Announcing the New MimioScience - Educational Software Addresses NGSS

Today we are proud to announce the launch of MimioScience™ interactive lessons. This state-of-the-art software, one of the first to address the upcoming Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), comprises an extensive series of 75 interactive whiteboard units that provide more than 225 high-quality lessons for students in grades 3-8.

“Science education in the United States is frequently described as ‘a mile wide and an inch deep,’” said Manny Perez, Mimio’s general manager. “As schools attempt to cover everything from physical science to life science, nothing is taught or learned in sufficient depth, a problem that really plagues science education. Our goal in developing MimioScience was to design a teaching tool that effectively and efficiently distills science teaching to its fundamental core elements: concepts, principles, and processes. The lessons’ targeted activities give students a way to apply and extend what they’ve learned through application and inquiry.”

Not just fact memorization

Moving away from presenting science content as a list of facts to be memorized, the MimioScience curriculum is organized into a set of practices to be performed. Every grade-appropriate activity, tested for effectiveness by students and teachers alike, ties a particular science concept or principle to a science practice. In this way, MimioScience interactive lessons support the aim of the NGSS, which is to identify what students can do, not just how many memorized facts they can recount. Each lesson works on Mimio interactive whiteboards and those developed by other vendors.

Laying a solid foundation for future science success

T. V. Joe Layng, Ph.D., director of learning sciences at Mimio and one of the key authors of the MimioScience lessons stated, “We know science education is not working well for many students in the United States. We also know our system of education is strongly connected to our ability to compete in an increasingly global economy dependent on highly skilled workers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Learning in science begins in early childhood, and we designed MimioScience with that in mind. This is a time when young minds are curious about science and ready to engage in the science practices and language that form an underpinning that can be built upon and strengthened throughout the rest of a student’s K–12 education.”

“In order to produce a steady supply of young people who are well prepared to meet the new standards in science, we have to change the way we ‘teach’ science,” said Perez. “With MimioScience and its concept-focused approach, we have harnessed the transformative potential of technology, coupled with collaborative learning opportunities and fresh content, to help teachers strengthen their existing lessons and drive learning outcomes higher.”

Fully integrated with Mimio software and hardware products

MimioScience lessons are integrated with the MimioClassroom suite of interactive technologies, including MimioTeach™ interactive whiteboard, which converts any dry erase board into a fully interactive whiteboard; MimioProjector™ interactive projector, which allows teachers to simply connect the device to their computer to project lessons, graphics, and images onto a conventional dry erase board or other flat surface; MimioVote™ assessment; MimioView™ document camera; MimioPad™ wireless pen tablet; and MimioCapture™ ink recorder.

With the recently introduced MimioMobile™ license, teachers can direct a fully collaborative learning environment using the MimioStudio™ 10 classroom software. With a single MimioMobile license for the teacher’s computer or laptop, every student with an iPad® or iPad mini can interact with lessons displayed on the classroom’s interactive whiteboard. Additionally, teachers can use the MimioMobile app to control the interactive whiteboard and display the MimioScience lessons in MimioStudio software, from anywhere in the room.

MimioScience is available for purchase now, for the 2013/2014 school year

In June, 26 physical science units (about 80 lessons) and 18 science processes units (about 54 lessons) will be available for downloading. During the winter of 2014, Mimio will release 7 engineering and technology units and 18 earth and space units (about 54 lessons). Twelve life science units (about 36 lessons) will become available for download in April 2014.

The price of the MimioScience interactive lessons is $1,299 per school per year. Schools that buy the software now will get two academic years (2013-2015) of use for the price of one year’s purchase. In addition, schools will have access to MimioStudio software during the same academic years.

Learn more about MimioScience, and download sample lessons.