Certell, Inc., a nonprofit online curriculum developer, announced that the number of teachers and students registered to use its free Poptential™ social studies curriculum packages exceeded 100,000 in 2022 as teachers forgo printed textbooks for more current and interactive online tools. Nearly 1 million interactions were recorded on the Poptential platform in the fall 2022 semester. Click to tweet.
Poptential’s social studies course packages are designed to reach digital native students. The lessons use a variety of pop culture media to illustrate concepts, including those taken from sitcoms, movies, animations, cartoons, late-night shows, and other sources. The curriculum is standards-based and eveloped by teachers.
“Poptential’s continued strong adoption shows that instructors increasingly are looking for more engaging solutions for teaching history, civics, and economics. Online content like Poptential, which includes digital storytelling and gamification, can make important concepts relevant to students,” said Fred Fransen, CEO of Certell, Inc.
In 2022, Poptential also made enhancements to its bell ringer content, working towards providing a bell ringer for each day of the school year. Bell Ringers are brief conversation starters for use at the beginning of class to get students thinking. Some are tied to a specific date or holiday, and others are interesting topics that connect to a subject covered in class. They feature a short video clip, a unique tidbit of knowledge, and thought-provoking questions to spike curiosity and engagement. More than 18,000 bell ringer interactions were recorded in the fall 2022 semester.
In addition, Poptential was recognized by several organizations in 2022 for excellence in online curriculum, including:
● Bronze Award from NAEE for Economart, a game that teaches important economic concepts.
● Civvy’s finalist in the Youth Category for Poptential.
● EdTech Digest finalist for Curriculum and Instruction Solution.
Poptential course packages for U.S. History, World History, Government/Civics, and Economics include ebooks, lessons, bell ringers, quizzes, and tests, along with pop culture media to make lessons interesting and relatable to students.
Poptential courses are available free at www.poptential.org.
About Certell, Inc.
Certell is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to foster a generation of independent thinkers. More than 30,000 teachers from throughout the United States have signed up to use Certell’s Poptential™ family of free social studies courses, and thousands more students are reached through Certell’s college-level courses in law and economics, and SensibleSchool™ instruction for home-schoolers, employees, and inmates. Certell course packages have won a number of awards, including EdTech Digest Awards for Curriculum and Instruction Solution, Tech&Learning Best Tool for Back to School, Tech Edvocate Awards, Bronze Award of Excellence from the National Association of Economics Educators, and Civvys Awards. More information about Poptential™ is available at poptential.org.
