Siyavula's new question bank: giving teachers easy access to all our questions

We’ve developed an unparalleled wealth of questions designed to help learners excel in maths and physical sciences. If you’re a teacher, and have a teacher account on https://www.siyavula.com, you now have easy access to every one of our questions!

Siyavula’s question bank supports teaching, and makes it easier for teachers to integrate technology into their lessons, even in classrooms with limited resources.

What is the Siyavula question bank?

The question bank contains all Siyavula’s maths and science question items. But these are no ordinary questions: each can generate an unlimited number of different but equivalent examples, complete with full solutions. You can try questions yourself, and these are marked immediately.

How do I access the question bank?

The questions are easy to find. Simply look for Mathematics Questions or Physical Sciences Questions on your:

• Teacher home page, under Classroom Tools; or
• Dropdown menu

The questions are organised according to the CAPS curriculum topics. You can expand the grades, topics and sections to see the list of questions contained in each section. The difficulty level of each question is indicated on the right. The image below shows questions related to negative exponents within the exponents chapter for Grade 9 Mathematics.

To preview a question, click the title and it will expand to show a version of the question. Remember that the system can generate an unlimited number of instances of each of these questions. To see a different instance, click on the ‘View another version’ button underneath the question.

You can try a question, and view the full model solution. Simply click on ‘Do this question’, which opens the question in a new tab. You can now enter and check your answer, see the model solution and try another version of this exercise.

How can teachers use the question bank?

There are a number of ways teachers can use the question bank to support their teaching. Here are three simple and practical ideas:

Idea 1: demonstration and practice

Using a data projector, select the question you’d like to work through, and bring it up on the screen. Show your class how to tackle the question by working it out yourself on the board. You can then bring up a new version of the question and get the class to do it themselves, just using pen and paper. You can even get your learners to work in pairs or groups, so they can discuss the questions, learn from each other, and really engage in your lesson. Depending on the question, you could repeat this as many times as you wish as most of our questions have a nearly limitless supply of different versions.

Idea 2: use our questions and solutions for worksheets and tests

The question bank can be used to develop your own worksheets and tests. Taking a screenshot of one of our questions and pasting it into your own document is a quick and easy way of building new worksheets or tests. (In some cases, highlighting and copying text will also work well.) You can also just use our questions as inspiration for developing your own. But remember, if you use our questions as they are you’ll have the answers and solutions all done for you already! Here's an example of part of a model solution from the question shown above.

Idea 3: send questions to your class and get them marked

If you have a teacher or school licence to Siyavula, your learners have automatic access to the program, and you can assign questions to your learners and have them automatically marked. Just select the questions and class, and press send! Siyavula will automatically mark your learners' responses and generate a class report for you, saving you time on marking and capturing results. The image below shows part of an assignment report generated by the system.

Siyavula’s new question bank supports teaching, and makes it easier for teachers to integrate technology into their lessons, even in classrooms with limited resources. If you’d like more information about how you can use Siyavula in your classroom, drop us a line at support@siyavula.com or chat to us on our site. And if you’d like to know how your learners can access Siyavula, please email natalia@siyavula.com.