How to Search Infiniscope

FAQ:

How do I
find the lessons
I'm looking for?

You've created an account and you know there's good stuff you want to integrate in your classroom, but you aren't sure how to find it. Well, this post is for you! 

 First and foremost...Welcome to Infiniscope! 

In this post, we'll guide you through the process of using, navigating, and searching our website effectively. From the homepage to the search page, we'll explore various methods and features that empower you to find the content that matters most to you.

Getting Started

Upon landing on our homepage, you'll notice that the featured and newest content rows are initially visible.

However, to access the full range of content available, you'll need to proceed to the search page. You can reach the search page in two ways:

Content Library: Navigate to the "Content Library" menu in the header and select "Full Catalog" to access the search page.

Search Bar: Simply place your cursor in the search bar at the top of the home screen, enter your search term, and press enter.

Search Page: Exploring Filters and Options

Once you've arrived at the search page, you'll find a range of basic filters in the left panel. By toggling "Educator Mode" to the ON position, you can expand the search filters and access additional options. It's worth noting that all filters are selected ON by default, so you'll need to deselect any unwanted filters to refine your search results.

Enhancing Your Search

Content Types

On the search page, you can directly search for specific topics by entering keywords such as "moon" or ESS2.1 in the topic name search field. This search will yield results across the four content types – Lessons, Visualizations, Contributed, and Collections.

• Lessons: digital learning experiences created by the Infiniscope team with the goal of teaching a particular Earth or space science concept.

• Visualizations: simulations and digital interactives that Infiniscope lessons are built around. We’ve removed the lesson content so that you can use them in new and different ways to meet the needs of your learners.

• Collections: groups of lessons or other content types that share a central theme.

• Contributed: content that has been created by one of our Infiniscope community members. Educators just like you who have created lessons for their classrooms and shared them with the wider community. All contributed content is reviewed prior to publishing.

Topics

To further narrow down your results, utilize the Most Popular Tags option in the left column.

Another convenient way to search is by clicking on topics that appear on content cards or landing pages. Please ensure that "Educator Mode" is activated to reveal the topics and access the landing page. Clicking on a topic will automatically redirect you to the search page, where the results will be filtered based on that specific topic.

It is our goal to provide you with seamless access to the resources you need, just in time for your learners. We value your experience, and we hope that this user's guide enhances your ability to find, navigate, and make the most of our website's content. Happy exploring!

Jess 👑🐝

🚨New Content:🚨 Fate of the Plates

Look, we get it, teaching plate tectonics is hard. Your students have to mentally visualize a process that occurs below the Earth's surface and we only have indirect evidence to support how it works. You've tried everything...graham crackers and whipped cream, play dough, online videos, and more. We've done all those things too! 

Revolutionize the way you teach plate tectonics with Infiniscope's new digital lesson titled "Fate of the Plates," created for high school and higher ed students.

Fate of the Plates features a simulation that allows students to explore below the crust of Earth, choose from continental or oceanic crust, choose their direction of movement, and observe the features formed resulting in different plate boundaries. Along the way, the students collect cards that show the crustal features created at these boundaries and allows the student to track their progress toward completion of the lesson. This hands-on approach makes learning about plate tectonics more accessible by eliminating the mental model gymnastics and enables direct exploration of the variables involved.

The lesson also features a narrative-driven exploration where students work to help their AI friend, named Orby, answer the question of why the Earth's crust is younger than the crust of other terrestrial planets. Along the way, Orby provides feedback, creating an interactive and personalized experience.

Want to know our absolute favorite part? When we taught this topic in the classroom, it was difficult to find simulations that show more than 2 plates interacting, so, we made a section on 3 plate interactions! It's based on the S. American plate and it's 🔥FIRE🔥 ...errr ...molten? 

Finally, the product is designed to be easy for teachers to use, with full lesson plans and three different classroom delivery models, launch, enroll via LMS, or enroll without an LMS. If you're looking to take your plate tectonics lessons to the next level, this new digital product is an excellent choice. With its engaging narrative, AI friend, simulation, and tracking features, your students will be eager to learn more.

🔥HOT TIP🔥

Plate Tectonics not part of your curriculum? No worries! Got testing days coming up in the spring? Spring break? Sub days? These lessons are a great way to provide high quality content without the muss and fuss of a full on lesson plan and still slap (that's what the kids say, right) when you just need to fill time. You can share the lesson with students directly, enroll them in our LMS-lite version, or deploy it via Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle.

🚨New Content:🚨 Solar System Formation

 The process of solar system formation...a topic we as teachers often teach using a diagram similar to the one on the left. We get the chance to talk about hot plasma (not giant balls of gas burning millions of miles away Pumba! 🐗), primordial planets, coalescence of gas and dust, the process of nuclear fusion....we could go on and on! One thing for sure, this is a topic that combines a ton of the physical sciences your students have learned in the past and transcends grade levels. We've seen this topic in middle school, high school, and college courses. 

What if I told you (insert Morpheus gif here 🔴 🔵) that you could go beyond the diagram and have your students derive condensation temperatures and location of planets in our solar system and extrasolar planets using an interactive data collecting probe and graphing technique?  

What if I also told you this experience was imagined and directed by ASU's Dr. Molly Simon, an assistant professor interested in the learning differences between students that engage in digital explorations vs those using traditional pencil and paper methods? 

Now that we have your attention, some extra details on why YOU might want to keep this lab in your back pocket! 📌

1. Learners are presented with a test object (1) that they then drop into the solar system (2) and is plotted on the graph (3). (Figure 1) Here they learn how to use the simulation and read the graph. 

   
   

   Figure 1: Explore - Test object drops in solar system to graph temperature and distance from the Sun
   
   

   
   
2. Learners choose the type of materials they wish to investigate. (Figure 2)
   

   

   Figure 2: Choose and Explore your materials
   
   

3. 

   Figure 3: Predict materials
   
   

   Learners then investigate where these materials will condense in the solar system using them as test objects and plotting them on the graph.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. From here, learners are tasked to predict the type of condensed materials that are present at each planet location (by AU) in our solar system (Figure 3), then test that prediction by placing the planets in their correct location in the solar system (Figure 4).
   
   
   

   

   Figure 4: Prediction testing

   
   
   

5. 

   Figure 5: Explain

   Learners are now asked to explain what they have learned about the condensation temperatures as a predictor of the early solar system (Figure 5).
   
   
   
6. Finally learners are asked to elaborate and apply what they've learned to an exoplanetary system (Figure 6). 

Figure 6: Elaborate

🔥HOT TIP🔥

Solar system formation not part of your curriculum? No worries! Got testing days coming up in the spring? Spring break? Sub days? These lessons are a great way to provide high quality content without the muss and fuss of a full on lesson plan and still slap (that's what the kids say, right) when you just need to fill time. You can share the lesson with students directly, enroll them in our LMS-lite version, or deploy it via Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle.

Get started today and check out Solar System Formation.

No LMS? No Worries!

 

Welcome back! 

The new school year is upon us and based on our quick poll in the Facebook Hivespace, we see some of you are feeling a bit ho-hum about it. Not to worry! We are here to support you. Today's topic is all about the Enrollment feature on Infiniscope. Not just ANY enrollment feature, but the one you can use even if you DON'T have an LMS like Canvas, Moodle, or Blackboard. 

We built something called LMS-free, specifically for educators without an LMS. We want to show you how it all works, so make sure you bookmark this page for quick reference!

Below you will find a series of steps, a few 🔥HOT TIPS🔥 to help you out and maybe a couple of subtle (not so subtle?) jokes. Before we dive in, we admittedly are making a couple of assumptions, such as

    1. you already have an Infiniscope account
    2. you know how to login
    3. you know how to find a lesson page through the view educator resources button

If you are missing any of this know-how, check back soon for other blog posts on these topics. 

To begin your LMS-free enrollment journey, select a lesson and open the lesson resources page. Once on the lesson resource landing page, scroll to the bottom to find these 3 ways to teach:

1. Choose "Enroll to get started".

2. Choose the first button "I don't have an LMS or I use Google Classroom."

 

3. Set up your course section by adding a Title, Start date and End date.

It's NSTA time! Stop by to say Hi!

NSTA is finally here and we are excited to see you all! We're hanging out in the NASA booth with all our favorite NASA funded education projects like GLOBE Mission Earth, GLOBE Observer and NASA Astromaterials. We are so blessed to have such an amazing community, seeking us out when they know we are together at events like this. What an amazing day catching up with old friends and long time members and IN-PERSON! 
(Looking at you Denise Wright and Melissa Sleeper 👀) 

Today was the big opening day and we are officially launching our new website, tools, and opportunities to the entire world while we are here at NSTA. For those of you following us all along, you know how far we've come in the last 2 years and what a relief to be able to share the awesome vision and resources you've all come to know and love the last 6 years. 

The big winners of the day have been Phases of the Moon, the fancy schmancy Moon Phases card game deck, and the Tour It tool with teacher created examples! Teachers have also been fascinated by the red die with QR codes all over it that Sina created. Nope...its not a Merge Cube, but it is a FREE QR code block even you can create to share resources with your students.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with 2 days to go. See us at two different Share-a-thons, the NASA Booth, and the NASA Hyperwall. You can even pop in like Bruce Boehne did to give a live 🎤 testimonial during a Hyperwall talk. 

Hope to see a few more of you while you're in town! 

Jess 👑🐝