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This unique interactive website works with maps and globes to transform pupils’ understanding of the world. Winner of a Geographical Association Gold award and a BAFTA award for primary learning, Mapping Our World allows pupils to flatten a globe, turn a map into a globe, and merge different map projections. The nine structured activities come with teachers’ notes and are designed for whole class learning on an interactive whiteboard or PC. The website supports the Geography curriculum and is also ideal for bringing a global approach to Citizenship, PSE and ICT.

"It's amazing what you can do with boxes and junk," he says. That could almost be the slogan of the New York Coalition for Play, which provided the boxes and junk. The nonprofit association ran one of the two dozen booths at the Ultimate Block Party, an event last fall that brought together companies like Disney, Crayola, and Lego, along with researchers from Columbia and MIT, and attracted thousands of parents and children. The goal was to "celebrate the science of play" and to push back against the notion that education happens only when students are seated at their desks, staring at chalkboards, and scribbling furiously in their notebooks.

Within the world of those who take play seriously, there are multiple camps, each with its own dearly held tenets. There are the Free Players, who argue that play is a human right and that adults should more or less leave kids alone. There are the Play Skeptics, who see play as useful for blowing off steam but are dubious about its cognitive upside. And there are Play Moderates, who advocate a mix of free play, adult-guided play, and traditional classroom instruction.

The most motivating factors are getting genuinely better at something, and getting recognised by those around us. Mastery and relationships motivate most.

we’re bribing students into compliance instead of challenging them into mastery

Tangible rewards substantially undermine intrinsic motivation,