# data[].attributes.body
We are all a beginner at some stage

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Beginners Guide to Microsoft OneNote for Windows 10

# data[].attributes.body
Never lose your work on the board with the draw feature on OneNote!

# data[].attributes.body
My classroom has completely changed since I started using OneNote

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Microsoft OneNote Digital Note Taking App | Microsoft 365

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Microsoft OneNote has your digital notebook needs covered. With OneNote 2016 we’ve made our notebook organizer tools even stronger and collaboration easier.

# data[].attributes.body
This video is being used as part of a surface area and volume lesson that I have created for year 9 Maths. Using the rectangle/prism features allows the students to see their work come to life and check their answers for SA, volume, trigonometry and Pythagoras of their 2D and 3D shapes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
3D Modeling for Geometry Class (Beginner)

# data[].attributes.body
A fellow pre-service teacher with a brain as full as mine. Imogen's Padlet holds a wealth of knowledge and extremely useful links for not only her subject areas, but also for the teaching population. You will be intrigued by her Padlet from the first click! @imogenschaller

# data[].attributes.body
MailChimp is an email marketing and automations platform designed to utilise marketing and e-commerce tools in order to aid in building, growing and promoting your business, brand and products.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Marketing smarts for big ideas | Mailchimp

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Grow your business on your terms with Mailchimp's All-In-One marketing, automation & email marketing platform. Easy to use - start for free!

# data[].attributes.body
Prezi is a virtual visual and design presentation platform utilised for hybrid, remote and in-person workplace communications and presentations with video and conferencing integration features available.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Open Canvas

Create, organize, and move freely on an open canvas. Create seamless presentations without the restrictions of linear slides.

Ready-made asset libraries

Choose from millions of images, stickers, GIFs, and icons from Unsplash and Giphy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Presentations and videos with engaging visuals for hybrid teams | Prezi Present

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Welcome to Prezi, the presentation software that uses motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to bring your ideas to life and make you a great presenter.

# data[].attributes.body
Canva is a user-friendly online graphic design tool used to create engaging visual communications, social media assets, infographics, presentations and more with a large range of pre-made templates and export format options available.

# data[].attributes.headline
12 Must Watch TED Talks for Entrepreneurs

# data[].attributes.subject
12 Must Watch TED Talks for Entrepreneurs

# data[].attributes.body
Venture Well provides a range of resources and activities for students to prepare, engage and develop inventor and entrepreneur understanding and practices in order to evolve and progress ideas into real-world business practise.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How can you bolster and maintain student engagement throughout your course? If you're in search of ideas, we've curated a collection of cutting-edge class activities used by VentureWell faculty grantees. These class activities are designed to prepare early-stage innovators in taking the first steps toward transforming their ideas into impactful inventions and ventures.

1) The "If I Knew..." Exercise Aileen Huang-Saad University of Michigan
"Each term, I end the class with the "If I knew" assignment. Students are asked to fill out a simple PowerPoint template that asks the following questions:

When I signed up to take this class, I was expecting...

This is what I got out of the class...

If I had only known...

This is what I would change...

Before class, I go through all of the student responses and aggregate the feedback into the themes. I then present the summary to the students for the last class and we discuss their reflections. This summary presentation is then used to iterate on the course for the following year and is assigned as the first reading for the next cohort of students as their first assignment. This sets the stage for the next class."

"I like class activities like the envelope exercise developed by Tina Seelig at Stanford University. In this exercise, the students are asked to plan for a two-hour activity to increase an initial, unknown investment provided to them in an envelope. The amount of money in the envelope is very small - around $2. The students are usually surprised at how little money is in the envelope. Yet, every time I've done this exercise, the students have increased the investment money provided to them. The exercise helps students realize how easy it is for them to make money. I was particularly delighted when the students at the Bluefields, Indian, and Caribbean University in Nicaragua came to this realization. These students are generally from relatively poor communities and lack confidence in their ability to make money. When they performed this exercise and realized how easily they could make money, it was really eye-opening and thrilling for them. It was also a very rewarding experience for me."

"I provide exercises that get students out of the building. Nothing shapes a student's perception about their idea or market better than talking with a customer . Most students are uncomfortable when they start a conversation with a potential customer. Once they are comfortable with the skill, it transforms them and their way of thinking."

4) The Pure Imagination Exercise
Laquita Blockson
Agnes Scott College

"During the second week of my introductory entrepreneurship courses, I conduct a team exercise to convey the importance of creativity. I first show my students the " Pure Imagination " scene from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, asking them to listen carefully to the lyrics. This prepares them to think beyond normal convention during the exercise. I then provide each team with a common household item-a clothespin, a pill bottle, a cotton t-shirt, for example-and instruct them to think of alternative uses for their item. Once the teams have identified ways their item can be repurposed, I encourage them to contemplate how to deconstruct and reconstruct each item to make it more user-friendly. I find this exercise particularly useful because many of my students are not business or engineering majors, so by inspiring them with a film that they have likely seen, and by using common items, they are able to better internalize the connection between creativity and entrepreneurial opportunity."

5) The Defining Problems Exercise
"In my introductory course, I work on students developing a sense for defining problems. I show pictures that contain many potential issues. The students are asked to define the issues they can see and what questions they would ask or additional information they would want to help define the problems. They always want to start with solutions, but the key is to get them to define the problem better, which is half the work of solving the problem anyway."

"I think almost all entrepreneurship professors use class activities to create what is now considered to be a "flipped classroom." I'm no different. Students in my courses work to develop business ideas and concepts, go out to understand customers, pivot, pitch, and spend time outside the building to learn and practice Lean Startup concepts. I also try to spark interesting conversations inside my classroom. Sometimes I do that by using short, focused video clips or the Startup podcast. I use the mishaps and adventures featured in the podcast to illuminate important ideas and concepts. The episodes are a perfect match with so many concepts related to entrepreneurship and Lean Startup. The class becomes very invested and opinionated about the founders and the company."

7) The Business Thesis Exercise
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"There is a simple business thesis exercise that we use in our program that teaches teams to articulate their value proposition and customer segment in a concise way. It sounds simple, but it always amazes me how challenging it is for students to do at first. I even crack out this exercise every time that I give a guest lecture across campus."

8) The Soft Skills Exercise Cheryl Bodnar "I use game-based class activities to help students develop their soft skills such as oral communication and teamwork, both of which are critical for entrepreneurs. Each player has a card with various symbols on it, and only one of the symbols on their individual card is defined. Without showing their cards to other players, participants have to decode the symbols and reveal the message on their individual cards, using only oral communication. The end result: all players enter a color on a rainbow-colored game board and the whole class wins."

"In some classes I teach, I will hand out blindfolds and ask everyone to put them on. Then they pair up. Their task is to leave the second floor of the engineering building, navigate the campus, find the library, stand in line at the café and order a coffee or tea. The pair only gets to take off their blindfold when they get their beverage. Afterward we deconstruct this activity. The most important insight is that we as educators talk a lot about knowing your customer. Sometimes the only way to really understand a customer is to live in their world. After this activity the challenge is to find ways to become or simulate how to be your customer. Students seem to remember these class activities for a very long time!"

"I teach the students how to design websites and we train them how to perform two-minute pitches. I love watching the students get excited about their project, and learn how to understand the big picture. These pitches are then presented at our final symposium to industry judges. We provide the winning team with funding and resources to start their company. Each year, we have 1 to 3 student teams form companies and continue to develop their venture beyond their degree. It creates such an exciting environment to teach in, as what we show them becomes applied immediately into their careers."

For many student inventor entrepreneurs, their first exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship happens in the classroom. That's why it's important to continuously develop and improve upon innovation and entrepreneurship class activities to ensure early-stage innovators are well-equipped to solve the world's biggest problems. Learning curriculum development ideas and best practices from other faculty in the ecosystem can help educators adopt, implement, and refine their own coursework for maximum impact.

"I teach about various topics related to the circular economy, including regenerative innovation, or the process of developing supply networks for new products using waste materials. With VentureWell's support, I recently led a class-and later an innovation challenge-in which students had to develop a product and business model to turn waste into new products. The teams have come up with great concepts, and some of them are going to apply for business accelerator programs at the state level."
Editor's note: Learn more about Taryn's work using the waste stream in the classroom.

"In my exercise, students track an object through its life cycle to understand its impact all along the product journey. This is especially eye-opening for materials engineers, who might not have considered the impact of their materials choices. This gives them something to think about as they move into an engineering design career and start making decisions for a company. I love the life cycle analysis for the impact it has on students in their understanding of engineering materials selection."
Editor's note: For more information on materials choices, check out our Tools for Design and Sustainability.

"We kick off our Human Centered Design (HCD) course with a mini-design challenge to introduce students to the design process and products. This helps students focus on a larger course project that addresses how to create a sustainable, human-centered intervention in the agriculture space. Our philosophy is to establish a learning environment for students to learn HCD by doing HCD."
You might also like these blog articles with example class activities you can use: 6 Virtual Classroom Exercises To Keep Students Engaged 7 Class Exercises To Amplify Innovative Thinking Activities for Teaching Innovation: Game-Based Learning Learn about VentureWell Course & Program Grants, which award up to $30,000 to faculty or staff at US higher education institutions to support curriculum that engages students in science and technology innovation and entrepreneurship.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
13 Class Activities To Stimulate Inventor Entrepreneurs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How can you bolster and maintain student engagement throughout your course? If you're in search of ideas, we've curated a collection of cutting-edge class activities used by VentureWell faculty grantees. These class activities are designed to prepare early-stage innovators in taking the first steps toward transforming their ideas into impactful inventions and ventures.

# data[].attributes.body
Banquer High is a digital financial simulation platform based on preparing and educating students as well as supporting teaching resources on the needs and impacts of their financial future and essential life skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A digital financial education platform for the 21st century, Banqer covers a range of crucial life skills.

Make learning fun with videos, quizzes and simulated events that build knowledge through experiential learning. No prior educator or student financial literacy required.

What your students
will learn

With our online simulation and supporting teaching resources and activities, your students will explore a range of essential financial concepts from debt to investments, budgeting to careers, and more.

Capturing your students' attention is easy with Banqer High. We simulate real life events, like stock market shifts, natural events and job promotions to keep students coming back.

Our animated videos make financial concepts accessible to different learning styles. Students can demonstrate their knowledge with our quizzes, earning gems for use in the class store.

Students can see how their Banqer journey stacks up against their classmates, with leaderboards for different areas of the platform, from savings to investments.

Motivate and incentivise
your students

Banqer comes with an inbuilt incentive system for optional use in your learning environment.

Educators can motivate students and support learning with Banqer Gems. Students can then exchange these for preset items or rewards you set in the Banqer store.

Students also get really motivated seeing their Banqer High net worth grow over time.

Still have questions on how Banqer High works?

A few common questions that schools have when deciding how to get started with Banqer. To see all of these head over to our FAQs page.

What Year Levels is Banqer High aimed at? Banqer High is used from Years 9-13, but is most often used in Years 9-10.

What subjects does Banqer align with?
Banqer aligns with various subject areas, and we've provided a bunch of resources to help you with this. Head over to ourcurriculum page to learn more.

How much does Banqer High cost?
Prices vary for Banqer High depending on the number of licences a school wants. To find out more, head to ourBanqer High pricing page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A digital financial education platform for the 21st century, Banqer covers a range of crucial life skills. Make learning fun with videos, quizzes and simulated events that build knowledge through experiential learning. No prior educator or student financial literacy required.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Rationale As mass global flows of people, resources, finances and information produce social, economic, political and environmental complexities and challenges, Australia needs enterprising individuals who can make informed decisions and actively participate in society and the economy as individuals and more broadly as global citizens.

Aims
The Australian Curriculum: Economics and Business aims to aims to ensure students develop:

enterprising behaviours and capabilities that can be transferable into life, work and business opportunities and will contribute to the development and prosperity of individuals and society

Structure The Australian Curriculum: Economics and Business is organised in two related strands: economics and business knowledge and understanding, and economics and business inquiry and skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Rationale As mass global flows of people, resources, finances and information produce social, economic, political and environmental complexities and challenges, Australia needs enterprising individuals who can make informed decisions and actively participate in society and the economy as individuals and more broadly as global citizens.

# data[].attributes.body
Kahoot is a gamified learning platform supplying students with captivating learning sessions covering a vast range of subjects engaging students to connect to their potential and learn through visuals, curiosity and play designed for all ages and abilities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

# data[].attributes.body
Quizlet provides science-backed learning tools utilising flash cards, games, practise tests and assessments for students with varying academic backgrounds and levels to expand and advance study and retention skills.

# data[].attributes.body
Teachflix provides curated and categorised classroom video presentations crowd-sourced from educators and teachers alike providing informative and relevant information through  accessible and digestible visual learning platform.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
TEACHFLIX - A curated collection of videos for the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free Video Activities for Class TODAY Save yourself some time and frustration. Get 14 activities you can copy and assign to your students right away in our Teaching with TEACHFLIX ebook ! BONUS: You'll get FREE teaching ideas in your inbox every week.

# data[].attributes.body
The Khan Academy is a free online resource providing courses, lessons and online tools in the form of video presentations covering a comprehensive range of subjects and topics allowing students to establish and progress their educational foundations at their own pace, as well as including supplementary materials and resources for teachers and educators.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our mission is to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere.

# data[].attributes.body
Campion MyConnect supplies and delivers secure access to customisable digital resources and subject textbooks for students and teachers as well as integrations with all major LMS systems making sharing and creating content and lessons plans simple and direct.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
MyConnect2 - the future of textbooks and digital content.

The heart of Campion's digital ecosystem is the textbook and digital resource platform, MyConnect2. All your educational resources are in one place. Seamless and secure access to the digital resources and textbooks your students and teachers need - managed for you.
Campion MyConnect2 is intuitive, collaborative and makes it easy for teachers and students to customise their textbooks and digital resources.

We want to make your life easier.
Let MyConnect2's game changing functionality
take away your problems.

What you can do with MyConnect2

Best-in-class user features to make learning easy.

Draw, highlight, RichText Note taking. Annotations let you enhance your lesson plans and make it easier for students to engage learning materials.

Choose to pick up where you left or bookmark a particular section, with syncing across all your devices.

Functionality: Navigate to individual pages, view your textbook in your preferred format and search using the targeted search function.

Work anywhere: Download and work offline, anywhere

Organise: Organise your bookshelf how you want and receive direct notifications.

MyConnect2 functionality includes:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The heart of Campion's digital ecosystem is the textbook and digital resource platform, MyConnect2. All your educational resources are in one place. Seamless and secure access to the digital resources and textbooks your students and teachers need - managed for you.

# data[].attributes.body
ReadCloud is an interactive and dynamic platform that provides eReading software delivering Curriculum ebooks to schools, VET school programs and TAFE's across Australia utilising a set of cross-platform native applications.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
ReadCloud | One platform for your school's eBooks and digital resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One platform for your school’s eBooks and digital resources

# data[].attributes.body
Scootle is a national repository providing all educators from pre-service teachers to school principals with access to a vast range of digital resources, tools and work samples across a number of formats aligned with Australian Curriculum standards.

# data[].attributes.body
Twinkl is a global educational publishing house for teachers and educators providing a curriculum-wide library of learning resources, teaching tools, worksheets, lesson plans, assessment materials and more for all year levels across English, Mathematics and Science.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Primary Resources | EYLF F-2 Year 3-10 | Twinkl Teacher-made

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Check out our interactive series of lesson plans, worksheets, PowerPoints and assessment tools today! All teacher-made, aligned with the Australian Curriculum.

# data[].attributes.body
Developed by Microsoft, OneNote is a free digital note-taking software allowing for individual or multi-user free-form note-taking, research and information capture enabled to sync across Microsoft enabled devices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Microsoft OneNote Digital Note Taking App | Microsoft 365

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Microsoft OneNote has your digital notebook needs covered. With OneNote 2016 we’ve made our notebook organizer tools even stronger and collaboration easier.

# data[].attributes.body
Microsoft Teams is a business and workspace communication platform that primarily caters for online workplace chat, meetings and videoconferencing, as well as the capacity for application integration and file and data storage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Microsoft Teams, the hub for team collaboration in Microsoft 365, integrates the people, content, and tools your team needs to be more engaged and effective. Log in now.

# data[].attributes.body
Coggle is an online browser based software developed for the creation and development of visual mind maps and flowcharts that can be used for note-taking, planning, organisation, and process, system and algorithm development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Coggle is online software for creating and sharing mindmaps and flowcharts. It works online in your browser: there's nothing to download or install. Log in to start diagramming!

Whether you're taking notes, brainstorming, planning, or doing something awesomely creative, it is super simple to visualise your ideas with Coggle. Share with as many friends or colleagues as you like. Changes you make will show up instantly in their browser, wherever they are in the world

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The clear way to share complex information. Coggle is a collaborative mind-mapping tool that helps you make sense of complex things. Create unlimited mind maps and easily share them with friends and colleagues.

# data[].attributes.body
Formulated by Punya Mishra and Matthew J. Koehler, TPACK is a theoretical framework developed for the incorporation of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge bases in order to structure and facilitate effective educational experiences and teaching practises.

# data[].attributes.body
This article underpins the needs and ways in which teachers and students are able to recognise and understand the varying degrees of thinking habits and learning styles and patterns in order to enable and encourage students to better understand the most effective ways of obtaining and retrieving information and class content to the best of their ability.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching with the Habits of Mind can be done in many different ways. Here’s a guide with free lesson ideas, video clips, and templates.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My eQuals is Australia and New Zealand's official, tertiary credentials platform for universities, TAFEs and tertiary education providers. It makes it easy for Educators, Learners and Employers to view, share and verify certified tertiary credentials online.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MyCQU is a platform that empowers students with a personalised, intuitive and accessible user experience, where they can easily access the information and resources they need to succeed in their academic journey.

# data[].attributes.body
Atomi is an interactive video lesson, quiz provider and smart revision platform created for students and teachers with syllabus specific content designed to empower student learning and provide educators with clear insights and in-depth analytics into student performance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
DR PETER WEBSTER, PRINCIPAL AT ST MARK’S CATHOLIC COLLEGE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Atomi for Schools | The ultimate teacher resource

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Engaging content, intelligent testing and powerful analytics.

# data[].attributes.body
MarsLadder is an online platform to enable students to progress their learning, understanding and performance of Mathematics level utilising an extensive question bank and scientific learning model ranging from year 7 to year 12 levels.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Personalised Learning

In-depth Answer Analysis

40000+ Question Bank

Detailed Reporting System

Help students get higher Maths study scores

MarsLadder is designed to help students improve their Maths proficiency in the most effective way possible.
‍
We refined 50+ years of combined experience on high-school Maths teaching into our powerful online practice platform.

Tailored for the Australian Maths Curriculum

Exam focused questions for Year 7 to 12

Our questions prepare students for the exact style and difficulty of questions they'll receive in exams, beyond the basics of the textbook or online courses.

New questions are added every single week, expanding on the largest Maths question bank of any online learning platform.

Automated marking and reporting

Instant, fully detailed answer analysis

Instead of digging through the back of the textbook or googling why an answer might be incorrect, we lay out the entire working process to educate students on how to arrive at the correct answer.

Every single question features an in-depth answer analysis, written and audited by our team of Maths experts with over 50 years of combined experience.

Highly engaging for students

Keep students engaged through competition & interactions

Ranked modes, Leaderboards and in-game currency keep students engaged through friendly and positive competition.

MarsCoins are used to incentivise and entertain users to progress through an inbuilt story game called "The Martian" or to participate in ranked mode matches.

Exam & SAC based questions for VCE

Our questions prepare students for the exact style of questions they'll receive in SACs and VCE exams, beyond the basics in the textbook.

Detailed reporting &

Students, teachers and parents receive detailed reporting on areas of strength and areas of improvement

MarsLadder is built from experience

With 50+ years of combined experience teaching Melbourne's top Maths and VCE students, it's fair to say we're experienced in helping students.

We've tried, tested and refined many forms of teaching, tutoring and revision over the years.

With this experience, our vision with Marsladder is to help students get practice on actual exam style questions, so during exams they can feel confident and ready.

Our questions prepare students for the exact style of questions they'll receive in SACs and VCE exams, beyond the basics in the textbook and other learning platforms.

Our students' track records

Our users attend top schools

50+ years of combined teaching experience, condensed into one effective online platform

We've taken our decades of combined teaching, learning and practice experience and refined it into a highly effective platform.

MarsLadder was created by teachers, for teachers and students.

What our users have to say

FAQ

The free account allows users to trial up to 2 sets of questions per day, free forever.

Paid accounts get unlimited access to questions and tasks within the course.

Sign up for a trial account today!

MarsLadder is equipped for use in schools with our purpose built teacher portal featuring classroom management, task assignment and detailed reporting.

Get in touch with us to learn more, through our For Teachers page or our contact us form.

You can sign up for a free account today to trial MarsLadder for home use!

MarsLadder is built for home use with our rich independent improvement feature set.

MarsLadder is equipped for use for both private tutors and tutoring agencies. With our purpose built tutor portal, you can easily integrate MarsLadder into your current tutoring business, and provide better tutoring services to your customers.

Sign up for a tutor account today to enjoy your one-month free trial, or contact us for large agency quoting through our For Tutors page.

You get unlimited and unrestricted access to all of MarsLadder's features within the course you're subscribed to.

MarsLadder is focused purely on Maths practice and improvement with exam style questions, whereas other platforms are focused on the learning and teaching the topics.

Our goal is to help students gain experience, proficiency and competency with real-world exam style questions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Personalised Learning In-depth Answer Analysis 40000+ Question Bank Detailed Reporting System Help students get higher Maths study scores MarsLadder is designed to help students improve their Maths proficiency in the most effective way possible.‍We refined 50+ years of combined experience on high-school Maths teaching into our powerful online practice platform.

# data[].attributes.headline
Critical and Logical Thinking Brain Games

# data[].attributes.subject
Critical and Logical Thinking Brain Games

# data[].attributes.body
This range of visual Mathematical brain teasers has been created to equip students with logical reasoning and critical thinking skills while also increasing and improving student concentration, engagement and information retention skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By incorporating visual brain teaser challenges into your classroom, you're providing your students with the opportunity to develop their critical thinking and logical reasoning skills.

What are the Benefits of Using Visual Brain Teasers for Kids?

develop logical reasoning abilities

develop critical thinking

boost brain activity

provide emotional satisfaction

improve concentration

increase student engagement.

Brain Teasers for the Classroom

You're probably wondering where to go to find some quick and easy brain teasers for the classroom? Well our Visual Brain Teaser Task Cards are a great place to start. These task cards have been arranged into levels of difficulty to help you find what you need and differentiate the challenges you provide to your students.

A set of 20 beautifully illustrated and fun visual brain teaser task cards your students will be begging to try and solve!

How to Incorporate Visual Brain Teasers Into the Classroom

1. Fast Finisher Activities

These task cards are the perfect addition to your fast finisher activities in your classroom. Laminate and store them in a container for your students who finish their set work earlier than others. They can independently pick a task card that they can then solve themselves.

2. Morning Brain Activity

Get your students' brain ticking as they enter the classroom. Display an easy, medium and hard visual brain teaser task card on the whiteboard. Students can then pick the difficulty level they feel comfortable solving.

3. Small Group Dynamics

In small groups, students need to solve a provided visual brain teaser. This provides another dynamic life skill for your students - teamwork. The ability to work effectively in a group is an important skill that children need to learn. Teamwork also helps children feel like they are part of a community.

Bring an element of fun by providing each group with the same brain teaser task card and get them to race against the clock. Which team can work it out first?

Do you use brain teasers in your classroom?

We'd love to hear your ideas in the comments section of this blog!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why You Should be Using Brain Teasers in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By incorporating visual brain teaser challenges into your classroom, you're providing your students with the opportunity to develop their critical thinking and logical reasoning skills. develop logical reasoning abilities develop critical thinking boost brain activity provide emotional satisfaction improve concentration increase student engagement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Australian Council for Educational Research - ACER

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Well trained, skilled and knowledgeable teachers provide the foundation for a high quality education system in which every Australian student receives excellent teaching. The Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (the test) is designed to assess initial teacher education students’ personal literacy and numeracy skills to ensure teachers are well equipped to meet the demands of teaching and assist higher education providers, teacher employers and the general public to have increased confidence in the skills of graduating teachers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introduction

The general capabilities play a significant role in the Australian Curriculum in equipping young Australians to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century.

In the Australian Curriculum, capability encompasses knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions. Students develop capability when they apply knowledge and skills confidently, effectively and appropriately in complex and changing circumstances, in their learning at school and in their lives outside school.

General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum

In the Australian Curriculum, the general capabilities are addressed through the content of the learning areas. General capabilities are identified where they are developed or applied in the content descriptions. They are also identified where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning via the content elaborations, which are provided to give teachers ideas about how they might teach the content. Icons are used to indicate where general capabilities have been identified in learning area content descriptions and elaborations.

Teachers are expected to teach and assess general capabilities to the extent that they are incorporated within learning area content. State and territory education authorities will determine if and how student learning of the general capabilities is to be further assessed or reported.

General capabilities materials are presented to help teachers develop a shared understanding of the nature, scope and sequence of the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum and to help teachers plan for students' development of the general capabilities in school and classroom learning programs.

The materials for each general capability include:

an introduction that describes the nature and scope of the capability, its place in the learning areas and its evidence base

organising elements and sub-elements that underpin a learning continuum

a learning continuum.

Learning continua have been developed for each capability to describe the relevant knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions at particular points of schooling. Within each of the capabilities, specific behaviours and dispositions have been identified and incorporated into each learning continuum as appropriate.
Using the learning continua Personalising learning
Students need opportunities to develop capabilities over time and across learning areas. What is learnt in the early years supports all subsequent learning. The learning continua map common paths for general capability development while recognising that each student's pace of development may be influenced by factors such as their prior experience, sense of self in the world and cognitive capacity.

Learning continua typically, but not exclusively, align with years of schooling. Stages in each learning continuum are labelled from Levels 1 to 6 to emphasise that the continuum presents a sequence of learning independent of student age.

For Literacy, Level 1 is divided into five sub-levels: 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d and 1e. Levels 1a-1d represent the development of early literacy skills with a particular emphasis on communication. For Numeracy, Level 1 is divided into two sub-levels: 1a and 1b; to represent the progression from early numeracy to numeracy skills. For Personal and Social capability, Level 1 is divided into two sub-levels: 1a and 1b. Level 1a describes the development of awareness of self and others and Level 1b describes the skills or actions to accompany those understandings about self and others.

For more information on using the general capabilities continua to personalise learning for students for whom English is an additional language or dialect, students with disability and gifted and talented students see Student Diversity.
Viewing on the website
Each general capability learning continuum is available online in two views:

expected learning across the levels in a table format

expected learning for each level in turn, in text format .

Users can also see which general capability elements and sub-elements are addressed in the content description by selecting the capability icon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
My School provides information that helps parents and the community in understanding the performance of schools over time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The My School website provides information that supports national transparency and accountability of Australia’s school education system through publication of nationally consistent school-level data. It complements other reporting measures aimed at ensuring schools and school systems are accountable to parents and to the broader community. My School contains data on every school in Australia. This includes information on a school’s student profile, its NAPLAN performance and funding. You can also see enrolment numbers and attendance rates.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Are you trying to teach people without identifying educational objectives? If you keep doing that, your learners may waste their time succeeding in things that are of no use to them. To avoid that, clarify your instructional goals using Bloom's Taxonomy.

This article will help you learn:

What is Bloom's Taxonomy?

Bloom's Taxonomy attempts to classify learning stages from remembering facts to creating new ideas based on the acquired knowledge.

The idea of Bloom's Taxonomy is that learning is a consecutive process. Before applying a concept in real life, we must understand it. Before we understand a concept, we must remember the key facts related to it.

Therefore, although initially described as a framework, it is now often depicted as a pyramid.

The basis of the pyramid is Knowledge, the first level of learning. Above it lies Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. Each level above builds upon the one below, so you can only move up the pyramid one step at a time.

Original Bloom's Taxonomy

The original taxonomy was first described in 1956 in the book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and his coauthors Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl. Their book classifies learning goals into one of the categories mentioned above (from Knowledge to Evaluation).

Their goal was to provide teachers with a common vocabulary to discuss curricular and evaluation problems with greater precision.

The language teachers had been using to explain what they expected of their students was, according to the authors, no more than "nebulous terms."

"For example, some teachers believe their students should 'really understand,' others desire their students to internalize knowledge, still others want their students to grasp the core or essence or comprehend. Do they all mean the same thing?" asked the authors.
The taxonomy of educational objectives was supposed to help teachers speak the same language and thus "facilitate the exchange of information about their curricular developments and evaluation devices."
Though it was designed primarily for college professors, it finally became popular among educators, from K-12 teachers to corporate trainers.

Since its publication, the book has been translated into more than twenty languages and is now used for instructional design worldwide. However, it is currently more often applied in its revised version.

Revised Bloom's Taxonomy

To provide learners with clearer instructional goals, a group of researchers led by Bloom's colleague David Krathwohl and one of Bloom's students, Lorin Anderson, revised the taxonomy in 2001.

In the new variant, nouns were replaced by action verbs. Also, the two highest levels of the taxonomy were swapped. The new learning stages are Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create. The authors also defined cognitive processes associated with these instructional goals. For example, the ability to remember requires recognizing and recalling.

Bloom's Taxonomy levels

Let's take a closer look at each learning stage, based on the book describing the revised framework A Taxonomy For Learning, Teaching and Assessing by Krahtwohl and Anderson. The authors recommend reading the name of each learning category as though preceded by the phrase "The student is able to..." or "The student learns to..."

1. Remember

This stage of learning is about memorizing basic facts, dates, events, persons, places, concepts and patterns.

At this level, educators might ask learners simple questions like:

What are the most spoken languages of Latin America?

What is the chemical formula of water?

Who was the first president of the United States?

The associated cognitive processes, as already noted, are:

Recognizing means locating knowledge in long-term memory related to presented material (e.g., recognizing the dates of important historical events).

Recalling is retrieving knowledge from long-term memory (e.g., recalling the dates of important historical events).

2. Understand

At this point, learners might be asked to explain a concept in their own words, describe a mathematical graph or clarify a metaphor.

The processes associated with understanding are:

Interpreting implies changing from one form of representation to another. It might be transforming numerical information into verbal.

Exemplifying is finding a specific illustration of a concept or principle. It may be giving several examples of Suprematist paintings.

Classifying is determining a category of something. An example is the classification of mental disorders.

Summarizing means retrieving a general theme of significant points (e.g., writing a short summary of a story).

Inferring is drawing a logical conclusion from given information. It may be formulating grammatical principles of a foreign language from the presented examples.

Comparing is finding correspondences between two ideas or objects (e.g., comparing historical events to their contemporary analogues).

Explaining is constructing a cause-and-effect model of a system, for example, explaining the causes of the French Revolution.

3. Apply

Now, it's time to use learned facts and abstractions in new contexts and particular situations.

For example, students might be asked to discuss phenomena described in one scientific paper using terms and concepts of another paper.

The processes of cognition corresponding to this stage are:

Executing is applying a procedure to a familiar task (e.g., calculating the root of a number).

Implementing is about applying a procedure to an unfamiliar task (e.g., using Newton's Second Law in a new situation).

4. Analyze

At this level, students are supposed to break down concepts and examine their relationships.

For instance, they might be asked to recognize the genre of a painting or describe the leading causes of the Great Depression.

The three particular processes associated with this stage are:

Differentiating means distinguishing important from unimportant parts of presented material (e.g., distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant numbers in a mathematical word problem).

Organizing involves identifying how elements fit or function within a structure (e.g., finding the hypothesis, method, data and conclusion in a research report).

Attributing means determining a point of view, bias, values, or intent underlying presented material. An example would be to identify the author's point of view of an essay.

5. Evaluate

In this stage, learners are expected to use their knowledge and skills to appraise a situation, justify their stand or criticize others' opinions. They should be able to point out logical fallacies in arguments or compare a work to the highest standards in its field.

They might be asked, for example:

In your opinion, is online piracy ethical?

Do you consider jazz music to be high art?

What are the most absurd arguments against vegetarianism?

Evaluating is divided into checking and critiquing.

Checking means detecting inconsistencies or fallacies in a process or product. For example, it's determining if a scientist's conclusions follow from observed data.

Critiquing involves finding inconsistencies between a product and external criteria. For instance, it's judging which of two methods is the best for solving a problem.

6. Create

This is the most complex stage of the learning process and the top of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

At this level, learners combine known patterns, ideas and facts to create original work or formulate their solution to a problem.

They might be asked to compose a song, rewrite a story in another setting or formulate a hypothesis and propose a way of testing it.

The three associated cognitive processes are:

Generating involves coming up with alternative hypotheses based on criteria. An example might be devising multiple solutions for a social problem.

Planning is about coming up with a procedure for completing a task (e.g., preparing an outline of an article).

Producing means inventing a product (e.g., writing a short story that takes place during the American Revolution).

Why Bloom's Taxonomy is important

Bloom's Taxonomy can help educators map learning within a single lesson or even a whole course.

Using the taxonomy as a guide, trainers can identify clear instructional goals corresponding to each taxonomy level and create plans to achieve them.

By setting achievable objectives for learners, instructors make them more active and responsible for their education.

The taxonomy can also be useful for evaluating learners correctly. An essay, for example, is probably not the best form of testing when learners only need to remember basic facts and terminology related to the topic. But it will be appropriate at the evaluation stage when they are expected to formulate their opinion on an issue.

Bloom's taxonomy allows educators to gauge the learners' progress. It helps teachers determine which level every learner is on and assign them an individual task.

Bloom's Taxonomy verbs

When talking about Bloom's taxonomy, action verbs associated with the categories and cognitive processes are often mentioned. Instructors use these verbs to describe activities required for achieving educational objectives corresponding to each level.

For instance, at the analyzing level, the Azusa Pacific University recommends using verbs like "compare", "distinguish", and "simplify" when formulating instructional tasks.

There is a list of Bloom's taxonomy verbs, created by the University of Arkansas. Using these verbs can help learners explicitly navigate what they must do to demonstrate their mastery of the objective.

However, neither Bloom's original book nor his followers' book contains a list of such verbs. The authors of a study of 47 verb lists collected from 35 universities and textbooks note: "There was very little agreement between these lists, most of which were not supported by evidence explaining where the verbs came from."

Nevertheless, given that such lists of verbs are being created anyway, the authors identified verbs that appeared in more than 50% of the listings. Then they identified verbs for which 50% of their appearances were in one specific tier. Using these verbs, the authors constructed "A Master List of Action Verbs for Learning Outcomes."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bloom's Taxonomy: Revised Levels, Verbs for Objectives [2023]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn what Bloom's Taxonomy is and the differences between original vs. revised levels. Discover a list of action verbs that you can use to form learning objectives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers help you understand and develop your teaching practice and expertise across 4 career stages. By demonstrating the Standards you can have maximum impact on all learners.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
australian professional standards for teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To login to Sonia Online - Select your discipline.