The Gizmo Gazette

This newsletter is full of great information on Gizmos and the latest goings on at ExploreLearning:

Two New Physics Gizmos

Expert Corner: The Next Level of Professional Development

Gizmo Educator of the Month

What Educators Are Saying About Gizmos

Two New Physics Gizmos

We are proud to announce the first new science Gizmos of 2011! They are Ripple Tank and Electromagnetic Induction.

In the Ripple Tank Gizmo you can run a variety of experiments to demonstrate wave motion, diffraction, reflection, interference, and even refraction with several submerged obstacles. In each scenario the wavelength and wave strength can be adjusted.

This Gizmo further rounds out our collection of wave Gizmos, which already includes Longitudinal Waves, Refraction, Phased Array, and Doppler Shift.

Electromagnetic induction is the fundamental principle behind all generation of electricity and was one of the most important discoveries of 19th century physics. Students can explore this vitally important phenomenon with the Electromagnetic Induction Gizmo.

This Gizmo allows students to move a magnet or a coil of wire to induce an electric current in the wire and light a light bulb. This Gizmo provides the perfect followup to our related Magnetic Induction Gizmo.

We hope you enjoy the new Gizmos!

Expert Corner:
The Next Level of Professional Development

Laura Chervenak has been ExploreLearning Director of Professional Development for the past year. She has taught high school science, and is the founder and former director of GOAL Digital Academy. Laura is National Board Certified in Science/Adolescence and Young Adulthood, with a B.A. in Zoology and an M.S. in Anthropology.

In the Professional Development department at ExploreLearning, our initial focus is to help teachers get the most out of Gizmos. We then want to extend those lessons and help teachers improve their overall teaching and learning in math and science.

Effective professional development is a continuing process that includes workshops for learning information, regular coaching for the acquisition of skills, and on-demand information for just-in-time training.  At ExploreLearning, we offer Initial Gizmo Training to get teachers started, a variety of classroom coaching services to build teachers' confidence in using Gizmos in their classroom, and a broad array of Help Center videos to address teachers' specific questions about Gizmos and the ExploreLearning.com website.

Now we are extending our offerings beyond those great resources. We are very excited to announce the launch of three new higher-level workshops, which focus on helping teachers develop and enhance teaching methodologies in math and science. 

In “Teaching for Understanding in Math,” teachers learn to use a program of discourse and writing to help students reason mathematically and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. 

“Teaching with the 5E Model in Science” shows teachers how to combine hands-on activities with Gizmos within the 5E instructional model to enhance student understanding. 

Inquiry instruction is the focus of “Teaching Scientific Inquiry with Gizmos,” where teachers help students manipulate independent variables and collect and analyze data around authentic scientific questions.

	Some of the expert trainers on the ExploreLearning Professional Development Team.

We also know that professional development focused on technology integration is most successful when communities of practice are established, administrative support is provided and relevance to the curriculum is demonstrated.  We can address these needs by establishing a Gizmo Mentor program within a school or district, working with science and math supervisors and coaches to provide targeted support, and aligning local curriculum pacing guides with appropriate Gizmos.

Gizmos are a tremendously versatile and powerful technology tool to add to a teacher's toolkit of instructional options.  We want to work with you to develop a customized program of professional development designed to harness the power of Gizmos in your classrooms. An effective program ranges from Initial Gizmo Training all the way through higher-level workshops on teaching methodologies proven to improve student learning.

Gizmo Educator of the Month

	Mr. Tyner demonstrating gas laws to his students.

Trevor Tyner teaches science at Lake Worth High School in Palm Beach, Florida. In the past five years he has taught biology, chemistry, physics, marine, environmental, and integrated science. He dove into Gizmos as soon as his district started using them, and they fit very well into his lesson plans.

Mr. Tyner starts many of his lessons by explaining the basics of the material. He then extends that with a live demonstration of the concept and reinforces it by letting his students explore with Gizmos.

As an example, in his integrated science class unit on the solar system, he let his students delve into Gizmos such as Phases of the Moon and Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun to discover the effects of planetary bodies on moon phases, tides, and seasons.

He also demonstrated the lesson by gathering his students into the center of the room, giving them the perspective of the Earth, as he walked around (orbited) them while holding a volleyball (the moon). Trevor reports that this "first-hand" experience of moon phases, combined with independent learning from the Gizmos, tied all the concepts together into a lasting lesson for his students.

“I can get my kids to memorize information and regurgitate material, but getting them to really understand the concepts is always a challenge. Because the Gizmo allows each student to manipulate their own models, it's just like a scaled down science experiment. When they are actually able to perform the experiments themselves, they almost always have a more thorough understanding of the material.”

What Educators Are Saying About Gizmos

Last month, we asked educators to post on our Facebook wall about a Gizmo that has been particularly useful in their classroom. The response was fantastic! It's clear Gizmos have been making a real difference.

There were so many responses, we couldn't hope to reproduce them all here, so we'll just point out a few:

Andrea Ellinger said, "Its hard to choose just one favorite Gizmo. My students absolutely love them and so do I! Our favorites include Inheritance (Breeding aliens is so engaging, and it really makes them think about what makes a trait "heritable"). They also love the Homeostasis Gizmo and enjoy "torturing" the jogger. It is such an engaging activity that they all remember it and I can refer to it again throughout the year as we learn other content."

Joy Schwartz said, "I teach Algebra 1 to middle school kiddos and I love using Gizmos with my students — more importantly THEY love me using the Gizmos! The animation allows for great exploration — for example we are currently solving systems of equations and I was able to allow them to discover what happens to the point of intersection when you change the slope and/or the y-intercept. If this 23 yr veteran math teacher can utilize this tool, everyone should be able to!"

Julia Vasiliauskas said, "My fav Gizmos are the density ones. It is so difficult for my 7th graders to understand the concepts of mass and volume, let alone density. Many of them have difficulties even with basic math, so being able to manipulate objects and (quickly) measure properties and see how that affects density is awesome. I also like that there are different gizmos with a slightly different level of understanding, to use what is best for each student."

We are both delighted and honored by all of your fantastic comments. See dozens more on our Facebook page and by all means please post your own success stories with Gizmos!

As always, if you have a question or comment about Gizmos, don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team. We would love to hear from you. Also, take a look at ExploreLearning News on the front page of the website for breaking news any time.