Licensing & Use

Our Commitment

Virtual Science Teachers ("VST") is committed to providing high-quality science resources that support classroom instruction, student thinking, and scientific literacy.

We strive to make VST easy for educators to use while protecting the integrity and sustainability of the resources we create.

Copyright & Ownership

© Virtual Science Teachers. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise identified, original VST content is protected by applicable copyright and other intellectual property laws.

This may include original VST:

• Written instructional materials
• Worksheets and printable resources
• Bell Ringers and instructional prompts
• Lesson structures and activity content
• Questions, assessments, explanations, and feedback text
• Interactive resources and simulations
• Original software code
• Original graphics, illustrations, diagrams, and visual designs
• Website interface elements and original page designs
• Videos, animations, and multimedia created by VST
• Original selection, arrangement, and presentation of VST educational content

Purchasing a membership, downloading a resource, or accessing VST content does not transfer ownership of that content.

Public Online VST Resources

VST's public online educational resources are designed to be used by teachers and students.

Teachers, schools, homeschool educators, and educational organizations may use public VST online resources for instruction.

You May

• Use VST public online resources during classroom instruction
• Display or project VST resources during a lesson
• Assign students a direct link to a VST resource
• Link to VST resources from a school, district, class, or LMS website
• Embed a VST resource using embed code specifically provided by VST
• Use VST resources with students in public, private, charter, homeschool, nonprofit, or other educational settings

Whenever practical, linking to or embedding the original VST resource is preferred over copying the resource to another website.

VST Teacher Member Resources

Certain downloadable, printable, editable, or teacher-only materials are available as benefits of VST Teacher Membership.

Unless a resource states otherwise, an active VST Teacher Membership grants the individual member a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use Teacher Member resources for that educator's own instructional purposes.

A Teacher Member May

• Print copies for students they personally teach or serve
• Make classroom copies as needed for those students
• Project or display the resource during instruction
• Provide digital copies directly to their students
• Upload resources to a password-protected or access-controlled class LMS for their students
• Use the resource in face-to-face or virtual instruction
• Adapt an editable resource for their own classroom as described below

If a Membership Ends

Access to new member-only downloads ends when the membership ends.

Unless a specific resource states otherwise, materials lawfully downloaded while the membership was active may continue to be used by that individual educator with their own students, subject to these licensing terms.

Editable Teacher Resources

Some VST Teacher Member resources are intentionally provided in editable formats so teachers can adapt them to meet the needs of their students.

An eligible Teacher Member may:

• Change wording or directions for their own students
• Add or remove questions
• Adjust formatting or layout
• Adapt scaffolding or instructional supports
• Add class-specific information

Modified VST materials may not be sold, publicly posted, shared as original work, uploaded to resource marketplaces, or redistributed to other educators.

Copyright, attribution, or source notices included in the resource should not be intentionally removed for the purpose of presenting VST content as someone else's original work.

LMS & Digital Classroom Use

Teachers may use VST resources in digital classroom environments when access is limited to the students they teach or directly serve.

Permitted examples include:

• Google Classroom
• Canvas
• Schoology
• Blackboard
• Microsoft Teams for Education
• Other password-protected classroom or district LMS platforms

Public VST resources may be linked or embedded when VST provides an embed option.

Teacher Member downloads may be provided to the member's students through an access-controlled classroom environment but may not be placed in a publicly accessible file repository or shared resource library for other educators to download.

School & District Use

Schools and districts are welcome to link to and use VST's public online educational resources throughout their classrooms.

Individual Teacher Memberships, however, are licensed to the individual educator who holds the membership.

Schools, districts, universities, nonprofit organizations, curriculum providers, or other organizations interested in broader use, professional development, integrations, or organization-wide resource access should contact VST to discuss appropriate licensing or partnership options.

Uses That Are Not Permitted

Unless VST gives prior written permission or another applicable license expressly allows the use, VST content may not be:

• Sold or resold
• Uploaded to Teachers Pay Teachers or another marketplace for educational resources
• Uploaded to commercial course libraries, subscription services, or paid resource platforms
• Bundled into a product, curriculum, course, workbook, or service that is sold or licensed to others
• Publicly reposted as a substitute for accessing the original VST resource
• Distributed among teachers using a single individual Teacher Membership
• Stored in shared faculty, department, school, or district repositories for unrestricted staff downloading unless VST has authorized that use
• Rebranded or represented as content created by another person or organization
• Used to create derivative materials for redistribution or resale
• Used to copy, reproduce, or distribute VST interactive tools, simulations, software code, or proprietary technical components
• Systematically scraped, harvested, or extracted for the purpose of building a competing content library, product, or service
• Used to train, fine-tune, develop, or populate a commercial artificial intelligence system, automated content generator, or educational content database without written permission from VST

In Simple Terms

Third-Party Content

Some VST resources may include, reference, link to, or incorporate materials owned by third parties.

Examples may include PhET Interactive Simulations, stock photography, video, illustrations, datasets, external tools, or other licensed materials.

Third-party materials remain subject to the copyright, license, attribution requirements, and terms established by their respective owners.

PhET Interactive Simulations

Some VST resources use or reference simulations from the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder.

PhET materials are governed by PhET's applicable licensing terms, which may vary depending on the simulation, version, and publication date. VST's licensing terms do not replace or override the rights granted by PhET.

Current PhET licensing information is available at: PhET Licensing Information .

Third-Party Images and Media

A third-party image, video, illustration, or other licensed asset that appears within a VST resource may not necessarily be licensed for independent reuse.

Unless the third party's license expressly allows otherwise, users should not extract third-party assets from VST materials for separate use, redistribution, resale, or publication.

VST does not grant rights to third-party content that VST does not own.

Technical & Platform Services

VST may offer optional technical services such as LMS integrations, LTI services, analytics tools, school or district implementations, professional development, enterprise support, or other platform enhancements.

These services may be governed by separate agreements.

Access to a technical service does not, by itself, grant permission to redistribute VST content beyond the rights described in the applicable license or service agreement.

Fair Use & Other Legal Rights

These licensing terms describe permissions that VST grants for use of VST-owned content.

Nothing on this page is intended to restrict rights that a person may independently have under applicable law, including fair use or other statutory exceptions to copyright.

Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on the specific circumstances and applicable law.