-Try out the selected lessons of the ISP Tutor!-
Click on "Click Here" below to go through a given lesson or activity!
Activities & Lessons for Middle School Students (More Coming Soon!)
NEW: Picking a Good Research Question & Science Fair Poster activity; see below!
Variables & Values Lesson
This interactive lesson introduces students to basic vocabulary words related to experimental design and science inquiry in general. Students are given feedback on their responses throughout this lesson.
Research Question Lesson
This lesson helps students understand what a “good” general research question is, one that allows them to design a controlled experiment. They will learn about the proper format of a research question that includes an independent variable and dependent variable. They will also gain practice considering whether the variables they’ve selected for their experiment are easily measurable.
Picking a Good Research Question **NEW**
Students often select research questions that are too easy or too difficult for them. This lesson guides students through the process of selecting a research question that is appropriate for their knowledge level. Students will gain metacognitive knowledge and skills as they view a virtual student work through this process, explaining her choices.
Research Question Module
In the Research Question (RQ) module, students can select a research question from eight different topics from four different science areas and view animations for one trial run of a chosen experiment. Students can design experiments for their chosen research question in the TED Tutor (below).
Background Research Module
The Background Research Module (BRM) consists of units on various science concepts relevant to forming hypotheses for the research question they chose in the RQ Module. These units are written to be understandable to students at a middle school level, address common misconceptions about science concepts, and consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Throughout the units ere are embedded questions with immediate feedback to assess student learning and games to reinforce learning.
For more information about the BRM click here.
-Some Audio Available-
TED pretest: Design and Evaluate experiments
The TED pretest features 6 word problems: 3 asking students to design and 3 asking students to evaluate experiments and correct them (if necessary). Students receive one point for each experiment they correctly design, one point for each correct evaluation, and one point for each correction they make (for a total of 9 points).
**Students see their score at the end. Students who score less than about 6 out of 9 on this may benefit from working through the TED Tutor.
TED (Training in Experimental Design) Tutor
The TED Tutor provides instruction on experimental design in the science area and topic students selected (in the Research Question module). Students can select the area, topic, and variable they chose in the RQ module at the beginning of this TED Tutor. Students design and evaluate given experiments and receive immediate feedback on their responses.
(The TED Tutor is currently being further developed and refined, but this demo works.)
TED posttest: Design and Evaluate experiments
The TED posttest is similar to the TED pretest but the experiments are in novel domains; this allows us to determine if students have developed a robust understanding of experimental design.
**As with the TED pretest, students can see their scores at the end (out of 9).
This lesson helps students understand how to create and interpret histograms. It also includes a short assessment, provides corrective feedback to students and a final quiz score.
Science Fair Poster Analysis Activity
This activity gives students opportunities to evaluate and analyze virtual students' science fair posters and also allows them to create their own posters. Students are given feedback on all their responses in this activity and an overall performance score at the end.
Additional Activities & Lessons (for Elementary Students & Up)
The Scientist and the Engineer Comic
This is a fun resource for elementary-aged students to learn about the basic difference between a scientist and an engineer.
The Scientist and the Engineer Lesson
This lesson helps elementary-aged students understand the difference between a scientist and an engineer. They also learn about creating a controlled experiment and get to see a good (controlled) experimental set-up at the end of the lesson. Students can then run the experiment.