Posts on “ featured movie ”

BrainPOP’s newest topic, ethics, provides an accessible, engaging storyline and a terrific entry point for students to frame and build skills focused on in the Common Core State Standards. Understanding the ethical dimension of reasoning will prepare students for critically evaluating a broad range of topics, from science and technology to history and literature. BrainPOP is making an strong effort to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards by creating new topic movies that consider changes in curriculum and performance based assessment. The Common Core standards for English Language Arts emphasize proficiency in making and evaluating arguments, problem-solving, and critical reasoning. Our ethics movie begins with age old questions – when you’re faced with a tough decision, how do you figure out what to do? What guidelines or examples do you use to make up your mind, and what happens when there’s more than one good way to act?  Tim and Moby offer some simple advice on what to do when you’re faced with tough choices about right and wrong, or good and bad. Students will consider some rules of thumb about ethical decision making, including ways to find a solution that does the most good while doing the least amount of harm. Ethics also primes students… Read the Rest»

Thanks to all of you, our newly launched Featured Movie app for Windows 8 just reached a big milestone! The Windows 8 app – for devices like the Microsoft Surface – has now been downloaded more than 10,000 times. Remember, your BrainPOP username lets you log in directly from the app at no additional cost. A second milestone? The app earned front-and-center placement last week, when the Windows Store featured it in the Education category.

Tomorrow is March 14th, also know as Pi day!  Every year many teachers observe the coincidence that our calendar notation aligns with the most famous ratio –  the circumference of a circle to its diameter!  Thinking about ways to incorporate Pi day into your classroom? You can start by providing a overview with the BrainPOP Pi Movie , continue by checking out BrainPOP Educators Superfaux2′s custom mixer quiz on Pi, or create your own. Check out our “lesson ideas” page for some ideas about creating a Pi Day festival from Educator Toni Sexton.    Have a piphilologist  contest, to see which student can memorize the longest stretch of numbers!  Have additional ideas? Share them below. Happy Pi Day!

Here are 5 ways to shine April’s BrainPOP spotlights Earth Awareness and Money Matters into your classroom. 1) April 22nd is Earth Day – have students explore the entire Earth Awareness Spotlight page. Follow this lesson plan and help them choose their cause. 2) April 15th is tax day! Help your students understand why the grownups are grumpy by watching the taxes movie during morning meeting, or playing Budget Hero on GameUp. 3) Though many US citizens are still struggling financailly, US stocks have recently hit an all time high. Help your students explore what it means to buy shares of a publicly traded company with our stocks and shares movie. 4) April 25th is World Penguin Day! Enjoy the penguin movie and learn some fun facts about our flightless feathered friends! 5) To solve the problems of Global Climate Change, global cooperation in the key. Help increase your student’s global awareness by participating in a meaningful global collaboration project! Check out this webinar with POPstar Lisa Parisi, of this list of links for some ideas to get started! These are just a few of the countless ways you can use BrainPOP and GameUp Spotlight content with your students. Share… Read the Rest»

It’s with pride and excitement that BrainPOP has released a new app for Windows 8 and its sidekick Windows RT for use on mobile devices such as the Microsoft Surface.  Our Windows app highlights the “tiled” beauty of the operating systems, incorporating an elegant look into the topic search and quiz features, while providing a gorgeous two toned blue sunburst background. It’s simply pretty to look at! The Windows app is available free of charge and provides access to the featured movie of the day. Featured movie topics tie in to current events, historical milestones and figures, holidays, and more! Additionally, current site subscribers can log in directly from the app to access all of BrainPOP’s award-winning content at no additional cost. This is a great benefit for school subscribers who want to provide access to BrainPOP content on Windows device that students may have at home! So, if you’re using Windows 8, download the app from the Windows 8 store and let us know what you think! After all, “the more you know, the more you know!” (and the more we want to know!)  

We’re sure that today’s news about the meteorite in Russia has piqued everyone’s interest. With that in mind we’ve made today’s featured movie Asteroids. Enjoy!

100 years ago today, February 4th 1913, Rosa Parks was born. Her courage helped spark the civil rights movement- and she remains a central figure in a defining moment of 20th century US history. To celebrate, today’s BrainPOP featured movie is about the Civil Rights Movement. This topic is a powerful entry point into the historical period. From movies on Dr. King and Malcolm X to Brown vs. Board of Education and the Bill of Rights –  BrainPOP content can help support understanding. For those educators working with students in early elementary, the topic page dedicated solely to Rosa Parks is a great entry point too. In addition to BrainPOP topic pages,  check out GameUp.  Games such as Argument Wars or Court Quest can help students better understand how the US judicial system both maintained unfair laws for so long, but also provided a mechanism for changing them.  Finally, in BrainPOP Educators, we have tons of support materials, including this lesson plan to help you consider Rosa Parks among other historically significant women. So celebrate today’s birthday and do something courageous.

Why are the days getting shorter? Why is it getting cold in some places and not in others? Why are there seasons? Here in the Northern Hemisphere, December 21st is the shortest day of the year and the first official day of winter! Starting tomorrow our days begin getting longer and there is a common misconception that it’s the midpoint of winter! Not so, but it can be hard to explain why to students, so check out the Solstice and Equinox topic page to explain the reason we’re not at mid-winter, and answer many other questions that come up around this short, but not coldest, day! On another timely note, are your students talking about the Maya apocalypse? Help them clarify misconceptions by checking out the Maya Civilization page.  We’ve made it free for the next few days in light of the recent apocalyptic speculation! Have a great weekend!

As Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast, people are busy preparing for the epic storm!  Need help explaining to students exactly what’s going on out there? BrainPOP is acknowledging the need for clear explanations by featuring both our Hurricanes and Natural Disasters movies on this historic day.   In addition to visually explaining the natural phenomenon of the hurricane, these featured movies also define all those tricky phrases, like “low pressure system” and “tropical depression” that the meteorolgists keeps using!   We hope you keep safe through this storm, and that today’s featured movie help you explain the origins of this extreme weather to your students.

Have you been using games on GameUp to help your students understand themes of this year’s election?  If so, you might be interested in two new quizzes that we’ve created specific to this year’s presidential contest.  First, is the all important Election Year Economics  quiz that ties right in to Budget Hero Election Edition.  With open ended questions about swing states and resource allocation, this quiz is sure to promote thoughtful dialogue with your students.  Want to quiz your students on other aspects of the election, you can always mix your own, custom quiz using the mixer.  With access to over 10,000 BrainPOP questions, and the ability to write your  own, it’s never been easier to customize your students’ BrainPOP experience.  You can learn how to use the tool by watching our quick overview video.   Also, searching for more election ideas?  Be sure to visit out “spotlights” page, join the election discussion group, or view our archived webinar with our friends from iCivics.