Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The Mop Top Shop


As an educator I am interested in anything that can perpetuate learning among young people. A mother concerned about her children’s education has developed a system to teach African American children science and history. Jackie Johnson, an educator at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina says that she came up with the idea when she found virtually no websites that featured black characters excited about learning so she decided to create her own.

Her creation is a character called Mop Top, a black hip hop scientist patterned after Bill Nye, The Science Guy. The Mop Top Shop is home to Mop Top and his sidekick, Lollipop. Mop Top and Lollipop navigate a list of important blacks like George Washington Carver, Charles Drew and more. There is an online lab with puzzles and games that are educational and fun. I went to the website and found it to be very user friendly and it actually encourages children to celebrate the achievements of African Americans in the area of science.

6 comments:

Lori said...

Cute. I'll have to introduce my son to the site. He's making A's in Science this year . . . says the proud mama (smile). Also, I share the info with a couple of other friends who work and interact with young ones.

pjazzypar said...

Hey Lori,

I am happy to hear that a young brother is doing so well in science because it seems that many are falling through the cracks in public schools across this country. I actually see it a lot in my courses, students, especially males think that I am going to give them a favorable grade just for showing up. Sadly this is not the case so they end up doing something they are definitely not use to doing and it's called applying yourself.

Malcolm said...

This is an outstanding idea! I checked out the site and really liked the layout. I sent the website link to Cook in case she doesn't know about it.

pjazzypar said...

Malcolm,

That's a good idea. I didn't think about sending it to Cook.

Rachel said...

That's wonderful!
How sad that there wasn't something before, but kudos to her for developing it! That takes some serious talent and she will change and enhance many lives as a result of it! Thanks for the heads up.

pjazzypar said...

Hi rachel,

you are very welcome. Please pass it on.