GCSE revision guide

Essentials revision guide

Ive had my GSCE revision guides tuck away in draw and thought id dust them off and see what they have to say about the subject. What i found was Excellent source for information (but i guess thats the point of them),a reliable source and very easy to understand (because its for children). This should have ben my first port of call. Ive noticed when approaching something i do not understand, the internet is the first place i head to, maybe its a convenience thing.

Topics covered in this guide include; 

• Cranks and Cams 
• Springs and linkages
• Gears and pulleys

After this section there are practice questions which i had a go of to see how effective reading these sections once through. I didn't get very many of them correct which was expected as i don't seem to absorb information merely through just reading out of a book once. I also think that reading all three sections in one go was a bit too much and should have focused on one section at a time. combining reading with small practical tasks or note taking. I think ill revisit this source at a later stage of my learning to contribute to another type of learning but not as a main focus.
]What i found difficult with the revision guide was that it was explaining about moving parts and had only the description to try and understand how they work so had to imagine how they work. i think actually seeing them in action would help me to understand them better.  

Internet version 

As a next step i looked at the internet version of the revision guide (GCSE biteseize website) which had animations of the cams, pulleys and gears working which helped to understand much better. particularly some of the linkages, i couldn't understand how they moved when reading about them in the revision book however on the Biteszie wesite i could see them in action. 

Another site i have been looking at is Technologystudent.com which i have found has a lot more information and more areas in mechanical systems than the Bitesize website. Like the bitezie website there are animations helping to explain elements of the subject but also has little tasks and exercises to complete which i found really helpful to put the information into practice. 

I think this is a way forward with my research to start doing some activities accompanying the reading.