Summary
Students were given an extra credit assignment to come up with their own brain rap. Students could come up with a poem, video, or a rap song, but they must incorporate at least half the vocabulary terms from the Neuroscience chapter on the brain. Students presented their brain rap to the class while listening to other presentations. Students were evaluated based on creativity and overall presentation. Students informally provided feedback to each other.
TIPC Ratings
This lesson is developing in research and information fluency. Students chose vocabulary words from a specific unit and organized the definitions into a rap. This assignment did require students to synthesize the information, but for it to score higher in this category, more attention would have to be paid to the sources for information. Students were not required to cite any sources for information on this assignment.
This lesson is approaching in communication and collaboration. Students used a range of communication tools (including social media and smart phones) to work on this project outside of class time. The teacher had no supervision of the students during this extra assignment. Groups were self selected and roles were established. Students then shared these raps with each other using the presentation method of their choosing.
This lesson is developing in critical thinking and problem solving. Students had to think critically to create the poems or raps. They had to make the vocabulary come to life through video or song. The overarching theme and words were suggested by the teacher, but the students had to take the vocabulary words apply a digital tool to make it into more than an exercise in rote memorization.
This lesson is developing in creativity and innovation. Students make rapping about parts of the brain relevant to a high school aged student. There is a limited amount of personal choice as to the content, but students could choose to present that information in a number of different ways. Students used existing knowledge to create a new rap.
