Gaming in Education
Gaming and assessment go hand-in-hand with BrainPop’s GameUp! GameUp is a totally free website with over 100 common-core-related games covering multiple topics including Science, Math, Social Studies, Health, English, ESL and Engineering & Tech. You’ll find games on topics such as simple machines, food chains and desalination (Science); addition blocks, refraction and angles (Math); checks and balances, branches of government, continents and oceans (Social Studies); parts of speech, nouns and Lord of the Flies (English) and so much more! Check out this site, and you are sure to find a game to engage your students and make learning fun and exciting.
If your school subscribes to BrainPop, then you can use the videos to enhance the gaming experience, and you also have access to SnapThought. SnapThought is an assessment feature that encourages students to write predictions, comments, summaries and/or thoughts while gaming. Teachers can then view and respond to the students during their gaming experience. SnapThoughts are not available in all 100 games at this point, but this is a very worthwhile tool that provides an opportunity for reflection, communication and assessment while gaming.
Read this article to learn more about the power of SnapThoughts!
Considering researching and using BrainPop’s GameUp for these upcoming Eduspire courses:
