Many schools are teaching a course around the priciples of education and cover the pioneers of education. Sometimes teaching about “famous” people can be dry and boring, so why not add an element of competition and gamification to jazz it up! The Great Race: Pioneers of Education places the learning in the hands of your students! The activity is from EduProtocol Field Guide (called The Great American Race). Students are responsible for preparing the clues for the race and then compete individually or in groups to see knows their pioneers the best and is the first to successfully complete the race!

Set

• Explain to students how the activity works and show them the sample slide of Lev Vygotsky as a demo. Also, emphasize that keeping their number and pioneer secret is incredibly important for the success of the game, so mums the word once pioneers are assigned.
• Depending on the size of your class, you will need to decide if you are going to assign a pioneer to students to research individually or in partners.
• Anonymously assign students a # and a pioneer to each student or pair of students. You can create your own list or you can choose one from this resource titled “Top 12 Pioneers of Education“. I like this resource because it can be cut apart and given to students to use to create their clues. It can also be a resource that students can reference, if necessary, during the race part of the activity. You will just need to add a number to each pioneer. For assigning the pioneers, you can cut apart the pioneers and place them in a can or envelope for students to randomly select, you can add the #’s to a wheel generator and have students spin and the # they land on is the pioneer they get from your master list. Or you can just randomly assign pioneers to your students and they get who they get!
• Once students have their pioneer with or without the resource info, they must come up with 5 clues about this person, their ideas, theories, developments, etc. I recommend that clues be listed from general to more specific and be challenging byt not be too easy or difficult.
• When students have their clues ready, they will make a copy of the great race template and add their #, clues and image of their pioneer without any NAMES (theirs or the pioneer). When they’ve add all the required information, they will turn it into Google Classroom and you, the teacher, will need to add their slide to a google form so it’s ready for the race! Here’s an example of a google form set up around the constitution to give you an idea of how to create your own form.

Materials

• iPads or Laptops
• Projector & Screen
• Prizes (optional)
• The EduProtocol Field Guide (affliliate link)

Activities

• Once all of the clue slides are complete and have been added to a Google form by you, you’re ready for race time!
• Decide if students are competing individually or with the partner they worked with to form the clues.
• Students will have to read the clues, look at the image and decide who the pioneer is. They type in the answer and the google form will let them know if they have been successful or not. It’s very much like a digital breakout. Again, if you want students to be able to reference the resource above, then be sure ot make it available to them.
• The first person or team to successfully complete the race, WINS! Prizes are optional.

Attachments

• The Great Pioneers in Education: The Great Race Template (please make a copy: go to file, click make a copy and it’s your’s to edit/use)