Running a prac with Stile

Pracs and hands-on activities can provide some of the most powerful learning moments for our students.

Stile Education
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

Whether you wish to run one of Stile’s investigations or one of your own, Stile is the perfect digital lab book to help your students become scientific thinkers.

Why have students write up their investigation reports in Stile? Here are some of the top benefits:

  • You can easily tailor the openness of an investigation to the ability level of your students. They can be open-ended, student-led investigations, ‘follow the recipe’ practical activities, or anything in between.
  • Students can upload and annotate photos of their investigation right into their report.
  • Students can instantly visualise their data as they’re collecting results.

Your procedure will vary slightly depending on whether you wish to run one of your own investigations or one of Stile’s.

Stile Science Templates: Add a template to your subject and modify it to suit your needs.

If you’re running your own investigation

Copy one of Stile’s scientific investigation templates from the Lesson Library into your Stile subject.

Modify the template as appropriate: add the aim, materials and method if you want more of a recipe-based activity. Or leave them as questions for a more open-ended, student-led investigation.

Stile Science Lessons: Investigations are ready to go, and you can further customise them for your class.

If you’re running one of Stile’s investigations

Copy the relevant Stile unit from the Lesson Library into your Stile subject.

Modify the investigation as appropriate: remove the aim, materials and method and replace them with questions if you want more of an open-ended, student-led investigation.

Run the investigation: Students can log in from their mobiles to directly upload media.

Running your investigation in the class

Run your investigation as you normally would, except have students record their results and write their report in Stile. Make sure to:

  • Encourage students to upload photos and videos of their investigation. They can annotate their photos if they upload them into a Canvas (see diagram on the right).
    Tip: Students can log into Stile on their phones in order to directly upload their photos and videos.
  • Where relevant, encourage students to upload their data directly into Stile’s graph tool. Their data will be visualised right in front of their eyes!
Open Response: Students choose the best tools to deliver their results of the investigation.

Of course, as always, we suggest viewing student work as they go via the Markbook and providing feedback where relevant. Ask students to resubmit their work in response to your feedback to hone their scientific minds!

This article is an excerpt of the Stile Guide. View and download the full Guide here or read another excerpt:
- Teaching with Stile in the classroom: a beginner’s guide
-
Teaching with Stile in the classroom for experienced Stilists
- Conducting formative assessment with Stile
- Running a test with Stile
- Setting Stile for homework

Would you like to be a Stile Luminary? Watch the webinar to find out more.

Stile Blog

We blog about education, science, shiny new tech and where these three meet.

Stile Education

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Interactive, relevant, and engaging online science lessons.

Stile Blog

We blog about education, science, shiny new tech and where these three meet.

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