Evidence in Action: Gizmos Investigations Drive Gains in Science Performance

At ExploreLearning, we know that when science education combines inquiry, rigor, and real-world relevance, students thrive. Gizmos Investigations are ready-to-use, standards-aligned lessons designed to promote science practices within the context of engaging and authentic problems. Each Investigation includes guided questions, hands-on activities using Gizmos Simulations, and immediate feedback. This approach lets students practice scientific sensemaking while working at their own pace and level of understanding.

Creating classroom-ready products takes more than strong design. It requires listening to teachers and students and testing ideas in real classrooms. This process is more than just user testing—it’s a partnership. We work with teachers as co-designers, ensuring our products work for real students in real classrooms. This collaboration helps us build learning experiences that are intuitive, effective, and engaging for a wide range of learners.

And now, early results are in: students who participated in early beta testing of Gizmos Investigations showed measurable growth in science practices—a core component of current science teaching and learning standards and a critical skill for real-world scientific thinking.

Early evidence: student science performance improves with scaffolded support

To evaluate the impact of Gizmos Investigations, we partnered with 33 teachers who used Gizmos Investigations with 2,648 students across 93 middle school classrooms during a beta testing phase. Students engaged with Gizmos Investigations that incorporated scaffolded science instruction through Gizmos Simulations, data collection and analysis tools, formative questions with real-time feedback, and embedded summative questions.

Students also completed a short reflection activity after the Investigation to self-assess their engagement and learning. Our team then analyzed the data from student performance on both formative and summative questions to assess content learning and improvement in science sensemaking practices. What were the main findings?

1. Student performance improved on SEPs

Each Investigation includes a sequence of related tasks designed to foster not just content knowledge but also student skills in science practices. Analysis of student responses revealed multiple examples of students showing improvement in their ability to apply scientific sensemaking practices, such as analyzing and interpreting data and using graphs to understand the relationships between variables.

• The data showed that students improved significantly at using graphing tools to analyze data over the course of the Kinetic and Potential Energy Investigation. Only 60% of students earned full credit when first asked to fit a trend line to data on a graph. After three similar formative questions with built-in feedback, that number rose to 92% on a summative assessment question near the end of the Investigation, demonstrating strong learning gains with repeated practice.

• Data from students who completed the Genetics Investigation found improvements in students’ ability to use models to predict and describe outcomes related to genetic inheritance. Early in the Investigation, only around 50% of students earned full points on summative modeling tasks related to genetic inheritance. By the end of the Investigation, over 75% of students earned full points on similar tasks, with an average score of 90%.

2. Students demonstrated gains in science content knowledge

Beyond engagement and self-perceived learning, beta testing confirmed that Gizmos Investigations help students understand science better.

The formative questions with built-in feedback throughout each Investigation were crucial to this success. When students got something wrong on these practice questions and received targeted feedback, they improved dramatically on their next attempts.

For example, in the Phase Changes Investigations, about 74% of students got full credit on formative assessment science practice questions right away. But here's what's really impressive: after getting feedback on a wrong answer, over 90% of students improved, and nearly all of them earned full credit by their final try. This kind of immediate help on practice questions didn't just guide students to the correct answer—it helped them really grasp the concepts.

As a result, students performed well on summative knowledge questions that tested their final understanding, showing they were actually mastering the key content. In the Genetics Investigation, for instance, students averaged 89% across all the summative questions, with 77% of responses earning full credit. This tells us that formative practice with feedback is really helping students succeed when it counts.

3. Students reported high levels of learning and enjoyment

After completing the Investigation, students reflected on their experience, giving us valuable insights into how they felt about the learning activity and their confidence in the knowledge they’d gained:

• Over 75% of the students said that Gizmos Investigations captured their interest more than other interactive science tools they’ve experienced.
• Across all students who completed a self-reflection, 88% reported having a good understanding of the content after completing the Investigation.
• In particular, among students with low prior knowledge, 89% reported improved understanding after completing the Investigation, giving us high confidence that the activity effectively improved student knowledge.

All together, our early beta test data found that the new Investigations resulted in measurable improvements in the ability to apply science practice skills as well as conceptual understanding as students progressed through the learning experience. These science learning outcomes reflect the intentional design of Investigations—grounded in the science of how students learn, aligned to today’s science standards that emphasize science sensemaking, and shaped through early classroom testing to ensure they support real students in real science classrooms.

Teachers reported high satisfaction, curricular alignment, and improvements in student knowledge

Teachers participating in the beta testing provided feedback via surveys and interviews:

• Teachers reported high levels of satisfaction with the program overall, giving Investigations an overall average rating of 4.4 out of 5.
• All teachers rated the Investigation as well aligned to their curriculum standards, regardless of whether they use state-specific standards or Next Generation Science Standards.
• All teachers reported moderate to high amounts of student learning as a result of completing the Investigation. In particular, they rated analyzing data in graphs and tables and immediate feedback as highly effective features for supporting student development of science practices.
• In open-ended responses, teachers noted how they appreciated that Investigations were built around the Gizmos Simulations that their students were already familiar with. The added prompts, feedback, and guided steps all helped students have the information they needed to succeed in one easy-to-use interface, promoting student independence.

Investigations: Designing for learning, delivering on outcomes

The effectiveness of Gizmos Investigations isn’t accidental. Each Investigation is carefully structured to:

• Wrap fully guided lessons around our interactive Gizmos Simulations, enabling students to solve authentic scientific problems for maximum student engagement.
• Prepare students for today's practice-based assessments by engaging them in meaningful applications of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEP) while deepening their content knowledge.
• Scaffold student performance with built-in formative assessments and real-time feedback that guide learning as it happens.
• Provide multiple modalities for demonstrating understanding so students can show their thinking through models, written explanations, and visual representations.
• Support teachers with ready-to-go, easy-to-implement lessons with digital science simulations that enable real-time student progress data.

The result is a learning experience that builds student capacity for scientific sensemaking – learning to think through problems like scientists do – a key outcome for college, career, and civic readiness.

The promise of Gizmos Investigations builds on a growing body of rigorous research showing that ExploreLearning’s science products drive student outcomes:

• In a recent efficacy study, students who used science Gizmos Simulations and STEM Cases as part of their middle school curriculum significantly outperformed their peers on state science assessments.
• In a research study conducted with a large California district, science Gizmos Simulations and STEM Case usage were significantly correlated with passing the high school state science assessment.
• Students from all backgrounds showed similar gains, regardless of income level or other factors that usually affect test scores.

What’s next: Preparing for a full launch in 2025

As we prepare for the full launch of Gizmos Investigations in the fall of 2025, our focus remains clear: building a product that truly supports teachers in helping all students succeed in science. We continue to listen closely to educators through classroom testing, surveys, user interviews, and informal feedback to refine every aspect of the product.

In the meantime, the early results are clear: with the right scaffolding and tools, students can make meaningful progress in both science content and practices by tackling engaging, real-world problems. Gizmos Investigations offer an accessible, easy-to-implement way for teachers to strengthen their existing science curriculum, empowering every student to think and act like a scientist.

Launching this fall, Gizmos Investigations address the challenges teachers face in helping all students DO the DOING of science.