The COVID-19 crisis is changing the country as we know it. With cancellations of well-established events like the Olympics, school districts closing, distance learning becoming the only option for education, and economic turmoil looming, there is no shortage of stress.
Topics: COVID-19, distance learning, virtual teaching
Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has dominated the news, so we’re ready to help you be informed. In this blog, we’ll explore the virus’s history, virulence, prevention, and treatment. We know your students have questions, so here’s a quick introduction to the disease to spark classroom conversation, discussion, and further research.
Topics: COVID-19
We all know the importance of language acquisition, but did you know that how you teach students new science vocabulary has an impact on their engagement, depth of understanding, and retention? A critical part of learning science is becoming fluent with the language of science. To do that, students must have experiences that help them make meaning of new terms themselves—not just memorize definitions.
The NGSS have undergone numerous evolutions since their inception. Among the most powerful (and most recent) are the addition of evidence statements. The three dimensions—disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting connections—already provide context for how students can demonstrate knowledge and how the performance expectation can be applied. The new evidence statements take this process a step further.
To Flip or Not to Flip?
The flipped classroom is a hot buzz term in education circles right now, but it is often more hype than sound educational practice. Pedagogically, in the flipped classroom model students gain independent exposure to new content (readings, videos, at-home activities, etc.) prior to the start of in-class instruction. Class time is used to focus on deeper learning, problem-solving, higher-order thinking/activities on Bloom’s Taxonomy, debate, and and other interactive activities (Brame, 2013).
