Posts on “ social studies ”

Dr. Kari Stubbs, Vice President of 21st Century Learning, is heading west to Redmond, WA to visit the Microsoft Headquarters for the 2012 Partners in Learning US Forum.  This BrainPOP-sponsored event will take place July 31-August 1 and is an exciting, professional learning experience that spotlights and allows superstar educators from all over the US to share their innovative teaching expertise.  As a keynote featured speaker, Kari will have the honor of addressing 102 amazing educators from 25 states.  Additionally, she’ll be hosting Got Game?,  a BYOL session that focuses on educational games, at which attendees will have the opportunity to explore video case studies and play some quality STEM, Social Studies, and Health games.  If you’re one of the lucky Forum attendees, be sure to visit Kari in the exhibitor space to learn more about BrainPOP and our GameUp games.  

GameUp continues to grow and we’ve just added another new game!  Budget Hero, developed by the Woodrow Wilson Center, American Public Media and 360KID, is now available in the math section of GameUp and is an online game in which players try their best to balance the federal budget.  Throughout the game, players make policy changes that affect the budget deficit/surplus, the size of government as a percentage of GDP, the national debt as a percentage of GDP, and the projected year in which the budget “busts.”  While experimenting with budget cuts and government investments, students can identify budget priorities that they find interesting such as green initiatives, health and wellness, energy efficiency, and more. Perfect for middle school and highschool Math or Social Studies classes, our Budgets, Comparing Prices, and Money movies can help students understand the necessary concepts for successfully playing Budget Hero.  We’ve also created a lesson plan for teachers to use when integrating the use of the game into their curriculum.  Not only does our lesson plan include tips and tricks for playing the game, but we’ve included an additional resource students can use to guide them through gameplay.  So, do you think your students have… Read the Rest»

BrainPOP Educators Brennan Plummer, Jarrod Stephens and Brian Cook at Worthington Elementary School in Kentucky lead a Student Technology Leadership Program for aspiring technologists! Brennan contacted us to share about their most recent research projects on Steve Jobs and QR codes. One component of this research project was the creation of BrainPOP videos – complete with Tim, Moby, sharp dialogue and a pointed question. Jarrod shares that the project took about 2 weeks, “After completing the scripts and storyboards, there were countless hours of rehearsing and recording. There were lots of laughs.” He continues, “the most surprising element of the project was to see how engaged the kids became!  They were in my room every day to ask about when they could come in and work. Most of the work was completed after school hours and both the boys and girls who took part in the project loved taking turns being Moby.”  Take a look at the fruits of their labor, and if you’ve made some awesome BrainPOP projects with your students, please share with us! Congratulations to the STLP students at Worthington! What is a Steve Jobs?   What is a Steve Jobs? from Brennan Plummer on Vimeo. What is a… Read the Rest»

BrainPOP and Project Tomorrow invite all schools and districts to participate in the 9th annual Speak Up National Research Project.  Speak Up provides a quick and easy way for your students, parents, teachers, librarians and administrators to have a voice in local, state and national discussions about emerging technologies in education. Plus, every participating school and district gets back their own stakeholder data from the online surveys to use for grant writing, ed tech plans, budgets, professional development and community engagement.  No need to create your own surveys – Speak Up does all the work for you!   Just register your school or district at http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2011/, pick a password and promote the survey link to your community. Since 2003, over 2.2 million education stakeholders from over 30,000 schools have participated in Speak Up.  It is more important today than ever that your voice is heard by policymakers – and that you have the authentic, unfiltered feedback from your students, parents and staff you need to make good decisions and investments.   Be part of this year’s Speak Up movement! Project Tomorrow is a national education nonprofit organization dedicated to improving science, math and technology education in our schools. Learn more @ www.tomorrow.org…. Read the Rest»

Diversity and Culture with NetTrekker and BrainPOP Wednesday, October 26 4:30 PM EDT Duration: 1 Hour We’ll show you how netTrekker Search and BrainPOP can help you pinpoint the most engaging lesson ideas and resources for an array of multicultural-themed projects. You’ll be amazed at the diversity of content and organizational strategies you can use when you combine BrainPOP and netTrekker!

BrainPOP Educator, Amanda Durrence, is an Instructional Technologist in Winston Salem, NC. She is certified in 6-9 Social Studies and was a 7th grade social studies teacher when she shared this lesson idea with us. She has used BrainPOP for the past 5 years in her teaching career and notes, “I’ve been in love with it since day one.” BrainPOP’s Egyptian Pharaohs and Mummies movies inspired me to take my lesson on Ancient Egypt a few steps further with my students.  I came across an interesting documentary by National Geographic titled “King Tut’s Final Secrets.” It tied in perfectly with what we were learning. BrainPOP’s resources provided us with excellent resources to help students understand Ancient Egyptian culture/customs.  Furthermore, they were prepped for the documentary by BrainPOP’s explanation of the mummification process and why it was significant for the pharaohs.

What do an early computer programmer, an aviatrix, an artist, a civil rights icon, a scientist, an author, and a media mogul have in common? They’re all part of our Spotlight: Women’s History. This March Spotlight includes topics like Ada Lovelace, Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo, Judy Blume, Marie Curie, Oprah Winfrey, Sally Ride (new!), and much more, all on BrainPOP. For K-3, there’s Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Susan B. Anthony. The Spotlight also includes BrainPOP Educators lesson plans on Great Women in History, Susan B. Anthony, and Jane Goodall.

Congratulations to head teacher, Colter Barnes, and his Kokhanok middle school class for their amazing accomplishment as top 5 finalists in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest.  Colter shares their journey from a BrainPOP social studies lesson all the way to the Big Apple! One day, in the remote fly-in only “bush” village of Kokhanok, Alaska, while my middle school class (made up of 6 diverse Alaska Native students of Yupik Eskimo, Athapascan Indian, and Aleut descent) were logging in to BrainPOP to work on social studies, they noticed a news feature and exclaimed, “Samsung is giving away $1,000,000 to schools!”  Instantly, their focus had been diverted and they wanted to explore this exciting opportunity.  After further research they learned it was an educational contest that would award students who could best demonstrate an answer to the question, “How can math and science help the environment in your community?” Being from a village of 160 people, where roughly 80% of its inhabitants don’t have internet access, my students were both eager and nervous.  Do we have what it takes to compete with kids from California, Texas, and New York City?  How cool would it be if we won and received… Read the Rest»

From the Underground Railroad and Frederick Douglass to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and everything in between, our Spotlight: Black History is the perfect resource for your timely February lessons.  Topics include Brown v. BOE, Civil Rights, Jackie Robinson, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey and more.  K-3 topics explore Abraham Lincoln, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks, among others. Plus, turn to BrainPOP Educators for related lesson plans.

George Washington. John Adams. Abraham Lincoln. John F. Kennedy. Richard Nixon. How much do your students really know about our founding fathers and the men in the Oval Office? Find out with our Spotlight: U.S. Presidents. BrainPOP topics include Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Presidential Power. For K-3, there’s Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, President, and more. Plus, our Barack Obama and George W. Bush topics debut later this month! Check out all of the related lesson plans we offer. And, take advantage of our Presidential Power graphic organizer.