Students using Gizmos sparks interest of newspaper in Polk County, FL

New excitement in the local learning community was captured by a reporter for the Polk County, FL News Chief. Gizmos were recently profiled in Kelly Mitchell's article on February 16, 2008. An extract from the article is below:

Online simulation program helps students with math, science

Learning Gizmos

By Kelly Mitchell
Polk County News Chief
February 16, 2008

EAGLE LAKE - High school math and science students across the district are looking forward to having a new study aid next year.

This year, the Polk County School District conducted a pilot program on Gizmos, an online simulation program. The district made the interactive program available to 80 high school math teachers and 80 high school science teachers.

Gizmos is Web-based and visually illustrates math and science lessons. It is particularly designed to show more abstract problems.

"It allows for teachers to show and students to see a picture," said John Miller, mathematics senior coordinator for the school district. "It really allows students to see and teachers to manipulate something that can't be drawn."

Whereas math has not changed, research has shown that children need to be engaged to learn, instead of using a lecture format, Miller said.

"Math is still math," Miller said. "But it has to be presented in a way that will engage students to think about it."

"I use it a lot," said Kimberly Crandall, a high school math teacher at Lake Region High School." It has made my life easier."

Crandall teaches ninth-grade honors geometry and algebra. She said she has seen a major difference in her geometry students. When Crandall stands at her smart board, an interactive board, and uses the Gizmos program, she touches a shape with her finder and can change the shape to illustrate different angles and triangles.

"This is the nice part about Gizmos. I would be drawing like 1,000 different triangles," Crandall said during the lesson.

Crandall was able to illustrate angle measurement and show why the inner angles of a triangle equal 180 degrees and the outside angles of a polygon equal 360 degrees. She could change the shapes to better illustrate the points she was making.

After each section of the lesson, Crandall and her class answered a group of multiple choice questions, which Gizmos graded.

Ashley Schunemann, 14, is in Crandall's class and said that the lessons are a lot easier with Gizmos. Laura Abonza, 14, said that if Crandall makes a mistake, she can correct it right away, so its quicker. Abonza cannot use the program at home though, because she does not have access to a computer.

The 160 teachers began training for the program in late September. It took a month and a half to get everyone trained and all the teachers in the pilot program have been using Gizmos since Thanksgiving.

"We've gotten a lot of positive feedback," Miller said.

The district has received usage reports each month since December.

"We've found the usage report to be a very good indicator that teachers are using it," Miller said.

The district has made a concerted effort to get the technology necessary to use Gizmos. The teachers must have a computer, a computer projector, the ability to access the Web site and a smart board or a symposium.

"We really want technology to be out there," Miller said. "That is a big change for some of our teachers."

The district's plan is to expand this program to include all high school math and science teachers next year. This would include at least 240 math teachers.

Students need to be engaged in the subject, so teachers need to find a way to present the information so that they can understand math, Miller said. "We're trying to support teachers by giving them the tool," she added.

To view a sample of Gizmos lessons, go to www.explorelearning.com.

To view the original article, go to http://polkonline.com/stories/021608/communitynews_online.shtml