Tools for teaching

Visi

onlearning is a very useful out-of-the-box educational resource for faculty and students.  It is an online endeavour of years of individual and collaborative effort towards improving teaching and learning Science subjects.

Visionlearning hosts at http://www.visionlearning.com, high-quality science learning modules that can be quite effective than traditional textbooks in teaching science. The Visionlearning’s Library comprises an award-winning collection of peer-reviewed learning modules written by professional educators and scientists.

These modules provide text, interactive animations, glossary definitions, current news and research, scientist biographies and practice exercises to provide a comprehensive learning environment. These modules can be sorted by subject or science standard and can also be customised in the ‘MyClassroom’ space. The subjects covered include Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, General Science, Physics, Process of Science, Toxicology and Pharmacology, and Trigonometry.

Under Biology the chapters included are Adaptation: The Case of Penguins; Cells: Discovery and Basic Structure; Charles Darwin I, II and III; Genetics; Taxonomy; and Nomenclature.

The section related to Chemistry includes these chapters: Acids and Bases: An Introduction; Atomic Theory I: The Early Days; Atomic Theory II: Ions, Isotopes and Electron Shells; Carbohydrates; Chemical Bonding; Chemical Equations; Chemical Reactions; Fats and Proteins; Matter: Atoms from Democritus to Dalton; Matter: States of Matter; Nuclear Chemistry:  An Introduction; Organic Chemistry: An Introduction; The Mole: Its History and Use; The Periodic Table of Elements; and Water: Properties and Behaviour;
The Earth Science section includes: Earth Structure: A Virtual Journey to the Centre of the Earth; Earth's Atmosphere: Composition and Structure; Minerals I: Definitions; Minerals II: Properties; Minerals III: The Silicates; Plate Tectonics I: The Evidence for a Geologic Revolution; Plate Tectonics II: Plates, Plate Boundaries, and Driving Forces; The Carbon Cycle: What Goes Around Comes Around; The Hydrologic Cycle: Water's Journey through Time; The Nitrogen Cycle: Of Microbes and Men; and The Rock Cycle: Uniformitarianism and Recycling.

The section on General Science includes: Density; Energy: An Introduction; Temperature; The Metric System: Metric and Scientific Notation; The Scientific Method; and Unit Conversion: Dimensional Analysis. The Physics section has chapters on Gravity: Newtonian Relationships; Light I: Particle or Wave?; Light II: Electromagnetism; and Waves & Wave Motion: Describing Waves. The Process of Science contains chapters on Data: Analysis and Interpretation; Statistics; Uncertainty; Error and Confidence; and Using Graphs and Visual Data.

The work-in-progress
Visionlearning website continues to grow with new modules being added each month. Its salient features include: Special Events in Science feature which highlights a key date in scientific discovery every month, News & Events section of the modules provides links to current science news stories, and its USP is of course the MyClassroom feature. This lets users to download a pdf file of an entire classroom with a single click, lets instructors create custom quizzes associated with modules in their MyClassrooms. The soon-to-be-added features include a system that will allow instructors to create custom modules, and a series of teaching tips associated with the modules that are publicly available on the site.