Keeping student engagement alive is one of the hallmarks of success of online teaching learning. We explore a few strategies that our science educators have employed to facilitate interesting, effective and engaging online science classes.
 

1. Flipped learning is an effective strategy to conduct a science lesson online. This ensures active learning, experiential learning and student engagement. Students taking responsibility and ownership of their own learning (particularly for older students) has been a cornerstone of successful online teaching learning.
   
    
2. Using interesting, relevant and informative videos has had great results in simplifying abstract or advanced science concepts. This also helps make the online class more vivid and engaging, as opposed to delivering lessons over typical notebook/whiteboard apps. This also ensures better understanding, concept clarity and better retention of concepts.
   
    
3. The Hot Seat strategy, or in other words, calling out students by name to give responses ensures everyone pays attention throughout the class. In a similar vein, having “surprise” class quizzes are another way to ensure students are engaged and attentive.
   
    
4. For young children, the use of animations and gamification can ensure active learning, ensuring the lesson is enjoyable to learn.

Keeping the above strategies in mind for online classes, our teachers have been using certain apps and tech tools. We explore a few in this article.
 

1. Making lesson delivery presentations interactive and engaging by way of adding media - Pear Deck (an add-on for slides, is used liberally. It is both a teacher-paced and student-paced app that enables engaging, interactive questions and activities inside the presentation). and Near Pod (a platform for introducing new concepts by adding quizzes, audio, activities, calculators, drawing boards, games and more to the lesson).
   
    
2. Keeping Learning Objectives in mind, there is a wealth of e-resources already prepared and available online which can be integrated, linked to or embedded in the class. The videos at Khan Academy, for instance, are highly effective.
   
    
3. Using an assessment-centred tool like Edpuzzle that allows for interactivity to be added to videos, by way of questions, notes, audio, polls etc. works well. Edpuzzle can use videos from a vast number of resources such as YouTube, TED, Khan Academy and so on.
   
    
4. Simulations, virtual lab experiments and video trackers are used for selective modules and concepts. PhET simulations have been very helpful for senior classes as well as Amrita Online Labs - as there are Physics, Chemistry and Biology labs that have been designed aligned to the CBSE curriculum.
   
    
5. Microsoft Sway is a free online tool that can facilitate an engaging, interesting and fresh flipped classroom. Teachers or students can create digital presentations on a free-flowing canvas through Sway by displaying interactive multimedia along with text. Content from various sources can be added within Sway, allowing the learner to remain on-task. All kinds of multimedia, including audio, video etc can be added to a Sway, allowing for creatively re-imagined projects and lessons.
   
    
6. Flipgrid has been used in lesson delivery by using it as a platform where students have uploaded evidence and explanations of small experiments performed at home, by way of videos. Thus, hands-on learning, to an extent, has been possible even through the online-only classroom of the last several months.
   
    
7. Interactive online bulletin boards such as Padlet and Google Jamboard can be used for collaborative work. Padlet, especially, has been used for discussions, to summarize and for revision work. Teachers can post a concept, task or question along with associated learning resources on the Padlet Wall and students can then record their answers/progress on the wall and collaborate on each other’s answers.
   
    
8. In a traditional science class, a teacher can flexibly check understanding of concepts as the lesson progresses. In the online class, conducting and recording short Formative Assessments can be done effectively by way of Google Forms, Quizziz and Mentimeter. These short quizzes also serve in breaking down heavy academic sessions and making them more engaging for the learner.
   
    
9. In a similar vein, creating exit slips/tickets for the online class is a great tool to gauge comprehension. MS Forms has been used successfully in conjunction with MS Teams. Another tool to use is GoFormative - this tool can be used to design live formatives in-class or create exit tickets.
   
    
10. A Wakelet collection for each class was created in which all multimedia class resources were shared.
    
     
11. Using breakout rooms on the platform of choice (Zoom, MS Teams etc) to facilitate small group discussions, within the class is a great equivalent to pair/group work in-class.
    
     
12. A digital whiteboard app such as whiteboard.fi, Ziteboard, the AWW board or even Microsoft OneNote with digital pen/stylus. A physical whiteboard with markers for diagrammatic explanations also works!
    
     
13. Chalo Padho is a platform that helps reinforce concepts and makes learning more gamified, social, personalized and application-oriented, thereby enabling more effective flipped classroom sessions.
    
     
14. A Learning Management System (LMS) has been one of the foundations for successful online classes. In a way, the “new age notebook”, systems such as Veracross and ManageBac keep communication between all the stakeholders open and organised. Such LMS are used in assigning homework assignments, grading, report cards, feedback, parent-teacher communication and so on, thus providing a compilation of all learning.