Helping you discover what’s hidden
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Lesson Hive
Why do you only have links to the lessons? Why aren’t they hosted here?
We would love to be able to host some of these amazing materials here on the website, since that would speed things up for our users. However, many of the resources we have inventoried are copyright protected, or are from very large projects. We can’t realistically host all of that here. Most importantly, we want to make sure the original creators of the content get the credit they deserve for their work.
There’s a lot of categories and tags — what do they mean?
We want to try to show as much information about each resource as we can to save you constant clicks. You can see an overview of the categories and additional information on this page, and NGSS Science and Engineering Practices here. You can also search by clicking on tags on the resource tables.
Please note that clicking on tags will only show you what meets that criteria in the current table you are looking at. You might need to click “reset” to search the larger database.
How are you rating these resources?
We are finalizing our rubrics for star ratings and recommendations from the Lesson Hive team. Here is more information about how we rate resources and criteria for inclusion with the “recommended” label. When we find a resource that our reviewers rank at 2 stars or lower, we delete it from the database.
We use a separate rubric for supplemental resources — videos, coloring pages, and readings for example. These can help expand a lesson to become more 3 dimensional.
There are lots of great resources out there to help you learn about NGSS, and also to take your existing lessons and structure them to match the Standards. We have a list of Resources for Alignment, including several different templates you can use to retrofit your lessons. It’s a lot easier to see how the 3 dimensions come together with these templates.
Why do you have peer-reviewed materials listed here if some of them are paywalled?
In working with our Advisory committee, they wanted to include all information about entomology teaching; that includes some materials that are in journals with paywalls. Materials in journals often include evaluation information or real-world use information; that’s important. The materials in NSTA journals are especially good; while initially you may hit a paywall, if you create a free login most of them can be downloaded for free.
For journals that don’t offer free access, a library is your best bet. We can’t tell you how to get around paywalls.
Why should I participate?
If you have materials you think are high quality, we invite their submission! Having lessons indexed can benefit you by possibly increasing your web traffic, being able to document that your materials are considered high quality, or getting external feedback. If you look at our long term goals, we hope to begin sharing materials at professional development events, and creating themed collections (Monarchs, Pollinators, etc).
I don’t like the way a resource was rated
This website is focused on finding materials that meet the 3-dimensional learning criteria of NGSS. That means that sometimes we find amazing resources that aren’t fully aligned, or that don’t utilize many of the Science and Engineering Practices. Those resources won’t get a 5-star rating, even though they are fantastic. That’s just how our rubric works. (Truthfully, we’d like to give all the coloring and arts and crafts pages full marks for being fun.)
It’s also entirely possible we just made a mistake; we have a very small team. We encourage you to submit your own ratings of materials, or to contact us and let us know about the issue. Please make sure to include the URL of the resource that you have concerns about.
Something is wrong on the website
We have a very small team, and welcome feedback about typos or mistakes we’ve made in categorizing resources. Contact us to let us know! Please make sure to give us the URL (web address) of where you spotted the issue.
Our database tables sometimes load slowly. But if you are patient, they will get there!
Also note that clicking on tags will only show you what meets that criteria in the current table you are looking at. You might need to click “reset” to search the larger database.
I want to submit my entomological materials!
That’s fantastic! Use this form to submit your materials for inventory.
How do I create my own login to get started rating lessons?
That’s fantastic, welcome! Right now this site is still in development, so we have not enabled open access for editing. Please submit a request via our contact form to receive a login and instructions on evaluating lessons.