Savvas Launches Experience Chemistry, an All-New Program that Uses Scientific Phenomena to Drive Students’ Real-World Inquiry

PARAMUS, N.J. — September 24, 2020 — Savvas Learning Company, a next-generation learning solutions provider for K-12 education, today announced the release of Experience Chemistry™, a phenomena-based chemistry program that gets students to investigate real, compelling observances in the natural world through the science of doing.

This brand-new curriculum takes a bold approach to teaching chemistry — in the classroom or remotely. By providing engaging lab experiments, digital activities, and personalized learning experiences, it challenges and excites students with scientific phenomena that makes them explore, question, and discover the hows and whys of chemistry.

“When students see how chemistry relates to their everyday lives, it helps them develop a deeper understanding of the scientific concepts they are learning. That understanding is enhanced even more when they actually do the science,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “Experience Chemistry takes scientific inquiry to a higher level by providing students with hands-on learning experiences that connect those concepts to the real world.”

No matter where learning takes place this year, the innovative Experience Chemistry program gives teachers the flexibility to teach chemistry from anywhere, with state-of-the-art lab experiments for use in the classroom and virtual labs to do online. Through an exclusive partnership with Flinn Scientific, the leading classroom lab-solution provider, the program features high-quality labs, lab videos, and performance-based assessments. To allow teachers to differentiate instruction for diverse classroom needs, each Flinn-developed lab is available in four versions: open-ended, guided, shortened, and advanced.

With Experience Chemistry accessible on Savvas Realize™, one of the edtech industry’s most versatile learning management systems, teachers can seamlessly shift between classroom and remote-learning curriculum through the Savvas Distance Learning Toggle. With the click of a button, this new tool immediately filters to whichever teaching setting is needed, enabling teachers to toggle between content appropriate for classroom instruction and carefully curated material that is optimized for distance learning.

Experience Chemistry incorporates the most up-to-date, research-based, K-12 science teaching practices, including the use of phenomena-based instruction, a key classroom feature advanced by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Its curriculum is also supported by the widely-used 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) Model of Instruction that promotes active learning in which students collaborate to solve problems and investigate new concepts.

Developed to provide an authentic learning experience, Experience Chemistry features many exciting student-centered activities, including:

• Student Experience Notebook eText that provides access to content online and offline, syncing up when reconnected to the Internet.
• Virtual Reality 360º Lab Simulations, created by Flinn and to be viewed with specially-developed VR goggles, that allow students to use the latest lab equipment and experiment with different chemicals in a safe, no-risk environment.
• Virtual Nerd Math Tutorial Videos that support students’ understanding of mathematical processes.
• Virtual Lab investigations, for which VR goggles are not needed, that provide an in-depth, open-ended lab experience in a digital environment.
• Animations that explain complex topics as students improve visual and media literacy.

“Teaching chemistry is about more than just memorizing the periodic table. Active, participatory science needs to engage and encourage students to think and figure things out,” said Ros Kane, Savvas Learning Company’s vice president of product management and marketing for science and humanities. “With its interactive and problem-solving approach, Experience Chemistry offers a re-envisioned curriculum for teaching chemistry in a whole new way.”