The equation is simple.  Combine a Purdue University-related startup with PASCO’s global reputation for delivering innovative teaching solutions and you have learning tools that teachers can use to help young students explore complex STEM concepts.

With an agreement announced last month, Explore Interactive has partnered with PASCO to distribute its award-winning MindLabs product. MindLabs: Energy & Circuits uses augmented reality technology and gamification to enable elementary-age students to explore energy and circuits in a fun, immersive way.

The classroom set’s guided engineering challenges provide step-by-step lessons that allow educators to teach energy and circuits concepts with engaging content that supports collaborative projects, that can even include the remote learner.

To truly appreciate this powerful learning tool check out the product page and the video Inspired STEM Learning. And, keep an eye out for future integrations with hands-on STEM solutions from this new partnership.

School science laboratories are places of wonder and excitement for students of all ages and stages. To see the dawning of comprehension as a practical application of science curriculum falls into place is exciting to see. School laboratories are places where constant change and the evolution of technology and new understandings of the natural world transform student learning. 

Laboratory technicians are critical to a vibrant and engaging delivery of curriculum. Technicians have specific knowledge and skills that enhance a teacher’s capacity to enliven what some students can find “a bit dry”. If talking about forces during a physics lesson has them losing focus then taking them out on to the oval to see a metal rubbish bin ripped apart in an explosion (subject to strict risk assessment of course) with just some water and a couple of beads of dry ice gets their attention back, asking questions. Looking through a microscope at the incredible alien looking life forms found in stagnant water, gives them a chance to engage in biological concepts that are happening in many of the cells in their own bodies. The laboratory technician researches the experiments, does risk assessments, trials the experiments and often demonstrates or helps students access the activity.

Read the full at: ieusa.org.au