Posts on “ current events ”

If the kids in your life have seen the news in the past few days, they’ve seen the devastating weather that’s plaguing parts of the U.S.  It’s scary stuff.  To help explain what’s happening, we’re offering free access to our Tornadoes topic. For more relevant topics, explore our Spotlight: Natural Disasters. Need some tips on working the topic into your lessons? Use the Tornadoes quiz, Q&A, or KWL chart for an idea of what students already know and what they want to learn. As new questions crop up, return to the topic and add to the KWL chart. Use our printable and typeable Activity Pages to reinforce concepts. The In Practice feature of the Tornadoes FYI is another way to review: have the class come up with tornado safety tips or come up with their own safety plan. Amid the recovery efforts, our thoughts go out to everyone affected by this devastation and to those helping to provide relief. How are you addressing the tornadoes with your students? Please share your tips, thoughts, or ideas.

Just a reminder – our Earth Awareness lesson plan contest supporting our partnership with IMAX and the release of their new film, Born to be Wild 3D is open for submissions! The educator who submits the best lesson plan highlighting how you use BrainPOP, along with IMAX’s educator resources, wins premium prizing – from tickets for their class to see the film and promo items, to a one-year subscription to BrainPOP (worth $1500)! Contest details here! We’ve got a fabulous Spotlight full of resources to celebrate and teach about Earth Awareness, as well as the recording of our webinar, Using Multimedia to Teach Earth Awareness, in our archives! We can’t wait to see your lesson plans! Submit them for the contest here. How are you teaching Earth Awareness this month? Please share ideas below!

Search & Rescue: Earth Awareness Resources from netTrekker Search & BrainPOP Wednesday, April 6, 2011 4:30 PM EST Duration: 1 Hour Our Tatum Murphy and netTrekker’s Danielle Abernethy team up to tackle Earth Awareness Month. See how these two resources facilitate meaningful participation in current event issues among your students. We’ll share creative activity ideas and samples of how to organize your resources so you don’t have to recreate year after year. RSVP: http://searchandrescue.eventbrite.com/

Cicely A. Day teaches 4th and 5th graders at PLACE @ Prescott Elementary in Oakland, CA.  Check out how Cicely used BrainPOP’s Featured Tsunami movie to teach the science behind the natural disaster occurring in Japan; inspiring her students to ask questions and explore answers! Empower your students to learn something new every day with our BrainPOP Featured Movie. This go-to free resource changes regularly, providing timely and calendar-aligned digital content! The recent tsunami and earthquake brought devastation to many citizens of Japan; it also brought an important teachable moment into my classroom.  The night before the lesson, I was on my computer finishing up report cards and decided to see if BrainPOP had any new featured movies or free resources available. I spotted the featured Tsunami movie and thought, “Wow, how cool is that!  My students need to know about this, I’ll share it with them soon.” I woke up the next morning, turned on the news, and saw what had happened in Japan.  I thought about the BrainPOP movie from the night before and quickly got prepared to address what happened with my students. When I got to school that morning my students were scared of the coming… Read the Rest»

Happy April! Not only do we have a fabulous Spotlight full of resources to celebrate and teach about Earth Awareness with, but we’re also super excited to announce a new lesson plan contest in honor of our partnership with IMAX and the release of their new film, Born to be Wild 3D! The educator who submits the best lesson plan highlighting how you use BrainPOP, along with IMAX’s educator resources, wins premium prizing – from tickets for their class to see the film and promo items, to a one-year subscription to BrainPOP (worth $1500)!Contest details here! And if you missed this week’s webinar, Using Multimedia to Teach Earth Awareness, fear not! It’s in our archives! We featured our partners over at IMAX, including Born to be Wild producer Drew Fellman, who provided insight on the making of the film from a documentarian’s standpoint, emphasized the importance of the film message when teaching conservation in the classroom, and made educators swoon with his knowledge of the beloved creatures that star in the film.  Educators were then shown to access all of the great digital educational resources available in conjunction with the film via the BTBW website and more. We can’t wait… Read the Rest»

Like you, we woke up to the devastating news of the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. It’s hard enough for adults to fathom this kind of natural disaster.  But what about kids? Whether it’s on television or the radio, online, or in the papers, they’re hearing about it – and that means they’ve got questions. So how do you explain it to them? How do you make it seem a little less scary? Hopefully, we can help a little bit.  We’ve made our Tsunami resources free for the next few weeks.  We also encourage you to check out our related resources as you address these difficult headlines with the kids in your life. Turn to topics including, Earthquakes, Natural Disasters, and Plate Tectonics; and, for K-3, Fast Land Changes. Take a look at a Natural Disasters lesson plan presented by our own Dr. Kari Stubbs at the NSTA regional conference in Kansas City, Missouri last year. Then, there are many ways to broach the subject: assess what kids already know using our quizzes.  Reinforce the concepts with our typeable Activity Pages. Delve deeper with the FYI features and print them out so students can share with their families. Start… Read the Rest»

Spotlight: Natural Disasters helps students understand the causes and impact of avalanches, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, and other powerful phenomena. Additional topics include Volcanoes, Thunderstorms, Floods, and Plate Tectonics. BrainPOP Jr. topics include Fast Land Changes. Take our Natural Disasters quiz, and, if you’re a Promethean user, add to your lessons with the Hurricane flipchart. Or, create your own lessons using our free clipart!

Last week, Moby and I were lucky enough to see the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida. We were invited as VIPs (that’s “very important persons,” though I made sure the folks at NASA know that Moby’s a robot), so we had one of the best views of anyone at the launch! It was a magical trip. We arrived a day early so that we could explore the world-famous visitor center at KSC. It blew us away! There, you can learn about the history of the American space flight program, experience a simulated shuttle launch, walk in a garden of gigantic rockets, see one of several IMAX films about space, and lots more! Among other things, I got to sit upside-down in a reproduction of one of the capsules used during the Apollo Project and walk along the same kind of plank structure that the astronauts cross over to enter the shuttle before strapping in. Moby and I went to pay tribute to those who died in the line of duty at the astronaut memorial monument, too. And of course, there was plenty of astronaut ice cream to be had!… Read the Rest»

Help students build a valuable 21st-century skill with this month’s Spotlight: Financial Literacy. You’ll find content covering everything from the Stock Market, Taxes, and Credit Cards to Comparing Prices, Interest, and Supply and Demand. BrainPOP Jr. topics include Dollars and Cents, Needs and Wants, Counting Coins, Goods and Services, and Saving and Spending. Take advantage of the accompanying lesson plans as well: “Needs and Wants” (K-3) and “Credit Cards: Good Advice” (BrainPOP). How do you teach Financial Literacy? Share ideas below!

Keep Earth Day’s messages going all month long with our Spotlight: Earth Awareness. Topics include Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Carbon Cycle, Energy Sources, Global Warming, Natural Resources, and Wind Energy (BrainPOP). For K-3, see our topics on Rainforests, Freshwater Habitats, Extinct and Endangered Species, Deserts, and Arctic Habitats. In addition, BrainPOP Educators offers a pair of lesson plans entitled “Reducing Our Waste Lines” (BrainPOP) and “Who Can Waste the Least?” (BrainPOP Jr.). How are you using our Spotlights? Share ideas below!