Teacher ideas incorporated into updated Gizmos

Since beginning work here in Charlottesville a year ago I haven't had much chance to get out of the office, so I jumped at the chance to do several teacher training sessions lately. One of the really nice things about training sessions is the chance to talk to teachers about Gizmos. Several recent teacher ideas have been incorporated into our Gizmos. For example, two teachers from Dekalb County, Georgia, requested more specific information about the role of enzymes in our Building DNA and RNA and Protein Synthesis. Their suggestions have been added.

A teacher in Iowa was bothered by the fact that the parent mice were housed in separate cages in our two genetics Gizmos: Mouse Genetics (One Trait) and Mouse Genetics (Two Traits). So we put them in the same cage, and revised the Exploration Guide and Assessment Questions of the Two Traits Gizmo as well. (For a bit of fun, try holding the "Shift" key down while pressing "Breed". Nothing bad, we promise!)

Updated Gizmos

Other recently updated Gizmos and/or Exploration Guides include Greenhouse Effect, Electron Configuration, DNA Fingerprint Analysis, Additive Colors v2, and Subtractive Colors v2.

New Gizmos

Ray Tracing - Lenses is beautiful to look at and is a big addition to our optics offerings. Inclined Plane - Rolling Objects complements the new "Inclined Plane - Sliding" Gizmo and allows students to compare a variety of rolling objects - rings, disks, solid balls and hollow spheres.

In the coming weeks, we will be working on several other customer requests, including a new math Gizmo that covers adding and subtracting integers with algebra tiles. So keep on telling us your great ideas for Gizmos!