Posts on “ new content ”

Just this week, we’ve quietly rolled out a new group of support pages on BrainPOP Educators.  We have created game specific  pages to help support your implementation of GameUp games in class! Every GameUp page has a lesson ideas button. Click the button to find lesson plans, graphic organizers, videos and implementation strategies all geared toward the specific game. With unique pages for each of the almost 60 games on GameUp, you’ll find the most useful implementation content to help you begin  incorporating game based learning into your teaching! Over the last year, our goal has been to make a more friendly BrainPOP Educators experience, and reduce the amount of searching you need to do to find the resource that you want.   We hope you find these new pages useful!  We’re always eager for feedback so please leave your ideas or suggestions in the comments section below.  

GameUp keeps growing!  Just this week, we’ve introduced 5 new games, including our first music game, from partner State of Play, called One Man Band. All you do is drag and drop instruments anywhere on the screen to build a crazy contraption and create your own tune.  From partner Hooda Math we welcome another instant classic, Ice Cream Truck! This game provides an opportunity to unleash your inner entrepreneur and exercise your budget skills as you buy materials and price your ice cream cones accordingly.  Build-a-Body and Build-A-Tree are excellent interactive simulations from game partner Spongelab. Whether you are a surgeon transplanting inner organs, or a arborist designing a maple tree to survive in different seasons, these simulations put you into the shoes of knowledgeable professional!  What Plants Need, also from Spongelab, explores the combination of light, water and air that plants need to survive. We are thrilled to continue building game offerings on GameUp. Keep checking our blog and be the first to hear news about games and developments at BrainPOP!

The Center for Game Science (CGS) is part of the department of computer science at the University of Washington. We’re made up of a group of designers, software engineers, artists, and students, including both PhD students and undergraduates in technical and educational fields. We have six games currently in development, and all of them targeted at different aspects of supporting measured and assessed learning through games. The Making of Treefrog Treasure: Our latest game is Treefrog Treasure. The game was designed to teach players how to place fractions on a numberline. The core group working on the game from the beginning included only 7-8 people, so we were really all involved in coming up with game design ideas. This means ideas were coming not only from game designers, but also artists, developers, and researchers in both Computer Science and Education. We went through a number of prototypes that were able to address our math goals but weren’t engaging enough for players. These prototypes included pinball-like games where players bounce/shoot a ball onto a numberline. Finally, we realized that a platformer game (think Super Mario Bros.™) where the character could stick to walls and jump into numberlines was the most engaging… Read the Rest»

If you’ve downloaded our BrainPOP Jr. iOS app, you may have noticed an update last week. We’re excited to announce that the new version includes in-app purchasing and updated accessibility features for iOS 6. You will now have the option to purchase the “Explorer” subscription (Movie of the Week plus three additional related movies and quizzes) for $1.99 per month, or Full Access (all topics) $5.99 per month. Of course, you’ll still be able to download the app to access the Movie of the Week plus all free BrainPOP Jr. content at no charge.  Enjoy the update.

Have you checked out BrainPOP ESL lately? If so, you may have noticed our new content: Level 3, Unit 4! We are excited to announce the launch of this new unit, which brings BrainPOP ESL up to 80 specific lessons! In addition to exploring higher level grammatical concepts, the movies are also increasingly content-driven – a development that can help all students. Take, for example, “A High Probability” (Level 3, Unit 4, Lesson 3). This BrainPOP ESL topic page focuses on infinitive verbs, but also explains the mathematical concept of probability. Learners essentially get two lessons in one. Beyond the new content, BrainPOP ESL has new features too. “Words to Know,” the all-important word introduction feature accompanying each lesson, now includes “Word Connections.” “Word Connections” explains various verb forms in the classic visual, clear style you’ve come to expect from BrainPOP. Powerful new reading and writing extension activities highlight specific forms of written expression. Within “A High Probability,” the “Read It” activity invites students to explore a persuasive essay, with thoughtful multiple choice comprehension questions that engage readers. The “Write It” section delves further into the art of persuasion by prompting students to write an advertisement within the structure of… Read the Rest»

The new Mixer™ – which lets you remix, customize and craft  your own BrainPOP-style quizzes – is already receiving glowing reviews!   After this week’s overview webinar, members of the BrainPOP Educators community shared their positive reactions. @lwolfe puts it simply: “I love the Mixer!!”  @ccentra raves: “This will help me customize the quiz for each student!”  @sturpin asserts the ability to “customize quizzes will enhance the assessments of standards that we are using in our classrooms.” So have you tried the Mixer yet?  Have you explored our 9,000+  multiple choice and open ended questions?  Have you had the thrill of creating differentiated quiz experiences for your students? What are you waiting for?  Remember that in order to use the Mixer, you’ll need to link your free BrainPOP Educators account with your BrainPOP username and password. Do you have suggestions for how we can improve the Mixer experience?  Since this is our newest feature, we’re especially excited to read your feedback. We want to make this tool the best it can be! Want a quick refresher on how to use the Mixer? Check out this screencast:

Ben and Moby are excited to announce new content on BrainPOP ESL: level 3, unit 3! Did you know that the higher level units on BrainPOP ESL, are more content driven, so they not only demystify grammar and language structures, but explain content on topics as diverse as Mount Everest,  April Fools Day, and the Engineering of Trains.  As always, the movies are entertaining, and the support content is top notch.  Enjoy!  

With the closing of the Republican and Democratic conventions, election season has commenced full force.  To help students better understand the current political landscape and how it evolved, we’re providing some historical context in new movies about Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. By explaining the former presidents’ impact on areas of foreign and domestic policy as well as their personal strengths and weaknesses, these topics shed light on the issues shaping the 2012 election. We hope you enjoy the new movies; be sure to check out the rest of our presidential content too.  

You may have noticed, over the past few days, that the BrainPOP topic pages have a shiny new button called “lesson plans and teaching tools.”  Click this button for a whole new entry point to BrainPOP Educators providing topic specific lesson plans, graphic organizers, games, quizzes and more. Our goal is to make a more friendly BrainPOP Educators experience, and reduce the amount of searching you need to do.   Also, we’re adding a social layer!  Once you click through to a learning resource, you can leave a comment for how you’re using it! If you prefer the former BrainPOP Educators experience, you can just click the banner accross the top and return to the same familiar homepage. These new “lesson plans and teaching tools” pages are the first of many changes for BrainPOP Educators.  We’re making the site more user friendly, just like BrainPOP, but we’d love to hear what you think, and how we could improve.  Please don’t hesitate to provide feedback in the BrainPOP community.  

Labor Day is over, school has started and everyone is busy welcoming students back to school. We think you’ll also be glad to welcome the newest tool from BrainPOP: our Mixer™! The Mixer™ allows you to create, remix and share your own BrainPOP-style quizzes. Search our growing library of over 9,000 multiple choice questions, plus NEW open-ended questions! Grab any that you like, and edit them as you see fit. Or, write your own questions and share your work with other users. The Mixer™ is a free utility for BrainPOP subscribers with a profile on BrainPOP Educators. Visit our registration page to make sure your current BrainPOP account information is associated with your BrainPOP Educators profile. You can find the Mixer™ here. Go ahead, give it a try! Or, watch the embedded video for an overview demonstration. Since the Mixer is new, we’re excited to see how you put it to use and what you think about it. Don’t hesitate to send us your feedback.