I know I’ve said it a million times on here, but my boys love Science! My five-year old just can’t seem to get enough of it and with the recent addition of Rainforest Journey from EdTechLens, he looks forward to it even more!
What is EdTechLens:
EdTechLens is an online science program designed for grades K-5, and includes 34 lessons on the Rainforest. The study is broken down into five units. The units are:
The Big Picture of the Rainforest
Adapt or Die
Animals
Plant and Fungi
Ecosystems
Logging in:
Each of my boys have their own personal log-in. At first I wasn’t sure how I would like this feature since we seem to already have tons of log-in information and passwords to remember, but in the end I ended up loving this feature. There was no keeping up with who was on what lesson. Every day they would go and log in and their class would open up exactly where they left off. This feature also kept the kids from being able to access the grades and the teacher/administrator side of things.
The lessons:
The lesson length is fairly short. I admit that at first, I thought this was going to be too easy for my Kindergartner and third grader, but as the program goes along, it does get a little harder. Both of my boys really looked forward to learning more daily and there were days that my five-year old would want to go through more than one lesson. 
At the end of lesson you have a review that the kids can take to see how much they learned. My third-grader’s review was a little more in-depth and really made him think. The Kindergarten review was fairly simple. They fill in the blank to some of the questions, but the answer is written below for them. We usually printed them off for my five-year old because he loved being able to draw pictures with his activity. My third-grader on the other hand would do his orally and we would end up having these amazing discussions and dig a little deeper to learn even more.
ntroduction into EdTechLens:
How we used the program:
We used the program four days a week. My kindergartner did one lesson a day, four-days a week but some days he would ask to do more than one lesson. On the days we did multiple lessons, we would do one review orally and one printed. My third-grader would do one lesson a day and then do the review orally. I have to say that I am amazed at how much they have learned so far in this study!
Our overall thoughts:
Overall, both of my boys really enjoyed this program. We loved the open-ended questions. Both boys were able to join in on the discussion since EdTechLens is a theme-based learning that covers the same topics in each grade. As far as hands-on activities, they did have those at the end on the unit. The boys really enjoyed doing those as well. I think it helped to give them a better understanding of the unit that had just came to an end.
While we were overall pleased with this program, the one thing I would change is the page layout. You have these amazing and beautiful pictures but you don’t get to the text or the audio until the bottom of the page. We would much rather have a picture and then text that related to that picture immediately after.
Special Offers:
If you are considering adding a Rainforest lesson as part of your Science, be sure to check out the special offer. Right now, in celebrating their new site, EdTechLens is offering 50% off, which would drop the price of this program to $25.00 for one child.
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Curious about what others thought about EdTechLens? Be sure to head over to Schoolhouse Review Crew and check it out!
