Unit 5- Gone Gaming - Ms. Zimmer- Technology at ASM What is Gamestar Mechanic? Gamestar Mechanic is a game and online community that teaches kids how to design their own games. Designing games builds: Systems Thinking21st Century SkillsCreative Problem SolvingArt and AestheticsWriting and StorytellingCreates motivation for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) learning Over the next several weeks, we will play through Gamestar Mechanic, learn some of the basic principles of game design and ultimately create our own games. Why use games in the classroom? Image from Gamestar Mechanic Gamestar Mechanic was designed with the understanding that game design is an activity that allows learners to build technical, technological, artistic, cognitive, social, and linguistic skills suitable for our current and future world. Unit Preview: Rock-Paper-Scissors Activity All games are systems designed to be played. Space: the space of Rock-Paper-Scissors is kept close between two players Why are games used in education? -How can I win? Evaluate-
European Exploration - A Game for Learning About The Age of Discovery Last week Glenn Wiebe published a list of iPad apps for history teachers. One item in that list that was new to me was European Exploration: The Age of Discovery. This free iPad app puts students in charge of exploring the "New World." European Exploration: The Age of Discovery provides students with historical information about the explorers that are available to lead expeditions. The object of the game is to unveil the entire New World. Applications for EducationEuropean Exploration: The Age of Discovery could be a great way to get students interested in the expeditions of early European explorers.
The Top 50 Apps for Kids: Our favorite picks for education, music, art, and more! Whether you're an iPhone mom, an iPad dad, or an Apple-agnostic type who prefers Google's Android operating system, your kids just know you as the one who buys the apps. However, with more than 1 million tablet and smartphone apps available across Apple's iTunes Store and the Google Play market, where do you even start to find the best ones for your kids? For Babble's annual roundup of the 50 best apps for kids, we looked at some basic criteria that you and your family might also consider before downloading an app. We've broken down our top 50 kids apps by category, price, and age range (check out the full list here!). We hope you have as much fun checking these out as we did testing them. Faces iMake — Right Brain Creativity’s Rankings #5 Art & Music Playing with your food may be a no-no at the dinner table, but it’s the whole point behind developer iMagine Machine’s Faces iMake — Right Brain Creativity. Get it for iPad, $1.99
Forensic Firsts Forensic Clues Mouseover clues on the crimes scene to uncover special bonus content. Watch Video Watch the Sneak Peak See how ruthless murderers are brought down by revolutionary forensic techniques. Watch Preview Where do Fingerprints Come From? Discovery Learning: Games Designed to Make you Fail Games can sometimes provide us with opportunities to fail. It is this failing that allows us to learn. This is necessary in order to improve our next attempt and our next, until we get it right. Some of the most interesting games come without any instructions at all and mean that the very nature of the game itself needs to be discovered. This fits in perfectly with how kids use and embrace new technology - no one read the instructions - they just press the buttons until they work out what they all do. Feed the Head: $1.99 AU This has to be my all time favourite game. Where's My Water: $0.99 AU Swampy the Alligator lives in the sewers under the city. Room Break: $1.99 AU Room Break is an adventure game about escaping. Touch Physics: FREE
National STEM Video Game Challenge Educational Videos and Games for Kids about Science, Math, Social Studies and English LD OnLine: The world's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD Talk Crafty To Me - Dedicated to all things handmade 7 Skills To Become Super Smart People aren’t born smart. They become smart. And to become smart you need a well-defined set of skills. Here are some tips and resources for acquiring those skills. Memory If you can’t remember what you’re trying to learn, you’re not really learning. If you want to amaze your friends with remembering faces, names, and numbers, look to the grand-daddy of memory training, Harry Lorayne. Reading Good scholars need to be good readers. Evelyn Woodski Slow Reading Course Announcer … Dan Aykroyd Man … Garrett Morris Woman … Jane Curtin Surgeon … Bill Murray … Ray Charles Announcer V/O: [The following words rapidly appear on a blue screen as they are read by the fast-talking announcer:] This is the way you were taught to read, averaging hundreds or thousands of words per minute. Psychologists have found that many people who take speed reading courses increase their reading speed for a short time but then fall right back to the plodding pace where they started. Writing Speaking Numeracy Empathy
Improving Executive Function: Teaching Challenges and Opportunities (Part 3 of 7) The High Cost of Over-Packed Curriculum Standards For 21st century success, students will need skill sets far beyond those that are mandated in the densely packed standards -- and that's evaluated on bubble tests. In the near future, success will depend on accelerated rates of information acquisition. We are painfully aware that the educational model has not changed to accommodate the exponentially increasing amount of information pertinent to students. The factory model of education still in place was designed for producing assembly line workers to do assigned, repetitive tasks correctly. The human brain does have the equipment for the new critical skill sets needed in the future, but it cannot activate these tools without guided experiences. Executive Functions for Current and Future Opportunities What my field of neurology has called "executive functions" for over 100 years, are the highest cognitive processes -- they are sometimes called higher order thinking or critical thinking.
Formative Assessments Are Easier Than You Think! When I was teaching science one of the best lessons I learned was about formative assessment. In my first year of teaching I taught the way I was told to teach. Deliver content to my students, assess at the end, remediate if necessary. With that cycle, I always had kids who were behind, who never seemed like they could catch up. I was talking with a teacher friend the summer after my first year and she suggested something simple. What a difference that made. The following school years that board became an important place for myself and my students. Now, as 1:1 and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are taking over our schools, its becoming even easier to formatively assess what our students know and for our students to leave feedback as to what they need. Here are a few sites and apps to help with formative assessments... Online Sticky Notes-Just like my physical space in my classroom there are lots of virtual sticky note sites out there. These certainly aren't all.
35 Best Websites for Free Educational Videos What are the best websites to watch educational videos? Here are over 35 websites to watch thousands of educational videos covering business, science, health, technology, math, social studies, arts and more. Please bookmark this page or share it if you find this article useful. 1. 5min Offers short, practical how to videos, instructional videos and DIY solutions. 2. A large collection of educational video lectures from the world’s top scholars. 3. Blogs, articles and videos from the world’s top thinkers and leaders. 4. Animated science, health, technology, math, social studies, arts & music videos. 5. Offers thousands of free math and science videos. 6. Features interviews with America’s best thinkers, writers, politicians, entertainers, business leaders, scientists and more. 7. 30,000 video segments from Discovery Education. 8. Provides video lectures, courses, documentaries, books, quizzes, lecture notes and much more. 9. 10. 11. 12. Professional and user-generated how-to educational videos.