ASMSA provides resources, advice to Arkansas schools

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts. - File photo by The Sentinel-Record
The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts. - File photo by The Sentinel-Record

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts instructors are offering additional content and resources for educators across the state on the school's website to help them deal with the challenges of remote instruction during the coronavirus pandemic.

The resources can be found at https://asmsa.me/resources, the school said in a news release on Monday.

Instructors involved in ASMSA's Coding Arkansas' Future and Advanced Biology Plus programs are also providing advice for instructors who may not have conducted remote instruction before, according to an email from the school.

Since 2015, ASMSA has provided computer science teachers with professional development, digitally delivered content aligned to state standards and ongoing support to Arkansas students and teachers through the Coding Arkansas' Future initiative, the release said.

ASMSA added Advanced Biology Plus to its digital learning program in 2017, allowing "Arkansas school districts to work with its biology instructors to provide digital and on-site opportunities for students and daily support for Advanced Placement Biology teachers," it said.

Both Coding Arkansas' Future and Advanced Biology Plus programs use Zoom, an online teleconference service, and Canvas, a learning management system.

"In addition to computer science and biology, educators can find lessons from ASMSA's physics and mathematics instructors as well as college admissions tips and other resources," the release said.

Daniel Moix, the director of Coding Arkansas' Future, is releasing a new module each week, the release said, focused on various areas of computer science. "The materials are designed to be viewed on a computer but are accessible via mobile devices as well," it said.

Jennifer Cox, a science teacher at Fountain Lake Charter High School, said participating in the Advanced Biology Plus program has made the transition to remote teaching easier.

"During the AMI period of time, I have been able to continue to get quality content to my students," Cox said in the release. "This ability has helped my students to continue to prepare for their upcoming AP exam. When our school began to prepare for a large number of AMI days, I felt no stress for my AP Biology course."

Whitney Holden, a life science specialist at ASMSA, said it's important to maintain a positive attitude and take advantage of the various online resources available to educators.

"First, I advise teachers to look on the bright side wherever possible," Holden said. "Teaching remotely brings with it opportunities to use various online resources that can be very interactive, like virtual labs and simulations, that would otherwise not be used. The sudden shift to remote instruction is a great opportunity to have students use multiple resources and then assess which ones were the most effective (and most enjoyed) before then deciding which resources are worth incorporating into future classes once in-person teaching has resumed," she said.

"Teachers should give themselves permission to try something new, evaluate it and then make changes," Holden said. "Just remember to keep it simple and keep the lines of communication open so students can report what is working well and what may need to be reassessed."

Many services are offering their products temporarily free to educators and students, including Labster.com, an experiment simulator, Quizlet.com and Quizizz.com, practice quizzes, and peardeck.com, an interactive assessment tool for Google Slides.

Patrycja Krakowiak, another life science specialist, recommended in the release using Citizen Science projects to engage students in research that shows how science impacts their daily lives. A list of projects can be found at citizenscience.org.

"One challenge for many teachers is the lack of adequate online access many students may experience. Students may not have broadband internet access to allow them to participate in video sessions or to visit recommended websites. It is a challenge ASMSA teachers have experienced with its students, as well," the release said.

The most important thing to do is maintain contact with the students in any way you can, Krakowiak and Holden said.

"Even if the contact needs to be via a phone call," Krakowiak said. "The most important step is to identify these students. Then, either print out handouts and reading materials and mail them or put materials from different subjects on flash drives if the main problem is internet connectivity."

Local on 04/08/2020

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