Secondary Use

Y9 - Written by a Secondary AHT

In the Autumn Term, Y9 GFM Computing homework required students to work collaboratively in pairs to create a Google Slides presentation to tell other students about a new technology. The students were given a clear outline of areas to research and cover with a view to presenting their findings to the class.

We booked the GFM STEM centre last week to allow students to present in an environment different from their class. The STEM centre is bright and airy, with good projection and sound systems.

On arrival the students put their coats and bags in the lockers. I booked the Chromebooks which were charged and set out of the students arrival. I outlined the plan and asked that the desks be set up in rows so the students could see the presentation taking place.

I set up a online Google Classroom Assignment and collected in the presentations. I also set up a Google Form with the series of multi-choice questions to allow the students to give feedback on the presentation e.g. ranking 1 to 5 the quality of teamwork. I also guided the responses from the students to comment on positive aspects of the presentation as well as an area of improvements. This mean, each pair presented received thirty pieces of feedback on the presentation.

The students really loved working this way. When asked about the peer feedback they felt they were guided with it and liked using the Chromebooks because they could immediately submit their thoughts and had access to a device each. The really liked the venue and felt they felt more grown up and asked when they could come back again.


The planning for this was minimal:

  • Booking STEM Centre - click here to access it
  • Setting up the task with Google Classroom and Google Sheets - allowed students to work collaboratively on their homework without having to be together all the time
  • Setting up a Google Form for feedback
  • Collating the results for the students

The outcome was students had a personalised report with lots of feedback from their peers. I had the chance to talk to enjoy the presentation in Elon Musk's Cyber Truck, America's Cup AC75 foiling yachts, how virtual eye balls are being used to train Doctors and how gaming is changing with Google Stadia. I was also able to prompt discussions about the new technology engage the students with deeper thinking about what what could come next.

L Mulhall