Working with some of the UK’s leading education content providers, Amazon has launched Amazon Study, providing parents, carers, and teachers with access to a wide range of free, curriculum-linked maths and science resources to support children’s learning.
Reinforcing Amazon’s long-term commitment to help young people, regardless of background, develop the necessary skills and knowledge for exciting and fulfilling future careers, Amazon Study helps support learners from age five and onwards. It features free content from education providers, including White Rose Maths, The Open University, NRICH, Dr Frost Maths and Primary Leap, as well as exclusive content from Times Tables Rockstars.
New research from YouGov who surveyed 1000 GB parents and carers (who are involved in their child’s learning) on behalf of Amazon, found that while 45% enjoy being involved in their child’s learning, 29% find it stressful, and 20% find it difficult.
Just over one in three (35%) parents and carers said they find maths the most difficult subject to help with at home, and one in 10, struggle to help with science. Among those questioned, 42% said that the change in teaching methods from when they were at school makes it more challenging to help their children with their schoolwork, and 29% worry they may confuse them if they try to help. Just over one in 10 (11%) respondents said that the cost of educational resources was a barrier to them getting involved.
Parental involvement is shown to have a large and positive effect on children’s learning. Education Professor John Hattie’s 2008 seminal evidence-based study into the factors that improve pupil learning concluded that the effect of consistent parental involvement in a child’s learning is equivalent to adding two or three years to that child’s education. Amazon Study aims to bridge the gap between home and school, giving parents and carers free and easy access to maths and science resources that will help them easily plug into their child’s learning.
“There is no denying that parental involvement has a positive impact on children’s education, but our research shows that many parents and carers in the UK don’t know where to find the right resources to support their child’s learning. With Amazon Study, we’re providing easy access to free, curriculum-linked resources from some of the UK’s leading education content providers to help remove some of the barriers to STEM learning,” said John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager at Amazon. “We are committed to supporting the education and skills development of learners of all backgrounds, and we hope to foster a long-term interest in maths and science, preparing children and young people for fulfilling future careers.”
Dr Ems Lord FCCT, Director of NRICH, University of Cambridge said: “NRICH was delighted to share its expertise developing activities promoting mathematical thinking and problem-solving during the development of Amazon Study, and we look forward to future opportunities to collaborate to ensure all learners can freely access challenging, inspiring and engaging mathematical activities.”
Amazon Study utilises Amazon’s existing search, recommendation and optimisation engine to give people access to high quality learning resources in a single, trusted location. Parents and learners can easily browse learning resources based on age, subject and topic, read through customer reviews, then select and download them to work through at their own pace. Learning resources can be saved and easily accessed in a library on the Amazon Study homepage.
As a major employer and innovator with employees working in fields like robotics, machine-learning and AI, Amazon is uniquely positioned to use its scale and expertise to build programmes to help unlock the future workforce potential. Amazon has created STEM programmes like Amazon Future Engineer – a comprehensive childhood-to-career programme that inspires, educates and enables children and young adults to realise their potential in computer science through bursary schemes and online coding tutorials; AWS GetIT which encourages young girls aged 12-13 to consider a career in tech through an app building competition to solve real issues faced by their school or community; AWS Educate which offers free, self-paced online training resources for new cloud learners.
