Vernier Software & Technology Launches E-Book to Support Hands-On Science Learning for Middle School Students

Vernier Software & Technology has launched Light & Matter: Vernier Supplement to OpenSciEd Unit 6.1 to support engaging, hands-on science learning for middle school students. This free e-book incorporates data-collection technology into the first lesson in OpenSciEd Unit 6.1, which is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), to help students gain a deeper understanding of the initial scientific concepts being taught and to motivate their learning throughout the remainder of the unit.

“It is so important for teachers to have high-quality content to help build students’ STEM literacy at an early age,” said John Wheeler, CEO of Vernier Software & Technology. “Our partnership with OpenSciEd gives middle school teachers access to free, standards-aligned, technology-integrated instructional materials to support this work. The new supplement, in particular, helps set the stage for the following lessons in the unit by encouraging students to collect and analyze data as they engage in three-dimensional learning and explore how light interacts with matter in the world around them.”

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After watching a perplexing movie involving a one-way mirror, Light & Matter: Vernier Supplement to OpenSciEd Unit 6.1 prompts students to use a Go Direct Light and Color Sensor to quantify amounts of transmitted and reflected light, then compare the sensor readings with what they perceive with their own senses. Using various models, students develop an understanding of two of the ways light interacts with matter. They also answer the question, “How can something act like a mirror and a window at the same time?”

OpenSciEd Unit 6.1 features a total of eight lessons. In addition to “What happens when light shines on the one-way mirror?” (featuring the Go Direct Light and Color Sensor), lessons include:

• “How do similar amounts of light transmit through and reflect off the one-way mirror?”
• “How do light and the one-way mirror interact to cause the one-way mirror phenomenon?”

Vernier Software & Technology offers a number of free downloadable teaching supplements that enhance the digital curricular units available through OpenSciEd. The free units explore common middle school science topics, such as weather, climate, metabolic reactions, forces, and sound waves.

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