All SDUHSD Physics: of the Universe teachers will use OpenStax Physics for the High Shcool Course as their primary , core instructional materials beginning with the 24-25 school year. Additionally, OpenStax Astronomy 2e was also adopted for the Earth-Space Science content in Physics: of the Universe and AP Physics 1 courses. All sites will receive class sets of 50 of each textbook for each teacher.
OpenStax is an Open Education Resource (OER) that teachers and students can use at no cost.
Teachers and students can access the digital Physics textbook here.
Teachers and students can access the digital Astronomy 2e textbook here.
SDUHSD Physics teachers piloted Pivot Interactives to support distance learning in the 2020-2021 school year, and licenses were renewed for subsequent school years. This applies to all SDUHSD Physics courses, including Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses.
Thanks to Amy Springstead for providing the following resources!
Here is a short video of the steps you need to go through to set up your account, create classes, and add students. I had a couple of teachers test it out and they found it very straightforward (Thank you Angela and Katie!). One thing to note is when you are setting up your classes, there is a question about payment. Check the institution subscription option.
Here is a Getting Started document that I created for you with quick links to the support documentation from Pivot Interactives. We only purchased enough licenses for all of the physics classes and if you previously arranged to use Pivot in another course.
Pivot regularly hosts live virtual trainings on a variety of topics (teachers can access once they are logged in), and also delivered a couple of sessions for our district as part of our 2020-2021 pilot.
First Session: Modifying and Building
Zoom: Share recording with viewers:
https://pivotinteractives.zoom.us/rec/share/BIwyNFpRl66iKKlgdOz9sMd2PYxGwqLQ_DnAM51hQ05MwCEdrwpnNE606zB5r4O3.9pWgDA2rTmqdJHbh Passcode: e93uzh&H
Second Session: Alternative Assessments
Share recording with viewers:
https://pivotinteractives.zoom.us/rec/share/yQiRGtYjC6z7Z3U_DNPIRkCplxjDoauajI-cNVBpkfZsMTtDdLQ_yltkRHLNvD2R.ZzzgKM1riVWY96zg Passcode: same0.^q
Pivot Interactives has a robust help center, and a live chat feature to provide quick support. Once you are logged into the platform, you will have access to these features. They typically follow up within an hour during regualr business hours.
Rep: Linda Detwiler, linda.detwiler@pivotinteractives.com
Submit a district Tech Ticket.
Assignment Submit and Status
Students will now see a button to submit an assignment when they are finished with it. Once an assignment is submitted, students cannot make revisions. Instructors can grade or make comments, and then have the option of returning the assignment to the student for revision, or submitting a final grade. Updated grade status will be relayed to the LMS, and visible in the instructor's Scores view for the assignment. Here are updated help articles:
Custom Libraries
Instructors can now make their own libraries and share access to their libraries with other instructors. You can use this both to organize your content and to form collaborative communities within Pivot Interactives. The library pages look different now and the way you navigate libraries is smoother and more flexible. (read more)
There are other smaller changes:
The workflow for assigning activities from the My Classes page allows you to browse libraries rather than pick from a list.
Users can click and drag on the graph to include/exclude which data points are included in the curve fit.
The Libraries pages are re-arranged and loads faster than before.
Thanks to Katie Stapko for creating and sharing this list of useful Pivot Interactives. SDUHSD Physics teachers are welcome to contribute!