About the Product
Explore the Content
ClassTrac is based upon your state’s standards and adopted textbooks and is designed to complement your lesson plans. The timely and authoritative content in the Science Resource Center enables teachers to effectively engage students while developing the knowledge base and skills needed for high-stakes assessment.
ClassTrac provides teachers and students access to:
Science Resource Center — An in-depth, curriculum-oriented science online resource that provides a one-stop resource for all science-related research needs. The Science Resource Center reflects curriculum trends and focuses on key concepts taught in school classrooms, including:
- Earth Science
- History of Science
- Life Science
- Physical Science
- Science and Technology
- Science as Inquiry
- Space Science
- And much more
Unit of Study
ClassTrac includes 242 Units of Study. The purpose of a Unit of Study is to cover the basic content on a particular topic and give students an opportunity to complete activities based on the topic.
The Unit of Study includes the following components:
- Lesson Plan (Teacher Edition only)
- Learning Unit
- Multimedia
- Self-Assessment (10 multiple-choice items)
- In-Depth Review
- Three Activities, one each of the following:
- Current Events
- Application and Relevance
- Research
- Lesson Assessment (10 multiple-choice items)
Lesson Plan (Teacher’s Edition only)
This section is a helpful guide for teachers that explains how to use ClassTrac. The Lesson Plan includes explanations, links, descriptions and instructions to each component of a Unit of Study (i.e. Biology). The Lesson Plan also explains how to effectively evaluate students' progress.
Learning Unit
Each Learning Unit is an overview of a topic within a discipline (DNA Replication within the Unit of Study: Biology) that highlights the major aspects of the topic. It is similar to a textbook’s end-of-chapter summary. From this screen of ClassTrac, users can go to:
Multimedia
Visually illustrates the major theme of each Learning Unit with pictures, photographs, diagrams or video as well as interactive exercises, simulations and animations, among others.
Lesson Assessment
Another 10-question student evaluation taken after study and activities are complete.
All of the assessment items correlate to the topic of the Learning Unit and to the state standards connected to that topic on the Units of Study List. Each assessment is written to a specific level of difficulty: below grade level, on grade level or above grade level. These levels are defined by high school exit exams.
In-Depth Review
This section provides more detailed content information on the Learning Unit topic. It's ideal for students who scored accordingly on the assessments and provides an avenue for further study.
Activities
The three activities in ClassTrac — Current Events, Application and Relevance and Research — are designed to engage students’ interest and increase their knowledge of the topic being discussed. Each activity is short enough to be completed during a class period and are designed to test the students’ application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills, knowledge and comprehension.
Current Events Activity
Relates concepts taught in class to an event that is in the news. This activity relates the concepts taught in the learning unit to an event in the news. The current event activity is likely to be relevant for some time. Students use the Science Resource Center to complete this activity.
Application and Relevance Activity
Designed to show students the relevance and impact to their lives of the topics taught. Students use the Science Resource Center to understand how these concepts impact their lives.
Research Activity
Students use the Science Resource Center to do research that encourages critical thinking and increases their knowledge of the topic. Students are given questions or an issue to research and are asked to apply the research in a specific way.
Self-Assessment
This is a quick 10-question evaluation that students take before or after study based on teacher instruction. If students answer more than two questions incorrectly, they are directed to the In-Depth Review.