Thing 31 - Explore Learning Gizmos

I thought that Learning Gizmos was a great site/resource.  Like Discover Ed, I'm thrilled that our district has access to this site.  I found this site to be well organized and easy to navigate.  Like Discovery Ed, I really love how easy it is to add  In teaching 4th grade I'm always looking for new and different ways to add a Gizmo to your own 'class'.  It is nice to know that I don't have to go back searching for something I saw earlier.   I think that the Gizmos that I explored for both math and science can be used in multiple ways - introducing and reviewing concepts with a whole class, and as extensions/assessing  for small groups or individuals (it is nice that many of the Gizmos have small quizzes).
I really liked that there were simulations for science.  For science in 4th grade it is all about letting the students experience their learning through hands-on experiments (learn by doing).  But when they are done experimenting  most of their follow-up/review work in science is done in paper & pencil journals, and though it is nice to get the students' observations and thoughts down on paper - sometimes it is not enough to see if they really grasp a concepts. I think that Gizmos can be a great way to follow up a lesson.  I found a really cool Gizmo that I can use with our Rocks & Minerals unit on Mineral Identification that I will use this school year.
My class used ST Math last year, and they really enjoyed it.  I will continue to use it this year, and I can now see myself adding Learning Gizmos to my classroom (as I take more time to explore it).  I would love to see ELG expand to reading/writing or even social studies if possible.

Here is my classroom code:

BRXHLCBBJF