ASE 2025 Annual Conference

This presentation will introduce PhysChemTechTrainer as an online resource available for senior secondary (ages 16-19) students studying STEM subjects, principally Physics. The resource is entirely free and provides level-appropriate questions and full solutions relating to those questions where the questions vary in terms of context and details each time. It has been designed to complement other teaching and learning strategies in the classroom.

The system was developed in Tasmania, Australia and has been used to successfully boost student outcomes in Tasmanian schools. It is available for use worldwide to teachers and students in English-speaking countries. Students have used it both in the classroom and for homework practice. The system is not an example of AI, but instead is a purposefully curated resource of physics and other STEM problems which can be used to progressively improve student understanding as they study these challenging topics. Following a high impact teaching approach that has been adopted by many schools in the south of Australia, the system assists teachers in structuring lessons, explicit teaching and providing worked examples. It allows for students to gain multiple exposures to the same core material (but in varied ways), access to many styles of questioning and will provide immediate help or feedback when appropriate.

The developer of the system is the presenter. During your session, he will explain how to use PhysChemTechTrainer, how he has used it as a learning tool in his own classroom as students are grappling with new ideas and later on as a revision tool for students consolidating their newly acquired skills and knowledge. He will show how it can be used standalone or incorporated into a school’s learning management system. If you bring an internet-connected device to the session, you will be able to use PhysChemTechTrainer then and there to see how it could benefit students in your classes. Finally, he will provide data on how the system has improved student attainment.