Today, 23 students sat for my Science test. It was extra momentous because they were attempting questions crafted by me. The first Science test that I had set in spite of my many years in teaching!

My first question was a giveaway question. The function of leaves. All but one question got it correct. Yay, my teaching was effective!

But it got better. For the last question, in which students were expected to apply their understanding of photosynthesis, quite a significant number of students chose the correct option: increase the brightness of the torch. This meant that I managed to teach them about the relationship between the amount of light and the rate of photosynthesis. So proud of them (and my teaching efficacy!)

Another aspect that thrilled me. More students than I had expected managed to work out the difference between changed variables and constant variables. Do you understand how difficult it is for me to teach them how to identify the changed variable from the experimental aim?! But not one, but many managed to articulate distance of lamp from plant as the changed variable! So proud of them (and my teaching efficacy!)

Of course, they didn’t do well for other aspects like the relationship statement and prediction of bubbles. But I think that I have enough to be happy about!