Using Crosscutting Concepts to Explain Phenomenon

Hello, Ms. D. I apologize about emailing you during the weekend, but I couldn’t wait to tell you. Gizmos is so much fun, and I absolutely love it. I actually learn something and I like the fact that it is interactive. Thank you so much for making us do Gizmos.

I really love Gizmos as they help students grasp difficult concepts that can’t always be seen. They make abstract ideas come to life.

I see more student engagement with lesson content when students are using Gizmos. Student grades have shown more understanding of the topics.

Teachers deserve a tool like Gizmos to empower students to conduct their own investigations, learn without reading lots of text but by doing lots of reasoning.

Another great feature of Gizmos is that I can manipulate them to accomplish my desired learning outcomes for my students. Sometimes I take a Gizmo that is meant to be an entire lab, and I cut it down into a smaller, briefer activity. But, other times, I combine some of the smaller labs into one and have the students access the various Gizmos from the class home page for a bigger assignment. In that way, Gizmos are always able to accomplish my desired outcomes.