Posts on “ gbl ”

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.

Seeing the (Virtual) World Through Others’ Eyes: A Game-Based Approach to Developing More Positive Relationships Thursday, April 11 at  4:00 pm ET REGISTER HERE for the webinar. Intuitively, our capacity to understand, compromise, and foster positive relationships with others should be greatly enhanced by our ability to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” In edWeb.net’s next webinar, researchers from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education will share the results of a series of studies they conducted on using a game-based virtual environment and negotiation exercise. Harvard Doctoral Candidates Geoff Marietta and Elisabeth Hahn will present their findings, which show that walking around in someone else’s (virtual) shoes does indeed encourage compromise and facilitate more positive relationships. In addition, they will explore how these studies shed light on the vast potential for game-based virtual environments to improve the many different types of relationships found in education: student-student, teacher-student, family-school, or central office-school. Join Geoff and Elisabeth on April 11th to learn about game-based approaches for helping your students develop more positive relationships. *Please note that this webinar is not hosted by BrainPOP and all professional development certificates will be issued by edWeb.net.

Last Friday, I had the honor of being one of the judges for the the Rube Goldberg Machines Boss Level at NYC’s Quest 2to Learn School. With all of debate surrounding assessment, it was refreshing to witness a unique approach to middle school finals (or as Quest to Learn refers to them with a kid-friendly nod, “boss levels”). A “Rube Goldberg machine” is a device that’s designed to complete a simple task in a complex fashion. For this challenge, 6th-graders teamed up to create simple machines that served different purposes – one created art using paint, another lifted a tissue out of a tissue box. In order to complete their boss levels, these 6th graders had to design a solution to complete the tasks that they were assigned. Beyond the curricular content students had to apply, they were collaboratively problem solving, planning, testing, and iterating as a team in order to complete this challenge — a very accurate set of real life skills that we employ regularly at BrainPOP.  We visited six classrooms and assessed the completed projects using rubrics, providing authentic feedback to the students from a variety of professions represented by the judging panel. Upon entering each classroom, the excitement of… Read the Rest»

BrainPOP is thrilled to introduce a new category of free English Language Arts (ELA) games! When you visit the main GameUp page, you’ll now see an “English Games” button which takes you to our growing collection of online games that target a wide range of literacy skills. We’re also excited to announce the addition of Classroom, Inc.’s The Sports Network 2 (TSN-2) to our English GameUp offerings. The result of a 2011 Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), TSN-2 can easily be adapted for use with students in grades 5-9, but is designed to assess students’ proficiency in key grade 8 Common Core State Standards in Reading Informational Text. We love the way TSN-2 uses challenging tasks within a virtual workplace to address each of its target standards multiple times. Last spring, Classroom, Inc. piloted TSN-2 in eight schools in NYC and Chicago. Analysis of student data gathered through Classroom Inc’s Teacher Dashboard showed strong correlations between students’ scores on the TSN-2 embedded assessments and MAP reading scores—compelling evidence that TSN-2 is a valid predictor of student performance on standardized grade level reading tests. Pilot teachers were enthusiastic about how TSN-2 provides effective CCSS practice and assessment, and students were eager… Read the Rest»

Inspired by the Educate to Innovate Campaign, President Obama’s initiative to promote a renewed focus on STEM education, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is a multi-year competition whose goal is to motivate interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games. CALLING ALL TEACHERS with STUDENT GAMERS!  ENCOURAGE your students to ENTER THE CHALLENGE! BrainPOP is once again a proud outreach partner for the challenge and our site is a terrific starting place for you to prepare your students to participate.  Use our STEM Spotlight to introduce key concepts that might inspire your students as entry points for developing game content. In addition, check out GameUp for examples of STEM-based educational games and begin thinking about turning content knowledge into games.  We’ve got lesson plans to help get you up and running, or listen to a webinar and read our blog posts that can help you consider the best ways to bring game design into your classroom.    

Just this week, we’ve quietly rolled out a new group of support pages on BrainPOP Educators.  We have created game specific  pages to help support your implementation of GameUp games in class! Every GameUp page has a lesson ideas button. Click the button to find lesson plans, graphic organizers, videos and implementation strategies all geared toward the specific game. With unique pages for each of the almost 60 games on GameUp, you’ll find the most useful implementation content to help you begin  incorporating game based learning into your teaching! Over the last year, our goal has been to make a more friendly BrainPOP Educators experience, and reduce the amount of searching you need to do to find the resource that you want.   We hope you find these new pages useful!  We’re always eager for feedback so please leave your ideas or suggestions in the comments section below.  

GameUp keeps growing!  Just this week, we’ve introduced 5 new games, including our first music game, from partner State of Play, called One Man Band. All you do is drag and drop instruments anywhere on the screen to build a crazy contraption and create your own tune.  From partner Hooda Math we welcome another instant classic, Ice Cream Truck! This game provides an opportunity to unleash your inner entrepreneur and exercise your budget skills as you buy materials and price your ice cream cones accordingly.  Build-a-Body and Build-A-Tree are excellent interactive simulations from game partner Spongelab. Whether you are a surgeon transplanting inner organs, or a arborist designing a maple tree to survive in different seasons, these simulations put you into the shoes of knowledgeable professional!  What Plants Need, also from Spongelab, explores the combination of light, water and air that plants need to survive. We are thrilled to continue building game offerings on GameUp. Keep checking our blog and be the first to hear news about games and developments at BrainPOP!

This Thursday, January 10 at 4pm ET,  join our friends at EdWeb for a compelling webinar. Presenters: Victoria Van Voorhis, Founder & CEO, Second Avenue Software, and  Jayne C. Lammers, Assistant Professor, University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education. How do girls’ preferences in computer games vary from those of boys? Girls value the opportunity to collaborate with others in solving problems in non-violent, non-competitive contexts. These factors should be considered when designing or evaluating games for the classroom. Join Victoria Van Voorhis and Jayne C. Lammers for our community’s new webinar to learn how to incorporate games into your curriculum to engage all of your students. Join these two experts who have studied girls and gaming from diverse perspectives for the insight you need to make smart choices about games for learning. REGISTER HERE for the webinar

In addition the many movie topic pages on the solar system, BrainPOP also has three dynamic games to help students learn about space in a fun and interactive way! Build a Solar System allows students to build their own solar system. They can try to find a perfect balance or create a system unlike any we’ve ever seen! Fly to Mars is a simulation that allows students to launch a spacecraft from Earth to Mars. They’ll need to carefully monitor the position of both planets as they orbit and think carefully about the timing of their launch. Drake Equation is a chance for students to explore the likelihood of intelligent life beyond our solar system. Students answer questions to see what our chances are of being alone in the universe. Each game page links to related movie topics pages and a lesson plan which provides ideas for integrating the game into instruction. Teaching about the solar system has never been easier! Do you have other cool activities and lesson plans for teaching about space and the solar system? Share your ideas in the comments below, or submit a lesson plan!

Guest Blogger and BrainPOP Educator Steve Isaacs share his methods for incorporating game design into his classroom.  You can find the post in it’s original form on Steve’s blog, games and learning Recently @techucation reached out to ask for some resources and ideas related to teaching Video Game Design and Development.  I responded to his inquiry and realized it would serve as a worthwhile blog post to share with the educational community.  Below is a general description of my 7th and 8th grade courses.  In 7th grade, I teach a six week introduction to video game design and digital storytelling.  In 8th grade I teach a full semester course in video game design and development.  I have also developed and teach the full semester course as an online high school course for The VHS Collaborative (http://thevhscollaborative.org/).  I hope you find the information helpful as I would love to see more courses evolve that teach important 21st century skills through game design. Currently, I am enrolled in the doctoral program in Educational Technology at Boise State University and the focus of my research is the pedagogical benefits of game design and development.  Some of the concepts I find most worthwhile to research… Read the Rest»