How to Use the Science Project Pathways Tool

The Science Project Pathways tool allows teachers to easily create a customized timeline and schedule of assignments for all steps of a science fair project. Now with workbooks, rubrics, and pre- and post- assessment tools!

Plan, Assign, & Manage Student Science Projects

Do you have students do independent science projects? Science projects can offer an exceptional, personalized learning opportunity, but they can also be challenging to plan and manage.

Science Project Pathways is a free project scheduling tool that simplifies the process of creating a schedule and making assignments to guide students in doing their projects.

New Features & Expanded LMS Support!

Science Project Pathways has been updated for the new school year and includes exciting new features to support the science project process, including:

• Use Pathways with any LMS: You can make assignments for whatever LMS you use, including Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Schoology, and others.
• Exclusive Pathways content: In addition to assignments that integrate with the Science Project Guide, the following resources are available when creating a pathway:
  • Student Workbooks: These online fillable workbooks include learning objectives, links to readings and other resources, comprehension self-checks, and fillable templates.
  • Self-Assessment Mastery Rubrics: Each step of the scientific method now includes a rubric that guides students in reflecting on their work and identifying areas for improvement based on the assignment's learning objectives.
  • Built-in Pre/Post Assessments: Use these survey results to prime student learning, identify student misconceptions or skill gaps, and assess the overall effectiveness of the science projects.
• Interactive feedback: AI-powered feedback has been added to give students immediate formative feedback when formulating their science question, hypothesis statement, and prediction. With this new support, students receive short, actionable feedback that prompts reflection and refinement of their science project based on Science Buddies' rubrics. For more information, see the FAQ.

Use Science Project Pathways with Your LMS

The video below provides an overview of using Science Project Pathways.

Note: You can use Science Project Pathways with any LMS. The walkthrough video doesn't show Google Classroom because Google Classroom assignments were made differently in previous years. If you select Google Classroom, please follow the on-screen prompts to make the assignment.

Science Project Pathways Walkthrough

This tutorial walks you through the steps involved in creating and managing your Science Project Pathway.

1. Create a Pathway

A Science Project Pathway is a customizable science project schedule with assignments you can add to your LMS for each step of the science project.

• You can access the Science Project Pathways tool by clicking "Teachers" in the navigation menu and selecting "Science Project Pathways."

• From the Pathways page, click "Create Pathway" to start a new Pathway. (Pathways you have already created will also be available from this page.)
• Fill in the "New Pathway Details" information, including selecting your LMS and naming your Pathway.

• Click "Create Pathway" to move to the next step.

2. Customize the Pathway

When viewing a new Pathway, a starter schedule is provided that lists available assignments and suggested intervals (e.g., how long we recommend you allow for each step). This schedule breaks the science project into a series of steps with individual assignments. This approach helps students work through the project one step at a time, provides built-in check-ins, and can make the overall process easier to manage for teachers and students!

Note: Breaking the project into smaller steps is one of our recommended strategies for ensuring a smooth science project process and keeping students on track. See 11 Tips and Best Practices for Assigning and Managing Science Fair Projects for more suggestions.

To begin customizing your schedule:

• Check or uncheck the box to have notifications sent to you when it is time to make an assignment based on your Pathway. (You can turn this feature off at any time.)

• Enter the start date for the project.

• As shown below, the start date you enter is used to populate the due dates based on suggested intervals between assignments.

• Check or uncheck steps of the science project to customize your Pathway.

• Note: Available assignments incorporate Science Buddies' Science Project Guide resources, readings, workbooks, rubrics, and self-assessment tools to provide students guidance at each step of their project. You will select the specific individual resources, readings, and/or workbooks to assign on the next step. You do not have to assign everything shown when deciding to include a specific section of the Pathway.

• Confirm the due date for each section you will be assigning.

  As explained above, the due dates shown are based on the start date you entered and the "interval" (how many days you want to allow) for each assignment. You can adjust the due dates or intervals for each assignment. Changing the date or interval for an assignment will automatically update the dates for subsequent assignments (based on the intervals).

  Note: When customizing your Pathway, you can change the due dates and intervals, but you can't make assignments in a different order or sequence. Changes to the due date of one assignment will also result in changes to the due dates for assignments that follow. You may be able to further customize due dates within your specific LMS.

• Enter dates for the science fair or class presentation, as well as the deadline for registering for the city or county fair. These dates are not tied to the other assignment dates and should be entered manually.

• Confirm if you will use the pre- and post-project assessments.

• Click "Save Schedule" to save the Pathway.

3. Make Assignments

After saving your Pathway, you can make individual assignments in your LMS.

• All sections marked with a "check" are part of your Pathway. Sections marked with an "X" are not part of your Pathway.

  Note: You can "edit" the Pathway to add or remove sections of the pathway. Please note that adding or removing sections will result in changes to the due dates of assignments that follow what was added or removed.

• Use the "Assign" buttons to create assignments in your LMS. (The specific steps you will take to make the assignment will vary by LMS.)

• For each step, you can choose to use the workbooks or just assign the readings.
• Assignments do not have to be added to your LMS all at once. If you choose to space out assignments, we can send you reminders when it is time to make assignments from your Pathway. (Note: This is a notification option you can turn on or off for your Pathway.)
• When viewing your Pathway, assignments that have an "Assign" button have not yet been assigned. Assignments that have a "View" button have been assigned.
• Note: Pathways created for grades 5-8 contain texts that have been graded-leveled for middle school readers.

4. Manage the Science Project Pathway

• Monitor assignments. Clicking the "View" button next to an assignment will let you see how many students have completed the assignment. (Note: The "View" page will not contain information until students begin completing assignments via the assignments shared in your LMS.)
• Make changes. If you need to make changes to the overall schedule, you can edit your Pathway at any time using the "Edit Schedule" button at the bottom of the Pathway. Don't forget to click "Save Schedule" after making changes. (Note: Changes you make will not impact assignments you have already added to your LMS.)
• Archive old pathways. Once you have completed a Pathway, you can archive it to separate it from any current Pathways.

5. Keep Families and Others Aware of the Schedule and Important Dates

• Use the "Share Schedule" button to generate a link you can use to share the schedule with parents, administrators, and others outside of your classroom. These users will not need to be logged in to view your Pathway.

We Value Your Feedback!

We hope that using Science Project Pathways makes it easier to set up a science project schedule and oversee the steps of the project. If you try this new feature and have feedback, let us know.