Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

The questions below are the most frequent 15 questions we receive via email! Click on a question below to expand the answer. If using a mobile device, you can scroll by scrolling on the left or right side of your screen. 

May I use something you created in my presentation, course, project, social media, etc?

Please see our terms of use which explains how our different creations (videos, handouts, GIFs, comics, etc) may be used.  If you still have a question, there is an email link at the bottom of that page! ​At the bottom of our terms of use page, we also mention the four most common "terms of use" issues we deal with regarding our work.  Please help us avoid "terms of use" issues as this takes away precious time from creating.

WHAT IF I HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE VIDEO TOPICS?

We appreciate topic suggestions! Post on our public Facebook wall or tweet to us. Our social media links are below. We occasionally select some for our patrons on Patreon to vote on. To vote on topics, please become a part of our petri dish on Patreon!

i am unable to access one (or more) of your youtube videos?

(1) Selective Filtering of YouTube Videos at a school/district/institution:
You may be playing the video within a school/district/institution network or on a school/district/institution device that made a change to their filter settings. Depending on filter changes, this can affect the ability to view some videos on YouTube. We do want to point out that enabling YouTube's "standard" restricted mode (which many school districts like to use to block inappropriate videos/YouTube comments) will not affect our videos. Our videos will still play on YouTube's "standard" restricted mode! However, some networks enable additional filtering in addition to YouTube's standard restricted mode that can affect viewing of videos, including ours, on YouTube. This information here in this blog from Google may be helpful. It shows how a school district can choose to enable the ability to view specific videos/allow certain channels on their settings even if they have turned on a more strict filter setting. School districts may not be aware of these controls and sharing this with your tech department may provide a solution. Not sure if what you are experiencing is related to filtering? Check to see if videos are missing or inaccessible from our official playlist- as of Sept. 2018, we have 56 videos there (with an additional video typically added monthly).

(2) Complete Block on YouTube at a school/district/institution: 
This issue is far less frequent than it was when we first started- now that districts and institutions are aware of the large amount of educational videos offered exclusively on YouTube and the importance of teaching digital citizenship. There are ways to open appropriate, educational portions of YouTube for school use as explained in this blog from Google. Learn more about this issue on our videos page. As outlined in our terms of use, our actual video files (or recordings of our videos) cannot be uploaded into other platforms. (Linking to our YouTube videos or using the YouTube Embed Code is fine). 

(3) Error Messages such as "video is not available" on your own personal device and network:
Check out this information from YouTube with some potential fixes related to common browser errors and/or internet speed here.

i am a teacher. do you have suggestions for how to use your videos in the classroom?

Yes! Pinky has been a public school educator for 12 years and found traditional lecturing to be her personal challenge. She had so much content to cover, but she found it challenging to use traditional lecture/notes because it left less time for hands-on labs, discussion,  student questioning, and student creation. Our short videos were intentionally designed to give more time for those valuable experiences.  Please take a look at our "3 Creative Ways to Use Our Videos." Also, since YouTube is our chosen platform, take a look at some of our YouTube tips!

Click above to see video.

I am a student. ​​CAN YOU HELP ME WITH specific SCIENCE CONTENT QUESTIONS?

While we are unable to help with assignments or answer content related questions, we hope our video playlist will be a helpful supplement. We encourage you to discuss your questions with your teacher and let your teacher know what you are struggling with! Teachers are creative masters at developing different ways to bring content to life. ​We also have a video that gives some study strategy tips using our videos!

Click above image to see video!

​​​CAN YOU DO SHOUT-OUTS ON YOUR VIDEOS? ​

Sorry, no, we are unable to do shout-outs in our videos.

​CAN I TRANSLATE YOUR COMICS, GIFS, AND/OR VIDEOS?

Translating comics or GIFs require permission. Please contact us.
[If your email does not open when you click "contact us" above, right click on it and select "copy email address" to paste into your email program]

Translating our YouTube videos, however, is a streamlined process! While voice-overs are not permitted, we have enabled YouTube's own community contributed subtitles feature so that anyone with a Google account can translate our YouTube video subtitles. Please help us reach others!  YouTube gives the option for you to be credited as a subtitle contributor in the "video details"  (you have to make sure to select to be credited or you will be anonymous to everyone including us). If interested, here are instructions from Google about how to contribute subtitles on YouTube: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en, and here is a quick screenshot video showing how you can see what languages exist for any current video that we have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALJcn-gD7Ac. 

I Found a subtitle typo in one of your videos or a timing issue. can that be fixed?

​What kind of resources do you offer that go with your free videos?

What we offer for FREE:

• We have many FREE student recap handouts that you can download and use for all of your students that you will find below on this page. (Please see our terms of use which outline their use as they can't be sold and answer keys made using them cannot be publicly available online, as that makes it difficult for other teachers to use.) Our handouts are designed in a grid format so that 1-2 of the "boxes" can be used as an exit ticket in those last 5 minutes of class. This allows one handout to serve as a series of exit tickets, and it can provide an opportunity to give feedback to students (and address misconceptions).
• Check out our GIFs and comics, which you are welcome to use in your presentations---provided that you follow the terms of use (which includes that they cannot be put in items that you sell nor can they be edited in any form).
• Our full video playlist (and all of our videos are always FREE!) can be a useful resource. We have over 50 videos there now, and we add a new video to our playlist every month.
  
  

What we sell on Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT):
TpT is a platform we love as it allows teacher creators to support their work! TpT is free to join. As outlined on all product pages, purchased  TpT resources cannot be made available publicly online. This would make us unable to support our work. 

• You will find answer keys that we sell, which accompany the free website student handouts, linked on our handout page. We also have many of our answer keys in bundles, which are discounted from buying them individually. Answer keys offer convenience, and they also can be useful if you are new to the content. As mentioned in product descriptions, please don't purchase a key without first making sure you have the free accompanying handout from the handout page that it goes to it (and that you have determined that it's an ideal fit for your classroom).
• We offer a few "select handouts" that are not free unlike our regular recap handouts. Select handouts come with their own answer keys. While they are styled just like our regular free handouts in the grid format for exit ticket use, they tend to cover more detailed/less standard topics. For example, water properties, the endosymbiotic theory, and non-Mendelian inheritance are topics that have select handouts (with accompanying keys).
• We offer annotated video script templates for some videos. They contain an informal version of our video script with slight improvements to define sentences and remove filler words to help with annotating. They have an annotation key asking students to (1) highlight foundation parts of the transcript that they already knew (which can be built upon), (2) highlight information that is new to them, (3) come up with their own questions, and (4) underline vocabulary. In addition, the template has a spacious, blank right margin for students to sketch concepts that are memorable or relevant to them. PS. All of our Unlectured Series topics already include an annotated video script template with them as that is an important component of the Unlectured Series Resource.
• Our Unlectured Series! The Unlectured Series is designed to be an alternative to traditional lecture/notes and encourages student questioning, discussion, and student creation. We have 18 topics total in our 1st series that can be purchased individually. We also have all 18 topics available together in our 18 topic bundle.

​
​P.S. Did you know that Teachers Pay Teachers (where we sell some of our resources to support ourselves) can work with school districts/schools and handle school purchase orders? Check out TPT for Schools and also check out how to purchase something on TPT with a school purchase order. Questions about how a school district can use TPT? You may find this helpful from TPT: www.teacherspayteachers.com/Help/for-administrators-77/How-should-I-use-TpT-for-Schools-as-a-district

I HAVE A QUESTION OR ISSUE REGARDING ONE OF YOUR PRODUCTS ON TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS (TPT)?

If it's a technical issue (unable to download/open a product or an issue with the TPT website), please contact TPT here. They are quick to respond!

If it's related to our content, please email us. P.S. Some of our favorite emails are feedback emails about items that would be helpful to offer on TPT. {If your email does not open when you click "email us", right click on it and select "copy email address" to paste into your email program} ​

P.S. ​Did you know that Teachers Pay Teachers (where we sell some of our resources to support ourselves) can work with school districts/schools and handle school purchase orders? Check out TPT for Schools and also check out how to purchase something on TPT with a school purchase order. Questions about how a school district can use TPT? You may find this helpful from TPT: www.teacherspayteachers.com/Help/for-administrators-77/How-should-I-use-TpT-for-Schools-as-a-district

I HAVE A QUESTION OR ISSUE REGARDING AN ORDER FROM YOUR REDBUBBLE STORE?

We appreciate your support of purchasing an item with our art on it from our Redbubble store! If there is a question or issue with your order, Redbubble is quick to address it if you (1) submit a request on Redbubble or (2) message them on their Redbubble Twitter Help page. When contacting Redbubble about an order, they will need your order number (7-8 digit number found in the order email). ​

​ I READ ON YOUR TERMS OF USE THAT YOU DO NOT SELL YOUR VIDEOS NOR LICENSE THEM FOR USE ON FOR-PROFIT PLATFORMS?

That is correct. We want our videos to be freely accessible on our YouTube channel, and we therefore do not sell our videos.  You may, however, use our YouTube video links or YouTube video embed codes as we allow to everyone. More info on our terms of use. 

We do want to add that we think it is exciting that educational businesses, publishers, and platforms are looking at edu YouTube creators.  It's possible that we may know an edu creator who is interested in these kind of opportunities, so you are still welcome to contact us using our email address below.

I want to try making my own videos or gifs. What tools do you use? any advice?

Check out our Student Creators page. If you click through each of the steps of video creation, we include information and also some tool suggestions. Free tools were all we used when we first started. As we mention, always check out the terms of use/privacy policy of any tool that you choose to use. 

As we've grown, we have looked for more features and so many of the tools we use now (here) are not free. 

Our advice is to keep growing yourself by practicing. We encourage you to look at our old original homeostasis video (from 2013) and compare that old video to our more recent homeostasis video. We only improved with practice and a desire to grow ourselves. We are still learning. Keep at it. 

I only hear one person talking on your videos. are there really two of you? 

Yes! But this became such a frequent question that we made a video to address it here.  :)

Do you speak at edu conferences, schools, and/or districts?

Yes! When you love what you do, you want to share it. We have delivered keynotes, featured presentations, and workshops- please see our Speaking Events and Trainings page to learn more.

Phew! That was a lot of questions! Hopefully we answered yours above as those are the most frequent questions we receive. Have a different question?
*Email Us Here.
*Email not opening when you click link above? Right click on it and select "copy email address" to paste into your email program.
Please give us 1-3 business days for a response.  We are not frequent emailing amoebas; we do not do newsletters nor spam. We only email when we are responding or following up with someone either from an email or a contact form on this website. See privacy policy below.

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Our Privacy Policy

2018-06-06

What personal information do we collect from the people that visit this website and when would this occur?
​The only time we would receive an email address or name is if someone chooses to email us (or uses our "speaking event inquiry form" on this website) with a question or feedback; in which case, emails that our visitors send tend to include a name and email address. We do NOT share email addresses from those that have contacted us with any third party, and we do NOT do email newsletters/lists. We ask that if you choose to contact us, please do NOT give more information in an email or form than necessary. This is a good practice when contacting any website owner.

This website does NOT process/handle any payment transactions. We use other platforms that process and handle payments such as Redbubble (which manufactures, sells, and ships items with our art) and Teachers Pay Teachers (which sells some of our educational resources). These platforms have their own privacy policies which you can read on their website. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. However, in maintaining our website's integrity, we welcome any feedback about these sites.
 
Do we use 'cookies'? Why?
Yes.  Cookies help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We use Google AdSense Advertising on our website. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google's advertising requirements can be summed up by Google's Advertising Principles. 
Learn more here: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/1316548?hl=en  ​

​How do we use information we collect?
We may use the information we collect when you email us in the following ways:
      • To personalize your experience 
      • To improve our website to better serve you.
      • To follow up with them after correspondence (email/contact form)
We do not send out email newsletters or spam; we only respond to emails or contact forms with requested information or to answer questions. Also, the website (https://www.amoebasisters.com) does not process any payment transactions. 

Opting out:
Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on.

Third-party links and disclosure
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. This may include third-party websites that sell items with our art on them or host resources that we create. These third-party sites have their own privacy policies, and, if they process payment, their own security certificates. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. However, in maintaining our website's integrity, we welcome any feedback about these sites.

According to CalOPPA (California Online Privacy Protection Act), we agree to the following:
Users can visit our site anonymously.
Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page.
This website is not designed to market to children under 13; this website is designed for science educators.  Learn more about protecting your child's privacy here: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0031-protecting-your-childs-privacy-online

Can change your personal information:
      • By emailing us

In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:
We will notify you via email. 
      • Within 7 business days

Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us with the email address listed right above this privacy policy.
Texas, USA

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