To make it easier for teachers to utilize our materials, we have developed a Google Classroom Loader Tool. This tool imports assignments and material posts in draft form to a new class within Google Classroom. Educators can adjust the posts and assign them to the sections of their choice. They can also collaborate with other educators at their school to alter the materials before assigning.
Tutorial Videos
Accessing the Google Classroom Loader Tool
Google Classroom Loader Tutorial
Assumptions and Guidelines of the Google Classroom Design
Before generating the Google Classroom content for each unit, we needed to define the use case. We determined the following assumptions and principles for using Google Classroom and wrote the content to align with these assumptions. Educators using our materials differently than described below will need to adjust the Google Classroom posts to fit their use.
Our Google Classroom content was written based on these assumptions:
- Instruction will be in person.
- Students will be using a paper science notebook.
- Students will have access to their own device (Chromebook, iPad, laptop).
- Pacing matches the pacing written in the unit.
- Every lesson has an End-of-Lesson Summary that is meant to be shared with students AFTER the lesson is completed. Some lessons have an End-of-Day Summary when it is essential to capture and summarize what happened before the end of the lesson. For example, at the end of day 1 of Lesson 1 in Unit 6.1, we have a summary post that shares the video of the music student.
- No new lesson content was written. We converted a few existing assignments and activities to better fit the Google Classroom environment. For example, Exit Ticket prompts that existed only on slides were converted to Google Forms so that teachers could easily assign them to students and review the responses. We have created summary sheets that describe which components of each unit live in Google Classroom and which exist in the science notebook or as a paper handout.
- The Classroom Loader is not meant to be a stand-alone version of the unit. Educators will need to download the full unit (PDF or Google) to have access to all of the unit resources.
