Get to Know Penda
Penda’s online science activities combine the fun of a video game with evidence-based educational practices. Everything from the content delivery and question types to student interaction with the platform is designed to motivate and engage students so that they become immersed in learning. While as little as 30 minutes of using Penda per week has been shown to increase science achievement, most students want to play — and learn — for much longer than that.
Using Penda, students learn complex material through fun, carefully-designed activities that provide instant feedback screen-by screen. Students are presented with appropriate challenges for their mastery level and choices that build their intrinsic motivation to learn.
Scaffolding also allows students to progress at their own pace, wherever they’re learning. Penda has made it easy for students to see which activities they’ve mastered with a green, yellow and red progress reporting system. Students who have mastered concepts can choose to work ahead, while those who are struggling with a particular concept can repeat the activity or choose lower level activities on that same concept without the fear of embarrassment.
Once students have learned scientific concepts through Penda’s game-based activities, they can then see them in action and build deeper conceptual understanding with PhET interactive simulations. Only Penda provides a comprehensive learning experience from acquiring scientific knowledge to real-world application.
