Pop CultureThe ProfessorBeginner
Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition, a free pop culture course on Tomo

Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition

Revisit the essentials of grade school through the lens of your favorite movies, music, and games. Master math, science, and grammar while decoding the secrets of the stars.

Like Duolingo, but for Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

200 levels across 9 sections, about 400 minutes end to end, roughly 80 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Solve Problems Like a Superhero, Write Like a Chart-Topping Songwriter, The Science of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Navigate the World Map, Mastering Parts and Pieces, The Secrets of Storytelling, How Things Work and Grow, History and How We Got Here, and The Logic Behind the Magic. It starts from scratch.

200 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Penny the Pop-Culture Penguin, the guide who teaches the Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition course
Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition
with Penny the Pop-Culture Penguin
200
Levels
9
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition

  • Addition combines separate groups into a single total
  • Subtraction finds what remains after a loss
  • Adding 2 to a starting number of 6
  • Removing a smaller quantity from a larger starting amount
  • Subtraction can be used to find the difference between two distinct amounts
  • The order of numbers in addition does not change the sum
  • Calculating a total team size after recruitment
  • The 'gap' is the amount needed to make the smaller number equal to the larger
  • 5 + 3 results in the same total as 3 + 5
  • Calculating remaining inventory after a loss
  • Subtraction order cannot be swapped because you cannot take away more than you have
  • The starting amount (minuend) must be large enough to cover the amount being removed
  • Addition can undo subtraction to check work
  • Subtraction can undo addition to check work
  • Using inverse operations to check accuracy
  • Moving forward on a number line represents addition
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Assembling the Heroic Squad

Which operation should a hero use to calculate how many gadgets remain after some are lost in a fight?

Get it right to open this lesson and 199 more in the app.

Course map

How to learn Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition, step by step

Go in order. 200 short levels across 9 sections, about 6 hours 40 minutes in all, five minutes a day.

  1. 1

    Solve Problems Like a Superhero

    • Counting Your Loot: Addition and Subtraction
    • The Power of Groups: Multiplication Basics
    • Splitting the Prize: Simple Division
    • Word Problems in the Marvel Universe
  2. 2

    Write Like a Chart-Topping Songwriter

    • Naming Names: Nouns and Pop Stars
    • Action! Using Verbs to Move the Story
    • Describing the Vibe: Adjectives and Adverbs
    • Punctuation: The Rhythm of the Sentence
    • Capitalization Rules for Famous People
    • Spelling Hacks for Social Media
  3. 3

    The Science of Sci-Fi and Fantasy

    • Solid, Liquid, Gas: The Magic of Matter
    • Gravity and Space: Real Life vs. Star Wars
    • The Food Chain in The Lion King
  4. 4

    Navigate the World Map

    • Finding Your Way: The Four Directions
    • Continents and Oceans: Where Celebs Travel
    • Reading Maps and GPS Coordinates
    • Climate Zones: From Frozen to Moana
    • Time Zones and Global Concert Tours
  5. 5

    Mastering Parts and Pieces

    • Pizza Math: Introduction to Fractions
    • Decimals and Dollars: Shopping Like a Pro
    • Percentages: Understanding Game Stats
    • Comparing Sizes with Ratios
  6. 6

    The Secrets of Storytelling

    • The Hero's Journey: Plot Structure
    • Who is Talking? Point of View
    • Main Idea: What is the Movie Actually About?
    • Fact vs. Opinion in Celebrity News
    • Metaphors and Similes in Hit Lyrics
    • Context Clues: Figuring Out New Slang
  7. 7

    How Things Work and Grow

    • The Life Cycle: From Seed to Groot
    • Simple Machines in Theme Park Rides
    • Electricity: Powering Your Gaming Console
    • The Water Cycle: Why it Rains on Set
  8. 8

    History and How We Got Here

    • Timelines: Ordering the Decades
    • Inventions That Changed Everything
    • Famous Figures Who Shaped the World
    • Primary Sources: Reading Old Diaries and Letters
    • The Basics of How Government Works
  9. 9

    The Logic Behind the Magic

    • Cause and Effect: Why Things Happen
    • Sorting and Classifying Information
    • The Scientific Method: Testing Myths

9 sections · 40 units · 200 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

Questions

Questions about Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition

  1. How do I learn Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition?

    Go in order: start with Solve Problems Like a Superhero, then Write Like a Chart-Topping Songwriter, then The Science of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, then Navigate the World Map, and 5 more sections after that. On Tomo that's 200 short levels, about 6 hours 40 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.

  2. Is there a Duolingo-style app for Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition?

    Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.

  3. Is the Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition course free?

    Yes. Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.

  4. How long does it take to learn Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition?

    200 levels across 9 sections, about 6 hours 40 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.

  5. Do I need any background to start Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition?

    No. It's pitched at a beginner level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.

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How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Professor

Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition today.

Download Tomo, search Elementary School Refresher: Pop Culture Edition, and play your first lesson in under a minute.