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Build Coding Self-Efficacy with CoSpaces EDU

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

There are many benefits to encouraging students to build and create in 3D and craft code or script. But with so many options available, what is one solution you can focus your students on? Luckily there are augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) tools available to encourage 3D, coding, and collaboration. Before exploring some AR/VR tools, let’s look at some benefits.

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What Are the Benefits of AR/VR, and Coding?

In the workforce, there are several uses of AR/VR apps:

  • Providing information in real time
  • Facilitating training and mirroring real-life experiences
  • Enhance creativity in design and development

In addition to benefits for the workforce, some researchers suggest that AR/VR apps can assist with the following in the classroom:

  • Reduce cognitive overload
  • Assist students in developing higher-order thinking capabilities (source)
  • Potential to help autistic children in navigating academic and social situations (source)
  • Positively impact self-efficacy

There are several more applications but these reflect educational goals, don’t you agree?

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Self-Efficacy and Coding

According to the Visible Learning MetaX database, self-efficacy is:

A sense of confidence or the set of self-perceptions that influence thought, actions, and emotional arousal. It accomplishes this since it enables people to make decisions. The decisions they make are about what course of action they intend to pursue.

Self-efficacy enjoys an effect size of d=0.65. Since the hinge point for one year’s academic growth is d=0.40, this makes self-efficacy worthy of consideration. This 2020 study connecting self-efficacy and coding found:

The results of the analysis of quantitative data indicated that the model developed for coding education had a positive effect on students’ programming self-efficacy and attitudes towards technology. Students expressed positive opinions about coding education.

Their positive opinions included students thinking that:

  • Coding education facilitates the teaching of many different subjects such as mathematics and science.
  • Reflected their self-perception that they can do many activities

Those activities include code and program writing, designing games and robots, and solving problems with their coding education. With these benefits in mind, it’s important to ask, “What digital tools might work well in K-12 education?”

Digital Tool: CoSpaces EDU

As you might imagine, there are a great variety of digital tools that are the answer to that question. The tools for AR/VR and coding vary from year to year, as the technology improves. One tool that you might consider boasts the following features.

3D Modeling

  • 3D avatar and model creation
  • The ability construct 3D models that improve on solutions like Minecraft and others
  • Adding images, videos, sounds (including background music) to 3D models
  • Cross-platform capability (smartphone, tablet, desktop, Chromebook)

AR/VR Support

  • Move 3D creations into VR
  • Supports use of a VR headset
  • Allows for collaboration among students
  • Hologram interaction
  • Focus on creation, not consumption

Coding and Scripting

  • Block-based coding or programming like Scratch
  • Support for scripting languages that add interactions, events, and allow for game creation
  • Create simulations of physical phenomena that allow for visualization of abstract scientific concepts

CoSpaces EDU offers a few other features including MERGE Cube mode. You can also manage your class roster in it. Student management can interface with Clever, as well as Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

CoSpaces EDU Pricing

While CoSpaces EDU sounds great, how much does it cost? It enjoys a free tier with basic features, but the PRO Plan with five seats costs $74.99 per year. Each Pro Plan offers all features for a number of seats. You will have to decide if this best meets the needs of you and your students. Limited Pro Plans are also available for your consideration.

The CoSpaces EDU has an ambassador program, and you can see “getting started” resources. Also, explore their YouTube Channel. Give it a whirl!

Feature Image Source

Screenshot by author, Cospaces

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scientific method
Science

Interactive Science: Labs to Master the Scientific Method

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

As imperfect as it may be, the Scientific Method remains humanity’s greatest tool. Some may even see it as the lever to move the world. But a tool for doing what? As Greg Epstein points out, it is the “most reliable tool for determining the nature of the world around us.” In this blog entry, we’ll take a look at some ideas for introducing the scientific method to students. What’s more, I’ll offer some suggestions for engaging young scientists.

The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge. It has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century. It involves careful observation, observing then applying rigorous skepticism to those observations. That’s important since one’s cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation. (source)

The process varies in its details from one discipline to another. But generally, the scientific method is often represented in a simple diagram:

interactive science

Source: Brightyellowjeans – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 | See Others

Although the steps appear simple, more work must take place than just completing a science lab. Students must engage in discussion and reflection. As I reviewed some of the fun labs in this blog entry, I realized that I had had little exposure to the problem-solving aspect in my school days. To make sure that’s not happening with your students, be sure to follow the steps included in the diagram below.

interactive science

View online and make a copy – Created by author, adapted from John Almarode’s description in his book

Introducing the Scientific Method

Engaging in scientific reasoning and critical thinking is hard work. How do you introduce it to students in a way that engages them? In the blog entry, How to Design Research-Based Science Lessons, I describe the first step which includes three goals:

  • Get students engaged in learning science
  • Give students ownership of their learning
  • Assess and scaffold student progress from where they are to where they need to be

This means that students must internalize the scientific method and engage in metacognition. They must ask themselves, “What does the evidence say? What do I think about that evidence? What does it imply for next steps?”

Clarifying Vocabulary

Before I share some examples, let’s take a look at some key vocabulary terms to know:

  • Observation. What you see occur or happen
  • Hypothesis. A suggested explanation for the observation
  • Control group. A set of controlled variables that are unchanged. You only adjust the one variable for experimentation. The variable that is adjusted is known as the Independent Variable (IV).
  • Independent Variable (IV). This is the variable that is changed to see how it affects something else.
  • Dependent Variable (DV). The variable that is being measured/observed. It is assumed that the DV is affected by the IV. The DV’s value depends on the IV (source).

Below are some tried and true demonstrations that students can observe, write about, and discuss:

interactive scienceDemo #1: Water Temperature and Effect

Does water temperature affect how fast an Efferdent tablet dissolves? Give this activity a try for middle school students.

Tips for Implementation

Here are some suggestions from Carlos Gomez. I’ve also included some website links I thought might be helpful:

  • Get the tablets at a Dollar store.
  • Get a bag of ice in a cooler for the cold water. You can warm up water in an electric kettle. I pour it for the kids into their beakers so they don’t have to use tongs. Use room temperature water from the sink as your control.
  • Students time from the start (drop tablet) until fully dissolved. Temperature doesn’t need to be recorded because we simply care that one is hot water and the other is cold.
  • You can do a simple graph (bar or line) with independent variable (IV) being water temperature (hot, room, cold). Time can serve as the dependent variable (DV).
  • You can also try this with Alka-Seltzer, but Efferdent tablets are less expensive. View lesson plan.
  • Also use tablets to measure how much carbon dioxide gas is in an Efferdent tablet.
interactive science

Image Source: Newton’s Third Law

Demo #2: Barbie Bungee

Use scientific method as students differentiate between speed, velocity, and acceleration. They will also compare and contrast Newton’s three laws. Try this activity with high school chemistry students.

interactive science

Tips for Implementation

Demo #3: Slug Lab

Students write their own research questions about slug feeding behavior, then gather evidence. The goal is to learn how to design experiments that successfully gather the evidence needed. This activity works well for middle and high school students.

Tips for Implementation

Demo #4: Paper Tower Challenge

See image source, along with other examples

In this experiment, students work to discover the best way to assemble a paper tower. The independent variable is the tower design. The dependent variable is the height of the tower. Provide same materials (type and amount of paper, scissors). The materials will serve as the control.

Tips for Implementation

  • View lesson plan for standard challenge.) or explore an alternative.
  • Give each group two pieces of 8 1/2 x 11 copy paper, scissors, and cellophane tape. Challenge them to make the tallest free-standing paper tower. Some ground rules that Kerry BresMontgomery suggests:
    • Use as much or little tape as you want.
    • Rip/cut/fold paper.
    • Cannot tape tower to floor or desk.
    • Only 20 minutes to design and build.
    • Cannot get extra paper, so make a plan before cutting or ripping the paper.
    • Height is from base to top only counting paper (cannot make a tape spire).

There are many other cool lab ideas that can engage students. Use these to develop their scientific reasoning.

Be sure to explore Save Fred, Pringle Ring Challenge, Baking Soda Rockets, and Gummy Bear Osmosis. You may find the Bubble Gum Lab and Elephant Toothpaste of interest as well.

More Labs

You can find many more labs for a variety of age ranges and grade levels online. Here are a few places where you can find those:

In part two of this blog, Interactive Science: Virtual Labs, we will explore virtual labs that can help with the Scientific Method. Stay tuned!

References

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Twig Create
Science

Twig Create: A Tool for Science Reflections

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Digital storytelling empowers students to show their understanding of content,” says Dr. Bruce Ellis.  Imagine if you could use it for science learning. In my previous blog entry, I shared how important it is for students to do the following on a regular basis in science:

  • Observe phenomena, experiment, and then take notes.
  • Have students revise their notes and clarify vocabulary.
  • Reflect about the material, asking original questions and sharing what they have learned.

In this blog entry, I’d like to introduce you to a new digital storytelling tool that students can use for reflection. Before I share about the digital tool, let’s explore why it’s needed.

Why Reflect?

Do students understand what their learning means for them as individuals? Jack Mezirow says that this is quite important. Reflections we value are critical for everyone, not only students. Mezirow says:

A defining condition of being human is that we have to understand the meaning of our experience.

How do we scaffold that understanding opportunity (reflection) for our students? Arthurs L. Costa and Bena Kallick write that we enhance reflection when we:

  • Ponder our learning with others
  • Link current experience to previous learning (a.k.a. scaffolding)
  • Draw forth cognitive and emotional information from several sources
  • Act upon and process information, synthesizing and evaluating data
  • Apply what we’ve learned to novel situations or contexts (source: Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind)

As a blogger, reflecting on how ideas strange to me connect to my own prior experience are powerful. I gain a deeper understanding of new learning, more so than when I just read. The benefits of student reflection on learning are more affective than cognitive. It also aids with metacognition.

What about reflection in science class? This phased model assists students in learning vital science practices:

Source:  Basir, M.A. (2019). Learning about science practices:
Concurrent reflection on classroom investigations and scientific works.
Innovations is Science Teacher Education, 4(2).

A Model for Reflection

As you can see in the diagram above, there are various suggested phases of reflecting for science. You can also find a model to follow when engaging in reflection.

To make it easier for you to adapt for your own use, please find a Google Doc template linked for you:

twig create

Now let’s take a look at a new tool.

Introducing Twig Create

Twig Create makes it easy to create videos for free. It is available to teachers, giving them access to stock video clips that include curated content. To these videos, teachers and students can add text, music, and voiceovers. See more features online, along with pricing for schools.

Twig Create is a student-centered multimedia-creation experience. It encourages students to unleash their creativity. Twig Create combines easy-to-use video editing tools and activities. These activities align to core content areas. Twig Create promotes agency, creativity, and inquiry in all students.

Terrific Twig Create Creations

Curious about some of the exciting work students are engaging in? Here’s one example from a grade 4-6 teacher, Hayley Thomas. The video below shows a student reflection for sixth grade science:

Find more examples online at the Twig Create website. Students can use Twig Create to summarize and share their learning, as shown in these videos. This digital tool combines the reflection process with the power of digital storytelling and is a strategic way to help students better master and retain scientific content.

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microscope
Science

Virtual Labs for Interactive Science

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“I need to pick up something at Target,” my wife, a second grade teacher said to me this weekend. I rolled my eyes, knowing that a chunk of our income was going to school supplies. Although I’ve never added it up, classroom spending is up. No doubt, that’s one of the reasons why science demonstrations have fizzled out: no personal money to buy Efferdent tablets or gummy worms named Fred. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a few virtual lab alternatives. You will also get access to an extensive list of curated virtual labs and activities at blog’s end.

Before we do that, take a look and be amazed at how much teachers spend each year on classroom supplies.

virtual labs

The Cost of Classroom Supplies

Shocking, isn’t it, that teachers like my wife spend anywhere from $750 to $1,000 every year? These out-of-pocket purchases on behalf of needy students are classroom supplies. Worse, spending has increased twenty-five percent since 2015. And the need for supplies becomes even more dire when students engage in remote learning.

virtual labs

Some 2021 statistics from Adopt a Classroom, a non-profit group, include:

  • 55% of students had few or no supplies at home.
  • 65% of teachers said students were less likely to take part because they did not have what they needed.
  • 70% of teacher had to change lessons because they did not have needed resources.
  • 95% of teacher said their classroom supply budget is insufficient.

With these statistics in mind, wouldn’t it be incredible to know about virtual tools? It makes one ask, what science-related, virtual labs are available? Here’s a short list.

Virtual Lab #1: Explerify

“I believe Explerify could be especially helpful for educators looking for engaging, virtual science labs that are both flexible and resource-friendly,” says Vishu Gupta, one of the team responsible for Explerify. Vishu reports that Explerify “helps visualize abstract science concepts in a hands-on, experimental way.” He goes on to make the following statement that aligns with the purpose of this blog entry:

Science remains inaccessible to many, with numerous students lacking practical lab experiences. Through Explerify, I seek to address this gap by offering interactive simulations that provide engaging virtual experiments, making cutting-edge science accessible to students worldwide and transforming their educational experience.

Visiting the Explerify.com website, you will find a wide variety of web-based interactive simulators. A wealth of blog entries explaining common (and uncommon) scientific principles accompanies the simulators.

Be sure to check out the amazing work of Abhinav Mohanty and Vishu Gupta.

Virtual Lab #2: Labster

Need a virtual science lab with 200+ immersive, 3D presentations? Want your high school students to work through real-life scenarios and try lab equipment? Then Labster may be a worthwhile investment.

Labster integrates with a wide variety of learning management systems, including:

  • Canvas
  • Google Classroom
  • Schoology

Content is available in a variety of languages, including Spanish. What’s more, it has content covering biology, chemistry, physics, ecology, and more. You can see some of what’s available, for example, on the topic of evolution below.

virtual labs

As you might imagine, virtual labs like what Labster offers are not free. It may be cost-prohibitive since you have to fill out a form to get a quote.

Virtual Lab #3: PhET Interactive Simulations

Cultivate scientists with PhET. It offers 130 award-winning math and science interactive simulations. These work with students in third grade through adult. Since they are open educational resources (OERs), they are free to use and each simulation will work on any device.

Each PhET lesson, including simulations like this one, comes replete with resources. Included are a video primer, lesson ideas, and teacher-submitted activities. Give it a whirl, if you’re not using it already.

Virtual Lab #4: PraxiLabs

Need virtual labs for university biology, chemistry, or physics? Then you might take a look at PraxiLabs. It’s an award-winning solution available to educators, students, or to anyone.

For no cost in the free plan, you get six fixed experiments across all fields of study. In paid plans, you can mix and match from all experiments and select what you need for your curriculum plan. PraxiLabs offers a variety of supplementary content and unlimited repetitions of all simulations.

Virtual Lab #5: The Science Bank

Wish you could dissect a specimen at no cost? The Science Bank offers a free loan program. You can use this online dissection resource (organized by specimen) for free. Paid offerings are also available.

One of the offerings available is Dissection 101 Collection from PBS Learning. You can find educational videos, lesson plans, quizzes, and more. Specimens available include dogfish shark, earthworm, clam, crayfish, sea star, sheep heart, cow eyes, frog, and perch.

Virtual Lab #6: 3M Young Scientist Lab

Want to teach about wind energy, circuits, or other engaging activities? Then 3M Young Scientist Lab may be a source of worthwhile activities for you. It offers lesson plans and interactives.

virtual labs

Some of the lesson plans include:

  • Fun with adhesives
  • Light and shadow
  • Recycling
  • Absorption and reflection of solar energy

These are available for K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. For example, there is one activity where grade 3 students can learn about force using Post-It Notes.

Wait, There’s More to See and Interact With

Looking for something more? In this short blog of interactive science virtual labs, you won’t find everything. You may want to look through my list of links:

It will share a curated list of more than 35 virtual labs and interactive science activities. You may also find this collection of science-related blog entries of interest, too.

Feature image. Available online by BCBangkok, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Feature Image Source

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

This blog updated with fresh content on 9/22/2025.

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interactive periodic table of elements
Science

Five Interactive Tools for Learning the Periodic Table

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

My high school science teachers were comedians. Whether I was learning about physical changes or chemistry, they made the class laugh, even when we were learning that hallmark of high school chemistry, the periodic table of elements. What tools are now available to support learning and understanding of the periodic table? In this blog entry, we will go over a few that you may find useful.

Introducing the Periodic Table

In case you missed the history of the periodic table, it took almost a century to organize. Several scientists spent their lives working on this table. The periodic table is awe-inspiring for this reason alone. It is also fun to consider because it makes the following possible:

  • Analyzing reactivity among elements
  • Predicting chemical reactions
  • Understanding trends in periodic properties among different elements
  • Speculating on the properties of undiscovered elements (source)

Learning the periodic table may be an obstacle for some, but for others, it represents a gateway to another world. Watch this video for a bit of background on the periodic table of elements:

Let’s take a look at some of the interactive periodic tables you can use with students.

Interactive Tool #1: Google’s 3D Periodic Table

interactive periodic table of elements

Google recently announced the availability of their version of a 3D periodic table. The table offers information about each of the elements, and you get to explore their properties. You also see its Bohr model representation which shows a planetary diagram of the components. In this model, negatively charged electrons orbit a small, positively charged nucleus.

You can see the Bohr model for several elements below. These include two reactive nonmetals. One of the elements shown is the most common element in the universe. The other is clear as gas and pale blue as a liquid. Can you guess which they are?

interactive periodic table of elements

The 3D Periodic Table is one of many Google Arts & Experiments available online. Here are a few other 3D experiments.

Interactive Tool #2: PBS Learning Media

PBS Learning Media offers an interactive periodic table as well. One item that will catch your attention is the mystery elements activity.

interactive periodic table of elements

You must drag mystery elements into their correct positions in the periodic table. Each provides information you can use to decide placement. Also, PBS Learning Media offers a lesson plan for grades 6-8 and 9-12 to introduce the periodic table.

Did You Know?

This comic book, Science Comics: The Periodic Table of Elements: Understanding the Building Blocks of Everything, is coming out in March, 2023 and may be worth sharing with students.

Interactive Tool #3: Elements Wlonk

Wlonk provides one of the easiest, most information-rich interactive periodic tables. It includes wonderful examples of the role each element plays in our lives. For example, titanium (as shown below) is what we rely on for aerospace. You not only find out what elements are useful or used for, but you also learn a bit about the elements themselves.

interactive periodic table of elements

Want to see other clever visuals for the periodic table? Check out the Royal Society of Chemistry’s table.

Interactive Tool #4: Mr. Nussbaum Learning + Fun

Do you need a quick tool to learn more about the periodic table and then want to review with a game to quiz the students after? This interactive resource makes that easy to do. The game has a timer, keeps track of your score, and more.

interactive periodic table of elements

Students can set the game’s difficulty level to novice, beginner, medium, advanced, or expert. Give it a try. For those of you that may want your students to play with the elements, consider this game. It is a periodic table game of battleship. Another game is Atomidoodle, available for Android devices.

Click to Learn with Mr. Nussbaum’s Interactive Table

Interactive Tool #5: Fisher Scientific

The Fisher Scientific Periodic Table of Elements makes it easy to sort elements. You can see which are gases, liquids, solids, or unknowns. You can also see which are metals and nonmetals.

interactive periodic table of elements

But Wait; There’s One More!

A bonus interactive periodic table of elements is Ptable. All the different ways you can interact with the elements using this table are incredible.

interactive periodic table of elements

It’s Element-ary, My Dear

Still wondering what those two Bohr Models were at the start of this blog entry? Hydrogen and oxygen. When I see what digital tools we have now, I often wish they had been available when I was learning science. These interactive periodic tables of elements tools can make learning less tedious!

Update – Periodic Table Games

After I wrote this blog entry, science teachers on Facebook asked, “Any ideas for fun periodic table games?” Here are a few of the ones they came up with:

  • Bingo! “Write names in boxes, call out numbers and symbols. My students love it,” says Jana Blake Chapline.
  • Breakout: “I create a breakout/lockbox with periodic table and a project where they have to write a word or phrase using only chemical symbols.” (Cyndia Larrimore)
  • Chemical formula: “I let my kids pick a food, drink, or product, then Google the chemical formula. Then they make a poster or write the formula on a class poster,” suggests Sheila Libecap.
  • Periodic table battleship: “Use file folders and add the periodic tables to top and bottom. Laminate and use dry erase markers,” says Dani Stone.
  • Quick Six: This free game encourages students to become familiar with the chemical elements. (Susan Waymire)
  • Relay Race: “I use a relay race. Index cards with the symbol (color coded for solid, liquid, gas). The groups have a table. The first student from each team runs down. I give them a card and pick…atomic mass to search. They run back, find the number, then run back and tell me. There are so many things I can choose for them to find out. Since they are using the table, it is a fun way to look around at all the details (e.g. groups, rows, mass, number, state at STP, metal, non-metal, metalloid…woohoo!” (Jill Parliman Kibler)

Feature Image Source

Screenshot by author.

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Coding/Computer ScienceMathRoboticsScienceSTEM/STEAM

Eight Children’s Books to Promote Girl Power in STEM

by Valerie Cox
written by Valerie Cox

Encouraging girls to participate in STEM activities might seem daunting, but it can easily be done simply by reading books. Reading STEM books introduces girls to unique aspects of the STEM community and could encourage them to try STEM activities themselves. Whether reading to students after recess or reading to your daughter before bedtime, books are an ideal way to help promote STEM activities to girls.

1. “Mae Among the Stars” by Roda Ahmed

In “Mae Among the Stars,” readers will learn about pursuing their dreams even when others don’t agree. This book tells the story of Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first African American female to travel in space. Young Mae is fascinated with space, but discovers her teacher and classmates don’t think she can become an astronaut. With her parent’s support, Mae becomes a doctor, engineer, and astronaut and achieves her childhood dream.

STEM
Harper Collins Publishers

2. “How to Code a Rollercoaster” by Josh Funk

For fans of “How to Code a Sandcastle,” Pearl and Pascal are back and learning more about how coding works. But this time, they’re at an amusement park. As they enjoy the amusement park, Pearl and Pascal use coding to track their tokens and the amount of time they spend standing in line for rides. “How to Code a Rollercoaster” is a great introduction to the world of coding and teaches basic coding fundamentals and principles.

STEM
Penguin Random House

3. “Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge” by Rachel Dougherty

Girls will discover the engineering story behind the Brooklyn Bridge in this interesting read. As a young girl, Emily studied science and math and continued building her skills as she grew, even though many didn’t understand why. After her father-in-law died and her husband was injured after starting the planning and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Emily’s skills were put to good use when she completed this project which became one of the world’s most iconic bridges.

STEM
Macmillan Publishers

4. “The Girl With a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague” by Julia Finley Mosca

As part of the Amazing Scientists series, “The Girl With a Mind for Math” presents the story of Raye Montague. She was the creator of the first computer-generated draft of a U.S. naval ship and the Navy’s first female program manager of ships. Young Raye’s interest was sparked by visiting a submarine with her grandfather. Despite having to overcome both racial and gender discrimination, she became one of the Navy’s most-celebrated civilian employees.

STEM
The Innovation Press

5. “Boxitects” by Kim Smith

Not only does “Boxitects” introduce readers to architecture, but it also teaches the importance of teamwork. Meg is a “boxitect” who loves building and creating structures out of boxes. Her creations are always the best until a new student and fellow boxitect arrives at school. Meg and her new classmate must find a way to work together and use their architectural talents to win the contest.

STEM
HMH Books

6. “Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist” by Linda Skeers

“Dinosaur Lady” tells the story of Mary Anning who discovered dinosaur bones on an English beach and became the first paleontologist. Mary made many fossil discoveries throughout her career, and some of her discoveries were housed in places that she couldn’t access simply because she was a girl. Mary persevered and continued her paleontology journey even when most didn’t believe females should be members of the science community.

STEAM
Sourcebooks

7. “The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid” by Jeanette Winter

After reading “The World Is Not a Rectangle,” girls will know the story of esteemed architect Zaha Hadid. Born in Iraq, young Zaha discovers a love for math and engineering, and after studying in London, she becomes an architect. Soon, people all over the world wanted her to design a structure for their city. Readers will follow Zaha’s life as she builds upon her love for math and engineering by designing renowned structures around the world.

STEM
Simon & Schuster

8. “Hello Ruby: Journey Inside the Computer” by Linda Liukas

As part of the Hello Ruby series, “Journey Inside the Computer” teaches readers about the different components of a computer and how they operate. Ruby and Mouse discover the computer isn’t working, so they go inside it to find the missing Cursor. As they search for Cursor, they encounter other computer elements that help Ruby and Mouse learn how a computer works.

STEAM
Macmillan Publishers

By reading books, girls are introduced to countless inspiring female STEM leaders as well as different aspects of STEM. Today, it might seem like just reading a book, but it could be the spark that ignites the interest of one of the next great female leaders in STEM.

Interested in learning more about STEM education? Check out TCEA’s self-paced STEM courses and certifications and other STEM and STEAM blog posts.

Valerie Cox is a contributing writer for LOC Scientific. She is passionate about helping children learn more about the science community and has written a number of articles on involving children more in STEM activities. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and volunteering in her local community.

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Educational ResearchScience

Interactive Science: How to Design Research-based Science Lessons

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Recently, a school district administrator emailed me and asked, “If you were going to blend strategies that work into a science lesson, how would you do it?” That question really piqued my interest. Mixing instructional strategies that are proven to work with best practices in science teaching and learning sounds like a win/win. After much thinking, here’s how I would accomplish this, based on the research.

Step #1: Set Goals for the Science Lesson

Dr. John Almarode, who wrote Visible Learning for Science, suggests setting the following goals for science lessons. The goals are straightforward and represent a wonderful response to the question asked.

  • Get students interested in lifelong learning and science that works.
  • Give students more control over their own learning.
  • Build in ways to assess students to discover where they are, and then match strategies to what they need to learn.

The first goal is practical and makes learning relevant to the learner. The second ties into John Hattie’s strong belief in the need for students to be self-regulated learners, individuals who must have agency and ownership over their learning and are able to track their progress. In tracking their own growth towards learning targets, they can make decisions, which gives them voice and choice.

Step #2: Pre-Assess Student Learning

When determining what students already know about a topic or skill, you have to ask, “How do we pre-assess students where they are at?” This leads to the question, “What are some formative assessments we could use?” These assessments provide insights into where students may fall on the SOLO Taxonomy. SOLO stands for “Structure of Observed Learning Outcome.” This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned SOLO, as have many others.

Let’s revisit what SOLO Taxonomy offers:

SOLO illustrates the qualitative differences. It indicates the differences between student responses and their levels of understanding. It classifies outcomes, relying on complexity and understanding.

SOLO does this so that you can make a judgement on the quality of student responses to assessment tasks. It relies on five levels of understanding:

Prestructural: at this level the learner is missing the point

Unistructural: a response based on a single point.

Multistructural: a response with multiple unrelated points.

Relational: points presented in a logically related answer.

Extended abstract: demonstrating an abstract and deep understanding through unexpected extension.

This FutureLearn chart clarifies the levels:

science lesson

The Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy (Adapted from Biggs & Tang, 2011) as cited in source

The main benefit of the SOLO Taxonomy is that it gives you, as the teacher, a set of specific terms (e.g., Unistructural, Multistructural, Relational) that can describe a student’s level of understanding. This level of understanding pinpoints what strategies may work best for them as they more through the learning process.

For students who are unistructural, they are in the surface phase of learning. This means that you might rely on those types of strategies, which could include vocabulary programs, direct instruction, and/or flipped classroom.

For learners who are relational, in the deep learning phase, different strategies work best. These may include concept mapping, metacognition, and reflection.

Knowing where a child falls on the taxonomy helps identify their level of understanding. It also assists you in knowing what to do next and to set success criteria.

What Is Success Criteria?

This phrase involves students knowing and understanding the answer to a simple question. That is, “How will I know I have learned it?” It is sometimes expressed as a statement, “I’ll know I’ve got it if….” You may want to revisit COLOSO in this blog entry.

Step #3: Build Learning into the Science Lesson

Ready to start on lesson design? Let’s take a look at the process Dr. John Almarode elaborates on. I’ve included a few resources for each area. What would you add?

“Science education needs a mix of demonstrations, labs, and experiments. It also needs reading, writing, and discussing with other scientists,” says Almarode. To that end, the lesson process he describes looks like this:

a) Paired Demonstration and Writing Down Observations

  • Demonstration
  • Encourage students to write about what they observed

b) Clarifying Terms and Vocabulary

  • Discussion about vocabulary terms
  • Have students revise their writing using correct terms

c) Wrap-Up

  • Final wrap-up

One key point that jumped out at me?

Every lesson (surface, deep, transfer) needs to have a clearly articulated learning intention. That learning intention must connect to success criteria. Remember, that is “What am I learning?” (learning intention) and “How will I know I have learned it?” (success criteria).

That’s quite a jump. To help the process make more sense, I put this diagram together that captures my understanding. Don’t be afraid to share your version.

Get a copy of this image via Google Slides or via Diagrams.net (requires you to authorize Diagrams.net in Google Drive account).

As you can see from this diagram, there’s a lot going on. To complicate matters, I’ve included some additional tools and strategy suggestions. How would you approach lesson design in your classroom with these three steps?

Matching Process to Resources

To provide some support, please find some relevant resources organized by the step in the process. I’ve organized them into a meta-collection in Wakelet. Explore and have fun.

science lesson design
Access this Wakelet Meta-Collections online at https://tinyurl.com/stwscience

Feature Image Source

Photo by author.

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chemix
ScienceSTEM/STEAM

Lab Diagrams Made Easy with Chemix

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you a science teacher needing a quick way to explain lab procedures? Mr. Casanova, my high school chemistry teacher, would have loved this new digital tool. Chemix Lab Diagrams (@chemixlab) makes it easy for teachers to draw lab diagrams. You can then share those in a variety of formats. As of February 11, 2020, Chemix Lab Diagrams was still in beta, so you can look forward to improvements.

chemix

Why Chemix Lab Diagrams?

“I would use [Chemix Lab Diagrams] at the beginning of the school year. It would get students to recognize the lab equipment and how to use them,” says Efren Rodriguez (@EfrenR). Chemix is “an online editor for drawing science lab diagrams. It can be used for drawing school experiment apparatus. The app provides for easy sketching for both students and teachers.”

Listen to the creator of Chemix, Hai Mac, and Julia Winters (interviewer) share about Chemix:

  • Website for creating diagrams of labs
  • Show students how to set up an experiment
  • Create diagrams for lab reports
  • Save diagrams to the cloud
  • Arrange images in Google Slides, then export the images to make an animated GIF

Check out this example from Dustin Draughn on a basic setup for an enzyme lab:

chemix

Some are already using it, such as @MrsWBio1, to illustrate worksheets:

Do you think this is amazing? If so, you’ll love this collection of animated diagrams Efren Rodriguez put together.  And you can learn more about how to create animated GIFs of Chemix diagrams via this blog entry.

How Does Chemix Lab Diagrams Work?

Using Chemix is an easy process. When you go to their website, you’ll see a blank canvas with a beaker on a shelf. A left hand sidebar features a wealth of containers. If you know your way around a lab, you’ll recognize many of the items, such as test tubes, bung/stopper, and more. Want to use a boiling flask? A thiele tube or calorimetry cup? Chemix has you covered.

Source: @EfrenR

Save images as JPGs, then convert them into animated GIFs. You can use a website like Gifmaker.me to make the animation. EfrenR has created a few animated GIFs which you can see in his Glide app (watch his Glide tutorial). Be sure to click on his “How To’s” tab in the app to see what Efren has come up with.

Students and teachers can explain what is happening in a lab. How can this be of benefit to students? Expecting students to create their own diagrams and to fine-tune them builds deeper conceptual understanding.

Deepening Conceptual Understanding

“We come to know ideas, and then we can be asked to relate and extend them. This leads to conceptual understanding, which can in turn become a new idea. These conceptual understandings form the ‘coat hangers’ on which we interpret and assimilate new ideas, and relate and extend them” says John Hattie. Teachers can create diagrams, illustrations, and animated GIFs that walk through concepts.

What leads to deeper learning is how students are able to use Chemix to teach themselves and others. It gives them control over a process they could only imagine before and makes their thinking about lab procedures visible. Teachers can check their students’ creations to verify understanding. This may assist them in deepening their learning as they transfer it to “multiple, fact-rich contexts.”

Getting students to map out their own lab experiments empowers students. With Chemix, students can create their own lab materials and worksheets. This is important because it gives students control and mastery.

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ScienceSTEM/STEAM

Investigating Science with Flip

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Regardless of what grade you teach, science processing skills are critical for all students to master. Though the focus of the content may change by grade level, these processing skills can continue to be developed and refined. For this post, we’ll focus on how to support the processing skills of observation and inferencing using Flip, as well as give you some resources for finding photos and videos that you can use in you grids and topics.

What Is Flip?

If you don’t already use Flip in your classroom, you are missing out on a great and engaging way of having students interact with you, each other, and the content. This free video response tool by Microsoft encourages students to verbalize and think aloud. I remember being in the classroom and wanting to hear from each student, but not having time to, so only a few were able to answer aloud. With Flip, all students get a chance to answer. Reluctant students have the opportunity to listen to their classmates prior to recording. This opportunity allows them to self-correct any misconceptions based on the knowledge and application their peers have shared, as well as become more confident in the information they provide. Additionally, students (especially those struggling in the content area) have the ability to review other students’ responses as often as needed, thereby reinforcing the learning and better integrating proper use of the academic vocabulary of your subject. So if you are new to Flip and need some basics to get started, then consider checking out the Educator’s Toolkit to help you get up and running.

Observational Skills in Science

Students begin learning observational skills in science starting in kindergarten. Though the skill is not as robust or refined as what a high school student may demonstrate, there is still great value in having them engage in observing the world around them to start taking notice of how things work. Observation is a foundational science skill that leads to communication, classification, measurement, inferencing, and predictions.

In Flip, create a grid for observations. Each topic in this grid will show a photo or video that the student is to observe and describe. Depending on the level of skill, you can require students to use previously learned vocabulary in their responses. If you want students to use words from a given word bank that you have developed for them, create the document and add it as a topic attachment to the topic. You can reference this word bank in multiple topics by adding the link to each topic. If you have a rubric to guide the students in their work, add the rubric as another topic attachment; for younger students, you may need to record a video showing the rubric while you are reading it aloud.

Go to https://flip.com/investigativescience to see an example of a grid in which each topic – click on the drop down of the topic title (e.g.: #1 Description, #2 Description, etc.) – has a photo or video that the student is expected to describe. Examples I have provided are intended to be general in nature so they can fit a variety of grade levels. The topics you create for your students should be specific to the grade level standards they are expected to master. To streamline the production of the topics, consider using a standardized set of directions (such as “Assuming the role of a scientist, describe the object/material using at least three descriptive terms. Be sure to use complete sentences.”). If you do this, you will be able to duplicate the topic and change out the focus (photo or video) that the students will work with.
NOTE: You will need to log in to this grid using your Microsoft or Google account if you want to record an answer to one of the topics. You can, however, see all the topics without logging in.

Reinforcing Inferencing Skills

Inferencing is a skill that students typically have trouble with regardless of their grade level. This skill requires them to pay close attention to details and then draw conclusions based on what they see. Students may be noticing several characteristics of the object in the photo/video and then piecing those bits of information to infer what the item is. Though this is a critical reading skill, it is also a skill that is foundational to being a good scientist.

Begin by creating a grid to hold your inferencing topics. As done above, create a standard set of instructions for your students. You can go to ,https://flip.com/whatcoulditbe to participate in an example that I created for you. The samples that I gave are meant more for you than for students. Topic number 5 is a video while all the others are photos for you to observe closely.
NOTE: You will need to log in to this grid using your Microsoft or Google account if you want to record an answer to one of the topics. You can, however, see all the topics without logging in.

Finding Photos and Videos

Pixabay -(https://pixabay.com) This site hosts copyright free photos, illustrations, and videos. Under the Pixabay license, you are able to use at your discretion without asking permission or giving credit (thought giving credit to the creator is appreciated). If you are using Pixabay images in an online format, you do need to download them to your server as hotlinking (linking to the images directly on Pixabay’s servers) is allowed. If you would like share to photos and/or videos that you have created on Pixabay’s platform, visit their Image Quality Guidelines page for details.

Pexels (https://www.pexels.com) Another great site that provides photos and videos that are free to use, attribution is not required (but appreciated), and you can modify them as desired. Similar to Pixabay, you can become a contributor to submit photos and videos that you create to Pexels – just go to their License page and scroll down to the bottom to get started.

Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/) – This is another good site for free photos.

USB Microscope – Consider purchasing a USB microscope that you can connect to your device in order to take photos and videos of actual materials in your classroom…or on fieldtrips! Read the details carefully as some microscopes will work with some devices but not all…such as Android phones/tables, PC computers, and Mac computers but not iPhones or iPads. If you need a microscope that connects with your iPhone or iPad, be sure that it explicitly states that it connects. Likewise if you are wanting to connect the microscope to a Chromebook. If it is not clearly stated, look for a link in which you can ask the seller or locate that microscope on another seller’s website to see what information they provide.

For the https://flip.com/whatcoulditbe topics, we used a digital USB microscope purchased from Amaazon for $19.98. It didn’t have the best directions on connecting with a laptop, but I was able to get it to work with a little bit of effort. You will probably [hopefully] find that more expensive USB microscopes will have better directions…though I’m sure this is not always the case. This one was purchased because it was cheap and could be used with teachers in training. This microscope could be used with lower elementary, but the focusing may take a bit to get exact; older kids will have no problems. This microscope will take photos and videos. Though this isn’t an endorsement for this microscope, I would advise you to explore and decide on which microscope might be the best for your needs and purchase one to test out; if it works as intended and with ease, you can then confidently purchase additional ones if you need a set for your classroom/lab.

How Do You Use Flip in Science?

How do you use Flip in your science teaching? Share with us as we would love to hear about it. Here are the answers to the inferencing Flip referenced above (1. rose petal; 2. beard hair; 3. a Puffs Plus Lotion tissue; 4. stamens and pistils of a rose; 5. scroll wheel of a mouse; 6. college ruled notebook paper; and, 7. the end of a USB cable).

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Google Science Journal
Google Tips and TricksiOS Tips and TricksScience

Taking Science to the Next Level

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

Google, as we all know, provides a wide variety of amazing tech tools and resources that are used every day by millions (billions?) of us. I recently discovered another of their free offerings, the Science Journal app.

Google Science Journal App

“Available for both iOS and Android, the app is a free digital science notebook that includes more than 70 hands-on science activities.” (Please note that the link to the Android app in the Google Play store only works with a personal Gmail account, not a G Suites for Education account. Make sure you are logged in using your personal Gmail.) While doing the activities, students can record measurements and their observations in the app itself. Sensors in a student’s phone can record and graph phenomena such as light, sound, and motion; they can also connect to external sensors via Bluetooth if some are available. This includes sensors from Vernier and those made using an Arduino.  Additional experiments and teacher lesson plans are available as a free download from Google partners like the Exploratorium, Science Buddies, and more.

Google Science Journal

The provided experiments can run anywhere from 15 minutes to two or more hours. And, of course, the app can be used to journal other experiments as well. While the experiment is running, students can take photos of the results and post them in the notebook, as well as adding their own notes and observations. It’s definitely a way to better engage today’s youth with science. There is an excellent, step-by-step tutorial available here.

Because the app is running on a device such as a smartphone, it makes it easy to take science out doors and engage students in hands-on learning. And the price is definitely right! The app is perfect for a STEM, STEAM, or maker space, as well as something that can be shared with families for extended learning.

 

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