Brain Breaks

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  Brain Breaks Things To Try

Inspiration

When we started working with Alexa, we were working on a financial literacy skill for schools. Miss Sand, a 4th teacher grade teacher at Truro School threw out a new challenge. She said, “Guys, if you can automate brain breaks, you’ll be my hero.” Brain breaks are short mental breaks that incorporate movement at regular intervals during classroom instruction. Studies show these breaks lead to better concentration, improved classroom behavior, and refreshed minds ready to engage in learning.

What it does

It’s time to get up and get moving! With Brain Breaks, teachers will be able to give their class some fun time while still stimulating their brains. Enjoy tons of free games and activities. Brain Breaks are developed for teachers who are overwhelmed with lessons and don’t have time to go through these activities. It has been proven that giving kids time to get out of their seats and doing physical movement helps them learn. Alexa will play a number of different activities with a short queue from the teacher.

How we built it

We started development with the Amazon Alexa Skill Kit. One programmer, Samuel Hinkhouse, programmed it from the ground up. But Sam couldn't do it alone. With the students in the School of Education at Graceland University and educators at area schools, Brain Breaks were being created.

Challenges we ran into

For Miss Sand, and other teachers like her, every minute matters. Spending additional prep time creating her own brain break activities was not a realistic solution. Although she could find these activities online, playing them through her computer meant tedious technology set up.

In talking with Miss Sand about the roadblocks she experienced and sharing our own hopes for Kid’s Bank we told her about Alexa. We were in the process of programming an Alexa Dot to provide information through voice command that teachers could access long after our financial literacy program came to a close.

That’s when the light came on.

Amazon’s Alexa Dot provided the technology required to easily bring brain breaks not just to Miss Sand, but to any teacher, anywhere, any time.

Testing ease of use and gaining feedback from teachers was our next step. In exchange for helping in this stage of the product development cycle we purchased an Amazon Alexa Dot for each of our four participating pilot classrooms. We ran into issues with some of the brain breaks we made where the kids were too young or too old for them.

To support teachers and reduce anxiety we produced a simple Alexa user guide. This tool provided teachers with basic Alexa use, how to integrate brain breaks into the classroom, and instruction on the voice command for accessing brain breaks.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

At launch, we released ten quality Brain Breaks crafted by students at Graceland University. This skill is entirely driven by educators, for educators. We built what educators ask for and we do it well.

Another thing we are proud of is how we started. Brain Breaks started from a conversation in a hallway one day about how Alexa could be used to promote financial literacy. One small idea sparked a huge project that many teachers can benefit from.

What we learned

By empowering teachers with a time saving tool to deliver brain-based instruction we partner to build classrooms of innovation, creativity, and play.

Together we are transforming the classroom experience for children around the country and ensuring no child leaves play behind.

What's next for Brain Breaks

We want to add more features such as separating Brain Breaks by age, shuffling brain breaks, and more. By the end of Fall 2018, we will increase our library of self-created Brain Breaks from 10 to 50.

Built With

• amazon-alexa
• node.js