Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT)

Lesson Idea Name: Popplet Mind Map

Content Area: Geometry
Grade Level(s): 10th

Content Standard Addressed: Any geometry prefix standard

Technology Standard Addressed: Standard 6 - Creative Communicator, Standard 7 – Global Collaborator

Selected Technology Tool: Popplet

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): app.popplet.com

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☐ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☒ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

Popplet is able to support the engagement facet of UDL in that it provides active collaboration for group work
and a wide variety of tools to customize the look of the group’s mind map. This also supports action and
expression, since students are free to express their learning in they way they want using the different modes
of representing information within the app. The tool itself is also relative easy to learn and use, and does not
require an in-depth lesson on teaching how to use the different tools, so the students are able to easily jump
into creating their mind map.

Lesson idea implementation:

This project would best be suited to be introduced towards the end of a unit or even the end of the semester.
Since the students will be creating a mind map that represents a summary of all of the information they have
learned and how it all connects within the content area, the lesson necessarily has to take place after the
content has been learned. Alternatively, this lesson could also be presented as a course-long project, where
students submit parts that they individually research and contribute information to the whole map. The main
point of the mind map will be to show how past concepts covered in the class are interrelated, and students
will be expected to identify and explain these connections either in the map itself or in presenting the map.
Since this lesson is designed for small group work, each student is able to contribute according to their level
of understanding, and the instructor can see what connections each student made and if there are any extra
points they need to cover to ensure the students all have a conceptual understanding of the unit’s ideas.
To assess student learning, the instructor could have the groups or students present parts of the mind map,
explaining the content node itself and justifying the connections to other content ideas. This is why a course-
long content map could be valuable, as each student group moving forward would have more opportunity to
connect to previous information and show that they have a conceptual understanding of past units and how
they build up to the current content being studied. The lesson itself can be graded in Popplet, with the
instructor adding comments to nodes added and their connections so the students can remove any
redundancies or clarify their explanations.

Reflective Practice:

Spring 2018_SJB
 Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT)
I feel that this lesson could be very useful in getting students to think more about connections between
content areas, which is such an important idea in mathematics. Not only that, but it could encourage students
to start noticing connections within or between other content areas, which engages them with the core ideas
of each area. I think to extend the lesson the instructor could have the students either transform the mind-
map into a presentation or extend and combine the maps to create an over-arching one for an entire content
area. I certainly think there exist tools out there that can make the map more interactive so that it can be
shared within the class and studied by the other small groups. However, as it is, this lesson reinforces
connections within the content and allows students to examine the larger picture of the subject they are
studying.

Spring 2018_SJB