Teacher Tools

BrainFlex

As the school winds down to a close very soon and we worry that students might forget important learning concepts over the summer holidays..... worry no more! refer them to the BrainFlex website.

BrainFlex has created a free daily practice program for math and science students to help them practice and retain their learning achievements over the summer break.

The CK - 12 Brainflex Summer Challenge will begin in a months time and is a program that students can use to practice math and science skill reviews. Students' progress on their chosen skill reviews is recorded for them in their CK - 12 accounts. The beauty about this program is that it is self-paced and students choose the subjects that they want to review.

Applications for Education 

Teachers can send invitations to students to participate in the CK-12 Summer Challenge. With those invitations teachers can include suggestions for subjects to review. CK-12 also provides a template for a letter to send to parents with suggestions on subjects for their children to review over the summer.

I came across this resource recently through another great teacher web based software called Nearpod which I will blog about another time.

Teachers create an account and invite your students to learn! BrainFlex

App of the week

Hopscotch

This is a free app that can be used to teach students problem solving and logical thinking skills in a fun and engaging way.

Benefits include;

• Simple attractive design that encourages students of all abilities to learn computer science 
• The sharing features allow students to be part of a coding community
• With its open-ended play and built in guidance, it caters to the needs of all student learning styles 

This short movie demonstrates how Hopscotch can be used in Mathematics to create 2D shapes.

Once students get the initial idea of how to use the app, you can set them challenges to create many other shapes or sequences and get them to really test out their coding and critical thinking skills.

Some great ideas on how to use Hopscotch in other subjects can be found in the iBooks App, search for "Hopscotch Lesson Ideas" and download the book onto your iPad.

You will see that it has many lesson ideas for many subjects and differing age ranges. It also offers a sample rubric with each lesson to help teachers asses the project. Play the movie below to take a peek at the content.

There are also several challenges that the app itself offers, which allows students to build up their coding skills. Students have the ability to publish their work and receive recognition.

App of the Week

Elements 4D 

I love investigating and hearing about new apps so here's one that a colleague introduced me to recently.

This app empowers student learning by SUPERCHARGING the chemistry classroom!

Elements 4D is basically a set of interactive blocks that help students learn the periodic table by showing how elements combine into new chemical substances, what the reaction looks like and the resulting chemical equation.

Take a look at the movie to see how these simple blocks use augmented reality to come to life. 

Instructions:

1. Go to the this link and print off the paper blocks, cut them out and glue them together to make the boxes.Paper Blocks
2. Install the "Elements 4D" App on your iPad, open the app and point your device at one of the blocks.
3. To combine two elements introduce a second element, move the two blocks together until they touch.
4. See the reaction - if nothing happens, those elements don't combine, try another combination.

The website also offers some really creative lesson plans for you to use.

Lesson Plans_Grades 3-5
Lesson Plans_Grades 6-8
Lesson Plans_Grades 9-12

For further information about Elements 4D click on the link below to check out their website

http://elements4d.daqri.com/#intro 

App of the Week

Science

As we have nominated the Science Department to be the Focus of this month, I am pleased to say, they do not disappoint. They have introduced a great resource for exam preparation and revision called Examtime. This is a web based resource which students can also access through an App.

Mr Ahmed has used this software with his Diploma students to encourage them to make interactive notes, help them with their understanding of key concepts in science. 

However this resource has a public library that hosts thousands of resources on nearly every subject possible! so ANY Subject Discipline can use Examtime.

Examtime allows students or teachers to create mind maps, flashcards, quizzes and notes for FREE!

You can also use the FREE resources already created and uploaded by other teachers on various subjects in the public library within the software.

Below are some examples of the types of resources available.

Flashcards are a great way for students to revise. An example of some flashcards created for AS Psychology can be seen below.

There are lots of other subjects you can find resources for, below are examples of the searches I made for Biology, Business Studies and Humanities.

 Happy resource Hunting!

Secondary

Science - Google Forms (Assessment Tool)

Normally I would use Google forms for conducting surveys, however in the Science department I saw the Google Form being used in an ingenious way to create quizzes and conduct student assessment by using the add-on app Flubaroo. 

Please read below on how Mr Ahmed Maqbool Head of Science has used Google Forms and Flubaroo to conduct a summative assessment activity on his grade 11 students on the topic of Cell Biology.

Why use Flubaroo?

Flubaroo takes all the responses from the student quiz and;

• Marks the quiz for you.
• It breaks down the data to identify, what mark each student got for each question
• It also creates a chart for you as a teacher to see which questions students struggled on and what they found easy, so you are able to focus on areas of weakness.
• It allows students to also reflect and understand where they need to improve their knowledge.

Why use Google Form? Hope the below information answers this question for you.....

Teacher Preparation

• Created a Quiz/Test in Google form. Press the hyperlink to see the quiz/test that the teacher has created.  Topic 1 Unit Test (part - 2)
• The teacher has used a variety of questioning techniques within the test (Magnification, Calculation, Labeling diagrams, Multiple choice etc)

Below are examples of the type of questions that were created in Google Form

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

• Students have been sent the link beforehand but were restricted to only viewing the test not to submit answers.

Student activity:

• Students were given 15 minutes to complete the test
• They were restricted to only submitting one response 

Advantages of using Google Form and Flubaroo:

• No marking/grading for the teacher
• Students are engaged 
• Feedback from the test can be analysed almost instantaneously
• Helps with future lesson planning
• It has an option to Email grades to students very easily
• It has an option to summarise how the class has done as a whole.

Example of Student Submission from the Google Form

Example of student response data for each student (the names of the students have been blocked out) 

Example of Grading report 

Secondary

Science - Google Docs

I was pleased to see some exciting things happening in the Secondary Science department with the use of Google Docs. I believe that this method of IT integration can be used with all subjects within the Secondary division.

Lesson Title: Ecology - 4.1:Modes of Nutrition in Ecosystems

Grade: 11

Teacher Preparation: 

• Created a Google Doc and shared the link for the Google Doc with the rest of the class.
• Teacher had taken statements from the syllabus/curriculum on the above topic and placed them into the Google Doc
• Identified students to work in pairs based on ability
• Students notified to bring in mobile devices (Laptop or iPad) 

Student Activity:

• In pairs, students to go to the Google Doc (the teacher has created) read the statement allocated to them and convert the statement into a question as well as creating a mark scheme that goes with the statement. 
• Students are now asked to answer the questions using the tools within Google docs.Research Tool to search for specific information related to the topic, they are able to cite and, create footnotes to reference the information.
• Once all questions have been answered students will have an opportunity to peer assess and make comments against each answer, these comments are color coded automatically to identify the additions made to the answer

Advantages of using Google Doc for this activity:

• All students have access to the same document and work collaboratively to create a question bank with notes.
• Information is cited/referenced to allow students to conduct further research and get a deeper understanding of the topic in question.
• All students are engaged to complete their part of the activity, as they are aware that the whole class is able to see their contribution.
• Teacher has access and can check the history to see who and how much a pupil has contributed to the activity.
• Teacher acts as facilitator. 

An example of the Google Doc used, for further information and to view the full document, please click on the link below.

Student activity: Modes of Nutrition in the Ecosystem