BrainPop Game(s)Up the election

At the ISLMA Conference last week, Lisa Perez of Chicago Public Schools shared  BrainPop’s election resources (free through Election Day) and its new GameUp features, that she has found valuable in gamifying professional development with the librarians in her district.

Although because of Sandy we are without power at home and school, the kind folks at Dunkin’ Donuts are allowing me to explore this morning and to play BrainPop’s free Win the Whitehouse simulation while I drink a lot of coffee.

Developed by iCivics, the game is available for three grade levels.

I enjoyed choosing my candidate, exploring the issues, checking out my popularity in the Primaries, making appearances, raising funds, making speeches, and generally managing my time and resources while I tried to garner electoral votes during my ten-week campaign.

If you have time before next Tuesday, give this game a try either with individual students or collaboratively on a whiteboard!

I asked my friend Kari Stubbs, BrainPOP’s Vice President for Learning and Innovation, to share a little more about the election resources and the new GameUp features.

Kari writes:

BrainPop’s Spotlight: Election is packed with resources to help you make the presidential election process “click” for your students. Kick off their engagement with a quiz on the election. Check out timely topics including Presidential Election, Voting, Political Parties, Primaries & Caucuses, and more.

GameUp, our free online games portal, offers relevant top titles that invite kids to apply their understanding of campaigning and government through game play.

Work in a game of Win the White House, Executive Command, Budget Hero, and Branches of Power from our partners iCivics, Filament Games, and Public Insight Network.

BrainPop’s free and subscription instructional videos and its free GameUp challenges will be here long after the current big election is decided and so will these additional resources:

• Teaching with Games (Video
• case studies)
• BrainPOP Standards search tool (which includes CCSS)
• BrainPOP background on Game Theory
• Why Games?

Also, see my earlier post on Election Resources.

Filed under: election, instruction, video