Pivot Interactives, an award-winning platform for authentic, interactive video-based science activities, transform science teaching through active learning and scientific phenomena. Developed by educators, Pivot Interactives makes teaching science easier for teachers and more engaging for students.

 

Easier for Teachers

Teachers can trade exhausting web searches, failed lab experiments, and passive learning for tools your students will love using. Pivot Interactives helps science teachers engage students and build the science classroom they’ve always envisioned.

 

Engaging for Students

Students manipulate and measure variables, like time, distance, temperature, and more, allowing them to tinker as they conduct their own authentic scientific investigations. When students can freely explore science through science practices, their confidence in problem-solving grows exponentially.    

Over 550 activities from 5th grade through college span physics, biology, chemistry, environmental science, astronomy, and earth & space science, Pivot Interactives covers fundamental topics in science such as Beer’s Law, acids and bases, kinematics, photosynthesis, spectroscopy, thermal conductivity, gene expression, gel electrophoresis, and dozens more.

 

 

Formats/platforms used:

Pivot Interactives has two IMS Global Certifications: Data Privacy and LTI Advantage.

Pivot Interactives is a web application designed to operate on internet-connected devices with the following browser versions:

Mozilla® Firefox®, version 83 or later

Windows®, macOS™

Google® Chrome™, version 85 or later

Windows, macOS, Chrome OS

Apple® Safari®, version 14 or later

macOS, iOS 13 or later on iPad®

                   

 

Primary website URL:

https://www.pivotinteractives.com/

 

Problem solved:

Creating active engagement in the science classroom can be time-consuming and difficult. Many science teachers struggle to engage students actively and feel stuck using slides, lectures, and lackluster lab experiments that fall short. Pivot Interactives gives teachers tools so students can explore scientific phenomena and develop their skills in the science practices.

    As a teacher, nothing is more draining than unengaged students. Pivot Interactives allows students to explore scientific phenomena first-hand so teachers can ignite students’ passion for science and their own love for teaching.

Educators can trade exhausting web searches, failed lab experiments, and passive learning for tools students will love using.

Pivot Interactives helps science teachers engage students and build the science classroom they’ve always envisioned.

Create Sticky Learning: Empower students to grasp, love, and understand science in engaging ways.

Pivot Interactives’ easy-to-use platform helps teachers rest easy knowing they have put their class in the best position possible to meet district demands and engage science like never before.

 

 

Grade/age range:

Pivot Interactives activities cover topics taught in grades 5 through higher education.

 

Core or supplemental?

Pivot Interactives provides phenomena-based science activities to supplement the core curriculum.

  • Pivot Interactives provides free professional development webinars that cover
  • Instructional Strategies: Focus on the best pedagogical strategies for every part of your learning cycle.
  • Editor’s Week: Learn how to build activities in Pivot Interactives to meet the needs and style of your classroom
  • Science Practices: Deep dive into the science practices and learn new strategies for your classroom.
  • Maximizing Pivot Interactives: See how to maximize Pivot Interactives in your AP Class, for color and light measurements, and more.

 

Standards:

Pivot Interactives content is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards, Advanced Placement courses, and many state standards. All activities are customizable to meet the needs of your school or district.

You can search for Pivot Interactives activities using our category filters:

  • Subject - Broad subject areas such as physics, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, Astronomy, and Earth & Space Science,    
  • Topic - Topics within a subject area like Kinematics or Electrochemistry.
  • Grading - A percentage of how much of the activity is automatically graded vs. manually graded by the instructor.
  • Standards - Filter by Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Next Generation Science Standards.
  • Difficulty - Filter by grade level or level of scaffolding
  • Instruction Cycle - Filter by location in the instructional cycle.

 

 

Lesson time needed:

Pivot Interactives activities vary in length  (5-50 minutes) to be used throughout the instructional cycle, in class, or at home. Learning may be conducted together as a class, independently, or collaboratively, no matter the location.

 

Pricing model:

A 30-day, the full-access free trial period is available.

  • Standard License for teachers
  • Grades 5-12 $5 per seat per year
  • Higher Ed, $10 per seat per semester
  • Access to 500+ activities for 1 year
  • Ability to customize any activity
  • Hands-on sensor integration
  • Co-Lab® for student collaboration
  • Basic LMS Integration
  • On-demand professional development

              

Premium License for Schools/Districts

Custom Pricing

  •     Includes everything in standard features
  • Reporting dashboard with usage insights, PD metrics, & more
  • Advanced rostering & SSO
  • Advanced LMS integration
  • On-demand, virtual, or in-person professional development
  • Content alignment with state or custom standards
  • Dedicated support for any and all of your needs

 

What makes Pivot Interactives unique?

Pivot Interactives is the only platform for authentic, interactive video-based science activities, making it engaging & easy to teach science with active learning and scientific phenomena.

  • Students find interactive video engaging and find it helps them understand the problem better than traditional methods.
  • Students prefer interactive videos over worksheets.
  • Under controlled conditions, students who use a curriculum based on Pivot Interactives interactive video showed significantly more significant learning gains in science process critical thinking skills even when compared to integrated hands-on learning.

 

Feedback from Student Surveys and Think-Alouds

  • Science education researchers at MIT and Carleton College measured students’ experience using Pivot Interactives interactive video compared to traditional methods:
  • 85% reported that interactive video made it easier to understand the scenario being investigated
  • 92% said they’d encourage their friends to take courses that use interactive video
  • 65% wished MIT’s online physics course included more of our interactive video
  • 60% reported an increase in using scientific skills like measurement techniques when using our interactive video

Students also reported that they felt more confident using interactive video because they could see and measure the outcomes of events for themselves.

 

Teachers using Pivot Interactives report similar experiences. Students prefer active investigation using interactive video compared to learning via video lectures or word problems.

Controlled Study of Learning Gains in Critical Thinking

Teaching students to construct models that describe natural phenomena is a key part of science literacy. A year-long study using 160 university students and four instructors showed that students who use interactive video in Pivot Interactives increased their ability to construct models (Model Making) compared with students who did not. Similarly, students who used Pivot Interactives instructional methods showed an increased ability to evaluate whether a known model adequately describes a new situation, a skill the authors called Model Breaking.

Significant findings:

  • The physics course in the study used SCALE-UP, an active learning curriculum with a significant hands-on apparatus-based component. The interactive video showed substantial learning gains -- even compared to this active learning environment.
  • Students who used interactive video to learn Model Making learned to develop a mathematical relationship between two parameters. For example, students used an array of interactive videos of transverse waves in a spring to develop the relationship between wavelength and frequency.
  • Students in this group outperformed the control group by over 20% on the end-of-semester assessment of Model Making.
  • Students who used interactive video to learn Model Breaking learned to apply a known model to a new situation and determine whether the model accurately described the outcome.
  • Students in this group outperformed the control group by 400% compared to the control group.

 

 

Characteristics:

Pivot Interactives was designed from the ground up by a team of teachers and developers with ease of use and accessibility in mind.

  • Accessibility: All interactions in the platform are accessible with keyboard controls, and all content can be read by screen readers. Color and contrast choices, content layouts, and more were designed with all students in mind.
  • Collaboration: Co-Lab™ groups allow students to collaborate, discover, problem solve, learn, and overcome challenges together. Students can collaborate through every aspect of the instructional cycle, not just during labs, regardless of their location.
  • Embedded Science & Engineering practices: Science and Engineering practices are central to NGSS Science, and Engineering practices are the vehicle for student engagement and interaction, seamlessly embedded in everything the student does in the activities are critical for students to form understanding and develop curiosity.
  • Automated Feedback: Instructors know students need feedback to achieve mastery, but relaying individual feedback on an ongoing basis just isn't possible. The Pivot Interactives activity creators are teachers who understand this problem well, so activities give automated, personalized feedback that lets every student know how they're doing throughout an activity. Teachers save time without sacrificing the quality of instruction.
  • Customization: Teachers’ creativity brings fun and new ways for students to encounter science. Maximize your teaching style with Pivot Interactives' active learning, hands-on exploration, and personalized feedback. Every activity is ready to be used, or ANY part of EVERY activity is 100% customizable for your needs. Pivot Interactives has the flexibility to work in any instructional setting, so teachers can truly make it their own!
  • Interoperability: To provide confidence in interoperability, ‘plug & play’ integration, and data privacy, Pivot Interactives is IMS Global Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI)® Certified and an IMS TrustEd App. Teachers can easily integrate their LMS, have automatic rostering, and use SSO.

 

Here is what users are saying:

“Pivot Interactives gave me new tools to build a bridge between what students experienced directly and what the calculations described. I also saw the difference in much higher scores on the end-of-unit assessment.”

– Marta Stoeckel, Tartan High School, North St Paul MN

 

“This resource has transformed my teaching by providing REAL experiments demonstrating science phenomena for students to analyze and interpret data.”

– Educator Judge for Best of STEM awards