Working around-the-clock, with fanfare and fireworks, STEMscopes™ is proud to launch its new website:  STEMscopes.com!  We’ve redesigned the website, given it a facelift, and made it more user-friendly thanks to dedicated user feedback.  The drive behind our transformation was to make STEMscopes™ not only more accessible but also more feature-rich in order to benefit teachers, parents, and students. STEMscopes.com is now packed with new content such as an interactive map with video testimonials and weekly blogging.  In addition, our parallel mobile app for Android and iPhone is will soon be downloadable as a link on our homepage and on the Android and  / iPhone app stores to get STEMscopes™ when you’re on the go.

Our upgrades don’t end there!  Perry, our beloved rocket ship mascot, has blasted into social media.  Check out our Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube sites and stay current with what is happening with STEMscopes™, connect with fellow users, and see what’s going on in classrooms across Texas.  Join us with a click on your favorite social media site:

            Twitter:             www.twitter.com/RiceSTEMscopes

            Facebook:        www.facebook.com/STEMscopes

            YouTube:         www.youtube.com/STEMscopes

            LinkedIn:          www.linkedin.com/company/2711942

Finally, one of the most exciting new features is our blog, written to be an engaging and insightful read whether you are an educator, parent, or student.  Every week, we’ll be adding a new entry on topics such as current events in science, best practices in education, and how to get the most out of STEMscopes™. 

Individual user sites will soon be updated with an analytics engine to monitor usage of STEMscopes™ and a more robust student management system.  In addition, we compiled all the assessment questions of a scope in a single PowerPoint so that it can be seamlessly integrated into existing clicker and active vote technology you already may have in the classroom.  As always, STEMscopes™ wouldn’t be STEMscopes™ without our users’ input – we eagerly welcome reader comments and feedback to inspire us for future blog entries.  Check back with us next week as our blog takes root!

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Today we want to familiarize you with two timesaving tips to help you manage your students in STEMscopes™.  We’ll be covering importing student lists into the student management system and deleting all your previous school year’s data to avoid clutter.  With classes moving into full swing, having these tools in your bag will save you both frustration and time as you start to assign work and collect data from your students.

Adding your class roster one-by-one can be a tedious process.  Just when you think you’re done, your Wi-Fi goes down or a haphazard click on the back button forces you to start all over!  To upload a student list to the student management system, simply login to STEMscopes™ and then click on students > manage students > import students.  On the new import students page you’ll find directions to upload a list using a downloadable CSV (comma-separate-values) template, which can be open in Microsoft Excel.  Once you have your Microsoft Excel file ready, you can upload to STEMscopes™ by clicking on the new button at the top of the import students page.  Remember that if you use the same username for a student that another teacher uses in your school/district’s portal, you will get an error message once you try to update your student list.  To avoid this, we recommend using a more complex student username such as:  student ID number, firstname_lastname_(classroom number), a student-created username.  Once your upload your list, make sure you select it at the bottom of the import students ​page by pressing show to validate and then execute it.  This will formerly place your students on the list in STEMscopes™ so that they can receive assignments.  Watch the simple how-to video below to get started.

​Deleting all your old student data is even easier!  After you login to STEMscopes™, at the top right of your screen you’ll find a yellow profile link adjacent to the logout link.  Click on profile and find the reset assignments link inside of the red box.  Be careful, deleting all your student’s past data is irreversible, but it will help you rapidly navigate your new student’s data by removing the old clutter.

Today we had the chance to join Troy Williams, Vice President and General Manager of Macmillian New Ventures and adjunct professor at NYU for a talk on “From Print to Personalized Learning.”  Though Williams focused his discussion on innovations and transformations in higher education, it’s always interesting to hear what might be coming down the pipeline into K-12 education.

Williams humbly broached the topic of “how collegiate education will change” by stating that he is wrong.  Wrong?  I was under the impression he was an expert in the field of technological education reform.  When he elaborated that his sincere hope was that he is simply, less wrong than others in his field, I understood his position.  Williams is a futurist and his business is inherently uncertain as it is based in predictive models and trends – he cannot be sure of what is going to happen, but he can make educated forecasts. 

​The foundation of his lecture was based on four trends he saw in education:

1. There are 7.2 million teachers today (many more if you count mentors, coaches, parents, etc.) that represent 8.7% of national GDP when you consider all the facilities, materials, and personnel involved in education. 
2. Demand for education is increasing and a means by which to deliver it inexpensively and quickly is necessary.
3. Social Security is contending with worker wage garnishing that channels money to unpaid loan debts rather than to its dependents.
4. As a result, administrators will make decisions rather than faculty based on performance data, professor efficacy, and finances.

​Based on these trends, Williams has three predictions:

1.  As a result, administrators will make decisions rather than faculty based on performance data, professor efficacy, and finances.
2. This means that students, for example, will not be asked to jump through a litany of proverbial “flaming hoops” but rather demonstrate their ability to perform on a task.  Similarly, employers might ask a prospective employee to demonstrate his or her knowledge (e.g. a case study interview) rather than earn a position based on what you have on your resume.
3. Both content and the method of delivery of content will be personalized for each student.​

Education is going to take a long time to shift.  It will take even longer for K-12 to fall in line with what universities are doing if it ever does at all.  Williams did recognize that school is an inherently different beast from college – his predictions, he conceded; hold less water for what may happen in elementary and secondary education.  Still, curiosity peaked, and I had to wonder:  what would this brave new world of higher education look like?  Williams was ready with an answer.

Learning objects – they are the “classrooms” of the William’s future.  He explained that learning objects are a fusion of videos, interactive simulations, and other media that would address every single element that needed to be learned in a college course.  These learning objects would be “atomized,” meaning they would be broken down into specific sub-elements so that a student’s misunderstanding could be readily pinpointed.  The sense was that the classroom of the future is strikingly independent and very computer-reliant.  Williams added that sophisticated mathematical models would compute what a student’s likely misunderstanding was within a learning object based by assessing the student continuously and predictively changing the content the student was presented with based on those misunderstandings.  If a student continues to underperform, the system would then direct the student to a real professor for one-on-one instruction.

William’s vision is interesting to contemplate.  It would save money because college campuses could be very small meaning less taxpayer money goes to funding large state schools, less professors would be needed, and degrees could be awarded faster while incurring less debt (if any) on the student.  A powerful draw of the William’s scenario is that is would also permit many more people to access higher education while shifting education and the working world from an entitlement system (it wouldn’t matter where you got your degree from but that you proved you had the knowledge and ability) to a meritocracy.  Who knows though – Williams just hopes he is less wrong, after all. 

What would personalized learning look like in K-12 education?

Last week we made the journey to the Houston Ship Channel to visit Port Houston Elementary.  Port Houston Elementary is a Title I school in Houston ISD that rests on a backdrop of oil refineries and throngs of eighteen-wheelers. We imagined the teacher who invited us to be a gruff, battle-hardened educator.  Instead, we found the most charismatic, approachable, and thoughtful teacher we could imagine:  Teresa Godoy.  In our brief interview with Teresa, she revealed her mastery of using the STEMscopes™ toolbox and demonstrated how the resources in the toolbox can have an impact on not only classroom management and procedures but also on improving instruction.  Check out our interview with Teresa below:

Two of the most powerful things we took from Teresa’s expertise were the way she wove the process skills into her classroom environment and her democratic, flexible use of the lab manager cards.  By clearly displaying the tools of inquiry across her classroom cabinets, Teresa created not only clear expectations for her students but also high expectations for what their lab work should include.  Teresa noted that the development of these skills (observing, questioning, hypothesizing, etc.) were essential to developing student’s critical thinking skills. Once the students have ingrained in their minds that science is a process and not just a question and answer, they can meaningfully investigate and understand science in the world around them.

Teresa’s other big takeaway was her use of the lab manager cards.  As former elementary, middle school, and high school teachers, we can echo how poor classroom management can take your greatest lesson and crumble it.  In the science lab this is especially true as students can squabble, fight, and even shutdown if they do not get each partake and lead hands-on activities.  STEMscopes™ is full of great hands-on activities – it makes perfect sense that a strong management system is needed to maximize those lessons.  Teresa solves this by using a rotating color scheme whereby the students get different lab roles every time.  Furthermore, she keeps her lab groups small (4, 5, maybe 6 students) in order to allow an equitable use of materials and prevent any student from feeling that there is no room to participate.  Within her scheme is a hidden gem – not only can she switch the lab roles using her lab manager chart color system but also make students feel that the system is fair and balanced.  It’s absolutely no wonder her students deeply enjoy her class.  Science is supposed to be fun, messy, and real; Teresa accomplishes all of that.

In 2010 you transitioned from school principal to educational entrepreneur.  What motivated you to start STEMscopes and what need did you see in the education world for it?

Having been a science teacher and a principal, I saw a huge need for inquiry-based activities and a variety of learning experiences to reach different modalities in the way in which students learn.  Also, teachers have limited time to find and organize resources from across the internet.  They need a “one-stop shop” and a place that was strictly aligned to the state standards.  I knew that no one had tried to tackle this head on, and I was willing to take the risk to do it.  While we had a lot challenges in terms of not much funding and resources, Rice University gave me the opportunity to make this happen.

How did your experiences as a former teacher shape what STEMscopes is today?

Having been a self-contained 5th grade teacher and an elementary science lab teacher in an inner-city school in Houston, Texas, I felt that we lacked the resources needed to get students engaged and excited about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers.  Working nights and weekends to come up with hands-on lessons and materials to reach my kids was daunting and took a lot of time.  I began to think that these resources should be something that teachers have in their toolbox so they have the more time to work with students one on one.  To me, the curriculum writer writes the sheet music and the teacher conducts.  It is hard to do both.

How do you feel Rice University helped you make this vision become a reality?

Rice University is a world-renown research institution that consistently ranks in the top 20 best universities in America.  It is a place where innovation, risk-taking, and research thrive.  I have been very impressed with the support structure and creative freedom here at Rice.  Without the support, help, and guidance from the university, STEMscopes would not be the curriculum it is today.

Rice University is known for its excellent programs in science, engineering, and math; currently, there is no College of Education at Rice University.  How did TAKScopes/STEMscopes get involved with Rice?

There doesn’t necessarily have to be a College of Education for K-12 outreach and Higher Education outreach to thrive at the university.  In fact, this is a benefit, because many times we are not stifled by bureaucracy.  The Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship is housed in the Provost’s Office for interDisciplinary Initiatives.  This is exciting in that it brings faculty and researchers from a variety of different departments at Rice – engineering, psychology, cognitive science, biology, etc. – to work together in helping students learn.

Tell us about Perry, the STEMscopes mascot – how did he come about?

Ah, Perry our mascot!  Well, he was formed from our predecessor, TAKScopes, in which he was in a submarine.  Our slogan then was Science…Dive in!  Since then, Perry is now off in space and has his own rocket ship.  However, Perry’s name came from the word periscope.  Because his eyes and head mimic that of a periscope we decided to call him “Perry”.  He has become something that kids and teachers relate to.

STEMscopes has the philosophy of “by teachers, for teachers.”  What does that mean to you?

STEMscopes was home grown; we weren’t imported from California, North Carolina, or Canada.  It was meant to be developed right here in Texas for Texas teachers.  This is really important for our consumers, because they know that there is a strict fidelity to the outcomes and learning objectives that students need to master in order to be successful in science.  It is a big deal and something teachers rely on heavily.

Where do you see 5 years down the road for STEMscopes?

The time and era that we are in could not be more conducive for the expansion of STEMscopes.  Our goal is to broaden our impact and not just improve STEM instruction and learning in Texas but across the nation.  We are working to make sure we create strictly aligned, relevant, hands-on, and engaging learning experiences to meet all students’ needs.  While STEMscopes 2.0 will incorporate a lot of technology using tablets, iPads, and digital lockers, we are also looking at how to incorporate machine learning or personalized learning pathways that will enable teacher and students to be laser focused on content that is relevant and important for mastery for each individual student.

You are recently a newly minted Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.  How were you able to build STEMscopes into a massive operation and at the same time go to school to earn your degree?

Wow!  Well, in one word it was “tough”.  I was traveling to Austin every week for class while keeping up with the project working around 60-70 hours a week.  Don’t get me wrong it was definitely a grueling time.  However, it was important for me to continue my learning in order to best lead our program for the future.  I’m excited that I get to focus on the research, production, design, and scalability of STEMscopes.  I think we have a lot of exciting stuff coming teacher and student’s way that will blow their minds in terms of resources to help them learn to love science.  The future is definitely exciting! 

Is there anything else you’d like to share with us today?

I love hearing feedback from people who use the program so please email me at reid@rice.edu if we can do anything better.  Teachers are the most important people we support!

You asked for it and the STEMscopes™ team has delivered; you can now download the “source file” of the pre-assessment, progress monitoring assessment, and standards-based assessment as PowerPoint files.  We’ve created a short, sweet, and simple how-to video (posted below) in case you haven’t noticed this new feature yet. 

If you are wondering “how can downloading the source file of an assessment help me in the classroom?” we’ve highlighted a few of the ways it does just that below:

1. you can combine each of the multiple choice assessments into one larger assessment,
   
   
2. editing the questions is a cinch – you can change the background color and font for dyslexic students, tweak the questions to reflect your style of teaching, and add your own questions while maintaining overall formatting,
   
   
3. and importing your questions to a clicker-based software such as Smart Notebook™, Senteo™, and TurningPoint™.

We are in the midst of a digital transition.  Wireless internet starting becoming popular in the mid-1990s; today, we see wireless hot spots everywhere as we scan for an open one on our laptops and phones.  Despite this transition, we are behind many other developed countries that boast citywide wireless systems with even faster speeds than our own.  The United States needs to speed up its digital transformation if it hopes to keep up with countries like South Korea who not only are more “wired” than us but also outperforming us on standards-based testing.  A more wired country means better access to information, which education could certainly benefit from.

A week ago Arne Duncan, U.S. Education Secretary, affirmed the need to make this transition saying, “Over the next few years, textbooks should be obsolete.”  Our digital transition does not mean digitizing photocopies of textbooks – that would be like trying to pass microform newspaper articles off as “digital newspapers” today.  Duncan’s view of a digital textbook is far more robust.  Digital textbooks would be interactive by providing a means for students to address misunderstandings with videos, simulations, and assessments imbedded into the online text.  A student enrolled in high school biology, for example, could clarify her misunderstanding of cellular division on an end-of-chapter quiz by choosing to watch a step-by-step video, manipulating an interactive simulation, or perhaps connecting with her peers and teacher using integrated social media.  Meanwhile, schools would have the benefit of buying curriculum “a la carte,” meaning they could take the best from each publisher’s digital textbook to assemble their own rather than collecting piles of dusty textbooks because each one had only a few valuable chapters. 

Easy?  Unfortunately, a few roadblocks lie ahead.  One huge elephant in the room impedes this much-needed transition:  funding.  Schools are seeing more and more cuts to their budgets.  Even if digital textbooks are cheaper than their print counterpart, many schools lack the money to get adequate internet systems in place to make using them practical.  Still, the cost of a school-wide wired system piddles in comparison to providing every student a device able to deliver the content of the digital textbooks.  Financial worries such as these have lead many schools to embrace BYOT, or “bring your own technology,” policies in order to make learning with digital textbooks possible.  Schools would also expect to pay out for teacher development to make sure these new tools and technologies are used in the best possible ways.  In the end, this adds up to a pile of cash that in today’s economic climate is shrinking rapidly for schools. 

On the other end, publishers may suffer from textbook piracy as digital content becomes more readily available.  Bit torrents are likely to rise up that would allow for non-licensed downloading of digital textbooks much like what happened in the music industry.  This could cause an artificial increase in price for digital textbooks as companies try to recoup their loses in piracy, and even knock smaller digital textbooks providers out of the running all together.

Despite the potential benefits and problems, the transition is imminent.  Duncan is confident that “this has to be where we go as a country.”  Whether the transition is a glorious or grinding revolution has yet to be seen. 

Though the STEMscopes speech feature is often overlooked, once you find it, you’ll be using it on a daily basis.  Hidden on every page, in the bottom right corner you’ll find the speech button next to the feedback button.  Upon pressing the speech button, small “quote icons” will appear to the left of each piece of text.  You can have your computer read aloud any of the text on the STEMscopes site from the materials lists to the vocabulary words by pressing these quote icons.  Granted, the speech button does not have the smooth control of Morgan Freeman or humor and energy of Mike Myers, but it does provide an invaluable learning opportunity for teachers, students, and parents alike. 

Perhaps the greatest and most subtle benefit of the speech feature is that it frees up a teacher from having to address each student’s pronunciation and decoding difficulties while they read the new vocabulary words or bury their heads in a Reading Science passage.  Freed, the liberated teacher can then address the students who are in need of content clarifications or in need of a small group pullout.  Students likewise benefit by developing fluency.  Suddenly, non-readers and English language learners have an unintimidating way of getting the content; reading at home is not an ordeal for them, but rather a pleasure because they know they have support built right into STEMscopes.  This is especially effective for students who are trying to get their English up to speed while learning the content.  The benefits extend to special needs students as well.  A special needs student who’s individualized education plan calls for assessments to be read aloud to him or her has a accommodation-friendly way to take some of the work home or makeup a quiz he or she missed the day before without making the teacher stop the class.  Similarly, disruptive students often focus much more when read-to rather than left alone to follow instructions – using the speech button to read aloud the question prompts to these students gives them a chance to excel with the rest of the class.  Finally, migrant parents have a way to interact with their student because the passages can be read in both English and Spanish (only for STEMscopes components that are available in Spanish); the most zealous of parents can even begin learning English along side their child.­­­­­­ 

Despite the powerful benefits of the speech button, it does not function on any downloadable documents (i.e. the student journal).  You needn’t worry for long; we plan to integrate speech into all elements in the future as we transition our components to HTML5.  That being said, just a few pixels to the right of the speech button, you’ll find the feedback button.  If there’s something you’d like to see added or improved in STEMscopes, please submit your thoughts!

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This week we hunted down Courtney Williams, Elementary Science Consultant in Birdsville ISD.  Mrs. Williams impressed us with her STEMscopes training video that she made to help her teachers familiarize themselves with the program.  Naturally, we were curious about Mrs. Williams' background and how she became such a star.  If you haven't checked out her video, you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RueQgs3rNrw.

When you were in elementary school what did you dream of being as an adult?

In elementary school, I most wanted to be a doctor or a teacher.  The idea of helping others every day was very appealing to me.

What made you want to be a teacher - did you have a role model or life-changing event?

While I had many great teachers, I would have to say that Mrs. Jobe, my seventh grade science teacher was the person that most influenced me and led me towards education.  She had such a passion for teaching and her enthusiasm and love of science was infectious.  She was a female leader in my life at a time when I didn't have one.  She helped me to fall in love with science and discover all of the amazing things that nature has to offer.  I remember going home and "teaching" on my chalkboard in my bedroom almost everyday – my stuffed animals learned a lot of science that year!

What are your two biggest takeaways from your time in education?

1. Every child CAN learn and be successful.  Regardless of background, home life, race, gender and any other excuses I have heard.  I am a believer that ALL students have the ability and the capacity to do great things.  As a teacher, I always try to make the most out of every day.  You never know when you are going to strike a chord with a reluctant student.  All it takes is one dose of confidence and often the reluctant student is excited and ready to learn.  Remember, we have to educate everyone; they will all be taking care of us someday!

2.  Make your words count!  As a mother, I am always amazed to hear the stories that my children come home with.  Sometimes, a very simple and probably unplanned phrase from a teacher is what they remember and hold with them all day.  Fortunately, they have all been GOOD phrases.  It does make me think about what my students will take away from my class each day.  What are they going to tell their parents about the day they had at school with me?  As a teacher, I always want my students to feel important, confident, and intelligent.  This is the message I hope that they all carry home in their hearts.

How has STEMscopes impacted your life as an educator?

STEMscopes has been fantastic! As the science curriculum coordinator of a district, I help over 500 teachers to effectively implement and teach science to their students.  I always struggle with the thought of not being able to help everyone who needs it.  STEMscopes offers teachers so many resources and walks them through each standard with very meaningful and engaging activities.  For the self-contained teachers, the math connections, reading passages, and writing opportunities allow them to seamlessly integrate science throughout the day.  Since everything is organized by student expectation, it is easy for all teachers to find exactly what they are looking for.  Also, the teacher background and TEKS unwrapped documents have been a "teacher for the teacher."  I will continue to endorse STEMscopes!  It is fabulous!

What message do you want our readers to take back to their classrooms tomorrow?

Teaching science can be very difficult:  you should allow STEMscopes to make it easier for you!  The expectations from the state are very high.  Students are being asked to perform at a level that we have never seen before.  The writers at STEMscopes are constantly revising and adding additional resources to make things better for the teacher and the students that they service.  STEMscopes listens to the feedback that they receive and they are constantly updating and revising their program to make it the best it can possibly be.  This dynamic program is definitely a keeper!

How do you think education will change in the next 10 years?

Over the next 10 years, I think that digital learning will take over.  Students will be learning more with computers, tablets, probes, and other digital devices.  I believe that programs like STEMscopes will be the way that learning takes place in the classroom.

Teaching is uplifting, rewarding, but inevitably exhausting.  How do you unwind and decompress when you are not teaching?

When I am not teaching, writing assessments, or writing/loading curriculum, I enjoy spending time with my wonderful husband Rick and two beautiful daughters Angela and Carly.  The girls are competitive cheerleaders at Spirit Xtreme in Southlake, TX, so much of our time is spent at the gym cheering for our girls.  When we are not cheering, we love vacationing anywhere that there is water or visiting Mickey Mouse in Disneyworld.

Rice University’s STEMscopes program, an online science curriculum, has surpassed a million users among students in Texas, a milestone for the program in its second year. STEMscopes, a division of the Rice Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship (RDLS), has also introduced a comprehensive online curriculum for high school students in three core subjects — biology, chemistry and physics.

Yajaira Tapia, Francis Martinez and Arely Pena, students in the Pasadena Independent School District, follow instructions on a STEMscopes-inspired science experiment.

Yajaira Tapia, Francis Martinez and Arely Pena in Pasadena ISD, follow instructions on a STEMscopes-inspired science experiment.

Within two months of its availability, the high school component was serving more than 50,000 students in 20 school districts, said Reid Whitaker, RDLS executive director and founding director of STEMscopes. The program covers 100 percent of the Texas Essentials Knowledge and Skills standards, with ample support for teachers to implement scientific investigations and research activities in their classrooms, he said.

STEMscopes was introduced in 2011 as one of a dozen digital curricula selected by the state of Texas to supplement science textbooks for grades 5-8. It quickly became the top choice among Texas teachers.

Driving down a forested-lined, concrete path we found the Branch School ahead. Boasting outdoors education, a productive student-run garden, ubiquitous hands-on learning, and an extremely welcoming staff, the Branch School is a hidden gem of a school.

We had the pleasure of joining Sue Hutchison's 6th graders on this past Thursday as they learned about the difference between prokaryotes and eukaryotes using Sue's secrete weapon:  embedded vocabulary.  The students were expected to understand the difference between a prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell (6.12AB); whereas, cell biologist can easily distinguish between these cell varieties, that's no easy task for a student!

Sue's technique was subtle and extremely effective.  Much like how a coach does not sit his new recruits in front of a blackboard to sketch out the theory of football, but instead, has them learn by playing football, Sue had her students learning complex vocabulary by interacting with models of both cell types.  "It's like a shield that protects the cell," said one students confidently as he held two Ziplocs that represented the cells.  "That's the cell membrane," responded Sue and elaborating on its purpose.  In this exchange alone, we see how Sue was eliciting her students to describe the words she wanted them to learn. In fact, their desire for a word to name what they describe prompted her to give it to them.  There was not a dusty, boring list of vocabulary words to copy off the board as the students came in; the students learned words as they touched and observed the prokaryote and eukaryote Ziploc baggie models.

The students' understanding of how prokaryotic cells differ from their eukaryotic cells was achieved deductively rather than inductively.  Sue did not prompt, push, or force her students to understand how prokaryotic cells lacked nucleus; she relied on their natural curiosity and ability to recognize differences.  Students were able to notice all the main differences between the two cells types this way:  presence of the nucleus, relative mass, complexity of the DNA, size of vacuoles, etc.

As you watch the video of Sue's class, the benefits of embedded vocabulary instruction are pronounced.  Every coach is a master of embedded language instruction; you don't see a football coach teaching his team what a forward pass or a "sack" is through drawings on the board.  Football players learn these terms by doing; once they do it, they crave a way to describe it and thus seek a word to name it.  Students can learn academic vocabulary in the classroom in the same way.  Through embedded vocabulary instruction students are engaged, they develop listening/reading/writing skills, can absorb more information at once, and are able to retain in longer.  Traditional language instruction is comparatively dull and tends to bounce of the mind - there are certainly some vocabulary words I learned from a list on the blackboard in college that are not with me any longer.  STEMscopes is designed to promote embedded language - that is why as you go through a scope, students first do the hands-on and then learn the vocabulary words.  The teacher has the opportunity to have the students develop a craving for a word to describe what they did in the hands-on lab.  If you haven't tried it yet, hop on the embedded language bandwagon and let your students learn new vocabulary in a fun, exciting way!

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 5, 2012)  – The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) today announces participants for its Innovation Incubator Program. The program will be held during the 12th annual Ed Tech Business Forum, Nov. 26-27, at its new location, the McGraw Hill Conference Center in New York. Twelve products and services will be featured during the event, and awards will be presented to the Most Innovative and Most Likely to Succeed based on votes of conference attendees. New this year, one innovator will be presented with the Educator’s Choice Award based on votes from educators in New York and around the country.

SIIA’s Innovation Incubator Program identifies and supports entrepreneurs in their development and distribution of innovative learning technologies. The program began in 2006 and has provided incubation for dozens of successful products and companies in their efforts to improve education through the use of software, digital content and related technologies. The program is open to applicants from academic and non-profit institutions, pre-revenue and early-stage companies, as well as established companies with newly developed technologies.

Innovation Incubator Program participants were selected from the applicant pool based on key selection criteria, including:

• The extent to which their innovation represents a “sea change” in thinking
• Potential to positively impact education by way of enhanced student achievement, teacher effectiveness, cost reduction and efficiency
• Education focus and end-user impact/market need for the innovation
• Representation of K-12/postsecondary market levels
• Level of originality and innovation

All Innovation Incubator participants will present during the Business Profiles Presentations on Nov. 26, which is immediately followed by the Innovation Showcase & Networking Reception where they will be available for in-depth discussion. After a first round of voting, supported by Turning Technologies, finalists will present during the morning general session on Nov. 27 to a review panel of representatives from SxSWedu, University of Pennsylvania, GSV Advisors, and NewSchools Venture Fund, and approximately 200 attendees.

Innovation Incubator Program participants are:

C8Kids
C8Kids, based on proprietary IP developed in 15 years of research at Yale, is a cloud-based, web-delivered neuroscience-based cognition improvement program that has the potential to solve some of the most significant problems in education and mental health.

Classroom, Inc.
Classroom, Inc., a nonprofit with 20 years experience closing the achievement gap for students, has developed a new blended-learning product that is a promising, research-based use of technology to help high-need students learn ELA and math Common Core State Standards and 21st century skills.

Clever
Clever provides a modern set of APIs that allow ISVs to for the first time plug directly into a schools existing data infrastructure.

iCAN
iCAN is a web-based, student and teacher tool for learning, engagement, evaluation and measurement of achievements to standards.

iPrompts
iPrompts is a suite of interactive tools for iOS and Android devices, designed to help students with autism understand tasks, remain attentive, learn socially appropriate behaviors, and transition to new activities.

KLEOplatform
Whether it’s a school, teacher, student or PTA raising money for a project, or an individual giving money, or a foundation, corporation, school district, PTA, government agency or nonprofit distributing money, Kleo simplifies all matters relating to managing funds for educational needs.

LearnSprout
The LearnSprout API is a universal data connector that plugs into multiple SISs.

Mathalicious
Mathalicious is rewriting middle- and high-school math around real-world topics that students care about.

mSchool
mSchool provides a combination of distance training, hardware, and software to existing community after school programs allowing them to open a "microSchool," which replaces core instructional time in a traditional classroom.

Reading Kingdom
Reading Kingdom is a patented, adaptive, common-core aligned English language arts program that teaches children to read and write to the third-grade level.

RecoVend Collaborative Purchasing Platform
RecoVend makes it easy for school administrators to work together to discover, research and buy the products and services they need.

STEMscopes
STEMscopes is a K-12 comprehensive online science curriculum program that provides hands-on inquiry activities, assessments, problem-based-learning, intervention tools, acceleration materials, and teacher support resources.

PlatinuMath (alternate)
This suite of Web-based games strengthens the procedural and conceptual mathematics understanding of pre-service elementary teachers.

SIIA is partnering with Innovation Incubator Program sponsors BLEgroup and Texthelp to host these developers of new technologies at this hallmark conference.

For more information about the Ed Tech Business Forum, visit www.siia.net/etbf. Reproduced from: www.siia.net/blog/.

CAST 2012 in Corpus Christi was a blast!  Fresh air, sea breeze, and blue, blinking Perry’s everywhere – if you didn’t make it this year, you missed out.  We got to meet a huge number of great teachers, educational leaders, and even parents.  The feeling was truly “fandemonium” between running our video testimonials, giving out TEKS tracker posters (download yours by visiting our Pinterest), cramming our suite full of eager educators, and showing previews of STEMscopes 2.0.

If you are starting feel jealous that you missed out, we brought a small piece of CAST to you. You can view a video interview with founder, Dr. Reid Whitaker, live from the conference hall floor.  Additionally, because there was a lot of hubbub and ear-to-ear grins for those that got to see the STEMscopes 2.0 preview, we will be uploading the preview, so check back soon!

Most importantly, we left CAST feeling renewed and empowered to help teachers!  Your input keeps STEMscopes vibrant, created STEMscopes 2.0, and will push students to the next level.  To everyone who joined us, thank you for all your continued support, energy, and thoughtful feedback that go into improving STEMscopes.  We could not do what we do without our amazing group of teachers that help bring the love of science into classroom across Texas. 

We look forward to seeing you next fall at CAST 2013 here in Houston!  Please come by, visit us, and recharge your “teaching batteries” and attend our workshops on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and pedagogy that’ll help you get the most out of STEMscopes.

We recently had the pleasure of welcoming Nancy, a veteran educator and ELPS (English language proficiency standards) curriculum writer from Seidlitz Education, to get the inside scoop on teaching with the ELPS in mind.

To understand the frustration ELL students face when learning English, Nancy showed us a series of optical illusions.  Puzzled, scrunched faces filled the room as we looked at some of the classics:  the Ponzo Illusion, the Müller-Lyer Illusion, and the Autokinetic Effect.  Learning English can lead to the save contorted faces for ELL students.  While some could easily see the truth behind the illusion, some of us weren’t able to make out anything no matter how hard we tried.  This struggle really helped us understand the challenges of learning English while trying to learn the content.

Nancy modeled a variety of ELPS strategies to help make the content comprehensible and develop academic language for our ELL students.  These included vocabulary strategies, sentence stems, and structured dialogue.  One specific strategy was called “Q, Triple S, A.”   Here is a model of how the Q, Triple S, A strategy could be used:

Question:  When organisms die, what happens to them?

Signal:  When you are ready to respond, stand up.

Sentence Stem:  When organisms die _______________________.

Share:  Share with someone who is about your height.

Assess:  Choose a student who is wearing a red shirt to share.

The strategy above helps meet the needs of our ELL students in multiple ways.  First, the question is presented to the whole group and every student is expected to develop a response.  By delineating a signal, the teacher can then ensure that every student is prepared with a response before moving ahead.  The sentence stem can help all students to have the necessary language to respond to the question.  Then, by asking the students to share with a partner, all students are able to hear another response.  Finally, Nancy reminded us that it is important to always end with a random assessment to ensure that all students are participating.  In this example, the teacher would call on a student wearing red.  Next time, it could be a student who is born in June.  This random assessment helps to keep all students accountable for participating.  

As a general rule, when developing ELPS strategies, Nancy recommended using the following questions to guide the process:

1)   How are we making content comprehensible?

2)   How are we developing academic language?

3)   How will we measure if students are meeting these goals?

4)   What linguistic accommodations will support students at each proficiency level in this lesson?

STEMscopes is busily working on addressing the ELPS standards for our new 2.0 launch.  We know that addressing the ELPS helps us not only better reach our ELL students, but also helps us better meet the needs of all students.  We look forward to our ELPS rollout soon!

STEMscopes is a common word that students in my fourth grade class use daily. From online activities to engaging student centered investigations, the program meets the needs of all my students. Klein School District imbedded the STEMscopes program into its elementary science curriculum last year, and it has made a huge difference in how I teach science. The program is a perfect fit for any elementary science class, and explore activities can be performed in a classroom as well as in a science lab.

During a recent lesson on Changes from Heat, the students were first engaged in an activity where they changed pink lemonade from a liquid into a slushy solid. This activity excited them, and they were curious to explore and discover more about changing matter using heat. After gathering their science tubs of materials, and reading over the Stemscopes Student Guide, the challenge was on for them! They discovered how various items changed from one state of matter to another during heating and cooling. To see the students observing what was happening to the gummy bears, marshmallows, glue stick, chocolate chips, water, and ice, showed me that they were fascinated in the changes that were occurring. After the heating process, the groups placed their heated items into the freezer and again predicted the outcome. Then they scurried over the see what was happening with a bottle of blue water which they had placed ice cubes in earlier in the investigation. Seeing the drops of water on the outside of the bottle and discovering when the drops were wiped off with a white paper towel, the paper towel was void of blue stain, created a stir among the students about the possible reasons for the outside water to be clear.  My students’ curiosity showed during each part of this lesson, and it was obvious that learning was taking place. Finally after the cooling process for the items was studied and everyone recorded their observations on their Student Journal Sheets, the children were given the opportunity to talk about what they had learned and encouraged to participate in a quality questioning activity.

A melty medley - why do some substances melt faster than others?

Planning and implementing lessons using the STEMscopes program makes teaching science fun and allows students to learn through discovery. After the lab on Changes from Heat, one of my students made this comment, “I love science, because we can discover things on our own and its okay if we do it wrong. You make our brains work harder by telling us to think about how we could do it a different way and finally we figure it out all by ourselves. You make us smarter, and then we can remember what we learned.”  

Maurine Whitney is a fourth grade teacher at Brill Elementary in Klein ISD.

Recently, the Commissioner of Education convened with twenty-three high performing districts across Texas to discuss the future of education.  15 of the 23, or 65%, of the selected districts were users of STEMscopes™.  You can imagine our ear-to-ear grins as we heard the news!  Still, education in the lone star state has a ways to go and though the consortium has four pivotal areas of discussion (digital learning, learning standards, variety of assessments, and community interaction), poverty is not one of them. 

The effects of poverty are profound on learning.  Students living below the poverty line often endure hardship from a lack of early childhood stimulation, stunted social skills, and a feeling of apathy towards formal education.  It goes without saying that this is unfair to the child and a serious challenge for his or her teacher. 

How can a teacher mitigate or even erase the ill effects of poverty on their student?  Of course, it’s essential to begin by believing that the student is capable and ultimately desires a successful future, but what concrete, actionable steps are there to use in class tomorrow?

Sense of Success:  students can prove knowledge in a huge number of ways; common assessments can sometimes stymie a student’s confidence and ability to demonstrate content mastery.  I know it but I wish I could show you the way I know it. If possible, allow students to take an assessment that is relevant to their interests and skills such as a kinesthetic project, an oral exam, or a game-based one.   STEMscopes 2.0 will feature a new modality of assessments wherein students demonstrate their knowledge by completing an interactive simulation. 

Tracking Success:  it’s hard to be invested in a workout plan long-term when you begin to second-guess how far you’ve come.  Do I really look that much better than I use to?   Students mirror our adult selves.  Sure, you can hand them grade report print outs, but it’s a lot more meaningful when they track themselves and do so visually.  Furthermore, tracking done in pencil gives students a sense that their grade is not set in stone; rather, that their first attempt can be improved when they choose to re-demonstrate their knowledge.  We have a few trackers available for you to use as a starting point here. 

Holistic Learning:  the notion that learning is a set of discreet skills and knowledge goes against what we know as adults.  Learning is a continuum that has only a beginning in ignorance and no horizon.  Students, especially disenfranchised poverty-stricken students, can be turned off by a list of things they have to learn.  How does erosion have anything to do with painting or fractions?  Who decided I had to learn all this?  By merging different parts of curriculum and cross-curricular teaching, not only do you deliver content faster but also more meaningfully.  Instead of isolated camps of knowledge, students develop a network of them and begin to make their own connections between what they learn.  The result:  more creativity, more investment, and an improved ability to show what they know.  STEMscopes™ was built with the holistic classroom in mind – from art, music and math to our upcoming engineering components, we want to address students in as many was as possible.

By no means are these suggestions exhaustive.  Teaching impoverished students is a challenge and a noble one at that.  It is likely to become a bigger issue in the future before a solution to the root cause is found.  Regardless, just because poverty is an issue in the classroom doesn’t mean it has to become a lifelong pattern for our students.

We would love to hear what works in your classroom experience for low SES students and incorporate that into STEMscopes™ for all users.

Our friends at Exploration Nation are about to embark on an ambitious trip and we are thrilled to be partnering with them!  Tune in to their upcoming journey and bring the beauty of Central America streaming into your classroom.

In April of 2013, a team of kids, Special Forces veterans and surgeons will travel from around the world to San Jose, Costa Rica to begin a 14 day scientific expedition through the jungle that will culminate in setting up a surgical clinic for the Rama indians in Nicaragua. 

Why: To inspire and motivate elementary and middle school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics for the betterment of mankind. 

How: For each of the fourteen days of the expedition, Exploration Nation will broadcast live to hundreds of thousands of classrooms around the world. Students can follow Team XN as they trek through the jungles of Central America, perform valuable scientific research and work side by side with doctors to deliver badly needed medical services and supplies. Exploration Nation will also create a series of lesson plans from the Expedition on topics including sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, ethnobotany and medical innovation.

When: Educators can sign up for the free, live broadcast of the Expedition between now and February 15th. 

Rice University’s SciRave has had students dancing to the beat of science for a couple of years. Now mobile versions of the program have them dancing with their fingers.

STEMscopes, a K-12 science curriculum based at Rice, has released six new apps to teach science to youngsters through games and songs. They are available for Android devices through Google Play and for the iPad through Apple’s App Store.

SciRave, first developed by Rice chemist James Tour with the support of the National Science Foundation, combines the power of music, the fun of tactile learning and the world of science in a series of fast-paced games.

“Students can sing along to science songs while matching a series of moving arrows with destination targets,” said Reid Whitaker, director of STEMscopes and executive director of the Rice Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship. “It’s a meeting of kinesthetic learning and music packed with science content.”

As students dive into the apps, they learn standards-based vocabulary through interaction tailored to diverse learning styles. “We envision the app being used in center-based instruction, as an intervention tool and for home enrichment as well as a cross-curricular connection to music, theater and dance classes,” Whitaker said. “In addition, the app is particularly useful with English-language learners and special-needs students, who often struggle to learn and retain new science content.”

The apps cover physical, Earth and life science for grades K-five, but plans are in the works for apps that address students in grades six to eight.

STEMscopes has found great success in Texas. From its beginning less than two years ago, the program has become the top online science curriculum in Texas, with more than 1.2 million student users.

To learn more about SciRave apps, visit stemscopes.com/scirave.  The full press release can be seen here.

These days, there is a wide variety of apps on the market.  More often than not, the quality programs are fee- based.  As more and more schools implement mobile learning devices in the classroom, teachers have to pay out-of-pocket for the apps they need.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have free access to quality apps for your tablet that would reduce stress, help you reach your students, and make you the envy of the whole campus?  We have your app-fix right here! After some careful curating, we’ve hand-picked five apps that we feel can powerfully impact your teaching.  Check out each one in the Apple App Store to learn more. 

Teacher Clicker – Socrative by Socrative

Clicker systems can be frustrating.  They cross-communicate with other classes, require batteries and proprietary software, and can be limited in permitted response types.  Socrative allows you to create quizzes on the fly that anyone can access with a mobile device, laptop, or tablet.  All you need is a web browser. If you teach in a BYOD campus or just want to quickly make online, custom quizzes, this app is for you.

TourWrist by Spark Labs

Field trips are invaluable learning experiences for students that, due to tightened district budgets, are often out of reach for many students.  Travel to out-of-county locations is often impossible.  Why not bring the field experience to your students instead?  TourWrist lets you view locations around the world as if you were standing there.  You can also create your own locale shoots using the app.  Why not show your students what Meteor Crater in Arizona or Chichen Itza in Mexico is like for their projects?  It makes learning about a distant place much more interactive than a photo or even a video.

Google Driveby Google, Inc.

Instant collaboration for lessons plans/resources, form creator, editable spreadsheets, and cloud storage – what else could you want?  Google Drive is your one-stop solution for getting rid of that USB flash drive, sharing everything with fellow students and teachers, sending out surveys, and having a mobile tracker for informal and formal assessments.  Furthermore, it takes just a few minutes to set up and saves you hours of sending pictures, documents, videos, etc. as attachments to your friends and colleagues.  Best of all, you probably already have a Gmail – why not use it to its full potential?

Video Downloader – Download & Play Any Video by Appsneon

Have you seen a YouTube video that would be great to tie into a lesson?  It’s a shame that district firewalls generally block content like YouTube when you need it or internet speeds are too slow to even permit such a download.  Video Downloader allows you to download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and various other sources so you can share it in your classroom.  Now, your small group intervention students can benefit from an enrichment video on their learning objectives that would be otherwise unavailable.  Even better, you could share the video with all your students as pre-work through Google Drive.

Slideshow Remote™ Lite for PowerPoint by LogicInMind

PowerPoint is a great tool for direct instruction.  The problem is that not everyone has a slideshow clicker to add to his or her already stuffed pockets.  Using Slideshow Remote™ you can turn your Apple device into a presentation tool and even annotate slides.  No more walking back and forth to tap the keyboard or asking a student to sit at your desk to advance slides for you.

Feel free to send us any of your favorites.  We know that our newly released DDR-meets-science apps, SciRave (viewable here), are at the top of your list!  Though SciRave will cost you a few dollars to fill a class set of “iDevices,” your school might want to check out Apple’s Volume Purchase Program.  If you plan to purchase 20 apps or more, you can save some big bucks.  The program also facilitates distributing the apps by using a purchase code that starts the download – no need to search for the app or double check that you are going to download the correct one.  You can check out the details and enroll at www.apple.com/education/volume-purchase-program.

2012 was a big year for science.  Big leaps were made in all fields from biology to computer technology.  Share with your students some our favorite highlights of 2012 and inspire discussion about where 2013 will take us!