Minds On Physics Teacher Accounts
What's the Big Idea?
Many hundreds of high schools have used the Minds On Physics Internet Modules as part of their curriculum since its inception in 1999. For physics teachers at these schools, MOPs is a means of solidifying the learning that occurs within the classroom. The modules are typically used by such teachers as both classwork and homework. MOPs provides teachers with a painless way of making assignments and deriving grades based on students' successful completion of assigned work. But more importantly, the missions themselves are mentally engaging assignments that can only be completed once a student understands the concept. Guessing and simply doing my best typically does not lead to success. The Minds On Physics Internet Modules rewards students for understanding physics ... not just getting something done. By blending Minds On Physics with our Task Tracker system, teachers can view students' completion records and assign grades for completed work.
What's a Teacher Account?
Beginning in the Spring of 2020, we introduced our Task Tracker system for tracking student progress on the activities found in the Concept Builder section of our website. And now we are expanding Task Tracker to provide tracking of student progress on Minds On Physics missions done in the Sudden Death (aka, For Credit) mode. So a Mnds On Physics Teacher Account provides teachers an account to use Task Tracker.
The Task Tracker database system allows teachers to set up classes, easily add students to those classes, create assignments that appear on students' assignment boards, set due dates, set scoring rules, and view student progress and scores on the assigned tasks.
Benefits of a Teacher Account
Minds On Physics includes a FREE option. Students can use Minds On Physics as a learning tool without paying (or their teacher paying) a single cent. So why would one ever want to pay for a free tool? That's a fair question and one that we hope that you ponder. Taking the step of purchasing a teacher account should only occur after you've conducted a cost-benefit analysis.
So here is what a teacher can do with a paid Teacher Account and access to our Task Tracker system.
- Create classes in our database and invite and add students to those classes.
- Turn Minds On Physics missions into assignments with due dates, point values, late penalty points, scoring rules for rewarding partial credit, etc.
- A teacher account provides teachers with access to the Teacher Preview mode. They can easily view all questions within a mission and their organization into Question Groups.
- Identify Question Groups to be eliminated from the assigned mission. Students will never be presented those Question Groups. You can remove as many Question Groups as you wish.
- Create scoring rules that awards students partial credit for completing only part of a mission in Sudden Death (aka, For Credit) mode.
- Each mission has a default miss penalty. When a student misses a question, their Health Bar decreases by a certain percentage; this percentage is referred to as the miss penalty. When the Health Bar decreases to 0%, the student must start the mission over. Teachers with a Teacher Account can change the miss penalty, thereby exercising control over the rigor associated with any assigned mission.
- When you have a teacher account, your students' progress (and health) will be saved. If they exit out of a mission and later return to the same mission, their previous progress will be retrieved. (NOTE: we only track progress for the Sudden Death usage mode.)
- Teachers can view students' time-stamped completion records, including student scores on each Minds On Physics mission that has been assigned. They can also view which Question Groups were missed. This information can be used to post-process troublesome Question Groups using the Teacher Preview mode.
How Much Does a Teacher Account Cost?
Now that you know the benefits, what about the costs? How much does a teacher account cost? How can it be paid for? Do you offer group discounts? Do you accept Purchase Orders?
These are all great questions. We are going to direct you to our Pricing For Schools page for answers to your cost and payment questions.
Student Privacy and Identifying Information
As you have likely noticed, privacy is a huge issue these days. And it should be! Teachers who have teacher accounts will need to invite students to join their classes. This means that students wil have accounts as well. In order for teachers to identify those students on their class rosters, we will need to acquire some identifying information about those students. For our system to work best for students and teachers, we suggest an email address, a first name, and either a last name or a last initial. An email addess is guaranteed to be a unique identifier and is used as a log-in username. The first and the last name (or last initial) are used in the roster to help teachers identify the student whose scores they are vewing.
The information that we receive from students is kept private. We do not share, sell, or distribute the information to anyone. What you give us, stays with us until 30 days after the end of the subscription period. At that time, the information is permanently deleted from our system.
If you have additional questions regarding student privacy or need to have privacy agreements signed, please reach out to us through our Contact form. We are always glad to help.