A recent EdTech Magazine article advocates for the rise of AI in the classroom. Often dubbed “bots” in social media circles, these subtle software programs are using algorithms to help teachers measure student performance.

The article marks the inevitable use of AI and bots in the classroom. The education AI movement extends beyond the edtech sector and includes some of the industry’s biggest content providers, like McGraw-Hill.

Uses for AI extend across diverse subjects and tasks. Whether it’s assessments or grading or recommending next levels of content, AI can help a teacher make smart decisions about how to guide a student and/or a classroom.

Of course, the EdTech Magazine article closes with an almost mandatory, semi-comforting phrase: “We will always need teachers and human interaction in the classroom. Anything else does not compute.”

But if that’s the case, how does AI work with a teacher in the classroom?

Rise of the AI Teacher Advisor

IBM launched its Teacher Advisor with Watson AI program to help educators. The program was developed in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers.

With tests in more than 1000 classrooms, the program aims to save elementary school teachers time through formative assessment, lesson planning, and other actions. In essence, Teacher Advisor is the digital equivalent of a teaching assistant.

We like AI teaching tools like this because we know how overburdened teachers are, particularly public school teachers. Whether they have 30 students in elementary school or 120 in high school, personalizing lessons for individual students or small cohorts is challenging.

That is particularly true not just with class and non-class hours, but also during personal time. Teachers are spending as much as five to seven hours per week just looking for new and interesting content. Then they have to assess, integrate, and launch this content. Not to mention their actual grading and teaching work.

If we consider any relief or assistance to be useful, AI can make a teacher’s life much more reasonable.

But can it replace a teacher? Isn’t that the great fear?

The Diamond Age AI Lesson

Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk classic The Diamond Age picks up this very subject. In the book, three young girls are all given the same nanotech primer to help them learn and understand subjects as well as life skills.

How does the AI primer work out for these girls? As you might expect, it works very differently for each individual student.

In fact, it doesn’t matter that the AI alters itself to meet the students’ needs. The students are unique and make different decisions based on their perspective.

While educational, the primer cannot coach the girls well or help them change their life perspective. In some ways, The Diamond Age illustrates the failure of technology to influence our humanity.

In the end, teaching is more than imparting knowledge upon students. A teacher delivers a very real human perspective, either intentionally or through abstract experience. When given the time to focus, teachers perceive a students’ needs, needs that may not be expressed through performance data.

This human interaction may never be replicated by AI. Perhaps this is why we will always need a teacher’s perspective.

What do you think?

A recent Carnegie report documents the lack of NGSS curriculum available to teachers. The dearth of curriculum content exists despite 52% (25.8 million) of students living in states “that have adopted the NGSS or adapted their standards to meet the expectations of the NGSS.”

But the gist of the Carnegie Corporation paper does not focus on lesson content. More and more Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI) content like that provided via Legends of Learning’s science games is available to teachers.

Rather, the real issue revolves around the lack of materials for the NGSS’s key dimensions of science and engineering practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts (CCC). Frankly, the report suggests a complicated road map to develop this curriculum, as evidenced by the following chart.

While accurate, core issues identified by the report are a direct result of market demand. As the report notes, many state and district education officials don’t understand the nuances of SEPs and CCCs. When they do understand and they demand this content, the education sector will create it.

Other NGSS News

Wisconsin Adapts New Science Standards Based on NGSS

After 80% of districts adopted NGSS standards on their own, Wisconsin went ahead and created its own modified version of the science curriculum standards. One major change was a de-emphasis on specific performance expectations for integrating SEPs, CCCs, and content. Instead, Wisconsin refers to the NGSS performance guidelines as one set of suggestions.

Is Pennsylvania Next?

After New Mexico’s unusually politicized NGSS adoption process and Iowa’s more normal process, many in the industry wonder which state will move towards the standards next. Pennsylvania may be the answer. Governor Tom Wolf is making waves about investing in modern education, and this science teacher wants state STEM education to revolve around NGSS.

Cory Doctorow and Engineering Principles

Speaking of engineering principles, check out this awesome NSTA podcast with author Cory Doctorow. Doctorow’s newest work, Walkaway, features a dystopian future where drones and 3D printers are used to routinely as a means of problem solving and collaboration.

After launching 800 science games for grades 6-8, we heard from numerous educators requesting games for younger grade levels. Ten months later, elementary school teachers can now sign up for first access to Legends of Learning’s new grades 3-5 offering!

Here are the details:

* More than 300 titles
* 56 lessons covered
* Topics span Earth and Space, Life, and Physical Science, including the scientific method
* Based on the NGSS curriculum
* Select state standards coming, including GSE, SOL, and TEKS
* Designed for grades 3-5 with accessibility for select 2nd graders
* Works in tandem with existing suite for grades 6-8

Early Access to Grades 3-5 Games

As with grades 6-8, an elementary teacher’s Legends of Learning account is free with no financial obligations. Just sign up to be notified when the product goes live, then create your account and go.

Be one of the first teachers to access Legends of Learning’s elementary school suite, and help shape the future of science game-based learning for grades 3-5.

Sign up here.

The 74 wrote recently that America will fall one million STEM workers short of its needed workforce by 2022. Think about that, one million potential jobs await today’s students.

That’s an astounding number. The solutions to date are missing the mark, say authors Blair Blackwell and Talia Milgrom-Elcott. Rather than focusing on today’s primary and middle school students and encouraging degrees in science, most STEM programs today focus on retraining existing workforce members.

The 74 article focuses on an initiative called 100k in 10, an effort to train 100,000 “excellent” STEM-savvy teachers. Solutions lock in on partners who execute training and grand challenges. But what grabbed our attention was an article that posed the counterpoint, “It seems like no one is asking classroom teachers what would be most helpful.”

In our experience, the science teachers we work with want to engage students and make STEM an exciting topic for them. Creating one million STEM Workers may be a question of the chicken versus the egg: Is it the science teacher or the tools? More often than not, building a stronger STEM curriculum requires training, resources, and time.

STEM Workers or STEM Warriors?

Inspiring children to enjoy science requires more than the promise of a job. We think that telling students they can get a high paying job if they focus on science won’t be enough. It’s like telling someone they can have perfect teeth if they brush and floss their teeth twice a day.

We agree with the increasingly prevalent philosophies that educators need to 1) make science and STEM fun as a whole and 2) connect it to students’ everyday lives. Children will gravitate to STEM careers when they see it as a means to accomplish their dreams. Then they will become impassioned STEM warriors, rather than someone simply looking for a job.

Making science fun for students remains one of our greatest hopes inside Legends of Learning. If we can provide that spark for a student in a classroom, then we think we’ve achieved our purpose.

The Great STEM Education Challenge

The challenge remains increasing science’s appeal to students on their terms. That’s why we’re dedicated to creating a meaningful game-based learning experience for students. This provides a powerful resource for teachers who are looking to inject a little more fun into students’ lives.

There are countless science teachers across America who feel the same way. They work hard to inspire students every day. Their efforts extend well beyond the classroom, too. Science teachers scour the Internet looking for new exercises in their spare time. They actively seek out extra training. They engage with their peers online and at events to learn from others’ experiences.

Empowering science teachers to succeed remains the challenge. This challenge varies greatly from district to district, school to school, as noted by the 100k in 10 project. But providing universally accessible tools via the Internet can help level the playing field.

Are you looking for content review tips? As the world of standardized testing increases its focus on math and science (hello ACTs), teachers invest more class time on test preparation. Review can be one of the most mundane tasks your class engages in, boring both your students and you, the educator.

That’s why many teachers are looking for content review tips that make test prep fun and meaningful. In fact, many teachers use Legends of Learning’s thousands of games and assessment items for test prep. However, students often need more than one tool to help them lock in and review content day after day.

To help you in your efforts, check out these seven articles filled with tips and tools to strengthen your test prep/content review. Links are in the headlines:

1) Reviving Reviews: Refreshing Ideas Students Can’t Resist – Education World

Looking to end indifference this article asks? Then build a game for your classroom, which of course makes this article our favorite! Education World then links to five resources for teachers to download and use for in class content review.

2) Build Confidence – Edutopia

Did you know that teachers spend as much as 20-50 percent of their class time on test preparation? This article focuses on how to mix up your content review to make that time more useful. Our favorite tip is the last one: Using test preparation to build student confidence.

3) Spaced Learning – Harvard Magazine

You know it’s serious when Harvard is touting a technique. This article details how repeating content over an extended period of time significantly improves learning over the traditional “cram and test” model. Studies show an increase in knowledge by up to 50 percent, and strengthen retention for up to two years. It does take planning your test prep over a period of months instead of a week, but you would improve students’ subject mastery.

4) Turn Review into Play – Edutopia

Want to stop boring the snot out of kids with your test prep? Make it fun and turn exercises into play. We might have a few games for that (Sorry, we couldn’t resist).

5) Five Ways to Make Test Prep Meaningful and Fun – Kathleen Kryza

Don’t miss this article. Besides the usual fun exercises, Kathleen has one very unique tip: Examine your own feelings about the test. If you’re not thrilled about the exam or your class’s potential performance, then you are probably broadcasting negative vibes.

6) Fun In-Class Activities – Apperson

This edtech vendor blog has some great ideas to get students interacting in class during content review. From Jeopardy to a friendly game of Jenga, find fun ways to switch up your test prep.

7) Top 12 Ways to Rev Up Classroom Review Strategies – TeachHub

This is another list article filled with fun ways to mix up content review in class. What caught our eye was letting students serve as teachers and graders. How about a little role reversal to get students engaged?

8) Make Test Prep Meaningful! – Corkboard

This blog post has a singular focus: Have students create their own quizzes. This student-centered activity helps kids master their content while engaging in an authentic, meaningful exercise that has real purpose.

Do you have additional content review tips you would suggest? If so, please add them in the comments section.

Teachers are constantly searching for new science resources and content to diversify their lessons and engage students. Surfing the Internet is a great way to find what you’re looking for, but the Internet is a big place. That’s why some teachers spend as much as five to seven hours a week browsing for content.

If you are looking for more than games, jumpstart your search here. These seven sites can help make it a little narrower.

1) Share My Lesson

Share My Lesson is a fantastic database of science resources, featuring lessons from early childhood through high school. As the name implies, teachers log on and share their own lessons and resources. To date, those total more than 420,000, including more than 11,000 for middle school science alone! They’re all free, and searchable by grade and standards.

2) Teachers Pay Teachers

You’ve probably heard of Teachers Pay Teachers by now. Much like Share My Lesson, TpT hosts lessons crowdsourced from educators. Boasting an even bigger library of more than 2.8m resources, some free and some paid, it’s a fantastic tool for bringing together the genius of teachers everywhere. When you’re searching, you can sort by grade, subject, resource type, and price, or check out the trending topics on their homepage.

3) University of Cincinnati Libraries

The UC Libraries STEM Education page links to a bunch of juicy STEM content across the web. These include science websites, lesson plan libraries, student research databases, educational videos, curriculum resources, and much more. Dig in to this wealth of material, vetted by a major research university.

4) Getting Smart “Smart Lists”

If you don’t know Getting Smart, you should. They publish articles about every education topic from policy to personalized learning. Their “Smart Lists” blog series features resource lists with different themes every month. Find lists of education blogs & newsletters, parent resources & homework help, music & art, and more. Start by checking out this STEM & Maker Resources list from September.

5) Teaching Ideas

Teaching Ideas is a British site that lists an eye-popping amount of resources for teachers. Along with science, teachers can find inspiration for English, “maths” 😉 , computing, art, music, history, PE, you name it — so go ahead and share it with your non-science colleagues! If you’re looking for lesson plans, projects, videos, games, it’s all here, with a search functionality and many levels of filtering.

6) Tes

Tes is an education giant, claiming “the world’s largest online community of teachers” with almost 8 million registered users. Like Share My Lesson and TpT, Tes hosts a marketplace where teachers can share all kinds of resources, free and paid, from pre-K through high school. Their marketplace also features a bunch of discussion forums, as well as resources for exploring the teacher job market (focused on the UK). They also publish a magazine, and publish tons of education-related news. Talk about a go-to education site!

7) Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

Out of the University of British Columbia, CWSEI mainly focuses on research related to science pedagogy in higher education. However, their site lists a wide variety of resources, including tools that can be used in the classroom, but also a plethora of reference books and articles for everything you want to learn about education. The Initiative’s stated goal is to build “a more scientifically literate populace… able to make wise decisions, informed by scientific understanding, about other complex issues” — a mission we can all get behind!

If you’re looking for new science resources, this list is a good place to start. These websites complement the depth and breadth of the thousands of science games and assessment items teachers find on the Legends of Learning platform.

Hello Legends,

A lot has happened at Legends of Learning in 2017, in large part because of teachers and educators like you. I would like to express my personal gratitude for everything that has helped make our science games a useful tool in schools across America, and around the world.

At NSTA, ISTE, and a number of state shows, we met so many incredible educators who are working to improve science learning in schools. This included many ambassadors who helped shape our games and platform.

A small convoy of legends even got the chance to witness the Great American Eclipse (at totality!) with some amazing students from Cobb County, Georgia.

What stands out the most is what superhero teachers like you have done with the platform. Sharing innovative uses in the classroom and giving amazing feedback on potential improvements helps us make science classes legendary every day.

There is much to be proud of and far more to look forward to. None of it would be possible without the teachers who work tirelessly for the benefit of today’s students, those children who will become tomorrow’s leaders.

You can always reply to this email directly and tell me what you think of Legends of Learning. We are eager to help you and your science students succeed.

On behalf of the entire Legends of Learning team, thank you. Stay legendary.

Sincerely,

Vadim Polikov, PhD

Founder & CEO, Legends of Learning

Winter break is the best time to curl up with a mug of hot cocoa and a good book, but there’s always planning to be done for 2018. What’s the best way to combine those activities? Reading one of these great books to gather ideas for STEM activities in the coming year. Check out why these are our top five picks:

1. The Big Book of Makerspace Projects: Inspiring Makers to Experiment, Create, and Learn by Colleen and Aaron Graves

Two school librarians put together this spectacular collection of creative activities. Page through 12 chapters of projects using everything from popsicle sticks to smartphones to 3D Printers. Our personal favorite? Project 7, a Balloon Hovercraft! With 51 projects in all, plus a challenge project for every chapter, this book is chock full of inspiration for your classroom — or even your free time before heading back to school!

2. The Way Things Work Now by David Macaulay

This volume, an updated version of the author’s previous work, The Way Things Work and The Way Things Work Now, explores today’s technology and new inventions, and explains the science behind them. What’s especially cool is that Macaulay explores the technological links between seemingly unrelated products to highlight the engineering principles that unify them! Break out this book to spark your students’ curiosity to kick off STEM activities, such as research projects.

3. The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

With its earliest publication date back in 1997, this is an oldie but a goodie. Enzensberger’s novel teaches important math concepts with through the dreams of a young boy named Robert, accompanied by wild, fun illustrations. The Number Devil is super helpful and entertaining for kids, and you’ll enjoy the read, too! It can inspire countless great activities. Maybe have students get creative and explain a STEM concept as if it were one of Robert’s dreams!

4. The Lego Ideas Book by Daniel Lipkowitz

Ah, the most timeless of toys. There will be tons of new Lego sets coming to kids this holiday season — especially with the new Star Wars movie coming out. (Who’s excited? Nobody more than us!) Open up your kids’ creativity with new ways of using the plastic bricks they’re so familiar with. Maybe you’ve got that big box of random Legos in your classroom? This book will help you turn them into a great engineering and design activity. Sounds like a blast!

5. Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age by Kurt Squire

Check out this book for a deep dive on the extraordinary power of digital games as educational tools. Squire’s work covers highly important, innovative material that will help you understand the future of digital gaming in education, and why it has so much potential. One of the most interesting topics is Squire’s look at how competition, participation, and failure stimulate learning. The book also features case studies on specific learning games, so you can see if they might be a good fit for your class!

We hope you find some inspiration for STEM activities this holiday season. If you do, share your class’s projects with us on social media — we’d love to see them!

We’ve made it to December, the Legendary Season of Giving! While you’re giving your students the gift of engaging science games in the classroom, there may be additional teachers out there who have yet to discover Legends of Learning. Since it is the season of giving, we decided to add to the fun and offer gifts for teachers who refer us.

Between now and December 31, when you refer other science teachers and they start using Legends of Learning*, you’ll receive the following gifts:

• 1 Referral – Gift: Dean Silencio Pez Head (Pez included!)
• 3 Referrals – Gift: LoL T-shirt & Cape set
• 5 Referrals – Gift: Two tickets to Star Wars: The Last Jedi (or a movie of your choice)
• Plus, don’t forget, you also earn 1000 coins for every referral! That’s good for 1000 science games for your students to play.

Give your colleagues the gift of game-based learning and celebrate the Legendary Season of Giving! There’s no better way to liven up a classroom at the end of the calendar year. Start making referrals today! (Not sure how? Find out in the Hall of Knowledge.)

On November 29, STEM Certified leader Richard White delivered a Legends of Learning test prep webinar. Richard is a teacher leader at Griffin Middle School in Cobb County, Georgia, where he has worked for the past 6 years.

With December quickly approaching, many teachers will enter a review period for end-of-year testing. Richard’s webinar provides helpful tips for Legends of Learning teachers to use games for test prep as well as for enrichment, and offers tactics to deploy science games as an engagement technique for distracted students.

View Richard’s test prep webinar and associated PowerPoint presentation below:

Test Prep Webinar Video

Test Prep PowerPoint Presentation

About Richard White

Richard is passionate about teaching and learning, and believes that there is some way to reach every student that he encounters. He has presented professionally at several local conferences, and is responsible for helping to train new teachers at Griffin. Richard joined the Legends of Learning platform in November of last year as an ambassador, and began testing games with his students as soon as they were rolled out. He has also presented on LoL at local conferences.