This competition is open to anyone under 16. All you need to do is:

1. Download and print this Badge Design Competition template. IMPORTANT: Use the big circle for your design and keep inside the lines as best you can. We’ve added an “actual size” circle too so you have an idea of how big your badge would be in real life.
2. We like to make badges that are inspired by our topics. Your design must incorporate Moby in some way – perhaps in costume, or in a famous historical setting, or in the style of your favourite artist! The possibilities are endless. For inspiration see some of the badges we’ve made in the past. But be creative as you like!
3. Don’t take too long! The competition closes midnight 26th May 2013.
4. Scan or photograph it and send it to us using the form below. You could also post your entry to:

Moby Badge Competition
BrainPOP UK
58 St. Aldates
Oxford
OX1 1ST

We’ll pick our favourite design which will be made into a REAL Moby badge later this summer. The winner will not only be sent a first edition print of their badge, but also the first person in the world to get a pack of our upcoming new badge collection.

Submission criteria

• Finished work must be submitted using the Badge Design Competition template
• This competition is for children up to 16 years old
• The winner will be chosen by the BrainPOP UK team (Moby and BrainPOP’s decision is final)
• The winning design will be interpreted by the BrainPOP design team and re-created in the BrainPOP graphics style (BrainPOP’s design decision is final)
• Entries must be received by midnight on 26th May 2013 (entries received after the competition deadline will not be considered)
• The winners will be contacted by email. Failure to provide a working email address will void your entry
• Winning entries will be showcased on this blog
• You can read our full Terms and Conditions on our website

Good luck, everyone!

What are the awards?

“The awards celebrate the achievements and innovation of UK internet initiatives. Now in their seventh year, the annual awards aim to showcase projects which help to make the internet a more secure, open, accessible and diverse experience for all.”

http://nia.nominet.org.uk/

Our category is sponsored by the venerable Open University. This is the criteria that entrants had to meet:

• Helping people to learn new skills or knowledge using the internet
• Using the internet to provide access to education or information
• Websites or tools that help to empower people online
• Improving skills to help users make the most of the internet

Well, Tim, Moby and The BrainPOPpers are knocked sideways even to be considered to stand alongside the other worthy entrants.

Now, can you help?

We would love it, if our fans from far and wide, could add their vote to our entry. Votes don’t decide the outcome but are taken into account.

It would mean the world to us if we knew folks out there thought enough of us to give us a nod. The Nominet Internet Awards evening is on 4th July 2013 (at the British Library in London, no less) so please get your vote in before then if you can.

To do this just fill in this very short form, and select the “Online skills and training” category > then “BrainPOP UK”. Simple.

Thanks for your support everyone, we’ll keep you updated!

Our short screencast shows some of the ways you can combine BrainPOP and and Google apps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgzWgcn0Ghg

A great blog to read if you are thinking about setting up Google Apps in school is http://ianaddison.net/, run by the ever helpful @ianaddison. It is super supportive, offering advice to other teachers or administrators setting up their domain.

But leaving to one side the technology, what ideas for teaching and learning does Google Apps bring to the table?

One increasingly popular approach is Project Based Learning.

BrainPOP has long been a go to resource for project or enquiry based learning and with the addition of the BrainPOP Google app students and teachers can use BrainPOP outside the classroom too.

(Not sure about project based learning? Download this comprehensive primer to PBL –  ”Work that matters: The teacher’s guide to project-based learning” which describes PBL as “…students designing, planning, and carrying out an extended project that produces a publicly-exhibited output such as a product, publication, or presentation.“)

In PBL:

1. Students must work together to solve real life problems, and present solutions to the outside world.
2. It is designed to foster communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills. The skills students will need to work in a globally connected online world.

If you are interested in exploring PBL practice, we suggest the blogs of Tait Coles or Darren Mead for amazing teacher eye views of planning and implementing PBL with different student cohorts.

Being able to use Google Apps is ideal for students engaged in project work because it lets them communicate with their teacher and each other in a safe environment and collaborate on the production of documents in real time by sharing.

The point of project based learning is really to let students discover their own answers, the teacher acts more akin to a facilitator than an instructor. Sometimes students can lack the necessary ‘scaffold’ of knowledge to formulate solutions and this is something BrainPOP can help support.

Learning subject knowledge is only part of the process of Project based learning. Doing this quickly and efficiently means students can get on with the other vital elements such as thinking about and applying their learning. On BrainPOP UK not only will you find topics that cover curriculum areas, you will find a huge number of skills based topics from public speaking to writing business letters.

Google Apps + BrainPOP is a great fit for Project Based Learning because it gives students ‘anytime access’ to information without telling them all the answers (you can’t cut and paste from a BrainPOP movie!).

It lets them discover what they find interesting without sticking rigidly to a curriculum.

After all, life’s not like that… why should learning be?

You can access it from the main website home page or from this blog.

It brings together all the very best articles and materials to help you get the most out of BrainPOP, and offer up inspiration from the classroom stories we’ve gathered in the last few years.

We’ve divided it up into the following sections, some practical, some exploratory.

• Spread the Word Kit – A collection of resources, support materials and technical tips to help you introduce and embed BrainPOP into your school.
• BrainPOP lesson tips and techniques – A digest of quick wins to effective use of BrainPOP in class. It’s a great place to start.
• BrainPOP and SEN children – This is where we have brought together (and will continue to add) stories about how BrainPOP has been successfully used with SEN childen.
• BrainPOP and the curriculum – Read stories of how schools have subscribed to BrainPOP to complement their curriculum choices.
• Create outstanding lessons – Using BrainPOP as a way to engage kids and build terrific learning experiences.
• Use BrainPOP to stimulate further learning – Ideas to help you expand your use of BrainPOP, or simple inspiration to enhance your school’s digital learning.
• BrainPOP for NQTs – A couple of case studies explaining why BrainPOP is a big hit with newly qualified teachers. Always happy to find more!
• Making Great Use of Mobile Technology – Mobile is a HUGE part of the future of BrainPOP. Learn how to get started with BrainPOP mobile in this section.
• Using ICT effectively – Experience how BrainPOP can add tremendous value to your ICT strategy and demonstrate modern and effective ICT teaching.
• Promoting Literacy Across the Curriculum – See how BrainPOP can be used to promote opportunities to deliver literacy learning in ANY subject.

All these sections will be constantly developed and improved over time. If you have any feedback or suggestions (or you’d like to feature your own experiences of BrainPOP!) please get in touch.

This funding has recently risen from £600 to £900 per eligible pupil so a typical 2 form entry primary school can buy a whole school, 24/7, 3 year subscription for approx 1 x Pupil Premium.

Why should you consider BrainPOP an ideal use of your Pupil Premium allocation?

1) Because BrainPOP is easily accessible at home on many different devices and there’s ZERO extra licensing cost for doing so

Successful use of Pupil Premium funding, as recorded by OFSTED:

“The school was very aware that its pupils seldom had access to good quality information communication technology in their homes so could not practise the skills they learnt at school outside school hours or use computers for research. Equally, pupils often lacked the wider vocabulary and knowledge that they needed to reach the higher levels in their writing. The school used the laptops that they bought with some of the funding to enhance pupils’ research skills in different subjects, to be able to conjure up instantly an image with which pupils may not be familiar, such a desert, a lion, or a snowy landscape, and to give them independent access outside of school hours to enhance their homework.”

“The Pupil Premium: how schools are spending the funding successfully to maximise achievement” OFSTED Feb 2013

As well as being accessible from any browser that can display Flash, such as Sony Playstations, BrainPOP has an app for Apple and Android devices. From the cheapest smartphone to a top of the range iPad many homes who may not have access to a computer will have a mobile device ready to show BrainPOP (“the UK has the highest smartphone penetration of any market covered in the survey, at 61%”, says Techcrunch). We’re very BYOD friendly, and would complement any school that is investing in mobile tech.

Remember, our apps are free to download, and ALL site subscribers get automatic full access.

2) Because it’s wonderful at engaging parents too

“Good quality home learning contributes more to children’s intellectual and social development than parental occupation, education or income.”

The role of parents in a child’s learning, Department for Education

If Mum & Dad are involved in their children’s education the child does better at school. The role of the parent or guardian cannot be underestimated in seeking better pupil attainment and towards improving achievement.

But they need support and guidance. BrainPOP resources are cross curricular and cross phase. They are highly visual, fully subtitled and very engaging. If you identify specific needs in literacy or numeracy advise families to explore a BrainPOP topic together. That level of family support can have a big impact.

3) Because it’s mighty useful during transition and term breaks

Keep learning alive during school holidays with BrainPOP. It’s an educational resource that kids will WANT to use out of school. Take advantage of this by suggesting movies to watch that link into the following term’s work.

BrainPOP can be employed to help with Year 6 to 7 transition across the summer break, especially those about to enter Year 7 who did not achieve at least level 4 in KS2 in English and Maths. As BrainPOP is cross phase you might want to discuss licences across both your primary and secondary schools to ensure that consistency of resource.

4) Because it’s ready made to support SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)

BrainPOP has a wealth of related resources that can be used to tackle SPaG concerns, or simply improve understanding.

• Knowledge About Language
• Reading & Writing

To help we’ve designed a colourful “Moby” desktop icon set that can be used on any Windows or Apple Mac machine.

Simply create the desktop shortcut, link it to www.brainpop.co.uk and then replace the icon image with one of our specially designed images.

READY? LET’S START

Step 1: Download the right icon file for your computer (download the .zip file to your computer and unzip to somewhere the icon file can be permanently stored)

• BrainPOP UK desktop icon WINDOWS
• BrainPOP UK desktop icon MAC

Step 2: Create the desktop shortcut

• To create short cut in Mac OS X visit this page: How to create weblink shortcut in Mac OS X by Apple support
• To create short cut in Windows visit this page: How to create a weblink shortcut on the desktop by Microsoft support

(Subscribers have the option of requesting an “automatic login link” that not only takes you to the BrainPOP UK website but automatically logs you in at the same time. If this is something you’d like please get in touch.)

Step 3: Change the shortcut picture

Windows:

This is pretty easy but there’s so many versions of Windows out there it means there’s probably subtle difference between each method. The following method works on Windows XP and is likely translatable to other versions of Windows:

1. Right click desktop icon > select “Properties”
2. On the “Web document” tab click “Change Icon” > click “Browse” > browse to wherever you stored the .ico file from Step 1 and select it.
3. Click OK, then OK.

Mac OSX:

1. Open the “Moby-desktop-icon-Mac.icns” file in the Preview application
2. Select ALL images (should be 6 in total) and COPY them.
3. Open the info page for the desktop shortcut by hitting COMMAND-I or right click (hold the control key while clicking) on the item to display the context menu and choose “Get Info”
4. PASTE over the little icon in the upper left corner by hitting COMMAND-v to paste the image
5. You should see the icon graphic change to the BrainPOP image

This game encourages students to develop a strong and robust number sense and an understanding of how different numbers relate to one another.

How does Battleship Numberline work?

You start by choosing which maths concept you want to explore. There are 4 different sections to choose from. Each determines what the numberline uses as its measurement.

• Fractions
• Whole numbers
• Decimals
• Mixed bag (a combination of all of them).

What do you have to do?

There is a battleship hidden somewhere along the number line that they need to destroy, but they’re invisible – so how can you target them?

The game tells you where ships have been spotted expressed as a whole number, decimal, or fraction – depending on which option you choose. Then students have to carefully aim on the number line where they think that location is before the timer runs out.

The game gives constant feedback to the student. They will know immediately whether they are right or wrong; this prevents them making the same mistake repeatedly and learning an incorrect method which they then have to unlearn.

This game is very flexible and can be used front of classroom or individually, or as homework to reinforce maths concepts.

What makes it a good educational game?

• You can choose how to align the game to the level of your students by choosing between 5 levels: Very Easy; Easy; Medium; Hard; and Very Hard on each game section. This allows you to have more able students working on the harder levels while any struggling students can work on the lower levels to build their understanding and confidence.
• Students can compete against the game, themselves, and each other by collecting stars, increasing their average accuracy, and going up levels. Instead of kids being bored they’ll be clamouring to play and improve their scores.
• It’s a great way of dealing with common misconceptions that kids have about decimals and fractions – like that numbers with more decimal places must be “bigger” numbers.
• For any students getting frustrated they can watch the related BrainPOP movies under the game without having to navigate away from the game or losing their place.
• Like all the games, Battleship Numberline has a dedicated quiz that you can use to check students comprehension before or after the game.

Using the game with a class – hints and tips

• When I play this game with a class that haven’t seen it before, I like to start with the whole numbers section to get them comfortable with the game mechanic. Then, when I’m sure they understand I propose making it a little harder – which usually gets some excitement!
• I particularly like using this game on an interactive whiteboard; I split the class into two teams and pick 2 or 3 students from each team to come to the front and take turns solving the levels. After a couple of rounds I will send students back to their seats and pick others from their team to take their place at the front to ensure everybody gets a turn.
• Often a class will have a student keen to takeover or answer all the questions. If I am sure they understand the concept and they’ve had a go I make them the “official scorekeeper” and put them in charge of keeping  track of how many stars each team has won. It keeps them engaged and busy while giving other students a chance to take part without the enthusiastic student feeling ignored or passed over.

Their plan is “…to create an awesome day in support for Red Nose Day through a National Games Jam with students, teachers and industry from everywhere creating and sharing games in Scratch. What is a game jam? It’s a short period of time where groups of people get together and make games!​”

You can download lots of support from their website, including posters, Scratch assets and Idea Generators. Students at Highfields School, Wolverhampton, will be live streaming out support activities during the day too. It’s an fun way to learn to code (or flex existing coding muscles) and give to Comic Relief.

And can someone actually create a proper funny game? We hope so

Good luck everyone!

http://www.brainpop.co.uk/spotlights/stem

This Spotlight is a sample that showcases the breadth and depth of STEM topics that can be found in BrainPOP UK, across multiple subjects. Use these topics to create a buzz and excitement around STEM with your students!

• Binary from “Number & Calculation”
  Want to learn computer-speak? In this BrainPOP UK movie, Tim and Moby teach you all about the binary system, the language of computers!
• Building Basics from “Forces & their Effects”
  What stops a skyscraper from falling down and a giant bridge from collapsing? This BrainPOP UK movie won’t answer those particular questions, but it will show you some basic building techniques.
• Calculus from “Algebra”
  A word that strikes fear into even the most conscientious of students. But as Tim and Moby demonstrate in this BrainPOP UK movie, there’s really nothing to be afraid of.
• Computer History from “Modern History”
  How did we get from punch cards to PDAs? Find out in this BrainPOP UK movie, as Tim and Moby guide you through the history of computers.
• Digital Animation from “Art & Design”
  Ever wonder how the questions you mail us become the BrainPOP UK movies you see on your computer screen? Discover the process as Tim and Moby introduce you to the basics of digital animation.
• Dolly the Sheep from “Religion, Society & Ethics”
  Baaah! You’ve heard the story of Dolly the cloned sheep, but do you know the science behind how she was made? In this BrainPOP UK movie, Tim and Moby look back on her life – from the test tube to the pasture to her early demise.
• Hydraulics from “Forces & their Effects”
  Think liquids are wimpy? Think again! In this BrainPOP UK movie, Tim and Moby explain how some of the strongest machines in the world are powered by the liquid power of hydraulics.
• Leonardo Da Vinci from “History: Famous People”
  Is there anything da Vinci couldn’t do? Find out all about Leonardo da Vinci’s incredible skill and talent as Tim and Moby introduce you to the life and work of this famous sculptor, and… painter … and inventor … and anatomist … and mathematician…
• Nanotechnology from “Products & Industry”
  Can you imagine a computer smaller than a grain of sand? How about a tiny robot that can rove through the body and destroy cancer cells? In this BrainPOP UK movie Tim and Moby teach you about nanotechnology, the scientific arena that hopes to make these things a reality!
• Scientific Method from “Scientific Enquiry”
  Got a hunch about something but don’t know how to prove it? In this BrainPOP UK movie, Tim and Moby walk you through the steps of the scientific method – a process which can be used to design any kind of experiment.
• Space Flight from “The Universe”
  Ever wonder how spaceships leap off the planet and fly into outer space? In this BrainPOP UK movie, Tim and Moby will teach you the basics of space flight!
• Stem Cells from “Life Processes: Cells”
  What are stem cells and why are they so controversial? In this BrainPOP UK movie, Tim and Moby give you the rundown on what makes stem cells different from regular cells.
• Video games from  ”Products & Industry”
  Do you spend hours in the computer room battling digital orcs and dragons? Do your thumbs ever get sore from mashing game controller buttons a little too intensely? If so, this BrainPOP UK movie on video games just might be for you.
• Simple Machines learning game
  It’s up to you to use found objects to create simple machines that will help Twitch solve challenges with a minimum of force.

We will be exploring each game and offering support about how to get the most from games based learning over the coming months. We’ll be presenting webinars, looking for guest bloggers, creating lesson plans and much more. But first we thought we’d share how we creatively interacted with “Simple Machines“, one of our science & technology games, using a Makey Makey.

Before adding the bananas

Using 4 x bananas, 3 Moby badges, some tin foil and a Makey Makey, we fashioned a (very unique) interface to replace the mouse and keyboard. Our own “simple machine”. Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz_0W9bumcc

The elements connected to the Makey Makey react when a current is applied and conducted e.g. via your finger. Via USB and the pre-set of commands on the Makey Makey device they all combine to provide interface control.

Extending the learning in this way adds STEM concepts like engineering, current and electricity into the lesson. As well as being seriously fun.

What ways can you build creative learning experiences around GameUp games? We’d love to feature your stories!