Shake the Proteins

Simply shake and tilt an iPad to learn about proteins that break down sugar in cells. Sugar Shake includes a free version with eleven levels and an interactive menu. The app helps older students understand how chemical reactions work at the molecular level. All they have to do to get points is to set off a chemical reaction. Fun.   

Jane McGonigal & Game-Based Learning

Jane McGonigal, a keynote speaker at the 2013 ISTE convention in San Antonio, believes that “games do a better job of provoking our most powerful positive emotions, like curiosity, optimism, pride, and a desire to join forces with others.” The more games we play, according to McGonigal, the better off our world will be.  Why? Check out the TED video of one of McGonigal’s talks.

At ISTE, McGonigal opened the conference by telling attendees that “games are a space of maximum engagement.” That’s important because according to research only 44% of high school students say they are engaged in learning at school.  The speaker encouraged the educators in the audience to think about the ten emotions (joy, relief, love, surprise, pride, curiosity, excitement, awe and wonder, contentment, and creativity) that gamers say they have while playing and to try to create classrooms that evoke these emotions.  According to Katie Ash of Education Week, McGonigal didn’t explain how teachers could put her ideas to work in the classroom. Bottom line: we know that games work in learning, but finding appropriate games to use and integrating them into the curriculum isn’t all that easy.

Give Me More Math Homework!

Once in a while, we teachers encounter a math-whiz who can’t get enough math, but most of our students don’t exactly fit into that category. So, when students beg for more math homework, we wonder what might be causing this sudden fondness for the subject. According to Susan Bowling, the Enrichment Program Director at Fremont Intermediate School in Mundelein, Illinois, the answer is to put students to work with Wowsers. The product is an online learning platform for Grades 3-8, which provides games and activities to help students master core mathematics concepts. Bowling’s students want more Wowser math fun after school, on weekends and when they are out sick. At Fremont, all students, including those in Special Education and Gifted programs, receive time with Wowsers, and they can also access it at home, during their free time, and on their mobile devices. Currently only school editions, which can be used at home, are available, but the folks at Wowsers are working on the ability to offer a single use edition for families whose children’s schools don’t have Wowsers.

Is the Flipped Classroom the Answer for Classroom Woes?

Edutopia blogger Andrew Miller says there is so much talk about how the flipped classroom will “solve” our educational difficulties, but Miller believes the idea doesn’t really solve anything. Good instruction does. According to Miller, “It’s a great first step in reframing the role of the teacher in the classroom.” The problem is what happens when you take the step to put your students in charge of their learning? Miller offers five suggestions to help teachers who are considering flipping their classrooms. They include deciding whether you have created the need to know among your students; learning to use techniques such as project-based learning and game-based learning; making sure the needed technologies for learning are available to your students; using reflection as an important part of instruction so that students “can connect content to objectives...”; and having the classroom environment and appropriate resources needed for student activities.