Anything similar to uzinggo for science??

[4KookieKids]

DS11 loved uzinggo for science last year. He did the three middle level courses, and he says he really liked the activities (like "virtual" experiments) and learned a lot. Well, then they redesigned their program, and while I think the redesigns would make me VERY happy if I were a science teacher at school... we are not so fond of them as homeschoolers. In particular, there doesn't seem to be a way to "bundle" an entire course anymore, so I have to assign every single topic and activity within a subject individually if I want him to do them, and I'm just not up for that. (I've reached out to them to ask them if they can make the entire course bundle an option again, so we'll see.)

In the meantime, I'm looking to pursue other science program. I'd like something that's pretty hands-off for me (my hands are full with other things right now), relatively high-level input without a lot of output-requirements. I tried signing him up for AP Bio at Khan, thinking it seemed similar enough to me (watch some videos, answer some questions?), but he says it's awful. I don't know what makes it different, but he says it's just boring and he wants to do more uzinggo. lol. Any ideas? The idea is just to keep him interested and motivated to continue learning science at this point, not to get through any particular content. 

[Guest]

Can he just do them in whatever sequence he wants, or does it only unlock when you assign it? I'm managing a classroom in a beta of a different product, and while the LMS lets me assign specifics, if I don't, the students can do anything they want and work through classes, earn badges, etc, and I can see what they do, grade free response, etc.

 

As far as something similar, it really feels like everything DD liked doesn't exist. I know SD Accelerate didn't survive, and I don't see IntoScience anymore either. And now, apparently,Uzinggo (which I recommended to so many people that they should have started paying me).

[4KookieKids]

On 9/19/2020 at 3:44 PM, dmmetler said:

Can he just do them in whatever sequence he wants, or does it only unlock when you assign it? I'm managing a classroom in a beta of a different product, and while the LMS lets me assign specifics, if I don't, the students can do anything they want and work through classes, earn badges, etc, and I can see what they do, grade free response, etc.

 

As far as something similar, it really feels like everything DD liked doesn't exist. I know SD Accelerate didn't survive, and I don't see IntoScience anymore either. And now, apparently,Uzinggo (which I recommended to so many people that they should have started paying me).

Our free trial ran out, but I can request another one. I seem to think he couldn't access anything that I hadn't assigned, but maybe we didn't explore quite enough! That would be a glimmer of light for him, at least. lol.

 

ETA: You are correct! He is free to explore all the content on his own; it's just not in an easy sequence/progression in that case. Thanks! I would've never thought of trying this!

Edited September 21, 2020 by 4KookieKids

[HomeForNow]

What has changed? DS used this until a few months ago, and he could just work through it, and I could just occasionally login to check progress and encourage him to finish, but without me ever needing to do anything. He's finished with it, but we thought we might use it again for a younger sibling, but wouldn't bother if the format has changed for the worse. (DS used it for homeschool, whereas for younger sibling it would be a supplement to school, so we could just skip it.)

 

[4KookieKids]

On 9/19/2020 at 11:45 PM, HomeForNow said:

What has changed? DS used this until a few months ago, and he could just work through it, and I could just occasionally login to check progress and encourage him to finish, but without me ever needing to do anything. He's finished with it, but we thought we might use it again for a younger sibling, but wouldn't bother if the format has changed for the worse. (DS used it for homeschool, whereas for younger sibling it would be a supplement to school, so we could just skip it.)

 

As best I can tell, they separated out ALLl the activities into neat little modules so that teachers can pick and choose exactly which ones to incorporate into their lessons. They no longer are branded under "uzinggo," and are now only under the parent company "adaptive curriculum." It really is cool how they've made it so customizable - I just prefer something that's not so customizable!! lol. I prefer not to have a thousand different activities to choose from - I want "easy"! (Everything assigned, all in some reasonable sequence that my kid can follow and I can see that he's 67% done with Physics, or something like uzinggo used to have.)

All that being said, I'm in conversations with customer service, and it seems very possible that they made multiple products in their new line of Adaptive Curriculum, and perhaps I was just accessing one geared more towards professional teachers, because they have a "Home" version for homeschoolers as well. The trial still gives you access to the entire AC site, but I'm wondering if the Home product retains the very simple format where kids get assigned their courses and all I have to do is occasionally check progress (like you mentioned you did.) I love that it was so hands off when my kiddo did it before, and I'm cautiously optimistic that they have retained the features I want, and I was just looking for them in the wrong place.

I will update as soon as I hear back!

[HomeForNow]

Yes, it sounds like you need to find the right version, if it still exists, where the kid has the full lineup of subjects/topics, and can choose anything, and the parent can look at progress, and say to kid "do what you want, as long as you finish it all in the end".

I can still log into Uzinggo (there's a bit of time left on subscription, but DS finished working through it) and it looks the same, but I never looked into it deeply, as it was so hands-off for me.

 

[4KookieKids]

5 hours ago, HomeForNow said:

Yes, it sounds like you need to find the right version, if it still exists, where the kid has the full lineup of subjects/topics, and can choose anything, and the parent can look at progress, and say to kid "do what you want, as long as you finish it all in the end".

I can still log into Uzinggo (there's a bit of time left on subscription, but DS finished working through it) and it looks the same, but I never looked into it deeply, as it was so hands-off for me.

 

Yes, I can still se our subscription from last year as well. I loved how hands-off it was. I'm really hoping this home version has what I want! I have two younger kids who want to do it next year as well, and I'd never pay for them to do it (they're young and dyslexic), but if the home version gives me three student licenses for the same price I'd be paying for one anyway.... well, I may let the younger two do it as well (though without the requirement that they finish things). lol. 

[4KookieKids]

Well, bad news: They really did make it much more complicated for homeschool parents. I will include below the email and attachment I received back, but the short of it is that they have predefined UNITS, but you still have to assign all the units (10-15 per course, it seems, so we'd have to go through the suggested process close to 60 times for the four HS science courses) for each course to your student. Furthermore, each unit is required to be assigned with an actual due date, and it doesn't appear to me that the units come in order if you give them all the same deadline of next year sometime - then they just get listed alphabetically, rather than the original order that they appeared in the course. I'm not yet sure if I can fix this by assigning them a due date next year, but first unit to be done one day, second unit due the day after, etc. I feel like it's really stupid of them to actual eliminate functionality for the sake of flexibility, rather than just keeping the functionality they had before and adding more flexibility, but what do I know... 

 

Thank you for your question regarding how to work with lesson plans in AC Home.  Understanding that you were a user of Uzinggo, we want to ensure you that AC Home provides you with an easy way to use our Pre-defined lesson plans to create an environment similar to what your child has used in the past.

Please refer to the attached document on how to create lesson plans ( it is also available on the support page along with other documents that provide support and assistance in using AC Home.)

Here are our recommended Best Practices for you to implement when making the switch from Uzingo to AC Home.

·         Create a folder under My Lesson Plans for each course. It will help keep Lesson Plans from different courses more organized.

·         Assign “one month of work/lesson plans” at the beginning of a month and just prior to the end of that period send another month of work, and so on. That way, the student will see the lesson plans he/she needs to work on at the top of their assignment list.

·         Make sure that each Lesson Plan has the course name at the beginning of the title,  so the list of assignments makes more sense for the student. (IE: Science and Math should be in the title of the lesson plan so that the parent and student know the content area the Activity Objects and Animations are associated with)

MAS-UsersGuide-Section7-Creating-Lesson-Plans.pdf

[4KookieKids]

Further update: It seems that they are requesting a new update that adds entire courses to their "predefined" options. Maybe I was loud enough! LOL. Not sure when that would roll out, but hopefully soon!

[Sarah0000]

2 hours ago, 4KookieKids said:

Further update: It seems that they are requesting a new update that adds entire courses to their "predefined" options. Maybe I was loud enough! LOL. Not sure when that would roll out, but hopefully soon!

Keep us updated please!

This program might be on my list for next year if they work out this issue.

[4KookieKids]

On 9/24/2020 at 10:36 AM, Sarah0000 said:

Keep us updated please!

This program might be on my list for next year if they work out this issue.

I got this email today. The main point for me is the last one - they've added the ability to just assign entire courses to a student! I asked for a new "free trial" to verify that everything works as hoped, but with this update released, I think we're a "Go" for uzinggo/Adaptive Curriculum again! Yea!!

 

--------------------- 

The following updates have been released recently in Adaptive Curriculum:

 

1.       The Catalog Tree now shows more granular Middle School courses instead of just Math and Science:

Hopefully, this reorganization will make more sense for the Middle School teachers&students&parents.

 

 

2.       Units and Sections are now numbered in the catalog.

 

3.       Predefined Lesson Plans (PLPs) are now following the same structure with the Catalog Tree and they now have a short prefix indicating the course they belong to. This will make it easier for the students to understand their assignments from its title when they receive multiple assignments.

 

4.       For each course, we’ve added a “FULL COURSE CONTENT” PLP to the end of the PLP list:

In this PLP, all content of the course is listed in a meaningful order (though they are not grouped by Units or Sections). Parents who don’t want to spend too much time on assigning content to their students can now just assign these “FULL COURSE” PLPs to them.

[Sarah0000]

17 hours ago, 4KookieKids said:

I got this email today. The main point for me is the last one - they've added the ability to just assign entire courses to a student! I asked for a new "free trial" to verify that everything works as hoped, but with this update released, I think we're a "Go" for uzinggo/Adaptive Curriculum again! Yea!!

 

--------------------- 

The following updates have been released recently in Adaptive Curriculum:

 

1.       The Catalog Tree now shows more granular Middle School courses instead of just Math and Science:

 

Hopefully, this reorganization will make more sense for the Middle School teachers&students&parents.

 

 

2.       Units and Sections are now numbered in the catalog.

 

 

3.       Predefined Lesson Plans (PLPs) are now following the same structure with the Catalog Tree and they now have a short prefix indicating the course they belong to. This will make it easier for the students to understand their assignments from its title when they receive multiple assignments.

 

 

4.       For each course, we’ve added a “FULL COURSE CONTENT” PLP to the end of the PLP list:

 

In this PLP, all content of the course is listed in a meaningful order (though they are not grouped by Units or Sections). Parents who don’t want to spend too much time on assigning content to their students can now just assign these “FULL COURSE” PLPs to them.

Thank you for the update!

So, if I'm understanding right, you pay for a monthly subscription and have access to all courses, and now you can assign a whole course at once? So the student can log in and it will be obvious what assignment they are suppose to do? Are the assignments then graded or passed and the next assignment is automatically loaded?

Could you tell me what the monthly subscription fee is? I think their website is malfunctioning right now and I can't see the pricing plans. Thanks so much! I'm glad it's working out for you now.

[4KookieKids]

1 hour ago, Sarah0000 said:

Thank you for the update!

So, if I'm understanding right, you pay for a monthly subscription and have access to all courses, and now you can assign a whole course at once? So the student can log in and it will be obvious what assignment they are suppose to do? Are the assignments then graded or passed and the next assignment is automatically loaded?

Could you tell me what the monthly subscription fee is? I think their website is malfunctioning right now and I can't see the pricing plans. Thanks so much! I'm glad it's working out for you now.

Ok, so one point of clarification, now that they've extended my trial: you can definitely assign an entire course now, view progress, scores/grades, reports, time spent on activities, etc. The only thing that I've found is still not ideal, and it's relatively minor, but I wrote them about it anyway, is that it doesn't automatically start you where you left off. It pulls up the sequence, and you have to scroll to where the check marks end (I'm attaching a video, and you can see that when I click "play," it automatically starts at the beginning of the course, so I just have to scroll over past all the activities that have tiny checkmarks in them, to the next one that has no checkmark). I emailed them and they said that they made add that functionality, but didn't have it yet because it wasn't really necessary before they added the option to add a full course. 🙂  But yes,  once you finish one activity, it automatically loads you into the next one, so it's definitely painless for the student.

It's $75 for an annual subscription, and that includes up to 3 students, and all of their middle and high school level math and science courses. If you want less (say just math, or just middle school), then the subscription is slightly cheaper: https://www.adaptivecurriculum.com/us/lessons-library/ac-home.htm

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by 4KookieKids

[Sarah0000]

40 minutes ago, 4KookieKids said:

Ok, so one point of clarification, now that they've extended my trial: you can definitely assign an entire course now, view progress, scores/grades, reports, time spent on activities, etc. The only thing that I've found is still not ideal, and it's relatively minor, but I wrote them about it anyway, is that it doesn't automatically start you where you left off. It pulls up the sequence, and you have to scroll to where the check marks end (I'm attaching a video, and you can see that when I click "play," it automatically starts at the beginning of the course, so I just have to scroll over past all the activities that have tiny checkmarks in them, to the next one that has no checkmark). I emailed them and they said that they made add that functionality, but didn't have it yet because it wasn't really necessary before they added the option to add a full course. 🙂  But yes,  once you finish one activity, it automatically loads you into the next one, so it's definitely painless for the student.

It's $75 for an annual subscription, and that includes up to 3 students, and all of their middle and high school level math and science courses. If you want less (say just math, or just middle school), then the subscription is slightly cheaper: https://www.adaptivecurriculum.com/us/lessons-library/ac-home.html

screen-recording-2020-10-10-at-21524-pm_tRad1XTv.mov

Thanks for the video. This does look painless.

[4KookieKids]

8 minutes ago, Sarah0000 said:

Thanks for the video. This does look painless.

No problem. I took the video down though because I realized afterwards that it had some personal information on it. Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂

[HomeForNow]

On 10/10/2020 at 1:22 PM, 4KookieKids said:

Ok, so one point of clarification, now that they've extended my trial: you can definitely assign an entire course now, view progress, scores/grades, reports, time spent on activities, etc. The only thing that I've found is still not ideal, and it's relatively minor, but I wrote them about it anyway, is that it doesn't automatically start you where you left off. It pulls up the sequence, and you have to scroll to where the check marks end (I'm attaching a video, and you can see that when I click "play," it automatically starts at the beginning of the course, so I just have to scroll over past all the activities that have tiny checkmarks in them, to the next one that has no checkmark). I emailed them and they said that they made add that functionality, but didn't have it yet because it wasn't really necessary before they added the option to add a full course. 🙂  But yes,  once you finish one activity, it automatically loads you into the next one, so it's definitely painless for the student.

It's $75 for an annual subscription, and that includes up to 3 students, and all of their middle and high school level math and science courses. If you want less (say just math, or just middle school), then the subscription is slightly cheaper: https://www.adaptivecurriculum.com/us/lessons-library/ac-home.htm

 

Did you end up getting a subscription, and if so, is it back to functionality/content similar to Uzinggo, or at least is it easy to use for parent and kid? We're thinking of it as a supplement for DD.

[4KookieKids]

On 1/19/2021 at 2:32 PM, HomeForNow said:

Did you end up getting a subscription, and if so, is it back to functionality/content similar to Uzinggo, or at least is it easy to use for parent and kid? We're thinking of it as a supplement for DD.

We ended up not getting it, because by the time they updated to all courses, ds was invested enough in his Khan academy course that he didn't want to switch. I expect we will still sign up this summer for next year, but it means I don't know if it's back to the functionality it had with Uzinggo. They made it much simpler with the last update, but the last piece I would've liked to see them add was a "continue where you left off" sort of button. I don't know if they've done that in the last three months, but they might if you emailed them about it. I found back in Aug-Oct that they were relatively quick to implement the changes I suggested (like making a full course add-able) - I think they really want it to be homeschool friendly. If they haven't added that feature back in, I'll definitely be emailing them again this summer! lol. 

[HomeForNow]

Thanks. If we end up getting it, I can provide feedback too.

 

[4KookieKids]

20 hours ago, HomeForNow said:

Thanks. If we end up getting it, I can provide feedback too.

 

That would be great!

[HomeForNow]

We have got it now. DS says the content looks pretty similar to Uzinggo (not surprisingly). The lesson selection layout looks totally different, but it appears you can select from the full list.