Community reviews for Gizmos

Overall, I really like the product. It is a great way to have the students interact with math as opposed to just doing problems. As a teacher, it is an efficient way to collect data on my student's understanding. Because I can immediately see the results to the assessment questions, I can easily determine which students are struggling and differentiate my instruction.

I have found the explorelearning simulations to be an asset to my class. They are well done and allow for a visualization of some science concepts that I could not achieve in a standard lab experience.

I really like them! They help some topics come alive for students. I like the topics (for Biology.) They are simple and easy to use and students get the hang of them quickly. Sometime students don't want to "read" ALL the directions so they need redirection. Some of the quizzes at the end of the activity could be improved (i.e. some are too easy and don't require the student to actually do the lab.)

I think this is a very good learning tool. Although there are Gizmos for many math and science concepts, I have mostly used the science Gizmos. I like the way the Student Exploration sheets that are provided start with some open-ended inquiry and then guide the students to form and test hypothesis, so they are practicing the scientific process as well as learning the content. Very recently they have introduced an app for using the Gizmos on iPads, which is very helpful. I have not been able to download the app on the iPad 1 however.

We've been using the science 'gizmos' in explorelearning.com for several years in our school district. Science teachers from elementary to our secondary schools assign the simulations to students as part of their curriculum. The site contains THOUSANDS of math and science simulations which can be searched for by topic, grade, and even state standards (and Common Core standards.) Most of the gizmos include a 'student exploration' sheet which tests the student's prior knowledge and also assesses their understanding of the gizmo. What I really appreciate is that the site provides this student exploration sheet in both PDF and Word formats. Having the Word format allows us to edit and manipulate the questions so that we can adjust questions based on our student's learning needs. Students with IEPs aren't always able to finish the entire printable assessments so the editable format allows us to easily remove or simplify some of the assessment questions in the exploration sheets.

I have extensively used this website for science content, but the math simulators (manipulative) are helpful too. Whats really nice about this website is that you can look for simulations by standard. This website will become more powerful as they increase the amount of offered simulations.

I think that this product has a lot of fantastic simulations available for students on a variety of subject areas. The way that it is organized by state, grade level, and standard makes it easy to find simulations that fit with the curriculum you are trying to teach. I found the worksheets straight forward and that, with a bit of instruction, there was enough standardization among the simulations that students were able to become more and more independent the more comfortable they became. The drawbacks are that you only get a 30 day free trial and then you have to pay. Unless you have a district that is willing to foot the bill, this may not be something that you are really able to take advantage of. We are adopting this program this year and I am looking forward to learning some of the additional tools that are available such as adding students to a class and giving assignments through the system. It is my understanding that they have made it a priority to get these simulations compatible with mobile devices, but for now, you need to know that students can only access this with a computer, laptop, or netbook.

While this is a great tool, I had issues with the Adobe Shockwave player. Apparently mine was not up to date so I updated it but I still could not get the gizmo to work on one of my laptops. However, once you get it going, this tool is a great way for students to apply their knowledge and practice new skills. It is hands on and could be considered fun because it is tech-based.

Gizmos offers online simulations for grades 3-12 for math and science. This is a good self learning tool that is content focused and one that allows for exploration by the student. Students engage in a simulation by figuring out what works and what does not that helps with the learning process. Each simulation provides an in depth understanding of each topic with great visuals that helps with the learning process. Gizmos offers good assessment material and resources for followup and reinforcement.

Subproduct: http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourcesForCourse&CourseID=355 Gizmos makes lab experiments easier for students and teachers. The setup is minimal compared to traditional labs. The materials are all contained in the Gizmos and the activity sheets are both online and can be downloaded. With ease, students can adjust their experiments and see the results quickly. Life Science lessons can be difficult due to the need for plants and time to watch them grow. The Gizmo takes that element out of the process. Watching a tree grow 20 years in the a few clicks of a computer turns the experiment into an immediate interactive experience.