Posts on “ obama ”

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.    

Have you been using games on GameUp to help your students understand themes of this year’s election?  If so, you might be interested in two new quizzes that we’ve created specific to this year’s presidential contest.  First, is the all important Election Year Economics  quiz that ties right in to Budget Hero Election Edition.  With open ended questions about swing states and resource allocation, this quiz is sure to promote thoughtful dialogue with your students.  Want to quiz your students on other aspects of the election, you can always mix your own, custom quiz using the mixer.  With access to over 10,000 BrainPOP questions, and the ability to write your  own, it’s never been easier to customize your students’ BrainPOP experience.  You can learn how to use the tool by watching our quick overview video.   Also, searching for more election ideas?  Be sure to visit out “spotlights” page, join the election discussion group, or view our archived webinar with our friends from iCivics.

Last week, President Obama announced plans for a national corps group to recognize and reward leading teachers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) areas.  Recognizing the importance for America’s future within the global workforce Obama said, “we need to make sure our children are getting the best education possible.  Teachers matter, and great teachers deserve our support.” Furthermore many argue that educating students in these fields is important for longterm financial and economic interests of the country as well. Some noteworthy points in the announcement?  The goal is to prepare over 100,000 additional STEM teachers over the next decade.  The federal government is willing to compensate leaders in the initiative and, to do this,  has requested 1 billion dollars in the 2013 budget!  They are dedicating $100 million of the current budget to this initiative immediately. To read more about the announcement, check out the official press release. To view BrainPOP STEM resources, be sure to check out our STEM spotlight page with topics galore to help students build understanding.  In addition,  utilize the new Science and Math related games featured on GameUp, as another useful resource that students love.