Eclipse Facts Sheet
Describes how a solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth and about different types of solar eclipses, eclipse safety, and eclipse activities.
The post Sparking Student Interest in Space appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>Thanks to numerous events occurring this school year, it’s an exciting time for those of us that teach about space and space travel! From solar eclipses to developments in NASA’s Artemis programs, this school year offers unique opportunities to spark students’ interest in our galaxy.
Discovery Education has a wealth of resources to support educators teaching students about these events, as well as ways to add context to student learning by connecting scientific principles to space content.
Starting Your Space Exploration
Start your space lessons with the Explore Space: NASA’s Missions of Exploration Channel, where you can find fantastic resources on popular space topics. There are great introduction videos on the James Webb Telescope, the largest, most powerful, and most technologically challenging space telescope. Understanding how this technology is used can help students consider how galaxies are studied, and then they can view images captured by this amazing telescope! This channel also includes news on the Ingenuity helicopter, which is miraculously still going strong after recently completing its 59th flight in September 2023.
For younger students, you can introduce the excitement of space with fun animated segments such as Planet Cosmo and Earth to Luna! There are many ways to make your space lessons fun, exciting, and best of all, relevant! If you aren’t sure where to infuse space content into your science lessons, finding space-related events that are coming up and using these events to build context for your students can help the introduction feel meaningful.
The upcoming Artemis missions will create a ton of excitement as the four-astronaut crew was recently named and we are moving closer to the November 2024 launch date! Discovery Education has some terrific resources to share in the Moon Channel on the historic missions to the moon, such as The Apollo Project, as well as information about the moon phases from the DEmystified series, and an overview of the partnership with NASA and SpaceX in The Future of Space Travel.
The upcoming solar eclipses are other exciting space events you can connect into your lessons! An annular solar eclipse occurred on October 14, 2023, and a total solar eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024. The Solar Eclipses Channel has great resources, videos, and activities for students in grades K-12 that both describe the natural phenomenon of an eclipse.
Eclipses are unique solar events, and after the April 8 total solar eclipse, the next eclipse won’t occur over the United States until 2044! Discovery Education Experience has new resources to help students explore the wonders of this upcoming eclipse such as a video on How to Safely Watch a Total Solar Eclipse, activity to create a Pinhole Projector, and a video giving students a tour of NASA’s 2024 Solar Eclipse Map. NASA is also sharing a livestream so students can watch as the total solar eclipse moves across Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Additional Solar Eclipse Resources
Solar Eclipse Video Playlist
Videos in both English and Spanish explaining the phenomena of the "disappearing sun" and offering context about the total solar eclipse.
NASA's 2023 and 2024 Eclipse Map
Based on observations from several NASA missions, this map details the path of the Moon’s shadow as it crosses the U.S. during the annular solar eclipse in 2023 and total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
Creating Relevant, Fun Learning Opportunities
Adding a short, creative project-based learning element to your lessons around these current events can bring some additional engagement and excitement, even for students who may not think they’re passionate about space topics. For example, you can incorporate TimePod Adventures to allow students to “visit” another planet’s surface or launch and fly a rocket in HOME: Impossible Field Trip, which can bring the space concepts of a lesson to life. The AR Adventure Kit offers fun ideas that pair with the state-of-the-art, life-size augmented reality featured in TimePod Adventures.
Gamification and animation can make any topic fun and offer students a chance to use new technology tools! By using a free tool like Animate with Audio in Adobe Express, students can research a mission, planet, moon, or other phenomena and then create their own cartoon guessing game just using audio. This is always fun because the games can be played outside of the classroom with friends, family, and future students for years to come!
Resources like these are only the start, as there are so many amazing videos, articles, interactives, and more to discover. Even virtual field trips like the Journey to the Extreme: Virtual Field Trip to Mars, which includes an interview with NASA astronauts and program executives about the Curiosity mission and the ultimate goal, a journey to Mars! Start with one space lesson around a current event and create interested students who want to blast off to further exploration!
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]]>The post Augmented Reality: Meet the Makers appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>Augmented Reality (AR) is technology that blurs the line between the digital and the real world. Using AR in education to replace a tabletop with a mountain range or the school hallway with the surface of the moon lets students interact with their surroundings in entirely new, immersive ways. Read on to go behind the scenes with the makers of Discovery Education’s AR experiences, Phil and Dan Birchinall and check out Discovery Education’s collection of augmented reality apps and other immersive experiences on our Immersive Learning hub.
Tell us a little bit about yourselves. How did your career lead you to working with Augmented Reality (AR)?
Phil: In the early 1990s, I started working in inner city schools in Manchester, teaching children from very diverse backgrounds as part of a technology project run by the UK government. Although at the time we were placing state of the art technology into the hands of teachers and students, it often failed to sustain engagement beyond the initial excitement. It was clear that a deeper understanding of engagement and newer ways to use the undeniable power of education technology to deliver it were needed. After developing projects that had technology-mediated storytelling at their heart, the students across the school district began to show a strong attachment to the subjects being taught, and an equally strong desire to go deeper into them. Teachers reported that student attention, attendance, and behavior were improving. From there I worked across the city, country, and the European Union developing projects and managing innovation before co-founding Inspyro with my son Dan, who is Discovery Education’s Head of Immersive Content.
Dan: I started working in the education content space when I left university. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by cutting-edge technology when I was growing up, and in my education work I was keen to integrate technology into the learning experience. Initially this took the form of video, animations, and audio, but as soon as I saw Augmented Reality in action for the first time, I knew it was an incredible tool to deploy in the classroom. 2023 is the 10th anniversary of launching my first Augmented Reality app and I haven’t looked back since.
What excited you the most about AR when it first began to emerge? How has it changed since then? Where is it going?
Phil: AR was, and still is, a misunderstood and misapplied technology in education. Too often it’s led by gadgets and gimmicks, with very little thought to the primary objective in the classroom—illuminating and inspiring learning. Technology, especially technology like AR, has a magical appeal and impact on those that use it. Any teaching and learning tool that can illicit gasps from teachers and students alike deserves a place in the classroom. We now weave these techniques into a broad range of content that we call “immersive,” based on how students and educators respond to it. Immersion is a feeling and happens on a scale; it can be purely instructional or can move you to tears of joy or sadness (and everything between).
Dan: The first time I saw Augmented Reality it felt like a glimpse of the sci-fi future Hollywood had been promising us for decades. Even in its early form, AR felt like magic. What excited me most was how AR could let us do things that no other medium could, and that’s why it’s so effective as a learning tool in the classroom. Looking ahead we’re going to see the merging of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality with headsets from leading tech companies, which will only further blend our physical and digital worlds. It’s important to note, however, that you don’t need expensive headsets to have great experiences in AR; your smartphones and tablets can deliver transformative AR experiences too (like Sandbox AR)!
Walk us through the process of creating AR from initial concept to a functioning application. How long does it usually take? What stages must you work through?
Phil: We have strong guiding principles that we adhere to when making immersive content. We need to be sure that it’s worth the effort and that there is a clear focus for the content. We start by asking, “will the concept engage students?” Once we have decided that we have a good concept, it’s about designing an experience. We want the technology to draw students into the narrative or journey we have designed. This could be a narrative that contains elements that hook the user in, like episodes (as in TimePod Adventures) or the opportunity for students to create content and express themselves and their learning (like Sandbox AR). But it’s equally important to provide the standards and curriculum context to produce a successful learning outcome.
Dan: We follow one important rule when developing an Augmented Reality experience: don’t do anything that can be done better in an alternative medium. This philosophy drives the design process and ensures that our final product uses AR to its full potential. Development itself almost always begins with creating a simple prototype that demonstrates the core experience. We then build on this prototype to enhance the visuals and ensure the user experience is smooth and intuitive. We are lucky to have a core group of educators who help refine the experience and ensure it will work well in a classroom environment!
What is the most interesting project you’ve ever worked on?
Phil: We’ve worked on some fascinating projects over the years, and it’s allowed us access to some amazing people and places. Historical exploration is a very natural application of immersive content, so we’ve found ourselves in some interesting places! We’ve been in a cold museum basement with 20 dead ancient Egyptians, crawled into small spaces to film fossilized remains of a 90-million-year-old plesiosaur, and have pushed the boundaries of photogrammetry with detailed 3D models of tiny microliths (stone tools) used 11,000 years ago that we brought back to life on Lunt Meadows, the site of one of Europe’s most important Mesolithic settlements. With Discovery Education, we’ve created simulations and models of Haul trucks the size of a house, with a full mine to explore, mapped the surface of the moon and Mars, and are currently modeling the Edge experience at Hudson Yards for DE’s first VR experience!
Dan: We‘ve been lucky enough to work on a great variety of projects using AR (and VR) from recreating ancient Mesolithic sites or transporting people to the trenches of World War I, to developing VR prototypes to improve the vision of people suffering from macular degeneration. The most exciting project for me is Sandbox AR—with Sandbox we built a toolbox for students and educators to see what amazing worlds they could create and share with each other. And they haven’t disappointed!
How do you imagine AR use in the classroom will continue to change?
Phil: Any technology like Augmented Reality is driven by powerful hype cycles that cause great interest in the media and huge speculation amongst users. The current hype is around wearable technology like AR glasses. Remember Google Glass? The concept never went away and there is continued speculation around what Apple is about to bring to market this year. We keep an extremely close eye on these trends. We expect that AI will be integrated very soon into our experiences in ways that we couldn’t have imagined even months ago. Our innovation is continually driven by our users in the classroom, which helps us focus on the right thing: positive outcomes for learners and educators.
Dan: I would love to see AR being used in a collaborative manner in the classroom, with students and educators working together to build and explore new digital worlds. It’s certainly something we have on our roadmap for Sandbox AR and the possibilities are incredibly exciting!
Do you have any stories about teachers’ or students’ reactions to using AR?
Phil: My favorite story (which I bet Dan will tell as well) of bringing AR to education happened in 2013, ancient history in AR years. I was demonstrating to a room full of teachers how their iPad and our app could make objects appear on top of the worksheet they were using. As they used the app there was absolute astonishment and gasps around the room. Out if the corner of my eye, I spotted one teacher look around to check if anyone was watching, and when she was sure they weren’t, she carefully looked underneath the iPad to check that the 1920 London Cenotaph hadn’t materialized on the floor right there. I found that quite profound! The author Arthur C. Clarke famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Dan: Yes, that story of demonstrating our very first AR app to educators at a conference was something I’ll never forget! I noticed one teacher looked under the iPad to check we hadn’t put an object underneath it, and at that moment I knew we had something magical.
What is your advice to young people interested in working with AR in the future?
Phil: Any technology like Augmented Reality is driven by cycles of interest in the media and speculation amongst users. For us, we keep an extremely close eye on trends. As I mentioned, we can expect that AI will be integrated into our experiences soon, and in incredible ways. We keep our management and exploitation of innovation driven by our users in the classroom, so we can stay focused on positive outcomes for learners and educators.
Dan: If you’re not familiar with Augmented Reality, play with some apps first. Sandbox AR is a great demonstrator of some core AR principles and it’s also free to use! AR works best when you play to its strengths, and you can only understand that when you’re familiar with the medium. On a technical level, our development team uses Unity to build our AR experiences and we do our programming in C#. Unity is free to use for students and is also an amazing tool for making all kinds of interactive content. To those who want to learn, my only advice is to start small and learn the basics—that’s what I did!
Augmented Reality (AR) is an evolving, exciting technology reaching classrooms thanks to makers like Phil and Dan! AR can help students have powerful, immersive learning experiences not possible through other media.
Phil Birchinall
Senior Director, Immersive Content
Phil has been an educator and award-winning EdTech innovation leader for over 30 years, creating and delivering high-impact content into the classroom. In 2022, he was named as one of the pioneers of immersive learning and has led regional and national education and innovation initiatives in the UK as well as across the European Union. Phil was co-founder of the award-winning immersive company Inspyro that was acquired by Discovery Education in 2019.
Dan Birchinall
Head of Immersive Content
Dan is Head of Immersive Content at Discovery Education where he leads an incredibly talented team of developers making interactive content for schools. Dan has over a decade's experience building cutting-edge experiences in augmented and virtual reality and is responsible for multiple award-winning products, including Discovery Education's own Sandbox AR.
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]]>The post Five Ways to Create Immersion in the Classroom appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>Educators today wear many metaphorical hats, especially as technology develops. They are expected to become film directors, vloggers, and coding experts, not to mention navigating the world of AI and feeling the burden of their students’ online safety.
It can be easy to forget that a key part of the mission of educational technology (EdTech) is to create immersive experiences. In this article, we take immersion back to basics because, in truth, it’s possible to achieve immersion without any technology at all.
What Is Immersion, and Why Is It So Important?
Simply put, immersion is a feeling. It refers to an experience that deeply engages a person’s senses, emotions and attention, creating a sense of being fully surrounded and absorbed in a particular environment or activity. So, if you’ve ever read a good book, seen a particularly captivating performance, or smelled a scent that unlocked a memory, you’ve experienced immersion.
Research shows that learning gained through real experience carries far more depth and stays with us longer. On top of that, experiences which elicit an emotional response create stronger connections and memories. It is therefore beneficial to give students experiences which are personal and powerful, to amplify reactions and create long-lasting knowledge retention.
Find out more about immersion >
Educators have been teaching lessons through immersive moments for many years. The trick is to recognize an immersive moment for what it is, capture the window of opportunity, and take advantage of students’ open and receptive minds. Below, we’ll explain five of the teaching tools and techniques that every educator has at their fingertips.
1. Use a Story
It might seem incredibly basic, but storytelling is one of the fundamental vehicles of immersion. An engaging narrative:
- gives context to learning;
- creates rich mental images;
- promotes active listening;
- arranges learning points in a way that creates connections, supporting easy recall;
- provides a human viewpoint, and promotes understanding on a personal level;
- prompts students to formulate opinions on the subject matter.
So, whether it’s a short tale or poem to cover in a single session, or a novel to base your entire unit of study on, I encourage you to find a narrative linked to your learning material. Don’t get hung up on how perfectly the story covers your objectives – just find something that will open students’ hearts and minds to the world inside the narrative. You’ll be amazed at the connections they’ll make between the story and the rest of your lessons.
2. Stimulate the Senses
Our senses are incredibly powerful in creating memories, forming connections in our brain and developing emotional relationships. To help create lasting memories, why not try some of these ideas to amplify your learning activities?
- Create a soundscape together by making sounds that you might hear in your chosen setting (e.g. at sea, exploring Antarctica, in ancient Rome)
- Taste food or ingredients used by specific peoples or at key events
- Introduce or replicate a smell that might transport students in their minds
- Find an image, color or moodboard for students to interpret while listening to information
- Mimic a change in temperature to help students imagine conditions somewhere else
- Pass around an item for students to feel (e.g. the weight of a full backpack; a type of fabric; a fossil)
Research shows that cutting out one or more of our senses allows us to concentrate more on the senses available to us. Encourage students to close their eyes while listening to a story; turn out the lights or close the blinds when students are watching a video; mimic a deserted landscape by creating a prolonged, complete silence.
3. Get Moving
It’s no news that movement can be a powerful tool in learning. The feeling of ground moving under a student’s feet can quickly turn them into the protagonist in their own story so that, in combination with these other techniques, they can be convinced that they are walking around an ancient settlement or on the surface of Mars. Try some of these activities:
- Ask children to experiment with lower gravity on other planets/the Moon, incorporating percentages work as you imagine turning the gravity up and down and walking with lighter or heavier steps.
- Ask children to stand in a certain area to represent their opinion. Ask them to explain why they are standing there, then invite others to change their mind by moving if they want to.
- While telling a story, invite students to behave as if they were the main character. Allow them to walk around the space, sit down, hide, run and experience the physical feelings of the protagonist.
- Try a pre-made Augmented Reality experience like TimePod Adventures.
4. Gamification
This suggestion is a very simple one: make a game of it. Introduce a score, an element of competition, a prize or a level progression, and watch students return time and time again to better their score and firm up their knowledge. The emotions evoked through play are strong and memorable, and games of any type can promote a love of a subject that could last a lifetime. Try it:
- Encourage (friendly) competition
- Create a way for students to come back and do better
- Add a time limit or a stopwatch
- Add open-ended extensions for those who just can’t get enough
- Create ‘levels’ that tie in even more instructional content
- Get them creating their own games!
5. Do It Yourself
Creating immersive experiences doesn’t always require elaborate setups or expensive tools. Often, the most impactful learning moments are those that are hands-on and directly involve the students in the process of discovery. By allowing students to actively engage in their own learning, you foster a deeper connection to the material and enhance their ability to retain knowledge. Here are some strategies you can employ to create powerful experiential learning opportunities:
- Let students do it themselves. It might be daunting, but kinesthetic and tactile learners will benefit from being given the chance to dive in, even if you lose a little bit of structure in the process.
- Promote active listening with challenges, or by putting the students in charge of the exercise with some clear scaffolding.
- Use ready-made digital experiences such as 3D Virtual Field Trips.
- Have fun!
A Word of Caution
By its nature, immersion can elicit emotional responses from students. Always be aware of the potential triggering effect of any of the above on specific students in your setting, and exercise due care and attention.
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]]>The post Unlock Student Curiosity with Immersive Storytelling appeared first on Discovery Education.
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Immersive moments have been happening in classrooms for many years. As new technology comes along, we can easily forget that immersion can be achieved with something as simple as a good story. Let’s consider the profound impact that traditional storytelling can have on students.
Storytelling has been used for millennia to ensure that knowledge and wisdom are passed between people and last eternally. As a teaching method, storytelling captures the imagination, fosters deep understanding, and creates memorable connections to what is being taught. It provides prompts, grounded in context, and an inviting space for students to act on their natural curiosity. This, along with some of the benefits we’ll see below, is what makes storytelling such an important tool for classroom instruction.
Storytelling has been used for millennia to ensure that knowledge and wisdom are passed between people and last eternally. As a teaching method, storytelling captures the imagination, fosters deep understanding, and creates memorable connections to what is being taught. It provides prompts, grounded in context, and an inviting space for students to act on their natural curiosity. This, along with some of the benefits we’ll see below, is what makes storytelling such an important tool for classroom instruction.
How Learning Theories Support the Use of Storytelling
Constructivist Learning
This theory claims that learners construct knowledge through experiences and reflections. Stories provide experiences that students feel like they have had and provide a framework for students to make connections and reflect on new information.
Cognitive Load Theory
This theory suggests that storytelling can help manage cognitive load by organizing information into a coherent structure, making it easier for students to process and remember.
Social Learning Theory
According to Social Learning Theory, students learn by observing and emulating others’ behaviors and decisions. Narratives in stories often include social contexts and interactions that students can observe and analyze.
Emotional Engagement
Emotions play a critical role in memory retention and learning motivation. When students are emotionally engaged, they are more likely to invest effort and curiosity in the subject matter. Stories, as we all know, have the power to evoke powerful emotions and leave lasting impressions on us all.
5 Benefits of Storytelling in the Classroom
1. Contextual Learning:
Stories provide a context that makes abstract concepts more tangible and understandable. They help students see the relevance of what they are learning in the real world, further fueling their curiosity about how things work.
2. Enhanced Memory:
The structure and emotional engagement of stories make information easier to remember. Students are more likely to recall facts and concepts presented within a narrative.
3. Active Listening:
Storytelling promotes active listening, a crucial skill for academic success and interpersonal communication.
4. Critical Thinking:
Analyzing stories helps develop critical thinking skills as students consider characters’ motivations, plot developments, and underlying themes.
5. Cultural Awareness:
Stories from diverse cultures broaden students’ perspectives, spark their curiosity, and foster appreciation for different viewpoints.
So, whether it’s a short tale to cover in a single session, or a premise to base your entire unit of study on, I encourage you to find a narrative linked to your learning material. Don’t get hung up on how perfectly the story covers your objectives – just find something that will open students’ hearts and minds to the world inside the narrative. You’ll be amazed at the connections they’ll make between the story and the rest of your lessons. Embrace the power of narrative and watch your students’ curiosity and understanding flourish
A Word of Caution
By its nature, immersion can elicit emotional responses from students. Always be aware of the potential triggering effect of any of the above on specific students in your setting, and exercise due care and attention.
The post Unlock Student Curiosity with Immersive Storytelling appeared first on Discovery Education.
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