ExploreLearning Gizmos are versatile and effective enough to help just one teacher engage and motivate students. But it’s even better when an entire school or district gets behind their use. That can lead to exciting collaborations and exchanges of ideas that make teaching with Gizmos even more effective—and fun.
We recently talked to Kristen Urquidez and Elizabeth Bell, both from the Kern High School District in Bakersfield, CA. Kristen is the Science Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA), while Elizabeth teaches Biology at the district’s Centennial High School. They were happy to share their thoughts and experiences on using Gizmos.
How did you learn about Gizmos and how long have you been using them?
Elizabeth Bell: I’ve been using them for three years, and learned about them from my district TOSA and from attending district trainings.
Kristen Urquidez: I’ve been using them for five years. I first heard about them from the district TOSA when our district first got a Gizmos subscription.
What do Gizmos do that other simulations or products don’t?
EB: I love the Gizmos that allow the students to design their own experiments because they can manipulate multiple variables. I often use this type of data collection to have students write CERs (Cause, Evidence, Reasoning) as their formative assessments. The interactive STEM Cases have been amazing!
KU: I like the flexibility that Gizmos offers. Teachers and students can follow the provided lesson plans or use the tool with their lessons. They make it very easy to integrate inquiry-based science learning.
What’s your favorite Gizmo?
EB: I don’t think I can pick a favorite Gizmo. That’s like asking me to pick a favorite student. They each have different strengths. Gizmos like Photosynthesis Lab and Effect of Environment on New Life Form are great for teaching students how to collect and analyze data to make a claim that is supported by evidence. Whereas Building DNA and RNA and Protein Synthesis and amazing for teaching students concepts by allowing them to manipulate the molecules themselves. This is better than video—where they don’t have to pay attention, or the old models on the desk where they could do it completely wrong. The Gizmo forces them to do it correctly in order to move on. Lastly, STEM Cases allow students to apply their knowledge to a real-life problem. This creates relevancy for each topic. It answers the “Why do we need to know this?” question that is so annoying to each of us as teachers who realize the importance of what we teach.
KU: My favorite is Natural Selection. The moth simulation takes a pencil-and-paper activity and replaces it with a more realistic version for the students with no teacher setup.
Do your students have a favorite Gizmo? How do they like using Gizmos in their learning?
EB: My students’ favorite Gizmos are the STEM Cases. They enjoy trying to solve the problem. Realizing that these are sophomores, the best compliment I can extend from my students is—“Aw man, can’t we do a Gizmos today instead?” I hear this whenever they are going to have to listen to me talk or work on a regular worksheet.
When I first looked at the STEM Cases I was afraid they were going to be too in-depth for them to understand, but I was pleasantly mistaken. They’ve done really well on the STEM Cases.
Have you implemented any neat ideas to get students excited for and succeeding with Gizmos?
EB: We have incorporated labs into a couple of our Gizmos that the students have found engaging and we have found beneficial. We’ve also begun to move away from the student worksheet to a more inquiry-based way of using Gizmos. Sometimes we use them as formative assessments for students to collect data and write a CER. We have even used Gizmos as our opening phenomena for a lesson—for example, we use the Natural Selection Gizmo for students to just collect data that we then have them formulate hypotheses and questions to create engagement for the unit.
KU: In our shared district resources, we have several 5E plans that use a relevant Gizmos as an “Engage” or “Explore” activity to get them hooked into learning about an idea. Gizmos are great for letting students explore an idea they have that they can test and manipulate as many times as the student wants.
Do you know of any other teachers using Gizmos? What are their thoughts?
EB: My entire Biology team uses Gizmos. We grow through the Gizmos together and see which ones work for our curriculum needs. We work very closely as a team and feel strongly that Gizmos has allowed us to accommodate the large class sizes and multiple accommodations and learning levels that are in our classes.
KU: We had so many teachers activating their Gizmos subscription that we increased our subscription count! Along with science teachers, we include Agriculture and Special Education Science teachers. I get a lot of feedback from teachers that they really appreciate the quality and quantity of Gizmos available.
How do you “make Gizmos work” for you?
EB: We have fought to all have our own Chromebook carts and one of the main reasons is our desire to be able to use Gizmos on an almost weekly basis. We like that students can work at their own pace. It is amazing that we can give students an alternative to a lab assignment that they missed without have to set up the lab again and try to get the student to come in at lunch and rush through the lab in a short period with a group. We love the way STEM Cases break down the scores by skills. Sometimes we grade the entire STEM Case, other times we may only score the core concepts.