This newsletter is full of great information on Gizmos, Reflex and the latest happenings at ExploreLearning:

Back to School with Gizmos

Science Gizmos Curriculum Materials Update Completed

Gizmo Educator of the Month

Reflex: A 46% Surge in Math Fact Fluency in 20 Days

New Reflex Features

Back to School with Gizmos

As you settle into the new school year, you may find that you need to update your ExploreLearning.com configuration. We've provided some links for you in the sidebar that will help you get your new classes set up.

We hope you had an enjoyable summer and that you are off to a great start of the school year.

Science Gizmos Curriculum Materials Update Completed

Every science Gizmo on ExploreLearning.com now has an expanded set of curriculum materials, including a Student Exploration Sheet, Answer Key, Teacher Guide, and Vocabulary Sheet. These are available both in Word format (allowing you to edit and customize these materials for your own use) and as PDFs.

Plus, over the summer, we added a new chemistry Gizmo: Titration!

Of course, we're not only working on science. Enhancements to lesson materials for math Gizmos are underway as well. We recently updated Solving Two-Step Equations, Solving Formulas for any Variable, and Exponents and Power Rules. Look for more math Gizmo updates soon!

And don't forget, you can share your own Lesson Materials as well. This helps other educators benefit from the ways you have integrated Gizmos into effective teaching.

Gizmo Educator of the Month

Anthony Armbrister has been a mathematics educator in the Miami-Dade County Public School System for two decades, and for the last ten years he has served as a mathematics curriculum specialist/coach. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics and both an Educational Specialist degree and a Masters degree in Math Education.

He first experienced Gizmos in 2005 and immediately saw the value of simulations that bring math concepts to life. As the Mathematics Coach and Department Chair, he realized a great opportunity for Gizmos.

"…our department designated Computer Lab time for all our Intensive classes to utilize ExploreLearning.com as the lead web-based program for our struggling learners. The results speak for themselves. At least 80% of our lower quartile designated students made 'learning gains' as defined by the the state of Florida quantitative measure."

Concerning his own teaching, Mr. Armbrister points to Geoboard: The Pythagorean Theorem as a particularly useful Gizmo for teaching a traditionally difficult concept. He finds that simply stating that "a squared plus b squared equals c squared" isn't very meaningful to students. However, when they can visualize and then draw actual squares, the idea becomes concrete and easy to apply.

He combines the Geoboard Gizmo with a related physical activity. After his students have explored with the Gizmo, he has them use a protractor to draw a right triangle on construction paper. He then has them draw and cut out the squares of the triangle's sides, as they had learned about in the Gizmo. Then he has them cut up the two smaller squares to make them fit into the larger square, giving them physical proof of the theorem.

Reflex: A 46% Surge in Math Fact Fluency in 20 Days

We've reviewed early results from students using Reflex, and across the board we are seeing superb gains in math fact fluency.

This graph shows the rapid, dramatic fluency gains achieved by Reflex students at two Florida districts. After just 20 days of Reflex, median fluency climbed from 31% to 77%!

We'll be reporting more Reflex results throughout the fall. Watch for announcements in future newsletters and on the Reflex Facebook page.

There is a broad base of research supporting the critical role of automaticity with math facts throughout elementary school level mathematics and beyond. Students' fact retrieval speed has also been shown to be a significant predictor of scores on standardized tests, including the SAT. Read the Reflex White Paper (PDF file) for more details.

If you haven't tried Reflex yet, we encourage you take a 14-day free trial and see for yourself what it can do for your students.

New Reflex Features

Since the launch of Reflex last spring, we have continued to make the product even better for students and educators. We have added two significant features in the last few weeks.

Each student now has their own personal Progress Tree. They can plant a seed early in their time in Reflex. As they master more fact families, the seed sprouts and grows. Once the tree gets big enough, usually within a couple of weeks, students can spend the tokens they earn for effort and progress to make it come alive with a wide variety of wild animals and other adornments. It's big fun and a great motivator to keep kids moving toward full math fact fluency.

We are also pleased to announce the availability of new District Administrator accounts for our site and district-wide Reflex customers. School division leaders now have the ability to monitor progress and manage user accounts for all of their schools from a single login. If you are are a district-level stakeholder, you will absolutely love the rich and easy-to-use fluency and usage data that Reflex provides.

As always, if you have a question or comment about Gizmos or Reflex, don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team. We would love to hear from you.