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The EL Explorer

News from ExploreLearning

September 2012

 

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

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Six New Gizmos

Start the Year with Measurement

Henrico’s Success Story

Reflex Enhancements

 

Six New Gizmos

As you plan your middle and high school science lessons for this year, our new science Gizmos should come in handy. Over the past year we have published six new Gizmos: Equilibrium and Concentration, Equilibrium and Pressure, Dichotomous Keys, Measuring Volume, Unit Conversions, and Digestive System.

Dichotomous Keys - graphicFor math teachers out there, we've been hard at work updating the math curriculum materials as well. We are developing full suites of lesson materials that include Student Exploration sheets, Answer Keys, Teacher Guides, and Vocabulary sheets. All of these are available in both PDF and Word, so they are ready to use or customize. The full set of lesson materials will make math teaching a breeze this school year!

 

Start the Year with Measurement

The beginning of the school year is a great time to review the basics: scientific practices, lab skills, and measurement. When it comes to these topics, we have you covered! Try some of the following Gizmos, which are great for those essential skills:

 

Scientific Practices
•  Growing Plants
•  Pattern Finder
•  Sight vs. Sound Reactions

 

Metric System
•  Unit Conversions
•  Measuring Trees
•  Measuring Volume

 

Measuring VolumeLaboratory Skills
•  Graphing Skills
•  Triple Beam Balance
•  Mystery Powder Analysis

For example, with the new Measuring Volume Gizmo, students can practice using graduated cylinders, beakers, overflow cups, and rulers to measure both liquids and solids. The deep understanding students get of measurement and volume with this Gizmo is a great foundation for future lab scenarios and real life applications.

 

Henrico’s Success Story

HCPS LogoHenrico County, Virginia teachers love using Gizmos and have been using them for the past eight years. From the very beginning, Henrico found that Gizmos were a perfect fit for their technology initiative. Today students and teachers in Henrico schools are some of our most avid Gizmo users. In just March and April of 2012, there were 124,269 student logins!

“Science teachers are always willing to try new things and experiment, and we are very open to using Gizmos,” explains Kim Fields, a former eLearning Coordinator who was involved with the original implementation. “The tides—how do you do a lab with that? A teacher can talk about the tides and the Moon with the kids, but until the kids actually see it and analyze the data—that’s when they begin to understand.”

Photosynthesis Gizmo“Gizmos has really increased the learning of some of the more difficult concepts,” says Amy Moore, Biology teacher and Science Department Chair at Deep Run High School. “The students enjoy the manipulation, and get more out of the lab.” She has found Gizmos particularly successful in teaching photosynthesis and cellular respiration, concepts that are normally difficult for students to understand.

Henrico’s focus on math and science has resulted in strong scores on Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests, or SOLs. Henrico students consistently beat state averages in science and math SOLs. For example, in the 2009-2010 school year, 88% of Henrico high school students passed the mathematics SOL and 97% passed the science SOL, well over the state averages of 80% and 88%, respectively.

A big part of Henrico’s success story is teacher training. All new teachers experience a full-day Gizmo training session as well as several after-school follow-up sessions. Experienced teachers share their favorite Gizmos and teaching tips with colleagues, helping to ensure that Gizmos are a central component of the science and math curriculum.

We look forward to continuing to work with Henrico County to support their ongoing success with Gizmos.

 

Reflex Enhancements

We’re always improving and enhancing our programs, and this summer we made some changes to Reflex that we think you’ll like:

New ReportsNew Usage Reports

Reflex has made it even easier to track the progress of your class. You can view fluency growth reports for your class for the current school year to find out the total number of facts mastered in Reflex, average student gain, average usage days, and percentage of sessions that resulted in a green light. You can also see that data in several convenient formats such as a bar graph, pie chart or histogram.

 

  growth  
   

Game Unlocking

We like to keep kids motivated and focused on learning their math facts, so now as kids gain fluency they can “unlock” new games. When new students first log on to Reflex and go to the island, they will have access to two games with broad appeal. After four “Green Light” days on Reflex, kids will be able to unlock another game to play as a reward for all their hard work. Students will be able to unlock more games as they continue to progress and learn more facts.

School Year Support

Reflex has reset the calendar at the estimated beginning of your school year. From now on, administrators and teachers will only see what’s happening in the current school year in the group reports. But if you’d like to check how students did last year, their individual usage reports from previous years will still be available.

You can find more about our new Reflex enhancements at reflexmath.com.

 

Stay in Touch

If you want to comment on any of the information in this newsletter, be sociable and post your insights on the Facebook pages for Gizmos and Reflex.

And as always, if you have a question or comment about Gizmos or Reflex, don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team using the support form for either Gizmos or Reflex. We would love to hear from you.

For information on bringing Gizmos and Reflex to schools in your area, contact your ExploreLearning Account Representative:

 
Contact Us

 

866-882-4141, Option 2

sales@explorelearning.com

Back to School Gizmos Links

 

Update your Teacher Homepage...

Organizing classes:
Adding and removing classes

Editing class names

Adding Gizmos to classes:
Finding Gizmos

Managing your Gizmo list

Enrolling students:
Enrolling students with class code
Enrolling students manually
Removing last year's students

Forgot your password?
Password retrieval

New to Reflex?

 
  Watch View Introduction to Reflex!  
  Watch Tour Educators' tour of Reflex  
  Watch Tour Students' tour of Reflex  
  Watch Read The research on Reflex and math fact fluency (white paper)  
 

Connect
with Reflex

Connect with Reflex on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Reflex YouTube Channel Connect with Reflex on LinkedIn!
 
 

New to Gizmos?

 
  Watch View Introduction to Gizmos!  
  Watch View What educators are saying about Gizmos  
  Watch View Teaching with Gizmos – demo movies  
  Watch Read What the research says about Gizmos  
 

Connect
with Gizmos

Connect with Gizmos on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Gizmos YouTube Channel Connect with Gizmos on LinkedIn!
 
 

Test Drive Reflex & Gizmos

   
 

No-obligation trials are available for both Reflex and Gizmos.

Share these links with colleagues and let them explore these two best-of-breed products.Trials

Reflex trial:
reflexmath.com/trial

Gizmos trial:
explorelearning.com/trial

ExploreLearning at Fall Educational Conferences

   
 

In addition to plenty of state and local conferences, ExploreLearning will be at the following regional conferences. Stop by our booth or attend our sessions to learn more about improving teaching and learning with Gizmos and Reflex.

Frankfurt Book Fair
October 9-14 • Frankfurt, Germany

NCTM Dallas
October 10-12 • Dallas, TX

NSTA Louisville
October 18-20 • Louisville, KY

Virtual School Symposium
October 21-24 • New Orleans, LA

NCTM Hartford
October 24-26 • Hartford, CT

   

Educators Love ExploreLearning

   
 

The reports [in Reflex] are very detailed and have helped me target students that are behind or struggling with the math by pinpointing their weak areas and coaching them on what they need to do to get better.

Teacher
Miami-Dade Co. School SD, FL

I have seen no other program out there that can demonstrate student improvement in math and science as effectively as does Gizmos... As you endeavor to implement the NGSS, you will find no better tool for you educational toolbox than Gizmos.

Science Specialist
Western Co-op, AR

Critical Acclaim for Gizmos

 

  star  

Winner: Distinguished Achievement Award
2012, 2011, 2008, 2007, 2005 AEP

 
  star  

Winner: Golden Lamp Award
2010 AEP

 
  star  

Winner: Best Science Instructional Solution
2010, 2007, 2006 SIIA CODiE Awards

 
  star  

Winner: Best K-12 Instructional Solution
2009 SIIA CODiE Awards

 
  star  

Winner: Award of Excellence
2009, 2008 Tech and Learning Magazine

 
  star  

Diamond Award in Mathematics
District Administration Magazine

 
  star  

E-Learning Innovation Award
Macromedia Corp.

 
  star  

Best Education Website
Webby Awards

 
  star  

Three time Digital Dozen Honoree
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse

 

 

Critical Acclaim for Reflex

 

  star  

Winner: Best K-12 Instructional Solution
2012 SIIA CODiE Awards

 
  star  

Finalist: Best Educational Game or Simulation
2012 SIIA CODiE Awards

 

 

Connect with Reflex

Connect with Reflex on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Reflex YouTube Channel Connect with Reflex on LinkedIn!

P.O. Box 2185
Charlottesville, VA 22902

Connect with Gizmos

Connect with Gizmos on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Gizmos YouTube Channel Connect with Gizmos on LinkedIn!