The Cissna Park Education foundation Mini Grant program allowed for the purchase of a Student Response System in the high school science department. The students have enjoyed having a new “toy” to play with in class, and the instructor Brad Wacker has enjoyed having anew tool to monitor student understanding.

The iClicker student response system has given all students a chance to answer questions during class. Students are able to answer yes/no, true/false, multiple choice, multiple response, and fill-in-the blank questions. Some students have stated that they prefer the iclickers because they eliminates the fear associated with being wrong in front of their classmates. Since the iClickers use a graph to show how many students do not understand the question and not specific individuals’ answers, students can answer anonymously in class. Also, when given the opportunity to do a review game or answer a series of questions using the iClickers, a class preferred to use the iClickers. A student said, “Let’s use the clickers; that way we all get a chance to answer.”

According to the teacher Brad Wacker, “In all of my classes, I have witnessed an improvement in the students’ grades. When I asked them why they think they were doing better, a student said that they think the extra practice using the iClickers is helping.”

As a teacher, Mr. Wacker said “I love using the iClickers in my class. I have been able to assess the progress of the entire class in an instant instead of asking a general question and having a single student answer. Now, I can reteach concepts at the moment of learning instead of waiting to use a quiz or homework assignment in order to assess comprehension.”