Posts on “ GameUP ”

Congratulations to GameUp partners Filament Games and Learning Games Network for their nominations in the “Best Gameplay” category at the annual Games for Change awards this June. LGN’s game,  Quandary, is a part of the GameUp game network and was the first title in our English Language Arts section.  In this popular game,  ”players shape the future of a new society while learning how to recognize ethical issues and deal with challenging situations in their own lives.”  By creating complex decision making situations in which players must weigh fact, opinion, trustworthiness and risk this title supports teaching toward many ELA common core state standards. Filament’s Game, Reach for the Sun has players,  ”help a young seedling grow and reproduce before winter approaches.” Though Reach for the Sun is not featured on GameUp, many other Filament games are, including:  You Make Me Sick, Cell Command, Crazy Plant Shop and The Sports Network 2.  Be sure to check out the Games For Change Blog for more information about all the nominated games. And may the best game win!

A playful, thoughtful professional development day at the BrainPOP office in Manhattan brought designers, educators and gamers together to discuss the future of educational gaming in classrooms across the country. Beginning with a presentation by Nick Fortugno of Playmatics, the New York-based group responsible for The Walking Dead: Dead Reckoning, two Breaking Bad titles, Lego City: On Patrol, Find the Future and Kingdom Keepers, we pondered how to tap into the high engagement potential and adaptable learning opportunities available within games. Noting the natural curiosity youngsters and adults alike tap into whilst exploring fictional game worlds (much like the PS3‘s adventure/art masterpiece and award magnet, Journey), Nick spoke to attendees about team loyalty and motivation through competition. Mastering in-game achievements requires skill, practice, patience and perseverance, just as learning standards in the classroom do, now defined by the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Unlike the sluggish turnaround time for multiple choice or open-ended test questions in school, games provide instant feedback to users so they may refine game-play strategy and persist. The lecture concluded with the group wondering how best to collaborate, given the rarity of serious gamer-turned-educators. Next up, BrainPOP’s Allisyn Levy introduced mathematics puzzler Lure of the Labyrinth:… Read the Rest»

Attention all New York City based Game Based Learning teacher enthusiasts! We wanted to pass along information about a great professional development opportunity.  This Thursday, May 9th, The Tribeca Film Institute along with the NYC Department of Education and the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment,  is presenting  Gaming, Education and the Moving Image - part of the Moving Image Blueprint Professional Development workshop series.  BrainPOP is excited to join the Institute of Play, Quest to Learn, and PETLab to present sessions exploring the intersection of play, education, and the moving image.  Hope to see you there!  

BrainPOP Webinar: Beyond the Movies Wednesday, May 1 at 3:30 pm ET  We’re stepping up our monthly overview webinar and exploring resources beyond our movies. We’ll cover GameUp in the classroom as well as the Mixer, giving you the ability to customize assessment by creating and remixing your own BrainPOP-style quizzes. Plus, get a tour of all the recent updates we’ve made to BrainPOP Educators. Event Password: moby

We’re big believers in the importance of teaching digital citizenship, and we know many teachers and parents turn to BrainPOP for resources to help reinforce these important 21st century skills. So we’re incredibly proud to partner with Common Sense Media and expand our GameUp offerings to include two new free games designed for students in grades 3-8:Search Shark: This game is a fun way to help students learn how to choose effective keywords when searching online. With Search Shark, students practice selecting keywords that are most relevant to a search prompt. Along the way, students discover hints for narrowing their search results, as well as how to identify the most effective keywords for different search scenarios. Check out our internet search lesson plan for Search Shark for ways that you can use this game to help your students learn how to conduct internet searches effectively. Share Jumper: In this game, students are encouraged to reflect on the benefits of sharing online as well as the drawbacks, as they experience just how quickly information spreads online. They’ll learn to classify information that should be kept private online, and predict the effect that an online post or message might have on someone’s reputation. Students are also… Read the Rest»

Drs. Karen Trujillo and Barbara Chamberlin of New Mexico State University introduce Math Snacks, a collection of games and animations designed to address math learning gaps in grades 5-7. Walk away with easy-to-implement strategies and access to support materials sure to take the math-related game play in your classroom up a notch.

We’re thrilled to welcome our newest partner to GameUp, New Mexico State University’s Learning Games Lab. We have two fantastic free games from NMSU’s Math Snacks to help you teach and reinforce math skills: Monster School Bus: Designed for students in grades 1-5, this game allows players to explore various ways to combine numbers to create a target amount. As the new monster bus driver, players plan routes to pick up as many little monsters as they can in as few trips as possible on the way to monster school. The game is a great way for students to find different ways combine numbers that add up to 10, or play the advanced levels and combine decimals that add up to 1. Our combining numbers lesson plan for Monster School Bus provides more background information about the game, as well as Common Core State Standards alignments and ideas for incorporating the game into classroom instruction. Pearl Diver: In Pearl Diver, students in grades 3-8 take the form of a scuba diver who must dive at the proper place on various number lines to retrieve precious pearls. The game starts out with simple numbers but quickly introduces more complex concepts, including negative… Read the Rest»

BrainPOP’s Allisyn Levy shares her experience integrating assessment into game-based learning. For a long time, I was on a hunt for an amazing English Language Arts game that tied into curriculum and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). A big part of my role at BrainPOP® is vetting games for GameUp®, our online games portal. I focus a lot on working with teachers and students to play-test new games and features so we can shape our offerings to meet our audience’s needs. For months my search continued, and for every huge handful of games we saw, only one or two were really gems. We did discover some outstanding Language Arts games, including Classroom Inc.’s TSN2, Learning Games Network’s Quandary, and many of the iCivics games, all featured on GameUp. But we started to realize that you can actually tie digital games across all subject areas into English Language Arts (ELA) using assessment. In one of my favorite student challenges, I ask the class to create a “cheat sheet” or walk-through. This involves the kind of 21st-century skills the CCSS focus on, both in terms of ELA and literacy in the content areas. Quality digital games are a powerful way to teach the formulation of evidence-based arguments, for… Read the Rest»

On Saturday March 23rd, BrainPOP and Learning Games Network hosted a select group of educators for a one day professional development workshop designed to make game based learning a reality in the classroom. From game play to game design, we explored the various ways games can help engage students to build crucial academic and 21st century skills. The day began with an inspirational keynote from designer Nick Fortugno, CCO of Playmatics and creator of Ayiti, the Cost of Life,  a game featured on GameUp. Nick inspired us to think beyond games as assessment tools, and consider the fundamental characteristics of engagement, risk taking, exploration and curiosity that emerge when we play a great game.  Next we explored all of the free games that tie into curriculum offered on GameUp. Teachers were thrilled to discover the breadth of games and appreciated the teacher support and CCSS alignment.  We collectively played an exemplary online math game, Lure of the Labyrinth: Employee Lounge, by Thinkport and partners, and discussed our observations. Through taking risks and building conceptual understanding of algebra through playing the game, we acknowledged many of the takeaway points from the keynote.               In the afternoon… Read the Rest»

Beyond Angry Birds STEM Games with Research-based Evidence of Student Learning Wednesday, March 27 at 4pm ET REGISTER HERE for the webinar. Your trouble finding games that engage your students while they actually learn something, especially in STEM subjects, illustrates the disconnect between the “education” part and the “games” part of educational games. “Can we combine what we know about instructional design with what we know about game design to build games that are both really fun and demonstrably educational?” is the question being asked at Carnegie Mellon University. Join Amos Glenn and edWeb.net on March 27 to hear how the University’s experts in innovative educational technologies and its outstanding game designers are collaborating to answer that question. Amos will not only introduce you to free games you can use today in your classroom, but he also will share objective, scientific data that illustrates how these games produce measurable learning while still being fun to play-vital information for any educators bringing games into their classrooms.  Join Amos on March 27 to discover STEM games for your classroom. Attendees will also be invited to participate in CMU research at the end of the webinar *Please note that this webinar is not hosted by… Read the Rest»