• Master of Education (NTU/NIE, Curriculum and Teaching)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Education (NTU/NIE, Sciences)
• Bachelor of Science (NUS, Merit) 
• +20 years in MOE schools
• +12 years as Head of Department (Science) in popular secondary and primary schools
• MOE-trained in secondary and primary sciences
• Experienced PSLE Science marker
• EX-MOE Staff Training Officer
• Ex-A*STAR A. Head in Scholarship and Youth Science Outreach Programmes
• Fulbright Distinguished Awards (DA) in Teaching Program (International)
• Teacher Overseas Science Attachment Programme
• Very strong science results for students at school and PSLE/national examinations

 develops the Primary Science Curriculum through the amalgamation of her vast experience in teaching and leading secondary and primary science curriculum at MOE schools, guiding students in preparing for national examinations (O Level and PSLE science) as well as setting and vetting science exam papers for schools.

The Science HQ primary science tuition programme has progressive goals of strengthening students’ understanding of science topics taught in their school, providing effective tools to deepen knowledge and furthering their practices of science processes.  

Excellent learning materials, developed by Teacher Christine, address misconceptions and structure science ideas and topics in a logical learning order. The students will construct conceptual understanding progressively and in small group settings have ample opportunities to clarity ideas. Understanding is put in practice through exposure to targeted questions and mock papers for students become familiar with the array of science questions and answering strategies

Common Challenges

The Primary 3 student is new to science, enjoys learning the subject and provides science explanations in his/her own thinking style that sounds logical but you wonder about the science accuracy.

Concepts have not been emphasised with consistency and accuracy for students to pick up science ideas and develop processes to apply them, and it is natural that they revert to their previous and casual understanding to answer questions.

The student completes science practices with ease and well within the stipulated timing but when his/her answers are matched to the mark scheme, you ponder whether the answers are right or wrong.

Ideas and concepts have only been vaguely constructed, and students are unable to distil the knowledge to apply them clearly and completely.

The student says he/she has not learnt the science ideas when attempting some questions and you check through his science books, files, and even with other parents, to confirm.

Exposure to different types of questions and scaffolding to understand and attempt questions may be insufficient, and students cannot connect knowledge to those less familiar questions and perceived that they have yet learnt those topics.

A strong foundation in science begins with getting the basic ideas and process right. Students learn better (and feel better about themselves) when the subject matter is interesting, clear and they feel confidence about the relevance.

Common Challenges

The Primary 4 student learns science topics that are more this year – Light and Shadow, and Heat and Temperature, and he/she seems less confidence to begin his explanation or give complete explanations as before.

The core ideas of those (abstract) topics may have not been organised and introduced in a logical learning order and students have yet formed firm understanding of the ideas and may also lack the processes to interpret the question.

The student understands the different science topics from P3 and P4 but it is more obvious now that his/her explanations in practice papers are casual and lack scientific concepts. Performance in practice and tests start to be more unpredictive and it becomes more of a concern about his/her performance for the Primary 4 SA2 examination.

Processes to understand questions, answering techniques and connect to knowledge may not be sufficiently emphasised and applied, and students continue to use their existing knowledge and skills to answer questions that have increasing thinking demands.

The student starts to have some difficulties in answering questions, even from topics that were taught earlier and does not seem to be progressing in his/her answering style.

It is common to test on topics taught previously and to find more challenging questions related to those topics, yet there may not be any (any or sufficient) revision of those earlier topics or provision of new idea to answer the more challenging questions. It is common for students to draw blanks, try but incorrectly to answer or are starting to leave questions without attempting them.

Understanding can be deepened and processes can be strengthened when the learning setting provides clear instruction, have opportunities to address students’ queries and application is practice and reinforced. The more supported the student feels he/she is getting, the more encouraged he/she will be to put in the effort and make progress.

Common Challenges

The Primary 6 student faces both the challenges of learning new topics at a quicker pace and revising previous topics and starts to play catch-up quite earlier into the year.  

With P6 SA1 in May, it is common for Primary 6 topics to be covered at a faster pace . Realistically, with four months (January to April) to complete the topics and to have sufficient time for meaningful revision and feedback will be stretched. Consequently, it is common for Primary 6 students to feel that they are under-prepared for their SA1 science examinations that includes topics from Primary 3 to 6 and presented in questions that are more demanding

The student shows gaps in concepts and answering the question fully and laments that answers need to be long and detailed in order to score full marks for the question.

This continues to be a challenge for many students and feedback that is clear and student-specific needs to be given to forward the learning. Mere ticks and crosses as feedback hardly direct the students to understand where the gaps are and how to improve.

The top few PSLE AL bands have a narrower scoring range and that one mark could have a major impact on the students’ overall aggregate PSLE score. Get exposure to different question types and learn different examination tips on how to perform better for the school examinations and PSLE. When time is pressed to thoroughly review all the new and previous concepts taught, provide the student with the place and space to practice questions and be better ready for PSLE.