# data[].attributes.headline
80 Tips for Remote Learning from Seasoned Educators

# data[].attributes.subject
80 Tips for Remote Learning from Seasoned Educators

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
80 Tips for Remote Learning From Seasoned Educators (Published 2020)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Twenty-eight middle and high school teachers from The New York Times Teaching Project tell us how they’re navigating remote instruction this fall.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Order of Operations Math Rap by Mr. Tomai's class

# data[].attributes.body
A ring light is a great teaching tool that comes in many different different styles/ features/ prices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
10'' ring light with 50'' extendable tripod stand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
sensyne led circle lights with phone holder for live stream/makeup/youtube video/tiktok

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10'' Ring Light with 50'' Extendable Tripod Stand, Sensyne LED Circle Lights with Phone Holder for Live Stream/Makeup/YouTube Video/TikTok, Compatible with All Phones.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amazon.com : 10'' Ring Light with 50'' Extendable Tripod Stand, Sensyne LED Circle Lights with Phone Holder for Live Stream/Makeup/YouTube Video/TikTok, Compatible with All Phones. : Camera & Photo

# data[].attributes.body
This is the sound signal Grace and Katie use in their webinars.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
regis tongue drum 8 notes 6 inches chakra tank drum steel percussion padded travel bag and mallets blue

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
REGIS Tongue Drum 8 Notes 6 Inches Chakra Tank Drum Steel Percussion Padded Travel Bag and Mallets blue

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Buy REGIS Tongue Drum 8 Notes 6 Inches Chakra Tank Drum Steel Percussion Padded Travel Bag and Mallets blue: Steel Drums - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

# data[].attributes.headline
Randomly Selecting Students to Participate

# data[].attributes.subject
Randomly Selecting Students to Participate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century.

# data[].attributes.body
Check out mentimeter.com or pollseverywhere.com to create live online polls that your students can take in real time during remote lessons.

# data[].attributes.headline
Nearpod: Interactive Lesson Design Platform

# data[].attributes.subject
Nearpod: Interactive Lesson Design Platform

# data[].attributes.body
Create lessons with built in pauses, polls, images, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nearpod: Foster a love of learning in every student

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create active learning experiences students can’t wait to be a part of.

# data[].attributes.body
Makes slide presentations into interactive conversations for students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Join the Peartember celebration for giveaways, exclusive templates, and more! Learn more >

EFFORTLESSLY BUILD ENGAGING INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT, RIGHT FROM GOOGLE SLIDES

The fastest way to transform presentations into classroom conversations

Imagine if you could engage every student in your class, every day. What if you could instantly see who's confused and who's ready for more? That's the power of Pear Deck. And now, with the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on, you can add the magic of formative assessments and interactive questions to your presentations right from Google Slides.

Design brilliant slides & engage your class

Open up Google Slides & the Pear Deck sidebar

Design a new presentation or open an existing one in Slides. Just getting started with Google Slides? Upload your PowerPoint or Keynote lessons to Google Slides and get going!

DROP IN FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Our team of educators created a library of templates to support learning objectives typically found at the beginning, middle, and end of a class. Think: bell ringers, checks for understanding, exit tickets, and more. Simply drop in one of these templates for instant engagement and watch your class transform.

Create custom questions

You can always create your own custom activity or question from scratch. Use Text, Number Response, Multiple Choice, and Web Slide questions to engage students. Or upgrade to Pear Deck Premium to add Drawing and Draggable™ response types.

ADD AUDIO TO ANY SLIDE TYPE

With the Pear Deck Add-on, you can leave audio instructions, descriptions, or examples for your students to hear while they read the prompts and respond to Interactive Questions in your Pear Deck Slides presentations. Make a new recording instantly or upload one from your computer. The recordings you insert will play in the Student View of your live presentation Sessions, so it's perfect for any remote learning lesson!

Present with Pear Deck

Start your presentation and students will join your Session from any device with a web browser. As you advance your slides, students will be prompted to answer your questions! Students' answers can be displayed anonymously on the classroom projector, so instead of worrying about getting the right answer and feeling silly in front of peers, your students are putting ideas out there in a safe, anonymous way, discussing, and learning from each other.

GO DEEPER WITH THE tEACHER dASHBOARD

As an instructor, you can quickly see what each individual thinks on the Teacher Dashboard. Noticing a lot of wrong answers? Adapt! Take a pause, back up, re-explain. But don't forget to help the learners help each other: Why did some people choose this while others chose that? How can we find out the right answer? What else do we need to know?

INVITE TEACHERS TO YOUR SHARED tEACHER DASHBOARD

This feature enables teachers using Pear Deck Premium to share Session controls and valuable student insight with other designated educators, including student teachers, special educators, co-teachers, or even substitutes. With a real-time view of individual student work and the ability to guide and provide direct feedback, educators teaching together can better support the diverse needs of learners everywhere!

Using Videos, Animations and GIFs in your Pear Deck? Get ready to Power-up!

Want to show a video about the Mars Rover in your Pear Deck presentation? Need to carefully layer in information on a slide to reduce information overload? Found a perfect GIF of a plant emerging from its seed? If you want your videos, animations, and GIFs to play at full resolution when you present with Pear Deck, install the Power-Up Google Chrome extension.

The Power-Up is a free Google Chrome extension. Installing it ensures that videos, animation, and GIFs embedded in your Pear Deck slides play at full-resolution on the projector and student devices - exactly the way they should!

Install the Power-Up from the Chrome Web Store on the device you use in class. Now when you present with Pear Deck, the Power-Up magically enables the display of your videos, animations, and GIFs.

Get the Power-Up

Learn Pear Deck for Google Slides

Watch a video for self-guided Google training:

Or, dive into a self-paced Pear Deck for Google Slides practice deck:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pear Deck for Google Slides is the #1 Slides Add-on, making it effortless for educators to add interactive questions and formative assessments to their presentations.

# data[].attributes.headline
Conscious Teaching's Free Strategies Archive

# data[].attributes.subject
Conscious Teaching's Free Strategies Archive

# data[].attributes.body
www.consciousteaching.com/newsletter-archive

# data[].attributes.body
Features timer, visual cues, name call, and other neat things all in one screen and visual format.

# data[].attributes.headline
8 Strategies to Improve Student Virtual Participation

# data[].attributes.subject
8 Strategies to Improve Student Virtual Participation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In every classroom, there are students who always have their hand raised to participate, and those who are hesitant to engage. Whether they're introverted, tend to think awhile before they contribute, or are just having a bad day, it can be hard to bring kids into discussions who are reluctant to add their voices.

The challenges of getting students to participate have intensified during remote learning, we've heard from many teachers. Digital platforms can create added communication barriers by making it hard to know when to talk, for example, or how to read subtle but important elements of discourse like a person's body language and facial expressions. Additionally, online discussions are often hindered by variability in students' access to technology and by privacy concerns, and consequently many teachers have had to rely on students' submitting work over isolated channels like email, which can leave back-and-forth between peers (and between students and the teacher) by the wayside.

Getting kids to contribute in virtual classrooms takes some work, it turns out. "We keep calling this generation digital natives as if they are simply whizzes at everything computerized. They aren't," wrote Tim O'Brien on Facebook. "They need personal support, scaffolding, and reassurance that technology does not provide. It is simply a tool, not a teacher."

To find out how to improve student discussions and participation in online learning, we culled through hundreds of comments on social media and followed up with more than 20 educators to see how they tackled the challenge last spring. Teachers offered a range of smart strategies, both synchronous and asynchronous, to integrate the values and the voices of all kids-even the quietest or those with disrupted schedules-into their classes this fall.

Synchronous Strategies

For synchronous learning, some teachers said they translated traditional discussion strategies from the classroom to live video chats, while others found that digital tools helped boost classroom participation.

1. Spider web discussion: During remote learning this spring, students in Shai Klima's high school class led their own discussions over Google Meet. Before the live class, students answered questions independently, and then shared their responses at the start of the meeting as a jumping-off point for a broader class discussion.

While students conversed on video, Klima listened and drew lines on a sheet of paper tracking the flow of the conversation, resulting in a spider web. At the end of the discussion, Klima shared the drawing over video, and then asked students to reflect on the experience and what they learned about who talked, who listened, and who built on the ideas of others.

"It has been successful as a means to get kids to credit their peers with helping them come up with new ideas, which helps build rapport," said Klima, who let students struggling with bandwidth call in to the meetings.

2. Using chat to check for understanding: After giving lessons last spring, Paul France had his third-grade students use the Google Chat feature to ask and answer questions or type in emojis, like a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, to show whether they understood a concept. To create structure around the responses, he guided his students in creating norms around using the chat feature-they decided as a group to use only one emoji at a time, for example. France said the practice helped him check for student understanding and pushed students to engage more with the content.

Kindergarten teacher Ruth Calkins, meanwhile, used Zoom chat when holding live lessons with her kindergarten students. She said they enjoyed typing "T" or "F" for true and false questions while answering math problems in the chat box, and some even attempted to write sentences in response to her questions. Typing responses also provided a lot of keyboard practice for her young students.

3. Flip your classroom to stimulate deeper discussion: Forrest Hinton, a high school math teacher, says he found that a blend of asynchronous and synchronous instruction worked well to stimulate student discussion during remote learning.

First, he taught new content asynchronously through recorded videos and online activities. At the start of his live class, students briefly summarized the concepts they had learned together and then divided into breakout rooms to solve related problems in small groups. Flipping his classroom allowed Hinton to spend less class time in direct instruction-and listening to students at the start of class and in small groups helped him identify, and then address, where his students were struggling. "This has allowed me to clarify concepts in a more targeted way and better assist students," said Hinton.

4. Adapting think-pair-share to Zoom: Ryan Tahmaseb, director of library services, says he found that giving more project-based learning activities to his elementary and middle school students-and allowing them more autonomy over assignments-naturally encouraged richer discussions in virtual learning. "If we give students as much freedom as possible to experiment, research, and pursue interests within our content area, then they inevitably have a lot more to say," said Tahmaseb.

When it came to class discussions, Tahmaseb adapted think-pair-share to Zoom. Students were given a prompt, broken into groups, and then placed into breakout rooms to discuss and record their answers on a shared Google doc, which allowed students to share their thinking in writing or read aloud. Since Tahmaseb wasn't in each breakout room to listen to the conversations, the Google doc kept students accountable. Once they returned to the whole class, volunteers from each group shared their answers with everyone.

5. A new twist on show-and-tell: To get students comfortable with online participation, Brittany Collins, the teaching and learning coordinator at Write the World, a global online writing community for middle and high school students, converted the familiar show-and-tell activity into "think, write, share."

In one activity, Collins asked middle and high school students to find a photo, painting, or drawing that represented intergenerational connection and independently respond by writing to the following questions from the Making Thinking Visible Framework before discussing them over video as a class: What are we looking at? What makes you say that? What do you notice (see, feel, know)? What more can we uncover? What do you wonder? "It helps to break the ice in a virtual learning setting where unplanned participation can prove challenging for some students," said Collins.

Asynchronous Strategies

Although some teachers-and students-said that synchronous discussions were more engaging because they resembled a traditional classroom, many educators found that asynchronous discussions were more equitable because they opened up participation to students with low bandwidth, who had schedule limitations, or who were uncomfortable engaging with the full class.

6. Online forums create back-and-forth dialogue: Angelina Murphy, a high school English teacher, said she used Google Classroom's question feature to get her class to respond to readings and discussion prompts during remote learning this past spring. When each student commented, Murphy replied with clarifying questions to create a back-and-forth dialogue and also asked every student to respond to at least two of their peers' comments to create a broader base of discussion.

Fifth-grade teacher Raquel Linares said she used Nearpod Collaborate (Apple, Android), a virtual collaboration board, to get students to share images or write a response to show what they had learned about an article they read. To inspire connection and reflection among classmates, Linares also used Flipgrid (Apple, Android), so that students could hear their peers' voices even though they were remote.

7. Seeing and critiquing peer work through virtual gallery walks: Virtual "gallery walks" give students an opportunity to view their classmates' projects while learning from each other, according to Joe Marangell, a high school social studies teacher. After his students presented their own projects through five-minute screencasts, they were then required to give feedback to at least two other students on theirs.

Using Google Sheets, students provided feedback to their peers by answering the following prompts: What's something new I learned about this topic?; What's something that surprised me about this topic?; What's something I liked about this presentation? The online format gave every student the opportunity to see their peers' work and their assessment on theirs for deeper reflection, Marangell said.

8. Moving station brainstorming online: When carousel or station brainstorming activities are conducted in traditional classroom environments, small groups of students rotate around the room to different stations to answer prompts-and view and add to each groups' responses.

To translate this online, Marangell divided his students into groups online and created shared Google docs-or a series of Google slides-for the prompts/questions. Each group left their thoughts under the questions by the assigned date and then followed up by commenting on the other groups' responses the next day. "The strategy still allows them to maintain a sense of classroom community [in a virtual setting]," said Marangell.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Educators share their best synchronous and asynchronous strategies to boost student participation during online learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Virtual field trips are a game changer. Not only do they fill in for real field trips when budgets and other roadblocks prevent in-person options, but virtual field trips also open doors to educational experiences all over the country and the world, both past and present. No fundraising or permission slips required!

(Note: For anyone who needs it, YouTube offers a closed-captioning option. Just click the CC button in the bottom right-hand corner.)

Amazon Career Tours are free virtual field trips that inspire students to pursue careers of the future. Tour whenever, wherever on Kahoot! Each tour comes with a Teacher Toolkit that includes a facilitation guide and student worksheets.

2. The Zoo

There are so many amazing online options when it comes to zoos that we couldn't narrow it down to just one. Most zoos have live webcams in some of their most popular exhibits, such as the KC Zoo Polar Bear Cam and the Giant Panda Cam at Smithsonian's National Zoo. However, some zoos offer a more in-depth look. You'll definitely want to check out the San Diego Zoo as their site for kids includes behind-the-scenes videos and stories, as well as a variety of printable activities and online games. Check out our full list of virtual zoo goodness.

3. The Aquarium

It's a similar story with aquariums. You have your pick of live webcams, but our favorites are the Georgia Aquarium's Ocean Voyager webcam (wait for the whale shark!) and the "Jelly Cam" at Monterey Bay Aquarium (so soothing). The Seattle Aquarium even has a 30-minute video tour. Want more under-the-sea fun? Here's our ultimate list of virtual aquarium field trips.

4. The Farm

The classic preschool field trip goes online! You can have your pick of dairy farm field trips, but we like this one from the Dairy Alliance and this one from Stonyfield Organic. Farm Food 360 gives students the opportunity to immerse themselves in Canadian farm and food tours-from raising pigs to making milk and cheese. We're also loving these virtual egg farm field trips from the American Egg Board.

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

5. An Art Museum

We found 20 art museums with virtual tours, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art's # MetKids and its awesome Where's Waldo? setup. And you can't miss the world-famous Louvre in Paris (no passport needed!). Check out the current virtual tours: Traveling Materials and Objects, the Advent of the Artist, the Body in Movement, and Founding Myths: From Hercules to Darth Vader!

6. A National Park

From webcams at Hawaii volcanoes to a virtual run along the rim of the Grand Canyon, you have tons of options here. Our top pick would have to be Yellowstone. The interactive maps are a great way to see the Mammoth Hot Springs and Mud Volcano, but we think kids will be psyched about the Old Faithful Geyser livestream and the opportunity to make their own predictions for its next eruption. Check out everything the National Park Service has to offer virtually.

7. A Planetarium

Through Stellarium Web, kids can explore over 60,000 stars, locate planets, and watch sunrises and solar eclipses. If you enter your location, you can see all the constellations that are visible in the night sky in your corner of the world.

Take your students on a virtual field trip of a recycling center and a modern landfill. Plus, there's a full-on curriculum that includes lesson plans, take-home handouts, and more.

Nickelodeon teamed up with two astronauts on the International Space Station to demonstrate how slime reacts to microgravity and had kids reproduce those same demonstrations back here on Earth. It makes for an amazing 15-minute virtual field trip.

The Nature Conservancy has a brand-new virtual field trip entitled "You're the Scientist! Citizen Science, Frogs & Cicadas." Check out their full library of videos on topics like climate change and water security.

Discovery Education hosts a variety of virtual events -each with a companion guide with hands-on learning activities. Current offerings include "Making a New Life: The Courage of a Refugee" and "The Future Is Now" (architectural and engineering innovations). Stay tuned for their upcoming civics virtual field trip, "The American Ideal."

This virtual field trip from Great Lakes Now has three components: coastal wetlands, algae, and lake sturgeon. Each video is a quick five minutes long.

Explore online exhibits and discover the history and evolution of play. Check out board games that changed play, sports video games that shaped digital play, and the making of Monopoly to name a few.

Kids can learn about the most recent Census and how census data is collected and used. This virtual field trip also features interviews with subject matter experts and an interactive challenge.

The "Museum of We the People," the Constitution Center serves as a "headquarters for civic education." Check out the Interactive Constitution section, and be sure to watch the virtual tour.

Houston, we have a virtual field trip. Three, actually. All with companion educator guides. The star of the show is the behind-the-scenes tour of the Johnson Space Center.

Boise State put together this fully interactive virtual field trip with text, photos, audio, and video about the history of music. The four featured music locations are: Vienna, Austria; New Orleans, Louisiana; Cleveland, Ohio; and Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia.

This living-history museum provides a look into life in an early American community. The website offers five different webcams featuring areas such as the tavern and the armory.

This virtual experience of George Washington's home is incredibly well done. Enter the different buildings-from the opulent mansion to the chilling slave quarters-and click on different items for video and text explanations.

This virtual tour comes with a real tour guide! Blaine Kortemeyer is the Assistant Chief of Interpretation and Education, who lends his expertise on the building of this national monument. The 3D Explorer is also an excellent tool.

Take a visit to the National WWII Museum for "a cross-country virtual expedition to discover the science, sites, and stories of the creation of the atomic bomb." Don't forget to download the classroom guide!

For a look inside the iconic building, check out the 360° tour of some of the most historic rooms of the People's House, from the Situation Room to the Oval Office. Examine each room and check out the contents up close.

The National Museum of Natural History's virtual experiences are self-guided, room-by-room tours of permanent, current, and past exhibits. Be sure to send kids to the second floor Bone Hall so they can take a look at all different kinds of skeletons.

A collaboration with over 1,200 leading museums and archives, Google Arts & Culture is an incredible storehouse of monumental works of art. We recommend the Street View and Play sections.

Boasting the world's largest collection of 360° image videos, 360 Cities provides kids with the opportunity to see stunning panoramas across the globe, including their video of the ice floe on the Vistula River in Poland.

It's the official residence of the Queen of England, and boy, is it opulent! Get a peek inside the gorgeous Grand Staircase, White Drawing Room, Throne Room, and Blue Drawing Room.

See one of the wonders of the world with this amazing, thousands-year-old fortification system known the world over. This virtual tour has four scenes available (you have to pay to get access to all 14). The bird's-eye view of Mutianyu pass is a highlight.

Most of us recognize the giant stone statues of Easter Island, but what's the story behind them? Nova's online adventure "Secrets of Easter Island" delves into the mystery with a virtual tour.

National Geographic lets you explore the world's largest cave, located in Vietnam. Use the interactive map to enjoy the fully immersive experience (sound on!).

You don't need a time machine! Discovering Ancient Egypt has a ton of free resources, but it's the interactive pyramid map and 3D temple reconstructions that really give it a field trip feel.

Virtually visit Turn Back the Clock, a museum exhibit that ran for two years at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. Through compelling personal stories, innovative interactive media, and pop culture artifacts, the exhibit takes guests through seven decades of history-from the dawn of the nuclear age to significant policy questions our leaders face today.

No, really! You can absolutely "go" to the red planet. With Access Mars, you can see the actual surface of Mars, recorded by NASA's Curiosity rover. Trust us-don't skip the intro. And if your kids liked that, check out this 4K tour of the moon. These may go down in history as some of the best virtual field trips your students get to experience.

Take a virtual tour of this historical battleship located on the Camden waterfront. This battleship has traveled more miles than any other!

No need to travel to Rome! Take in the amazing art and architecture located in the Vatican Museums with these 360-degree views.

Download the app and climb aboard the virtual tram line! Take a virtual walk through the Space Center Houston with informational stops along the way.

Virtually visit museum rooms in the famous Louvre located in Paris. Even check out The Louvre kids' site for student-friendly galleries and stories. You can't visit The Louvre without seeing the Mona Lisa, so check out their immersive Mona Lisa experience available in the app store.

This interactive tour of Ellis Island lets students explore places like the Baggage Room and the Stairs of Separation through short stories, historical photographs, videos, and audio clips. Students can also hear the stories of real kids who recently immigrated to the United States, explore colorful charts and graphs with immigration data, and watch a 30-minute movie that includes a Q&A with National Park Service Rangers who explain what coming to America was like for many immigrants.

38. Plimoth Patuxet Museums

Travel back to the 17th century with options for free, on-demand, digital resources or a live, 1-hour virtual school program led by a Plimoth Patuxet Contemporary Indigenous Museum Educator. Students explore Wampanoag daily life and history; discover the real history of Thanksgiving and the legend behind it; meet a 17th-century Pilgrim; get an interactive sneak peak into 17th-century wardrobes; and learn about simple machines and water power at the Plimoth Grist Mill. There are also options for virtual hands-on history workshops, including Wampanoag Pottery and Write Like a Pilgrim.

When you can't visit the museum in person, 3D virtual field trips to the Children's Museum Houston are the next best thing. All videos are produced and curated by museum educators and feature hands-on activities that can be done in the classroom. Topics include nutrition, math, states of matter, forces and properties of water, and more.

Beyond the Battle Field is a virtual field trip for grades 2-8 hosted by Lauren Tarshis, author of the I Survived historical-fiction series for kids. Students will meet a museum educator as well as the museum curator, and explore artifacts and documents from the American Revolution. Plus they'll hear the stories of teens who served during the war. There's also a Classroom Kit available with a vocabulary list and discussion questions by grade level.

If you liked this roundup of the best virtual field trips and want more resources like this, be sure to subscribe to our newsletters.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
40 Amazing Educational Virtual Field Trips

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You can't always get there in person, but lots of places will let you "visit" online. These are the best virtual field trips out there!

# data[].attributes.body
Effective strategy to reduce stress & anxiety for students or teachers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stop Anxiety | 4-7-8 Calm Breathing Guide

# data[].attributes.headline
51 Mindfulness Techniques for Kids & Teens

# data[].attributes.subject
51 Mindfulness Techniques for Kids & Teens

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mindfulness Exercises for Kids in the Classroom - Waterford.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Use these 51 mindfulness activities to help children recognize and manage their thoughts, emotions, and actions—all important SEL skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
51 Mindfulness Exercises for Kids in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.body
Hip-Hop Videos & Activities for All Subjects Areas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Educational Hip-Hop Songs & Videos for All Subjects, K-12

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Flocabulary is a library of songs, videos and activities for K-12 online learning. Hundreds of thousands of teachers use Flocabulary’s educational raps and teaching lesson plans to supplement their instruction and engage students. Our team of artists and educators is not only committed to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child.

# data[].attributes.body
This was created with scientific sketching in mind but could work for other content! Good for reluctant sketchers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It seems JavaScript is either disabled or not supported by your browser. To view this site, enable JavaScript by changing your browser options and try again.

Jump to main content

Why Practice?
Conducting science involves careful observation and drawing what you see. Most students won't know where to start if you ask them to sketch a crayfish, a beaker or even a rock. Lay the foundation for sketching by explicitly teaching the following techniques. That way, students will build the confidence and skills they need to sketch during science investigations.

Scientific sketching is about looking at something so closely you notice something new.

The science notebook is a useful tool for both data stages: collection and analysis.

Use "windowpanes" to take stock of materials at the beginning of an investigative unit.

Appropriate for: 3rd Grade - 12th Grade

Activity Time: 45 minutes

Subjects: Science Notebooking, Visual & Performing Arts

Close

The Academy needs your support.

Please contribute to the Academy Relief Fund today to support world-class research and science outreach, expert care and enrichment for our nearly 40,000 live animals, and fresh educational resources at a time when young minds need them most.

Donate Now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lay the foundation for sketching by explicitly teaching the following techniques.

# data[].attributes.body
Check out Mr Parr's Youtube channel for various video parodies covering a wide range of science topics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mr. Parr's Science Songs. If you are looking for the lyrics for my songs, mp3's and videos, click on the link for "Mr.Parr's Lyrics and mp3's".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Demonstrate key math concepts in your classroom using our new virtual manipulatives!

# data[].attributes.body
Awesome for lessons or a brain break!

# data[].attributes.body
Terrific curriculum & resources for making math lessons engaging and rigorous.

# data[].attributes.body
Movement and songs for primary concepts. Students love them!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jack’s music is research-based and teacher-approved to focus on helping children learn important state, national, and early childhood standards. All of Jack’s songs and videos engage children with not only great educational content, but with cool beats kids love and fun movements.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Adding and Subtracting Decimals Song - Fall Out Boy Parody

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sesame Street: Janelle Monae - Power of Yet

# data[].attributes.body
This is a personal favorite from the Singing Walrus!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
The Singing Walrus - English Songs For Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Big Numbers Song | Count to 100 Song | The Singing Walrus

# data[].attributes.body
The best for having students respond to each other online by video!

# data[].attributes.body
100 digits of Pi

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Pi Song  (Memorize 100 Digits Of π) | SCIENCE SONGS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Quadratic Formula Song - With Harmony

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gettin' Triggy Wit It (WSHS Math Rap Song)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wakko's 50 State Capitols with Lyrics/Subtitles

# data[].attributes.body
Learn why taking hand-written notes leads to greater learning and retention than taking typed notes.

# data[].attributes.headline
Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Teens

# data[].attributes.subject
Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Teens

# data[].attributes.body
Check out the "podcast" and "resources" sections on the screenagers website for both research studies and solutions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Join Delaney Ruston, MD, a leading authority on parenting in the digital age and the filmmaker of the award-winning Screenagers movies, as she explores strategies for raising screen-wise and tech-balanced youth. Through interviews with researchers, thought leaders, and young people themselves, the Screenagers Podcast delivers the latest in science along with practical tips. Most episodes are geared for parents, kids and teens to listen to and thus spark common ground for inspired conversations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Join Delaney Ruston, MD, a leading authority on parenting in the digital age and the filmmaker of the award-winning Screenagers movies, as she explores strategies for raising screen-wise and tech-balanced youth. Through interviews with researchers, thought leaders, and young people themselves, the Screenagers Podcast delivers the latest in science along with practical tips.

# data[].attributes.body
Read about the physical, social, emotional, & educational benefits of laughter!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
E.B. White famously quipped, "Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process." At the risk of committing some sort of "humor-cide," a type of scientific dissection must take place if teachers are to consider harnessing the powerful effects of humor, not only to increase joy and enhance the classroom environment, but also to improve learner outcomes.

The Funny Bone Is Connected to the Sense of Wonder

Teachers understand that humor is inherently social. How many times have you heard that same "Orange who?" knock-knock joke spread through your classroom? The contagious nature of humor naturally builds a sense of community (PDF, 731KB) by lowering defenses and bringing individuals together. If the brain is faced with an inconsistency, then laughter is the response when it is resolved in an unexpected way. This sentence, "Memorization is what we resort to when what we are learning makes no sense," may make us smile as our brains resolve its inconsistency.

Essentially, humor activates our sense of wonder, which is where learning begins, so it seems logical that humor could enhance retention. A Pew Research poll showed that viewers of humorous news shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report exhibited higher retention of news facts than those who got their news from newspapers, CNN, Fox News, or network stations. When Stephen Colbert demands, "If we don't cut expensive things like Head Start, child nutrition programs, and teachers, what sort of future are we leaving for our children?", viewers laugh and also retain the knowledge of that specific budget issue.

A substantial body of research explains why we remember things that make us laugh, such as our favorite, hilarious high school moment or the details of that funny movie we saw last weekend. Neuroscience research reveals that humor systematically activates the brain's dopamine reward system, and cognitive studies show that dopamine is important for both goal-oriented motivation and long-term memory, while educational research indicates that correctly-used humor can be an effective intervention to improve retention in students from kindergarten through college.

Foolishness as a Tool

What does "correctly used" mean? Let's take a closer look at some of the classroom research to find out. In one study, researchers asked nearly 400 college students to document their teachers' appropriate or inappropriate use of humor, their effectiveness as teachers, and how students perceived the humor. The results of this study showed that related, appropriate humor resulted in increased retention, while inappropriate, cruel, or unrelated humor did not. The study also discovered that humor can be perceived and appreciated without improving retention -- essentially, the student can think a teacher is "funny" but not show an improvement in retention. So, just being silly may get your students' attention, but may not lead to better retention. These researchers concluded that for improved retention, appropriate, topic-related instructional humor is most effective.

"According to recent surveys, 51 percent of the people are in the majority." Did that statistics joke make you smile? Statistics may not be the first field that comes to mind when you think of content-related humor, but researchers wondered if humor could increase retention even in typically "dry" courses. In this study, college students listened to statistics lectures with and without content-related humor. They were then tested over the material and completed surveys regarding their enjoyment of the lectures. The test and survey results showed that retention was strongest in the lectures with content-related humor, and that students reported more enjoyment in the experience.

Age-Appropriate Humor

What about using humor with adolescents? If the idea of using humor in front of a classroom of judgmental teenagers makes you more nervous than a rookie teacher in his or her first parent-teacher conference, consider the research showing that adolescents tend to release more dopamine and have more dopamine receptors than adults. Because of their hyper-responsive dopamine reward system, adolescents may be uniquely primed to react positively to educational humor. Try telling a funny story or allowing your students to come up with humorous examples in their projects or discussions. Teach Like a Pirate has some great ideas for enhancing the humor in a high school classroom.

The children's TV show Sesame Street has harnessed the power of humor for decades. If you were asked to recall something from watching Sesame Street as a child, could you? Most likely, yes. You may remember Grover's silly antics, Mr. Noodles' constant confusion, or Big Bird struggling to get his friends to believe Mr. Snuffleupagus was real. That's why researchers chose Sesame Street episodes to test the impact of humor on retention and engagement in young children. Kindergarten and first grade students watched either a humorous or non-humorous Sesame Street segment. When content was tested, the children who watched the humorous segments scored higher and showed better engagement than the control group. Their engagement transferred even to the non-humorous portions of the lessons, resulting in improved retention throughout.

Here are some research-supported tips for using humor to increase retention:

Do

Use humor to enhance classroom joy

Use humor to develop a sense of community

Use content-related humor

Use age-appropriate humor

"Sandwich" humor between instruction and repetition

Avoid

Sarcasm

Cruel or inappropriate humor

Forced humor

Off-topic humor

Too much humor

About That Frog. . .

To sum up, we can turn to a meta-analysis of 40 years of educational humor research indicating that humor increases the strength of human connections, and that non-aggressive, relevant, appropriate humor appears to be a helpful learning tool. It seems to be particularly useful to sandwich humor between instruction and repetition. The authors of this meta-analysis caution that not everyone is naturally humorous, so educators shouldn't force it. Watching someone struggle to be funny is a very awkward experience and can defeat the purpose. Developmental differences must also be considered, as younger students may find irony, sarcasm, and exaggeration difficult to understand.

Although we may have slaughtered the proverbial frog in this analysis, these studies indicate that the use of appropriate, content-specific humor to reinforce concepts can be a positive tool to improve retention. Educators can utilize humor's systematic activation of the dopamine reward system to reinforce the brain's pathways to new knowledge.

Have you noticed humor-enhanced retention in your classroom?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Laughter and Learning: Humor Boosts Retention

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
E.B. White famously quipped, "Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process." At the risk of committing some sort of "humor-cide," a type of scientific dissection must take place if teachers are to consider harnessing the powerful effects of humor, not only to increase joy and enhance the classroom environment, but also to improve learner outcomes.

# data[].attributes.body
Compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough
algorithms, knowledgebase and AI technology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wolfram|Alpha is a computational knowledge engine for computing answers and providing knowledge; it is not a search engine.

# data[].attributes.body
Great app for ECE educators and family service workers for Distant Learning and Family Engagement including tracking in-kind.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
- Interactive child care report and childcare portfolio

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
PRESCHOOL PORTFOLIO APP- LEARNING GENIE

Learning Genie also provides a useful application for portfolio-building. The portfolio tracking and tagging systems could be readily applied to DRDP 2015, Florida VPK, Head Start (HS), Early Head Start (EHS), Montessori, and other state or private-backed assessment tools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We provide the most flexible and powerful portfolio and assessment rating tools for child development observation, documentation, and assessment rating.

# data[].attributes.body
We do "Puzzlements" every week in my class!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wondering what these puzzlements are like? Here are some of my favorites:

# data[].attributes.body
Learn simple solutions to the problem of zoom fatigue.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Even as more people are logging onto popular video chat platforms to connect with colleagues, family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford researchers have a warning for you: Those video calls are likely tiring you out.

Prompted by the recent boom in videoconferencing, communication Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), examined the psychological consequences of spending hours per day on these platforms. Just as "Googling" is something akin to any web search, the term "Zooming" has become ubiquitous and a generic verb to replace videoconferencing. Virtual meetings have skyrocketed, with hundreds of millions happening daily, as social distancing protocols have kept people apart physically.

In the first peer-reviewed article that systematically deconstructs Zoom fatigue from a psychological perspective, published in the journal Technology, Mind and Behavior on Feb. 23, Bailenson has taken the medium apart and assessed Zoom on its individual technical aspects. He has identified four consequences of prolonged video chats that he says contribute to the feeling commonly known as "Zoom fatigue."

Bailenson stressed that his goal is not to vilify any particular videoconferencing platform - he appreciates and uses tools like Zoom regularly - but to highlight how current implementations of videoconferencing technologies are exhausting and to suggest interface changes, many of which are simple to implement. Moreover, he provides suggestions for consumers and organizations on how to leverage the current features on videoconferences to decrease fatigue.

"Videoconferencing is a good thing for remote communication, but just think about the medium - just because you can use video doesn't mean you have to," Bailenson said.

Below are four primary reasons why video chats fatigue humans, according to the study. Readers are also invited to participate in a research study aimed at developing a Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale (ZEF) Scale.

Four reasons why
1) Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.
Both the amount of eye contact we engage in on video chats, as well as the size of faces on screens is unnatural.

In a normal meeting, people will variously be looking at the speaker, taking notes or looking elsewhere. But on Zoom calls, everyone is looking at everyone, all the time. A listener is treated nonverbally like a speaker, so even if you don't speak once in a meeting, you are still looking at faces staring at you. The amount of eye contact is dramatically increased. "Social anxiety of public speaking is one of the biggest phobias that exists in our population," Bailenson said. "When you're standing up there and everybody's staring at you, that's a stressful experience."

Another source of stress is that, depending on your monitor size and whether you're using an external monitor, faces on videoconferencing calls can appear too large for comfort. "In general, for most setups, if it's a one-on-one conversation when you're with coworkers or even strangers on video, you're seeing their face at a size which simulates a personal space that you normally experience when you're with somebody intimately," Bailenson said.

When someone's face is that close to ours in real life, our brains interpret it as an intense situation that is either going to lead to mating or to conflict. "What's happening, in effect, when you're using Zoom for many, many hours is you're in this hyper-aroused state," Bailenson said.

Solution: Until the platforms change their interface, Bailenson recommends taking Zoom out of the full-screen option and reducing the size of the Zoom window relative to the monitor to minimize face size, and to use an external keyboard to allow an increase in the personal space bubble between oneself and the grid.

2) Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.

Most video platforms show a square of what you look like on camera during a chat. But that's unnatural, Bailenson said. "In the real world, if somebody was following you around with a mirror constantly - so that while you were talking to people, making decisions, giving feedback, getting feedback - you were seeing yourself in a mirror, that would just be crazy. No one would ever consider that," he added.

Bailenson cited studies showing that when you see a reflection of yourself, you are more critical of yourself. Many of us are now seeing ourselves on video chats for many hours every day. "It's taxing on us. It's stressful. And there's lots of research showing that there are negative emotional consequences to seeing yourself in a mirror."

Solution: Bailenson recommends that platforms change the default practice of beaming the video to both self and others, when it only needs to be sent to others. In the meantime, users should use the "hide self-view" button, which one can access by right-clicking their own photo, once they see their face is framed properly in the video.

3) Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.

In-person and audio phone conversations allow humans to walk around and move. But with videoconferencing, most cameras have a set field of view, meaning a person has to generally stay in the same spot. Movement is limited in ways that are not natural. "There's a growing research now that says when people are moving, they're performing better cognitively," Bailenson said.

Solution: Bailenson recommends people think more about the room they're videoconferencing in, where the camera is positioned and whether things like an external keyboard can help create distance or flexibility. For example, an external camera farther away from the screen will allow you to pace and doodle in virtual meetings just like we do in real ones. And of course, turning one's video off periodically during meetings is a good ground rule to set for groups, just to give oneself a brief nonverbal rest.

4) The cognitive load is much higher in video chats.

Bailenson notes that in regular face-to-face interaction, nonverbal communication is quite natural and each of us naturally makes and interprets gestures and nonverbal cues subconsciously. But in video chats, we have to work harder to send and receive signals.

In effect, Bailenson said, humans have taken one of the most natural things in the world - an in-person conversation - and transformed it into something that involves a lot of thought: "You've got to make sure that your head is framed within the center of the video. If you want to show someone that you are agreeing with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. That adds cognitive load as you're using mental calories in order to communicate."

Gestures could also mean different things in a video meeting context. A sidelong glance to someone during an in-person meeting means something very different than a person on a video chat grid looking off-screen to their child who just walked into their home office.

Solution: During long stretches of meetings, give yourself an "audio only" break. "This is not simply you turning off your camera to take a break from having to be nonverbally active, but also turning your body away from the screen," Bailenson said, "so that for a few minutes you are not smothered with gestures that are perceptually realistic but socially meaningless."

ZEF Scale

Many organizations - including schools, large companies and government entities - have reached out to Stanford communication researchers to better understand how to create best practices for their particular videoconferencing setup and how to come up with institutional guidelines. Bailenson - along with Jeff Hancock, founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab; Géraldine Fauville, former postdoctoral researcher at the VHIL; Mufan Luo; graduate student at Stanford; and Anna Queiroz, postdoc at VHIL - responded by devising the Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale, or ZEF Scale, to help measure how much fatigue people are experiencing in the workplace from videoconferencing.

The scale, detailed in a recent, not yet peer-reviewed paper published on the preprint website SSRN, advances research on how to measure fatigue from interpersonal technology, as well as what causes the fatigue. The scale is a 15-item questionnaire, which is freely available, and has been tested now across five separate studies over the past year with over 500 participants. It asks questions about a person's general fatigue, physical fatigue, social fatigue, emotional fatigue and motivational fatigue. Some sample questions include:

How exhausted do you feel after videoconferencing?

How irritated do your eyes feel after videoconferencing?

How much do you tend to avoid social situations after videoconferencing?

How emotionally drained do you feel after videoconferencing?

How often do you feel too tired to do other things after videoconferencing?

Hancock said results from the scale can help change the technology so the stressors are reduced.

He notes that humans have been here before. "When we first had elevators, we didn't know whether we should stare at each other or not in that space. More recently, ridesharing has brought up questions about whether you talk to the driver or not, or whether to get in the back seat or the passenger seat," Hancock explained. "We had to evolve ways to make it work for us. We're in that era now with videoconferencing, and understanding the mechanisms will help us understand the optimal way to do things for different settings, different organizations and different kinds of meetings."

"Hopefully, our work will contribute to uncovering the roots of this problem and help people adapt their videoconference practices to alleviate 'Zoom fatigue,'" added Fauville, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. "This could also inform videoconference platform designers to challenge and rethink some of the paradigm videoconferences have been built on."

If you are interested in measuring your own Zoom fatigue, you can take the survey here and participate in the research project.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Four causes for 'Zoom fatigue' and their solutions | Stanford News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's not just Zoom. Popular video chat platforms have design flaws that exhaust the human mind and body. But there are easy ways to mitigate their effects.