One of the many challenges teachers face is designing engaging lessons that target both skills development and content mastery. With time scarcity and endless multitasking, taking a moment to find reliable material outside the class textbook or develop robust activities can be near impossible. Kognity’s intelligent textbook is full of interactive content and multimedia resources that lend themselves to virtual or hybrid classroom activities. Hook your class with a Theory of Knowledge extension question embedded in the text! Or, let your students create their own podcasts, analyzing one of the textbook’s many case studies. This article highlights these opportunities by connecting Kognity’s engaging multimedia resources to educational practices teachers use on a daily basis.

Throughout the textbook, you can find external resource links to websites, research studies, videos, articles, and more. These materials are great for in-class discussions or debates. A jigsaw activity invites students to engage with as many external resources as possible, sharing their knowledge with their classmates in a presentation medium of the student or teacher’s choice. Or, have your students dive deeper into a research study, analyzing the findings in preparation for conducting their own studies.

Source: IBDP Psychology HL, 4.B Cultural Origins of Behavior and Cognition, Kognity

Project Based Learning is an effective way to build students’ creative thinking, problem-solving, in-depth understanding, and self-confidence, among many other important skills for success (Schaffer, 10 Benefits of Project-Based Learning, 2018). Pick any concept, topic, case, or research study and assign students a design thinking project, incorporating project steps and a rubric. For example, students can work together in groups to come up with a proposal on how to reduce their household’s or school’s ecological footprint. Here is an article that provides suggestions on project frameworks and ways to support PBL during remote learning.

Kognity’s intelligent textbook is full of images, graphs, 3-D models, and videos to enhance content accessibility through multiple means of representation. As an activity, ask your students to create videos, 3-D models, infographics, or graphs on a topic, either for review or an end-of-term project. Not only does this hands-on learning improve comprehension and mastery of content, it also gives students exposure to graphic design, video production, and other technology skills.

Theory of Knowledge extension questions are a great hook or “Do Now” at the beginning of class to get students thinking about TOK connections to your subject. Starting class with the question, “Is it ethical for charities to hire highly-paid professionals in order to carry out their mission?” could evolve into a fascinating debate. You could also have a discussion about the global nature of a topic like greenhouse gas emissions by reading the international mindedness extension, and invite students to share their own country or culture’s perspective.

A teaching approach using case studies enhances subjects like Business Management, Geography, Economics, Psychology and Environmental Systems and Societies, among others. Emphasis on case studies also prepares students for IB and IGCSE exams. Pique students’ interests as journalists by having them research their own topical case studies through a variety of sources, presenting the information with a news report, blog post, website or podcast. This gives students the opportunity to practice media literacy and research skills, and present information in a variety of formats. There are also thought-provoking questions included for group discussions in class.

For a flipped classroom approach, assign your students reading sections to complete before coming to class. That way you can spend your precious time together diving more deeply into a discussion, or differentiating student support. You could also give them an in-class quiz with a focused question or exam assignment. In the Practice Centre, engage your students in a class-wide Strengths Battle tournament, which turns dull content reviews into a fun and friendly competition!

At the end of a section, pair students to discuss the points in the checklist like, “Explain the characteristics of the factors of production,” in IGCSE Economics. This allows students to collaborate and support their peers with reviewing content. Alternatively, you could have your students first write the answers individually, then discuss them with peers.

Embedded activities can be found throughout Kognity’s intelligent textbooks. Choose a few activities and use them for group work, asking your students to present their process and answers to the rest of the class. In this Maths activity below, students can use the “applet,” an interactive resource, to generate different examples to work through. In History class, students can analyze a political cartoon on Gorbachev and the fall of the Soviet Union.

These are just some of the ways to use Kognity in your lessons. For more tips and tricks on using Kognity in the classroom, check out our Kognity Blog. We wish you the best of luck as you navigate the school year, whether it's remote or in person. Kognity is with you all the way!