You made it to the end! Here is your feedback for “Chapter 1”
Think about what strategies worked (and didn't work) for you this time. How can you do well next time?
Author: admin
Question #1
What is the main idea of this chapter?
Question #3
What is an example of electricity in this chapter?
Question #2
The author wrote “You may be surprised how many everyday activities involve electricity!”
What does “involve” mean in this context?
Question #5
What is something that you want to learn about electricity?
Question #4
The author wrote We will learn about important inventions that changed human history forever.
What does invention mean in this context?
Fairfax is STEM: Science Experiments
Our Electricity is Elementary book contains reading and scientific questions along with hands-on science experiments you can do at home. We know that children are naturally curious, and experiments like these help them answer questions and develop problem-solving skills that will help them in future situations.
This experiment has a gap in the circuit so children can explore a wide range of objects. If you do this at home, we suggest creating a simple chart to track “Insulator” and “Conductor”. Ask them what they saw (or observed) that made them certain the material was an insulator or conductor.
Although we try to use everyday materials, we know that copper wire and LED lights may require a special trip. If you want to save yourself the effort, we can vouch for these products on Amazon.
Electricity is Elementary
We are getting really excited for next week’s book release about Electricity is Elementary. This book presents science concepts as reading texts from grades 4 and 5 along with hands-on experiments you can do with everyday materials. Not only will your child learn about electrical current, Ben Franklin, resistors, and circuits; your child will also build vocabulary and reading skills needed for a wide variety of informational texts.
This video from the author shows one of the experiments within the book.
If you are near Fairfax, we encourage you to stop by for our book launch on Tuesday.
edMe Researches
We are always studying the incoming data to connect learning objectives and improve each learning experience. We are also planning these large-scale research efforts:
Technology & Problem Solving: edMe recognizes that problem solving is a skill that can be improved. We are focused on specifically improving students’ problem-solving skills and attitudes within: STEM challenges, writing challenges and mathematical word problems. The U.S. Department of Education accepted our White Paper and we are interested in partnering with:
- Schools/Districts with interest in piloting new materials focused on problem solving across these subjects at the elementary and middle school levels.
- Researchers interested in providing objective, third-party analysis of this intervention. The intervention documents quantitative and qualitative data that can be analyzed in pre-/post-intervention studies.
Research will extend for 4 years as we deeply examine what works and what needs to be improved to maximally improve students’ problem solving skills across these domains. Interested? email us!
Implementing & Evaluating PACT: The University of Texas-Austin and the Meadows Center disseminated Promoting Adolescents’ Comprehension of Text (PACT). The research to date shows that this intervention delivers measurable gains in reading skills for students in middle- and high-school. This study will replicate their intervention using training workshops and virtual supports that will help ensure teachers can easily and reliably implement these methods into their classrooms. The U.S. Department of Education accepted our White Paper and we are interested in partnering with:
- Organizations interested in partnering on workshops for teachers to help them better teach vocabulary and texts structure used in across ELA, Social Studies and Science.
Research will take 5 years to systematically replicate these methods and provide more evidence about this intervention. Interested? email us!
Short-term intervention on Mathematical Word Problems: Students can take pictures and explain their problem solving processes to get feedback (and become more aware) of their problem-solving efforts. This intervention takes 5 days and has 15 mathematical word problems. In addition to solving the problems, students answer questions about their thoughts before they solve the questions and what they can do when they see similar problems next time. This intervention is designed for classrooms and homeschoolers looking to get more practice with rich mathematical word problems.
This intervention is available, and we are looking for as many users as possible so that we can gather a wide range of experiences with this material. We are still looking for:
- Schools, families, and students looking to participate in a study focused on mathematical word problems and educational technologies.
If you are interested, just email us!
edMe Problem Solving
The edMe system was designed to explicitly handle long-term problem solving efforts, like STEM challenges, reading chapter books, and writing extended pieces. We know that these efforts are what students need to be successful in college and careers. We also know that too few states, districts, schools, and families have the supports they need to teach and document these efforts. In all of our outreach, we find that students more deeply engage in the content and develop a true love of learning when they are allowed to deeply explore this content.
In order to solve robust problems, students must have mastery of a variety of tools like reading fluently, broad vocabulary knowledge, math fact fluency, and scientific understandings. We also build students skills in these areas as necessary. But, these are not the end goals, they are steps toward strong, independent learning.
You can see a deeper explanation in some upcoming research, but we wanted to quickly highlight some educational models that are built into edMe Learning adventures.
This ongoing doctoral research allows students to take pictures and describe problem solving processes for mathematical word problems using whole numbers and the four operations. To date, findings highlight students’ need to have strong reading skills to be successful on the math questions.
