Teaching with Gizmos - Part 2, Using the Exploration Guide and Assessment Questions

The Teaching with Gizmos Series:
Part 1 - Purpose | Part 2 - EGs and AQs | Part 3 - Settings

Most ExploreLearning Gizmos come with an Exploration Guide and a set of Assessment Questions. The Exploration Guide suggests a sequence of activities, and asks questions for students to answer as they interact with the Gizmo. The Assessment Questions help you assess student learning.

In truth, the Exploration Guide is not just a resource for students; it’s also a resource for you, the teacher. We recommend that you work through the steps in the Exploration Guide on your own before you use it with your students. Doing so will help you see what the Gizmo can do, what you can teach with it, as well as the pure logistics of how to interact with it. Plus, this will simply increase your comfort level with the Gizmo before class starts.

Customizing the Exploration Guide

To customize the Exploration Guide, first select (highlight) all the text in the EG, copy it to your computer’s clipboard, and then paste into a word-processing program. Once it’s there, you can edit it however you like and then make it a handout for your students.

Here are some ideas for you to consider:

Modifications to the EG

• Add spaces or blanks in the EG for student answers. The answers could be handwritten, typed and printed, or typed and submitted electronically. [View example image.]
• Chop the EG into multiple, shorter documents. [View example image.]
• Remove some parts of the EG entirely. [View example image.]
• Add new activities of your own to the EG. [View example image.]
• Label something as an extension activity, so that you could have some but not all of your students cover that part of the EG. [View example image.]
• Add "stopping points" at which students are to stop and call you over. This way, you could check a key answer or two to see if they’re on the right track, and if not, offer guidance. [View example image.]
• Remove a table for collecting data from the EG, if you want students to organize their own thoughts and make their own table. [View example image.]

Additional documents to go with the EG

• Create a sheet with nothing but blanks for handwritten answers to EG questions. [View example image.]
• Create a document set up so that students can record Gizmo screenshots from various trials of an experiment. [View example image.]

Consider having students submit their answers to the EG or to your worksheet electronically. To do so, have students type directly in the document and save it. Then, to submit, they could email the document to you, or if possible save it to a shared network drive. This would also allow students to include screenshots (using the camera icon or the Copy Screen button) from the Gizmo in their answers.

Using the Assessment Questions

The most common use of the Assessment Questions (AQ) is as a learning check at the end of the lesson. The feedback is helpful for students and teachers. Teachers can view results in real-time (using the Assessment Results link on the teacher home page) and use them to guide any re-teaching needs.

In a teacher-led, one-computer setting, with a projector, you can still informally check student responses. To do so, have each student write his or her answer, in large writing, on a sheet of paper (or on small dry-erase boards) and hold the answer up in the air for you to see. This way, you can get a big-picture view of your class’s responses.

No matter the setting, that is a clever way to use the AQ's before the lesson — an informal pre-test of sorts. Then, if you have enough computers, have students actually submit their answers after the lesson. (Note: Our system is set up to record each student’s first attempt at each set of assessment questions only. Further attempts are not recorded.)

» Continue reading Part 3, Using Gizmos in Different Settings.

Teaching with Gizmos

1. The Purpose of Gizmos
2. Using the Exploration Guide and Assessment Questions
3. Using Gizmos in Different Settings