Jessica York has been a science teacher at Great Neck North High School in Great Neck, NY, for 20 years and the chairperson for five. She’s taught all levels of biology, as well as Regents and Honors chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and AP environmental science. She has a BS in Biology and an MS in Education from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY; she did genetic research for four years while attending Adelphi.
York’s currently teaches 10th grade Honors chemistry. She’s also worked with English as a New Language (ENL) and Inclusion populations for many years. Approximately 17% of the student population at Great Neck North High School are considered economically disadvantaged.
York has been teaching with Gizmos for two years. “Tobias Hatten, the science chairperson of GN South Middle School introduced me to Gizmos and included some of my teachers in a trial program that he got through a grant,” says York. “I really enjoyed using Gizmos and its interactive nature is very helpful in conveying abstract concepts to students. When the pandemic closed school for us in March of 2020, it was the only way that we were able to continue to provide interactive laboratory experiences for our students.”
York continues, “Our biggest challenge in this time is the inability to provide real laboratory experiences due to the pandemic restrictions. This lack of hands-on experience is hard for both my students and for me. The excitement of discovery is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching science,” she explains.
“Gizmos is great for inquiry-based learning, which is an important part of our science curriculum,” says York. “I use Gizmos in lieu of notes to introduce topics. I appreciate the pre-activity connections that students can make in the prior knowledge sections and the analogies have been great for anchoring the ideas to come. I also like how we can use Gizmos to have students predict and then test ideas about topics. We are able to use Gizmos to ask questions and define problems, plan and carry out investigations, analyze and interpret data, engage in argument from evidence, and obtain, evaluate, and communicate information—these are all practices for NGSS-based learning.”
York says she appreciates the ability to modify the lesson materials so that students of different learning needs can have access to the ideas without getting overwhelmed. “I believe they do a great job of outlining the really hard-to-understand concepts—for example, intermolecular forces and bonding,” York says.
“Students really struggle to understand the interaction of electrons in ionic and covalent substances as well as how the polarity of molecules and electronegativity impact how molecules interact. By allowing students to manipulate electron movement and then check to see what happens, this otherwise abstract idea becomes real for them. They are better able to see and predict what will happen in novel situations. The ability to build and then evaluate molecules with different atoms and then watch those molecules interact in an electric field really helped to illustrate the ideas of polar and nonpolar molecules. This, in turn, leads to solid understanding of how molecules can interact with each other. I use most of the Gizmos as interactive lessons, where the students and I work together to answer the questions in the PDF. I also provide the notes that I would normally have given them while we are learning using the Gizmos,” York says.
She continues, “We have also begun to use Gizmos to support our work in integrating the NGSS. This year has been an interesting one, with hybrid learning and some students remaining fully remote, so again, we use Gizmos to provide our students with lab experiences as well as with lessons,” says York.
York’s students have also voiced their appreciation of Gizmos, citing Periodic Trends, Ionic Bonds, Covalent Bonds, Chemical Equations, and Polarity and Intermolecular Forces as some of their favorite Gizmos.
One of York’s students says, “I like using Gizmos because it is the closest thing to doing an in-person lab. I often go back to them to review my notes and study. Being able to see my notes in action is very effective in helping me remember them all. For example, the Electron Configuration and Periodic Trend labs demonstrated all of the rules I need to remember.”
“I love Gizmos,” says another student. “They help me understand the material more and improve upon it. For example, I didn’t fully comprehend balancing equations until we did the Gizmo. That was when I finally began to understand what balancing was all about. Also, I love the metaphors they use. Like the bus metaphor, the tug-of-war metaphor, etc. These all help me understand chemistry a little better in general, which is why I love them. Of course, I would rather do actual labs, but given the current situation, this is the best alternative, and I love it. I would hope to continue using Gizmos because it is user friendly, all the directions are on there, and it’s fun.”