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What’s a Gizmos STEM Case?
STEM Cases are Gizmos in which the student assumes the role of a scientist trying to solve a real world problem.
With interactive STEM Cases, science gets real!
STEM Cases put students in the role of STEM professionals tasked with solving real-world problems. Included as part of Gizmos, the interactive online case studies let students form and test ideas to find solutions — just like real scientists. Support students as they build a life-long skill set in STEM, opening the doors to countless opportunities.
Featured STEM Cases
Enzymes
As a veterinary technician, students learn about enzymes to help a dog that has been eating normally but is losing a lot of weight.
Learn More about the Enzymes STEM Case
Featured STEM Cases
Animal Group Behavior
A farmer in Africa is having problems with elephants eating her corn and cotton crops. As a wildlife biologist, students learn about animal group behavior and relationships of elephants and humans with bees. Students collect data from the farm and elephants to hypothesize and test solutions that will protect the crops without hurting the elephants.
Learn More about the Animal Group Behavior STEM Case
Featured STEM Cases
Water Crisis: Stoichiometry
There has been an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease in a small town. This disease is caused by legionella bacteria that proliferate in contaminated water supplies. Students take on the role of an environmental chemist to investigate the source of legionella and use stoichiometry to decontaminate the water supply and remediate the disease outbreak.
Learn More about the Water Crisis: Stoichiometry STEM Case
Inside an Interactive STEM Case
STEM Cases engage students in-depth in science content, concepts, and practices while scaffolding instruction. Each starts with a real-world problem and then takes students through foundational knowledge and virtual guided-inquiry activities as they work to solve it. Students:
- Learn the science required to solve the problem
- Collect data to inform the investigation
- Analyze and interpret data to gain a deeper understanding of the problem
- Form a hypothesis on the cause of the problem and a potential solution
- Test the hypothesis through more experiments, and revise it based on new evidence
- Communicate findings by writing a case summary report
- Learn to work independently, building the autonomy they need to succeed
Support Meaningful Learning
Standards-based
Align to the latest educational standards.
Skills-based
Support science and engineering practices.
Phenomena-based
Frame learning in real-world experiences.
Real-time data. Real results.
It’s easy to differentiate instruction and address student learning needs with STEM Cases. Embedded, real-time formative assessments evaluate student progress as it happens. And real-time data heatmaps immediately uncover student problem areas. Best of all—research shows these tools elicit significant student learning gains when used in the classroom!
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