BrainPOP

An animated educational site intended for children, with interactive quizzes, activities, and videos to aid in understanding Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies and English.


 * [|BrainPop on Web 100]
 * [|BrainPop’s Blog and Information page for Educators]


 * Covers multiple subjects
 * Has many different activities (videos, interactive quizzes, activity pages, etc.)
 * Has homework help available
 * Animations aid in understanding topics better and help bring curriculum to life
 * Content is aligned with standards
 * Appeals to different learning styles
 * Uses Twitter to follow events such as NECC
 * Users can view student or teacher-made video clips on YouTube
 * Very appealing to all ages of students
 * Combined with a SmartBoard, interactive features such as quizzes can be used as a whole class lesson
 * Opportunity for students to ask questions or contribute ideas
 * Can be used as a remediation opportunity to reinforce a concept with struggling learners
 * Activity pages can be typed on and printed out
 * Experiments for most topics that can be used in classroom or at home
 * Home access available for teachers to plan after school hours
 * Contains graphic organizers on activity pages to help some students organize their thoughts
 * Contains extension activities that can be used as supplemental projects or extra credit
 * Can be used as whole-group or individual instructional tool.
 * Students can e-mail results of graded quiz to teacher.
 * Animations are very simple, fun and straight to the point
 * Can be used with ESL students
 * Certain activities and readings are in Spanish for those students who do not speak ANY English
 * Easy to use


 * EXPENSIVE! Need to purchase a subscription except for the occasional free videos
 * Have to watch videos first because they’re not always relevant to the topic it is associated with
 * It is still just watching a video--not truly interactive except for the quizzes which can be more interactive via SmartBoard
 * Questions may or may not be response from Tim and Moby
 * No home access for students with subscription
 * Does not provide feedback to answers on activity page (student must print --> teacher must grade)
 * Contains only a small amount of topics covered in each subject (particularly math)
 * Home access only available for an additional cost.
 * Limited audience
 * Videos would require headphones for students to use independently in the classroom (in stations or working solo)
 * Quizzes must be printed or emailed to the teacher, making it difficult to grade since printing problems are likely and emails could be cumbersome.
 * Might need to print the worksheets in advance (for activities and watching the video), make photocopies, and have them complete as they interact with the site.


 * Enhance or reinforce a lesson with video clips
 * Use quizzes to check comprehension
 * Use as a pre or post activity explanation (good supplement for labs)
 * Additional activities included to reinforce concept
 * Entice visual and verbal learners.
 * Helps to add enrichment to lessons
 * Good to use as a center during differentiated instruction
 * ESL students can be working in their corresponding level


 * Some topics may be sensitive or controversial with a young audience
 * Social Studies topics, including the videos, are better for middle school students than high school students due to the use of cartoons and abbreviated content


 * Show BrainPop videos as a transition between activities
 * Have class watch video and come up with what they felt were the most important facts and see if those are similar to the quiz questions provided on the site
 * Ask students if they could create their own Brain Pop video to explain a process.
 * Use as a "center" in the classroom so students can rotate through while teacher works with small groups
 * Use for whole class review with teacher-created teams answering quiz questions for points
 * Print the quiz and use as an assessment for end of unit reviews.

Examples of Use in the Classroom

 * During review close to state mandated testing time, I have a "centers" day once a week that covers different topics in math. One of the centers includes watching Brainpop videos and taking the quiz. For example: Center 1- Elapse time domino game; Center 2- Division flash cards; Center 3- Money game; Center 4- BrainQuest cards; Center 5- Brainpop Polygon movie and then Angles movie.