Instructional Software

Lesson Idea Name: Social Studies Lesson About National Parks with BrainPOP

Content Area: Social Studies: Connecting National Parks to Learning About United States History
Grade Level(s): 5th Grade

Content Standard Addressed: SS5H1 Describe how life changed in America at the turn of the
century.

ISTE Technology Standard Addressed: #3: Knowledge Constructor

Selected Technology Tool: BrainPOP

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): https://www.brainpop.com (general website)

https://www.brainpop.com/science/ourfragileenvironment/nationalparks/ (specific link for
national park subject)
https://www.nps.gov/index.htm (National Park Service website students will use to look up and
research their National Park on)

Type of Instructional Software:

☐ Drill and Practice X Tutorial ☐ Simulation ☐ Instructional Game ☐ e-books/e-
references

Features of this software (check all that apply):

X Assessment Monitoring/Reporting
X Allows teacher to create customized lessons for students
☐ Multi-user or collaborative functions with others in the class
☐ Multi-user or collaborative with others outside the class
X Accessible to students beyond the school day
X Accessible via mobile devices
X Multiple languages
X Safety, security and/or privacy features

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☐ Understanding ☐ Applying X Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐
Creating

SBooker, 2020
 Instructional Software
Levels of Technology Integration:

☐ Infusion Level: Students may work at a higher Bloom’s Level, but they do not have any “Voice
or Choice” during the activity and most of the decisions are made by the teacher.

X Integration Level: We would like to see ALL lessons/activities reach this level. The project is
student-driven. Students have “Voice and Choice” in the activities, selecting the topic of study
and determining the technology tool to demonstrate mastery of the standard. The teacher
becomes more of a facilitator.
☐ Expansion Level: The projects created are shared outside of the classroom, publishing student
work and promoting authorship. This could be reached by showcasing the project on the
school’s morning newscast, posting the project to the classroom blog, or publishing via an
outside source.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

This activity supports multiple means of a representation of ways for the students to learn about
National Parks. They are able to be supplied with background knowledge through the introductory
video. The video also clarifies vocabulary and definitions as it explains the information to the
students. The students are then provided with multiple means of engagement as they work
together to create their project and then interact with projects that other groups have created.
This allows students to learn about broader subjects along with their own personal project topic.
The expansion of these ideas into the project allows for multiple means of action and expression to
be accessible for the students. They are able to be creative with the tools they use to create their
video project. They can choose to make their project more visual by inserting pictures or images,
or they may chose to use other tools such as audio and text to share their findings. The technology
the students are able to use to create their project is optimizing the access the students have to
these assistive tools. Overall, this activity allows for students to use the Instructional Software that
BrainPOP provides to gain a general understanding of the topic. Then, using further tools available,
they can expand their thinking and extend their ideas on the subject as they work towards the
larger goal of creating a movie that will be used to share information about a specific National
Park.

SBooker, 2020
 Instructional Software
Lesson idea implementation:
The project will be introduced using the BrainPOP video, which provides an overview of what
National Parks are. The video gives a good explanation of how National Parks connect to the
development of the United States, addressing the Social Studies standards. It also specifically
mentions how life was changing in America at the turn of the century and how this affected the
formation of and the attitude towards National Parks during this time. The video also includes
many examples of specific National Parks and what you might be able to see there. This
introduction video lasts about 8 minutes. After watching this video, student learning can be
assessed through the completion of a review quiz. If students all have access to their own
technology devices, this quiz can be completed online, with instant feedback sent to the teacher.
The teacher will be able to see how students performed on this quiz. With this information, the
teacher can review and discuss topics with the class, depending on the information they are
unclear on after watching the video and completing the review quiz. Having the students complete
a quiz on paper is an option too. Once complete, the teacher could review the answers and ask the
students if there are any topics they would like to be explained or to be discussed more.
Student learning can then be extended to a higher learning level by assigning students a project
that may be completed as a group or individual project, depending on the situation of the
classroom (in-class or virtual). Each student or group of students will be assigned a National Park
that they will then conduct further research on. The National Park examples that were used in the
video will be included, so that students can draw connections to the previous examples they saw
and extend the information from there. Students will be given specific facts that should be
included as a base for their project. They are also able to include more information they come
across in their research that they feel is important or interesting about their National Park.
Students will conduct their research using the official National Park Service website (https://
www.nps.gov/index.htm). This website provides many articles and resources to use to learn more
about the National Parks. Once students have conducted their research and gathered information
about their National Park, they will use the Make-A-Movie technology tool in BrainPOP, using which
they will be able to create their own video about their National Park. Using this tool, they can use
images, voice, and text to share and explain important details about their specific National Park.
For an in-class application, groups can take turn showing the movie they created about their
National Park to the class. If students watching have any further questions, they may raise their
hand and ask the group. As the group presents, they are taking on the “teaching role”. They should
be prepared to be able to answer and explain questions their classmates may have. They will share
and explain what they have learned about their National Park. In an online class setting, each
student can post their movie presentation on a forum where their classmates will be able to watch
the video in order to learn about different National Parks. Their classmates could then comment on
the post what they liked about the movie, something they learned from it, or any questions they
have.
I can give students feedback on their project in the in-class setting by giving verbal feedback to
the students as they present their projects. This feedback could also be given in a more detailed
manner if done during small group time. The groups took turns having a meeting with the teacher
where they discuss how their movie and presentation went. This way, the students will have a clear
understanding of areas they did great in, and areas where they may be able to improve in for the
next project. On the online setting, the teacher can provide feedback to the students’ movies
using the commenting system to give them direct feedback to their projects.

SBooker, 2020
 Instructional Software
Reflective Practice:
I feel that the activities I created can impact student learning by having them work on being able
to expand concepts and make connections with these concepts to real-life examples and
applications. The introductory activity to the overall unit would be watching the BrainPOP video as
a use of instructional software. The other tools available through BrainPOP can allow for an
expansion of the introductory ideas to take place. The quiz tool can be used to be able to see if
the students were able to successfully take in and comprehend the information that was provided
in the video. The teacher is able to view how students did on the review quiz, so they will be able
to know if there are any specific topics they need to go over or explain in more detail. Further
extending this lesson, I would like to assign students a project that could be done as a group or
individual project, depending on the situation of the classroom (in-class or virtual). Each student or
group of students will be assigned a National Park that they will then conduct further research on.
Using the Make-A-Movie technology tool in BrainPOP, they will be able to create their own video in
which they can share and explain important details about their specific National Park. Specific
content for students to include in this video will be given. Each group can then share their videos
about their National Park with the class in an in-person classroom, or in an online class situation,
the videos can be posted for all the students to look at and learn more from each other. Overall I
believe that using BrainPOP as an instructional software tool is very useful because the videos it
provides are great for offering review of or introduction to a topic. The other technology tools that
they offer are also great to use to expand student thinking and obtain a higher level of thinking
overall.

SBooker, 2020