Charlotte, NC (Tuesday, August 6, 2024)—Students in North Carolina’s Granville County Public Schools (GCPS) will begin the 2024-2025 school year with a host of new digital resources from worldwide edtech leader Discovery Education in their digital backpacks. These resources will support the efforts of district educators to provide students with hands-on learning experiences in the sciences that encourage their curiosity and interests and prepare them for success in a broad range of opportunities beyond graduation.
GCPS is located in the heart of Granville County, North Carolina. The school district serves suburban and rural communities, including Oxford, Butner, and Creedmoor, ensuring that a high-quality education is accessible to all residents within the county. By providing students access to engaging and challenging learning opportunities in an inclusive setting, the GCPS prepares students not just for graduation, but for lifelong personal and professional growth.
To create “real world” learning experiences that foster conceptual understanding of scientific ideas and help develop scientifically literate, college and career ready students, GCPS sought a suite of digital resources that would support science education districtwide. Specifically, the district sought solutions that were tightly aligned to the 2023 K-12 North Carolina Science Standards, available offline and in hard copy, contained hands-on components, and was multi-lingual and easy to use. Following a comprehensive review process, GCPS selected several Discovery Education services for classroom use, including:
Discovery Education Science Techbooks. The Discovery Education Science Techbook series is a comprehensive, research-backed science solution for grades K-12. Used in classrooms across the United States, the Science Techbooks drive engagement with exclusive phenomena and interactive content. Built specifically for North Carolina classrooms, the North Carolina Science Techbooks are aligned to the 2023 K-12 Science Standards and feature virtual and hands-on investigations, STEM activities, and instructional supports that enhance the delivery of impactful instruction online, offline, and in hardcopy. The Science Techbooks also include standards connections and differentiation activities that inform instructional planning and guide three-dimensional learning. Available with the Science Techbooks are coordinated teacher guides offering unit, concept, and lesson overviews.
Recently, Discovery Education’s Science Techbook was certified as meeting the rigorous, evidence-based ESSA Tier III standards set forth in Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Multiple studies show that regular use of Discovery Education Science Techbook in the classroom has many positive academic results for educators and students across a variety of districts and populations in the United States. This research and more can be found here.
Mystery Science. Used in K-5 classrooms alongside Discovery Education Experience Mystery Science provides educators simple-to-use, open-and-go, hands-on lessons that inspire students to love science. Each lesson begins by posing a question commonly asked by young students. Students then explore these questions through interactive videos featuring real-world visuals fostering a sense of wonder and actively supporting student engagement in the accompanying discussion prompts. Mystery Science simplifies prep for teachers, making the integration of this resource into classroom instruction simple. Plus, all K-5 science lessons are available in Spanish, with accompanying videos featuring authentic Spanish narration and Spanish text-on-screen. Editable, ready-to-use worksheets and assessments are also available in both English and Spanish.
Pivot Interactives. Pivot interactives make teaching science with active learning and scientific phenomena engaging and easy. The platform provides users with more than 10,000 authentic, interactive video-based science interactives crafted by Pivot’s expert curriculum team and teacher community. These resources, tied to state and national standards, offer opportunities for interactive learning, where students explore and learn for themselves. A unique interface allows students to change what happens in the video and see how that change affects the outcome. Easy-to-follow instructions guide students through data collection, measurement, data analysis, and interpretation, while feedback provided by both open-ended and auto-graded questions reinforce correct ideas.
“In GCPS we teach our students the NC Standard Course of Study. We choose Discovery Education not only because of the high-quality, engaging content, but because of the close alignment of these resources with our state standards,” said GCPS Superintendent Stan Winborne. “We also appreciate the options for students to engage with resources through hands-on activities, traditional paper-pencil applications, and with advanced digital experiences. This new partnership provides our students a variety of new ways to learn about science, and we believe our students will love using them this fall.”
All educators using Discovery Education’s digital resources have access to the Discovery Educator Network. A global community of education professionals, the Discovery Educator Network connects members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable idea sharing and inspiration.
“Granville County Public Schools has built an exciting, innovative framework to support science education and the future success of their community’s students,” said Discovery Education Manager of Education Partnerships Ashley Laver. “We are honored to work alongside them to support the growth and development of all learners across the district.”
For more information about Discovery Education’s award-winning digital resources and professional learning solutions visit www.discoveryeducation.com and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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