Center for Education Through Exploration

Infiniscope

Infiniscope at NSTA Houston
Infiniscope at NSTA Houston 1067 800 ASU Center for Education Through eXploration

Infiniscope joined the NASA team at the National Science Teaching Association Conference in Houston to share some of the free digital teaching resources and creative tools that are available to educators through the NASA-funded project. Infiniscope’s inquiry-driven, AI-tutored activities designed around NASA simulations and virtual field trips were a big hit with educators. As were Infiniscope’s suite of creative tools that allow formal and informal educators to create their own virtual tours as well as customize Infiniscope content for their specific needs or create new digital lessons from scratch. In addition to seeing some friendly faces, they welcomed over 250 new educators to the Infiniscope community!

 

Infiniscope Launches New Website
Infiniscope Launches New Website 1201 630 ASU Center for Education Through eXploration

The Infiniscope project celebrated its seventh year with the launch of a brand new website featuring adaptive digital learning experiences built on the Open Learning initiative’s Torus platform. The new website has increased functionality for educators including advanced search and tagging options and offers single sign-on for Infiniscope’s digital authoring platform and virtual tour creator. This open-source approach will allow a wider range of educators to use, customize, and create their own adaptive lessons.

Educators interested in learning more about Infiniscope are invited to join the community for full access to free digital content, professional development, creative tools, and the Infiniscope community of practice.

Inquiry-Based, Active, Remote Learning Using UDL
Inquiry-Based, Active, Remote Learning Using UDL 1500 750 ASU Center for Education Through eXploration

In response to educators continuing online in the fall semester, the Infiniscope team offered 94 educators from all over the U.S. a 3-day active learning online workshop held July 20-22, 2020. The workshop featured an overview of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) by Dr. Katie Novak in cooperation with WBGH’s Bringing the Universe to America’s Classroom Initiative, NASA resources with specific UDL integrations such as the accessibility toolkit by NASA eClips, and expert educators from the Infiniscope Advisory Board and the Smoky Mountains STEM Collaborative to share practical UDL experiences. The focus was an introduction of UDL as a methodology to rethink classroom instruction and apply its principles in the remote learning environment. As an active learning strategy, educators were tasked with rewriting a lesson during the workshop to include UDL Principles and implement online learning tools and resources.

Want to be informed about upcoming professional development opportunities? Join the Infiniscope network at infiniscope.org/join.

Creating Place-Based, Active Learning Virtual Field Trips
Creating Place-Based, Active Learning Virtual Field Trips 1500 750 ASU Center for Education Through eXploration

In response to educators transitioning to online teaching and learning, the Infiniscope team offered 43 educators from all over the U.S. a 4-day online workshop held July 14-17, 2020.

This workshop focused toward creating virtual field trips that connect students to their community and promote learning that is rooted in students’ own “place” such as their neighborhood or town. These educators were tasked with creating a VFT for classrooms use. VFTs are guided online explorations that organize a variety of media such as 360-degree images, standard images, text, and interactives into a structured, immersive, learning environment. Educators were given a variety of pre-produced NASA media to build their experiences or they could capture their own media to tell their stories.

Click to see the full catalog of the VFTs created by this group and explore those that might work for you in your classroom.

Mars 2020: Is There Life on Mars?
Mars 2020: Is There Life on Mars? 1500 750 ASU Center for Education Through eXploration

On May 8, 2020, Infiniscope hosted Dr. Kenneth Williford from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Williford is the Deputy Project Scientist for the NASA Mars 2020 mission. He gave us the scoop on the various ways that Perseverance will be seeking signs of life on Mars. He also presented a mission overview including payload and exploration strategies, details on the Jezero crater landing site, and a brief history of Mars surface exploration. He wowed the audience with his ability to make the information accessible to a wide range of participants. Over 1200 people have viewed this presentation to date.

Check it out for yourself on the Infiniscope YouTube Channel: youtube.com/c/Infiniscope/.

Screencasting: Unleash Creativity and Communicate Understanding
Screencasting: Unleash Creativity and Communicate Understanding 1500 750 ASU Center for Education Through eXploration

On May 5, 2020 the Infiniscope team hosted a webinar in support of the mission to enhance inquiry-driven, active learning, at scale. This webinar introduced Screencasting, a method of capturing a computer screen with voiceover as the student demonstrates their knowledge. The webinar featured four Infiniscope Advisory Board members demonstrating practical examples of free resources for screencasting that can be used in an online classroom. Want to be informed about upcoming professional development opportunities? Join the Infiniscope network at infiniscope.org/join.

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