As schools and universities prepare for an unprecedented academic year, many educators are wondering what science education will look like for their students. How can students read, engage, and perform with science in a way that encourages them to make meaningful discoveries, without hands-on equipment? Labs that were once simple to perform on campus have since become impossible for students to replicate at home, placing a significant burden on educators. Instructors are now faced with the challenges of reinventing their science curriculum to support distance learners, as well as preparing for the inevitable transition back into the classroom. In response to these steep demands, we are launching PASCO Academy: Physics and Chemistry to provide instructional and laboratory distance learning support for students and faculty.
PASCO Academy Overview
Each course is designed by master Instructors and provides a full semester of standardized lab demonstrations complete with instructional support, video-based lab demonstrations, data analysis activities, specialized faculty support and coaching.
How It Works
A single fee grants access to a full semester of PASCO Academy: Physics or PASCO Academy: Chemistry. Our certified, master instructors will provide a full semester (15 weeks) of standardized lab experiences complete with instructional support, faculty coaching, lab demonstrations, data collection videos, and data sets for student analysis. They will use Essential Physics and Essential Chemistry to supplement your existing curriculum, while supporting faculty and students with their specialized assistance.
This interactive, instructional tool will begin on September 1, 2020, and includes 15 full weeks of resources, live interactive coaching, and a mentoring forum, all of which will be made available until January 31, 2021. The resources available for Semester 1 will close as of January 31, 2021. Semester 2 of PASCO Academy will begin January 1, 2021 and will continue through till the end of June 2021.
Each week our instructors will provide three video segments:
- An educator-focused, coaching and professional development resource for faculty that provides information about the week’s topic, lab activity, online resources, and distance learning strategies
- A student-focused laboratory investigation with demonstrations, standardized content, and a data set that students use to perform their own analysis at home
- A follow-up, student-focused presentation by our certified instructors in which they discuss their analysis of the experiment, explain common anomalies, and answer students’ questions
PASCO Academy includes access to these resources:
- Faculty and students are provided with weekly experiment videos, discussion videos, and data sets that enable them to perform their own analyses and revisit the content as needed.
- Faculty receive access to the Educator Forum curated by PASCO master Instructors, which provides curricular support, coaching assistance, networking opportunities, and timely answers from our specialists.
- Faculty and students receive total access to the corresponding Essential e-Book with embedded animations and simulations.
- Faculty receive total access to the corresponding Essential Teacher Resources, including worksheets, PowerPoint presentations, interactive simulations, and teaching tips.
- Faculty receive total access to the infinite Test Bank for Essential Physics or Essential Chemistry.
Physics
PASCO Academy: Physics provides a full semester (15 weeks) of instructional and lab activity support for distance and hybrid physics courses. Each week, our physics Instructors provide three online video segments intended for asynchronous, synchronous or synchronous hybrid learning formats: an educator-focused explanation of the week’s material, a student-focused lab session that demonstrates the week’s phenomenon using experimentation and data collection, and a follow-up student-focused video segment that reviews the experiment’s analysis and scientific relevance.
The course is designed to supplement your campus’s existing physics curriculum by providing instructional support, video-based labs, student data sets, and faculty coaching that enables your campus to engage with physics concepts from any location.
This interactive, instructional tool will begin on September 1, 2020, and includes 15 full weeks of resources, live interactive coaching, and a mentoring forum, all of which will be made available until January 31, 2021. The resources for Semester 1 will close January 31, 2021. Semester 2 of PASCO Academy: Physics will begin January 1, 2021 and will continue through the end of June 2021.
Weekly Demonstrations and Follow-Up Videos Include:
- An educator-focused, professional development and coaching resource for faculty that provides information about the week’s topic, resources, ideas to include inquiry, and distance learning strategies
- A student-focused laboratory investigation that allows students to explore the week’s topic(s) alongside our instructors as they model, measure, and discuss the phenomena
- Coordinated student handouts and data sets that allow students to perform their own analysis on data collected during the demonstration
- A follow-up video segment where our instructors discuss the experiment’s analysis and its scientific relevance
Included Supplemental Curriculum: Essential Physics
PASCO Academy: Physics follows the Essential Physics curriculum, which satisfies standards for algebra-based physics and introductory physics courses. Our Instructors will use Essential Physics to supplement your existing curriculum and will support faculty and students with their instructional resources, lab demonstrations, and professional development. A single semester fee includes campus-wide access to our Essential Physics curriculum and resources, including the e-Book, Teacher Resources, infinite Test Bank, lab investigations, and more. These resources are designed to serve as supplemental distance learning materials but may also assist educators during their transition back to the classroom as the curriculum is consistent for all learning modalities.
Every Semester of PASCO Academy: Physics Includes:
- Students and faculty access to the Essential Physics interactive e-Book with embedded animations and simulations
- Faculty access to the Essential Physics Teacher Resources, including worksheets, PowerPoint presentations, simulations, and teaching tips.
- Faculty access to the PASCO Academy: Physics Educator Forum curated by PASCO master Instructors, which provides curricular support, coaching assistance, networking opportunities, and timely answers from our specialists.
- Faculty access to the Essential Physics Infinite Test Bank
- Faculty access to 82 physics investigations
- Faculty access to 8 design challenges
- Faculty access to 30+ videos
Chemistry
PASCO Academy: Chemistry provides a full semester (15 weeks) of instructional and lab activity support for distance and hybrid chemistry courses. Each week, our chemistry instructors provide three online video segments intended for asynchronous, synchronous or synchronous hybrid learning formats: an educator-focused explanation of the week’s material, a student-focused lab session that demonstrates the week’s phenomenon using experimentation and data collection, and a follow-up student-focused video segment that reviews the experiment’s analysis and scientific relevance.
The course is designed to supplement your campus’s existing chemistry curriculum by providing instructional support, video-based labs, student data sets, and faculty coaching that enables your campus to engage with chemistry concepts from any location.
This interactive, instructional tool will begin on September 1, 2020, and includes 15 full weeks of resources, live interactive coaching, and a mentoring forum, all of which will be made available until January 31, 2021. The resources for Semester 1 will close January 31, 2021. Semester 2 of PASCO Academy: Chemistry will begin January 1, 2021 and will continue through the end of June 2021.
Weekly Demonstrations and Follow-Up Videos Include:
- An educator-focused, professional development and coaching resource for faculty that provides information about the week’s topic, resources, ideas to include inquiry, and distance learning strategies
- A student-focused laboratory investigation that allows students to explore the week’s topic(s) alongside our instructors as they model, measure, and discuss the phenomena
- Coordinated student handouts and data sets that allow students to perform their own analysis on data collected during the demonstration
- A follow-up video segment where our instructors discuss the experiment’s analysis and its scientific relevance
Included Supplemental Curriculum: Essential Chemistry
PASCO Academy: Chemistry follows the Essential Chemistry curriculum, which satisfies standards for introductory chemistry courses. Our chemistry Instructors will use Essential Chemistry to supplement your existing curriculum and will support faculty and students with their instructional assistance, resources, and PD. A single semester fee grants campus-wide access to our Essential Chemistry curriculum and resources, including the e-Book, Teacher Resources, infinite Test Bank, lab investigations, and more. These resources are designed to serve as supplemental distance learning materials but may also assist educators during their transition back to the classroom as the curriculum is consistent for all learning models.
Every Semester of PASCO Academy: Chemistry Includes:
- Student and faculty access to the Essential Chemistry interactive e-Book with embedded animations and simulations
- Student and faculty access to the Chemical Equation Solver
- Faculty access to the PASCO Academy: Chemistry Educator Forum, which provides curricular support, coaching assistance, networking opportunities, and timely answers from our specialists.
- Faculty access to the Essential Chemistry Teacher Resources, including worksheets, presentations, simulations, and teaching tips
- Faculty access to the Essential Chemistry Infinite Test Bank
- Faculty access to 71 chemistry investigations
- Faculty access to 4 engineering design projects
