Learn how to use technology to help students apply their knowledge, skills and understanding in science, with Mark Anderson.
Great science teaching doesn’t stop at explanation. It’s in the moments that follow, when students are actively engaged in applying what they’ve just seen or heard, that learning is most powerfully embedded. That’s where student practice plays its essential role.
Structured support
Whether students are retrieving key vocabulary, refining practical techniques, interpreting data or rehearsing scientific explanations, they need regular, structured opportunities to practise. Practice helps learning stick, and it’s through purposeful repetition, reflection and application that students develop confidence and fluency in science. When used with care and purpose, technology can support this. It’s about finding the right tool to make student thinking more visible, rehearsal more effective and feedback timelier.
The Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) Improving Secondary Science guidance 1 makes a clear case for this, highlighting the value of structured retrieval, repeated opportunities for reasoning and explicit support for extended writing. Likewise, the Great Teaching Toolkit evidence review 2 draws attention to the importance of structuring learning so that students are actively generating, applying and refining their knowledge over time. And Rosenshine’s widely respected Principles of Instruction 3 reminds us that guided and independent practice, supported by ongoing checks for understanding, should be part of every teacher’s toolkit.
Technology as a learning partner
Technology can support each of these evidence-informed strategies – but only if it’s used deliberately and well.
Here are four types of practice you can use technology to support with:
1. Practice that builds retrieval
From low-stakes quizzes to carefully designed Google or Microsoft Forms that interleave past topics, technology can make retrieval easier to build into everyday routines. It can give you immediate insights into what students remember and, more importantly, what they don’t.
In a primary context, this might look like a short weekly quiz on key science vocabulary or concepts. Questions can be self-marking, giving students instant feedback and enabling teachers to focus their support. In secondary classrooms, retrieval activities can become more ambitious, interleaving content from different topics to support transfer. For example, a Year 10 quiz on energy changes in chemistry might include a few well-chosen questions from earlier units on atomic structure or the periodic table, helping students see the links and reinforce prior learning.
Retrieval shouldn’t be an event; it should be a habit, and technology can help make that happen.
2. Practice that develops scientific reasoning
Students need repeated, supported opportunities to think scientifically: to pose questions, make predictions, plan investigations, interpret data and evaluate outcomes. This kind of reasoning requires structured practice, guidance and the freedom to try, get things wrong and try again.
Digital tools can extend these opportunities. Simulation tools such as PhET let students rehearse practical techniques and test ideas in safe, repeatable environments. These tools can support hands-on practicals, especially when resources are tight and you want students to refine their understanding of variables and outcomes. Of course, having virtual simulations means you can run them repeatedly to help reinforce understanding. Collaboration platforms such as Padlet and Freeform also give students a space to co-construct plans or analyse shared data, making their thinking visible and open to peer feedback.
A primary example might be using a simulation to explore state changes; students can manipulate variables and observe the effects, repeating the process multiple times. In a secondary setting, students might plan and share a practical investigation digitally, upload their findings into a shared spreadsheet, and then compare and analyse results as a class. Google and Microsoft Forms are also useful for collating numerous results on activities across your class, making it easy to curate and analyse data sets.
This technology support is not about bells and whistles; here, it frees up the students so they can focus on the science, rather than on designing the means of recording it.
3. Practice that supports writing and verbal reasoning in science
From forming a conclusion or justifying a prediction to writing a six-mark answer, students often need guided opportunities to practise expressing their thinking clearly and logically, and they need feedback that helps them improve.
Voice recording tools give students a way to rehearse what they want to say before they write. This is particularly helpful for those who struggle with writing or who need time to organise their thoughts. It also helps teachers to hear the reasoning behind student responses, which is often more revealing than written work alone.
Tools like Google Docs or Word, with comments and suggestions enabled, allow for collaborative drafting, while AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini can offer useful prompts: sentence starters, vocabulary banks or model paragraphs to critique.
In practice, you might ask students to record a verbal explanation of a process before attempting a written response. Listening back allows students to check their clarity and spot gaps in logic. Alternatively, an AI-generated science answer could be presented to a class for critique and improvement. Rather than giving students the answer, the tool provides a starting point for discussion, comparison and redrafting.
The goal is always to support the hard thinking, not to do it for them.
4. Practice that is adaptive and responsive
For practice to lead to learning, it needs to be responsive: adapted to students’ needs, informed by feedback and focused on progress. That’s where technology can offer real value, helping teachers to diagnose misconceptions quickly and respond in a timely way.
Platforms that enable teachers to pose open-ended questions or scaffolded tasks that adapt based on student responses are helpful. This means students can receive immediate feedback and follow-up questions that help them move forward. Tools like Desmos and GeoGebra support interactive tasks, e.g., graphing or exploring variables, which can help surface student thinking and prompt classroom discussion.
In a primary context, this might be a short diagnostic quiz on forces, with instant feedback and tailored follow-up tasks. In a secondary setting, students might complete an interactive Desmos activity on rate of reaction graphs, adjusting variables and annotating patterns. The teacher can view responses in real time and use them to prompt whole-class reflection.
The best practice happens when students are challenged just beyond their current understanding, and when the teacher has the information that they need to support them there.
Using technology well
Student practice is where understanding is strengthened, challenged and made secure. Whether students are revisiting prior knowledge, planning an investigation, constructing a scientific argument or analysing data, they need structured, supportive opportunities to do so. Technology can help provide those opportunities, not as a gimmick, but as a tool to make practice more purposeful and more responsive.
Top tips for enhancing practice with technology
Use technology to make thinking visible
From voice notes to digital annotations or screen recordings, tools that surface student thinking allow for better feedback and richer understanding.
Harness AI to support, not replace
Use tools like Copilot or Gemini to scaffold student practice. They can help with structure, vocabulary or model responses, but students should always do the cognitive work.
Build in time for reflection
Encourage students to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Tools like digital journals or shared documents give them space to evaluate their learning, a key part of developing self-regulation.4r
Keep it simple
Choose one or two tools that work well in your context. What matters most is how they’re used to support clarity, feedback and purposeful practice.
References
1 Education Endowment Foundation. (2018). Improving Secondary Science: Guidance Report. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/science
2 Coe, R., Rauch, C. J., Kime, S., & Singleton, D. (2020). Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review. Evidence Based Education. https://evidencebased.education/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Great-Teaching-Toolkit-Evidence-Review.pdf
3 Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know. American Educator, 36(1), 12–19. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf
4 Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Using Digital Technology to Improve Learning: Guidance Report. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/digital
Author
Mark is a global speaker, EdTech expert, trainer, blogger, author and key note speaker, known as the ICT Evangelist. He has over 20 years of experience in the classroom. Mark is the head of education at NetSupport, an Independent Thinking associate, an MIE Expert and fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. His latest book can be found at edtechplaybook.com.
