Have your students signed up for My BrainPOP? If so, they’ll be able to take snapshots during Mission US: Cheyenne Odyssey game play! MyBrainPOP is available to BrainPOP Educators with 24/7 district- or school-wide subscriptions, and is easy for you to sign your students up. Check out our My BrainPOP FAQs for more info.

The SnapThought® tool allows students to capture significant moments in their gameplay with opportunities for brief written reflection. To use the tool, start by making sure students are logged into My BrainPOP with their own individual accounts. Once students are logged in, the SnapThought® tool will appear below any games that offer this capability.

During gameplay, students can click on the SnapThought® tool up to 5 times per game. A thumbnail is generated and stored on the bottom left of the screen.  At any point in the game, students can click on their snapshot(s) and type a caption or response to a prompt, and save or submit it to your teacher’s account where you can view their data.

Keep in mind that students can take a snapshot during the game and then add the captions later. You may want to provide this alternative to avoid interrupting the flow of game play.  You can use the snapshots to facilitate discussion around game play and strategies, or have students submit the snapshots to you for assessment or accountability.

In Mission US: Cheyenne Odyssey, we recommend having students utilize the snapshot tool in conjunction with the Friend or Foe activity. You can use any or all of the following prompts:

  • Take a snapshot of 5 characters in the game and describe where you think he or she falls in the “friend or foe” spectrum and why.
  • Choose one type of character in the game (Cheyenne, non-Cheyenne Indians, government officials, military persons, women, etc.) and take several snapshots that include that type of character in them. Does each example of the character type fall in the same place on the “friend or foe” spectrum? Explain your thinking.
  • Select one character in the game, and take a snapshot of him or her in each part of the game.  What do you think the character is thinking in each particular point of the game? What clues helped you make that inference?

Additionally, you can have students capture decision making moments and reflect on their thinking as they thought through motivations and consequences.