Meet the Future Innovators
The Year 9 Future Innovators class FIN092A (a group of about 20 students) at Kawana Waters State College has been using Typing Tournament since Grade 7 their Digital Solutions classes and it has well prepared them. However, some of the students, who joined Future Innovators this semester came from the business and entrepreneurial course, were not necessarily proficient typists. Yet they came second overall in Australia for typing speed and word count, well done!
How often does the class use the program?
The class meets three times a week and for the first 10 minutes, they jump into typing tournament. This has led to boosts in WPM for even the high-end students and has really helped the students who came from the business side too.
What part of the program do you like?
I love the fact that by repeatedly practising on Typing Tournament a student can watch their score increase. The class delve into not just coding & technology, but also the engineering design process and typing tournament is another tool in their arsenal as a future innovator.
Did you practice for the competition at all?
Actually, we did not practice any more than usual and sometimes we would forget to compete in the correct week. I do try reminding the class that there are trophies available, which they love. In competition week, FIN092A got 2nd place with 47.06 WPM, but the week before we had 1st place with 49.66 WPM (timing). I hope that we can get over the 50 WPM barrier for the class average next year, regardless of whether or not it is competition week.
How did you feel when you found out you got a place in the competition?
The class are quietly very proud to represent their school with Typing Tournament. The Sunshine Coast region is already very strong for things like Robotics, and we wanted to introduce something a little different like Future Innovators which attempts to use project based learning to teach coding and engineering principles.
Who is the fastest typist in the class? How many words can they do?
The fastest typist in our class is Charlie Pham who is averaging about 90 WPM. Other students worthy of honourable mention include Cody Eisel and Dian Bester who are both above 70 WPM. Many of the students in the class have a natural propensity for digital technologies and Typing Tournament enhanced that!
“I would like to say thank you to FIN092A for learning many things together,” Dr Naylor – Maths/ICT Teacher – Kawana Waters State College
Students pictured in article: Emma Thompson, Millie Page, Savannah Day, Dian Bester, Matt Timperley, Harry Bartolo and Tim Fowler
Words by Dr Naylor