Pearson, the education services and technology company, revealed four new STEM courses for NovaNET, its fully digital learning platform for students in grades 6-12 and adult learners at the National Dropout Prevention Conference.

According to company sources, the incorporation of Pearson’s Prentice Hall STEM content with videos, animations, labs and interactive practice activities to NovaNET personalizes learning for all students. Embedded assessments integrated throughout every NovaNET lesson will also ensure each student’s path to academic success.

One of the new courses added to NovaNET are Physical Science. This course offers 98 multimedia lessons, videos that explore real-world physical science concepts, prompts to encourage student writing on science topics and “Science in Your Life” applications which educates students on how science concepts are used in real life.

The Earth Science course helps keep students engaged with the instructional content, and it includes 85 lessons with more than 100 “clickable” diagrams and interactive illustrations, videos, a timeline of milestones in geology, a glossary of terms with audio pronunciation and vocabulary activities.

The Chemistry course incorporates over 70 questions throughout the course besides including independent practice items in the 95 lessons featured in the course in order to help individualize the learning experience. An interactive Periodic Table of Elements and embedded links to more information on real-life science examples and data, scientist biographies and laboratory safety is also provided in the Chemistry course.

According to Pearson sources, the new two semester Algebra 1 course teaches important concepts regarding solving of equations, inequalities, graphing functions, factoring polynomials and exploring quadratic, radical, exponential and rational functions.  Included in the course are seventy-six lessons that will guide the learner through mathematical concepts systematically. Also, 39 videos are integrated in the program to provide extra support in solving problems.

Bob Roliardi, president of Pearson Digital, said in a press release, “To thrive in our increasingly technological world, today's learners need higher-order STEM knowledge and skills, which are supported through NovaNET's digital courseware. Pearson’s offerings bring science and math to life by personalizing learning, seeking to improve student performance and ensure understanding, and integrating digital resources to assist students with concept visualization and real-world practice.”

Roliardi added, “With these interactive courses, students are preparing now for success in college and in their careers.”

NovaNET offers standards-based instruction for secondary and adult learners. The program can be used for education applications like credit accrual, dropout prevention, summer school, credit recovery, virtual schools and virtual learning

Shamila Janakiraman is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Shamila’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jaclyn Allard