 'good' examples of collaboration and 'bad' ones. I will describe the latter first, before going on to describe good examples of collaboration. 

Image designed by Gavin Keech via Venessa Miemis http://gg.gg/Flickr-com

'Bad' collaboration

When I refer to 'bad' collaboration I mean it in the sense that there is no shared learning experience taking place. In this case, collaboration often simply becomes a division of labour. Students work in groups, and instead of working together to solve problems or answer questions, they divide up the work between group members. Each student then works individually on their set of problems, and as a group, the complete set of problems gets solved. I have even seen a whole class create a Google Doc to work on a set of problems together! 

Even from a content or knowledge acquisition point of view, this approach tends to suggest a poor outcome for students, besides any questions around their learning. If they have only answered a subset of the problems, what happens when it comes to exam time? 

Obviously what I have outlined here are extreme examples, and often students will be discussing all of the questions or problems within their groups as they do their work. But I think that this is a valid problem, and one that I am still thinking of ways to avoid. 

'Good' collaboration

One of the better examples of 'good' collaboration I have seen was when I had students work in groups to create webpages. Some group members acted as researchers, finding relevant information online. Others acted as writers, putting the content into context and summarising the research. Students who were less interested in the topic itself, but who were interested in web design, took care of the web page design side of things. They even created an FAQs page to guide other groups in how to embed videos, change formatting etc. 

While this approach was successful from a project point of view, and afforded great student voice and choice, there is an obvious drawback. What happens to those students who were working on web design when they come to sit their biology exam? The exam is necessarily based more around biology content, and certainly not around web design. What I am essentially making the case for here is less summative exams and more competencies and skills-based assessment. In this way 'good' collaboration can be encouraged and developed.

Generally speaking, project based learning (PBL) can also be useful for promoting good collaborative work, and I have blogged previously about how I have attempted to incorporate elements of PBL into science projects that I am responsible for coordinating. Long-term, open-ended, group projects offer plenty of scope for learners to find their niche within the group, and to pursue their own particular interests within the context of their overall project goals. 

Summary

From a learners' point of view dividing up the labour may be good in the short-term, however, in the long-term this is not going to lead to a deeper learning experience, or necessarily be an enjoyable or memorable one. An engaging and effective activity that fosters genuine collaboration, on the other hand, could potentially lead to a deeper, richer understanding for all involved. 

I am still trying to figure out the best ways to incorporate and foster collaboration in my classes. As ever, any comments or suggestions are welcome. 

Encouraging learner voice and choice

Offering learners more voice and choice is increasingly being advocated as a way to improve engagement and personalise learning. Edna Sackson, from Inquire Within, also mentioned this to me following an earlier post. One of the ways in which I have attempted to achieve this is to give learners the choice of what finished product to submit at the end of the assignment. As ever with this particular assignment, student groups could choose any topic within the broader scope of genetic engineering (e.g. GMOs, cloning, forensic biology etc). However, instead of specifying a finished product that involved a report, or a PowerPoint presentation to the class, I gave them the option of what kind of final product to submit.

Upon completion of the assignment final products submitted included infographics produced in easel.ly, presentation-style reports in Prezi, and PDFs created via Google Slides. Many of the students were unfamiliar with some of these applications, and so were finding their feet with them to some extent. One interesting observation was a student who was explaining to her group members how to find their way around Adobe Illustrator. This was a good example of the teacher stepping back and ceding peer teaching opportunities to the students – I’ve never used Adobe Illustrator in my life! Other spontaneous peer teaching included students showing each other tips and tricks in Photoshop.

Student feedback following an evaluation at the end of the assignment was generally positive, with some neutral responses. Encouragingly, there were no negative responses, although Thai students are often reluctant to criticize even via anonymous evaluation forms!  

Reasons learners gave for enjoying the assignment included the freedom it offered them, that it was fun, it enabled them to use their creativity, and it offered them the chance to learn new skills, such as how to use Prezi or make infographics.

I also asked learners what aspects they would change or improve. Suggestions ranged from having groups present their work to the rest of the class (even if the final product was not a traditional presentation format) to requesting that I assign (!) topics to groups because some groups were deemed to have chosen “easy” topics. Obviously, this latter suggestion would somewhat defeat the purpose of this exercise.

I’ll finish up with a couple of direct quotes from the students regarding this assignment. The first quote supports the idea that learners appreciate the chance to be creative, the second one – well, what can I say!

“I really love this project because we have to use lots of skills not only understanding and writing but we also have to be creative to make an easy-reading infographic”.

“Its kind of fun using technology with the subject which seems to be boring like biology”.

Towards a more active classroom

Before becoming a teacher I worked in public health in the UK. One of my roles was to help disseminate data, involving seminars, workshops etc. I remember a specific occasion when I was involved with a one day workshop, delivering various public health data to a range of professionals in the field. When I came to analyse the feedback questionnaires after the event I was struck by the wide variation of responses. For example, one delegate noted that they were happy the event had been held over a full day, but would have preferred it to be held over two days so there was more time for discussion. On the other hand, a different delegate declared that they felt a full day was excessive and the proceedings could have been dispensed with in a morning. What I took from these responses was that the timing of the event was probably about right!

Similarly, when I analyse my anonymous course feedback questionnaires that I have students complete at the end of my biology course, if I see a range of responses like this I feel that I am probably getting that particular aspect of my classes about right. However, what has become clear from administering these course evaluations is that my students felt that some of my classes did not result in a suitably active classroom. Therefore this is an area that I am currently focusing on in my lesson planning. 

I'm aiming for a more active classroom with all of my classes, for example I have increased the number of lessons where students are engaged in peer-teaching. The photos below show Grade 10 students preparing for and delivering a peer-teaching activity relating to protein synthesis. 

I am also re-designing a section of my course relating to nervous systems. I have all the materials I need from previous years, but I am going to take a different approach with them in the classroom. Some classes will be problem-based, while other work will provide learners with an opportunity to develop a final output of their own choosing, e.g. an infographic, a poster, or an animation. This is also an excellent opportunity to make students' learning more visible, by including a section looking at how the human brain learns, together with recent developments in neuroscience and the way we understand learning, and encouraging students to reflect on how this relates to their own experiences as learners.

I will know in a few weeks time whether or not my attempts to make a more active classroom have been successful…

Project-based learning at my school

A recent blog post by Scott Mcleod at Dangerously Irrelevant (http://bit.ly/1s75REQ), in which he highlighted the importance of meaningful student projects, inspired this post of mine. He suggested that in many cases student projects are little more than busy work, which fail to promote higher level thinking skills. A gold standard of project-based learning (PBL) has been suggested by the Buck Institute for Education (BIE) as a good way to promote higher-level thinking, involving, for example, in-depth, real-world problems that are more meaningful and engaging for learners (http://bit.ly/1aHgVdo). 

However, in my school, as in many others, there are limitations of time and curriculum-driven outcomes, which can be obstacles for implementing effective PBL. Despite these limitations we do have a number of long-term projects with which students are engaged. Here I will outline the positive features of the Grade 11 science projects that I coordinate, and also the challenges faced both by the learners and the teachers, as the project supervisors.

These projects are interdisciplinary science projects of at least one school year in length carried by small groups of students (four or five per group). In the past I have selected groups to ensure a range of abilities and a gender mix. This year I plan to let students self-select their groups to see if this has any noticeable effect on how they progress with their projects.

One of the key features identified by BIE for effective PBL was student voice and choice. The science projects facilitate this, since students are able to come up with a project idea and research question of their own, or choose a project from a range of suggestions supplied by the science team. Previous examples of student-chosen projects have included an attempt to create a chlorophyll battery, and an investigation into which brand of diapers was most efficient.

The projects are open-ended, and often involve real-world problems, for example another group investigated water pollution in Bangkok canal water. Their results showed an improvement in water quality following the 2011 floods, which they concluded was a dilution effect.

Students sometimes get the opportunity to engage with outside experts, for example one group had a member whose sibling worked in a research lab, so they were able to access equipment and expertise not normally available in a high school lab. Finally, the projects offer great opportunities for collaboration, communication, and creativity, all key 21^st Century competencies.

So there we have the positives.  What are the key challenges we face as teachers and learners involved in these projects? Well, as mentioned earlier, time and curriculum constraints are the main limiting factors for these projects. We have no class or lab time specifically dedicated to these projects. They are carried out during lunchtimes, after school, at the weekends, and over school holidays. Many of the students already have a number of extracurricular commitments, such as music classes, sports, and additional tutoring classes. Project supervisors can be available at lunchtime and after school, but only to a limited extent at weekends and over holidays. However, the value added by the projects for learners is, I feel, worth the extra investment in time and effort. Student feedback upon completion of the projects is also overwhelmingly positive.

At a recent STEM education conference in Bangkok, Karl Frearson, Head of Science at Eton College in the UK, suggested another good way to motivate students – cash! So, in a few weeks time this year's project students will be making their final presentations. The students in the year below will attend the presentations to get some ideas for when they come to do the projects themselves. They will also vote for their favourite project, and the winning group will receive a cash prize. Even if we fail to motivate them scientifically, at least they will be able to go and buy some new textbooks!