NOVA Teacher Review | Common Sense Education

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Teacher Review for NOVA: Nature

Donna M.
Classroom teacher
Vista Visions Academy
Vista, United States

My Grades 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

My Subjects Science, Health & Wellness

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My Rating

Learning Scores

Engagement

Pedagogy

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Classroom feedback

My Students Liked It Yes

My Students Learned Yes

I Would Recommend It Yes

Setup Time Less than 5 minutes

Great for Creation
Further application
Individual
Knowledge gain
Small group
Teacher-led lessons
Whole class

Great with Advanced learners
ELL
General

How I Use It

This site provides many resources that make the traditional curriculum more relevant for students. As high school Earth Science students investigate the evidence for climate change, they can view a slideshow from the three-year Extreme Ice Survey. Middle school students watch short videos about "How Vultures Eat Rotten Meat," as they explore food webs and the giant neuron of the California Brown Sea Hare as they explore human body systems. All science curricula can be tied to the natural world and this site has a great collection of resources that engages and informs students.

My Take

The resources on the site offer a variety of topics. The reading level of the articles is fairly high and there is nothing to support low readers with the content in the articles. However, the interactives and slide shows contain a mix of reading and video so the content in those is accessible to most students. The videos are also accessible but the full episodes are the traditional NOVA videos - close to an hour in length, which is too long for most students to maintain interest. There are video shorts available that show specific concepts, including several scientist interviews. This site does not provide curriculum or correlations to the NGSS standards. Instead, it is up to the teacher to determine what resource(s) are needed to teach the desired concepts and meet the desired standards.

Bring Traditional Science Topics to Life with NOVA's Nature!

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