Ontario News from ExploreLearning

Welcome to the ExploreLearning Ontario Blog

Link to ExploreLearning.com and

Welcome Teachers and Coordinators!     

My name is Stephen Lippa and this is my first blog post. 

I never imagined that I would start writing a blog. In the past, I have not been sure I have enough interesting things to say that would draw a readership. What I have learned is "a readership" is not the point. First of all, I have come to truly believe that there is great personal value in reflecting on the experiences and people that you encounter. As a teacher, I have always believed in the value of reflection; but that has almost always been a personal and private experience.  A blog is a great way to capture ideas and simply make those ideas avaialable for others to find value. Throughout my career I have personally witnessed the power of teachers coaching teachers to learn new skills. There is no better way for us to grow professionally than to actively engage in reflection and professional discourse. A blog is professional discourse with those you may never meet.  

The purpose of this ExploreLearning Ontario Blog is to post resources, engage in conversation, document success & challenges and share announcements connected to my efforts to support Ontario coordinators and teachers as they integrate Gizmos and Reflex into their teaching practice. ExploreLearning makes great tools to differentiate instruction and reach students in new ways. My hope is that I can make the integration of these tools easier and more successful by facilitating the sharing of ideas and resources.                      

Email: slippa@explorelearning.com      Phone: 1 866 882 4141 x263

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Looking for French translations of Gizmo lesson materials?

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   *NEW*   Grade 9 Gap Closing Supports now available  (last updated: May 28, 2012 by Stephen Lippa)

   

   *NEW*   Smarter Science Supports now available  (last updated: June 1, 2012 by Stephen Lippa) 

More Math Gizmos with New Lesson Materials

ExploreLearning released 3 more new sets of Lesson Materials to the wild:

Conditional Statements Gizmo		Biconditional Statements Gizmo		Dividing Polynomials Using Synthetic Division Gizmo

 

The first two Gizmos are word-tile-based Gizmos that encourage students to think about logic, truth values, and definitions.

The third is a number-tile-based Gizmo that's designed to help algebra students see the connections between synthetic division and polynomial long division.  (They're really the same thing, if you see them side-by-side.)

As always, logged-in teachers will have access to all 4 of our Lesson Material documents (Student Exploration sheet, Exploration Sheet Answer Key, Teacher Guide, and Vocabulary sheet), available either as a Word document or as a pdf.

Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for more to come!

 

Fuel Economy - MPG and L/100 km

I came across Brian Dunning's blog post this morning and it inspired me to draw a few connections between the way we communicate units. The first week of my Grade 11 Physics course has always had 2 objectives: build relationships and classroom culture and delve into real world communication of physics/math thru units (and unit conversions). What struck me about this blog post occured on my way back from dropping my kids off at school while passing the GM dealership advertising "Gas Pain? 60 MPG, 2012 Chevy Cruze".

The question that came to mind first was...

"Come on, really? How can it be that much better than my Honda Fit?" then I asked myself...

"Why are they using MPG in Canada?",  "How many people are mislead by such advertising?" and then...

"How many people even have an inkling of the real meaning (for me that would be $$ per kilometer)  between 40 MPG, 50 MPG and this fantastical claim of 60 MPG?" How would the numbers change if the sign was quoting L/100km?

Here is what Brian had to say,

The salient difference between the MPG and L/100km is not merely that one is metric and the other is not; it’s that they are multiplicatively inverted from one another. One gives fuel per distance, while the other gives distance per fuel.

When we talk about a car’s fuel economy, what we want to know is how much fuel does it use, not how far does it go. MPG answers the latter question, while l/100km is what gives us the answer we want. When we talk about a car that gets great fuel economy, we tend to speak instead in terms of how far it will go. This is the inverse of what we are trying to communicate.

The problem with using MPG — distance over volume of fuel — is that the relationship is not a flat line. It’s deceptive. Values at the lowest end of the mpg scale — where most of us scoff at all such cars — correlate to consumption numbers that are much further apart than those at the high end of the scale.

For example, imagine two cars that get 14 mpg and 17 mpg. Most of us look at them and say they’re both unacceptable. However, consider two cars that register 33 mpg and 50 mpg. Who among us would not clamor for the 50 mpg car, believing it to be far more fuel efficient than the 33? The fact is that in both pairs of examples, the car with the higher figure saves 1 full gallon of fuel on a 100-mile trip. Going from a 14 mpg car to a 17 saves exactly as much fuel (and carbon) as going from a 33 to a 50.

The advantage in using a linear scale of fuel consumption is that it tells us exactly what we want to know, without disguising the reality behind an invisible curve.

 

So, to me this is an interesting inquiry investigation and there are two Gizmos that would be great to use in figuring out your students perceptions and misconceptions of common units we see in advertising (MPG and L/100 km) and fuel economy in general.

         


And the answer to my burning question this morning...

My Honda Fit gets on average 45 MPG, or 5L/100 km and today that would cost me $6.30 to go that 100 km. This fantastical Chevy Cruze...60 MPG, or 4L/100 km for that same 100 km trip would cost $5.15. 

Now, I am clearer on why they are advertising in MPG. What would you choose to put on the sign in front of your Canadian car dealership?

I am with Brian, time to scrap MPG...I think it is bordering on misleading. What do you think?

Sources: http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/05/24/mpg-vs-l100km/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chart_MPG_to_L-100km_v2009-10-08.svg

Reflex won the 2012 SIIA CODiE Award for Best K-12 Instructional Solution!

This award honors the best overall education technology solution for curriculum and content for students in K-12 learning environments.

Gizmos won the same award in 2009, and this year's award marks ExploreLearnng's 5th CODiE win. The CODiE Awards recognize leaders and innovators across the software, digital content and education technology industries. We are honored to be included among these leaders.

The SIIA CODiE Awards website has a list of all the 2012 Award Winners.

 

 

Introducing Paul Fritzsch - Account Executive

ExploreLearning in Canada just grew by another person! I am so pleased to announce the addition of Paul Fritzsch to the ExploreLearning team. Here is a little background info about Paul:

    

Paul was raised and attended public school in Owen Sound, ON, before attending the University of Windsor where he graduated in 1997. He now resides in Uxbridge, Ontario.

  Paul brings 12 years of Education sales and consulting experience to ExploreLearning.  He has worked with hundreds of institutions across North America to successfully implement collaboration, web content management, unified communications, and curriculum solutions.

In Paul's free time he enjoys hockey, golf, mountain biking, soccer, and kiteboarding.

 

Welcome Paul, we are so glad to have you helping us spread the student success stories from Ontario accross Canada!

 

 

Math Gizmos - 3 new sets of Lesson Materials

The math content team is happy to report that we've published 3 new sets of Lesson Materials!

Using Algebraic Expressions Gizmo

Finding Factors with Area Models Gizmo

Isosceles and Equilateral Triangles Gizmo

 

 

As always, logged-in teachers will have access to all 4 of our Lesson Material documents (Student Exploration sheet, Exploration Sheet Answer Key, Teacher Guide, and Vocabulary sheet), available either as a Word document (for easy editing if you like) or as a pdf (smaller file size).

It's an assortment of topics in this batch - from writing algebraic expressions, to number sense (with prime numbers and factor trees), to triangles.  We hope you'll find these useful, and will help you bring inquiry and real understanding to these topics for your students.  (It's a fun challenge to walk students through these lessons with questions rather than just telling them what they need to know. Good questions + a Gizmo can be a powerful formula for understanding rather than memorizing.  That's always what we're after.)

This brings us up to 32 math Gizmos with new Lesson Materials now, as part of our Math Update project!  Lots of outlines and drafts are in progress, so stay tuned for more updated Lesson Materials to come.

 

Gizmos and Reflex at OAME 2012

Six Math Gizmos with new lesson materials!

We're happy to announce that we've published 6 new sets of Lesson Materials!

• Operations with Radical Expressions Gizmo
• Order of Operations Gizmo
• Using Algebraic Equations Gizmo
• Percent of Change Gizmo
• Polynomials and Linear Factors Gizmo
• Rational Functions Gizmo

As always, logged-in teachers will have access to all 4 of our Lesson Material documents (Student Exploration sheet, Exploration Sheet Answer Key, Teacher Guide, and Vocabulary sheet), available either as a Word document (for easy editing if you like) or as a pdf (smaller file size).

We think you'll find some great inquiry-based lessons here, to promote true understanding of the math, and to help you and your students to get the most out of Gizmos.

This brings us up to 29 math Gizmos with new Lesson Materials now, as part of our Math Update project!

 

 

 

Are There Right & Wrong Ways of Using Gizmos?

While math and science teachers have found a variety of ways to use Gizmos in class and with their students we really nned to keep in mind best practices. Consider pairing teaching strategies and techniques such as Kagan, Bloom's taxonomy higher order questiong, cooperative groups, etc. when using Gizmos during classroom instruction. To help you establish effective use ofGizmos, take a moment to look at the graphic organizer below shared by my collegue Corey Peloquin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two New Science Gizmos - Digestive System & Unit Analysis

Have you ever wondered what happens to the food you eat? Most of us are pretty familiar with the path of the digestive system--mouth, esophagus, stomach, and so on. But what would happen if our digestive systems were designed differently? What if food went through the small intestine before the stomach? What would happen if the pancreas was attached to the large intestine? Do we really need a gallbladder?

The new Digestive System Gizmo allows students to arrange the organs and structures of the human digestive system in any way they like. By measuring how well different nutrients are digested and absorbed, students can discover for themselves the important role that each organ plays in the digestive process. Perhaps somebody can use this Gizmo to improve the design of our own digestive system!

An important skill in all areas of science and math is the ability to convert a measurement or value from one unit to another. The Unit Conversions Gizmo allows students to answer questions such as "What is the height of Mount Everest in kilometers?" or "How fast is sprinter Usain Bolt in miles per hour?" With 55 preset problems (and 12 additional randomized questions) to choose from, students will get plenty of practice converting distance, time, speed, mass, volume, and density units. This is a great review before end-of-year tests as well as an excellent way to start off next Fall.

We hope you enjoy the new Gizmos and please let us know what you think!