INSIDE A TOPIC
It starts with a movie and doesn’t stop there
BrainPOP movies turn complex concepts into easy-to-understand stories that students understand, remember, and love. Then, the connected learning activities hand that story back to students—to talk it through, practice it, and create with it—until they can explain the idea in their own words.
Click through to see how far one topic can go.
Watch and connect
A story lights up more of the brain than a list of facts.
BrainPOP movies—starring Tim, Moby, and friends—are paced to match how students actually absorb information, animated to make complex ideas visible, and built with humor that makes the lesson land.
Pause Points: Provide built-in moments during the movie to reflect, process, and check for understanding without breaking the momentum.
Topic shown: Photosynthesis
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Across the curriculum
Background knowledge that builds from subject to subject
From folklore to fractions to forces of nature, every topic aligns with your state standards and maps to the curriculum you already teach.
Your next read
From their classrooms to yours
Get implementation ideas, classroom routines, and stories from 3rd-8th-grade teachers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, BrainPOP products are aligned with state standards, allowing teachers to integrate movies and activities directly into existing lesson plans and district curriculum requirements.
BrainPOP is also aligned with a number of ELA and science core curricula—including Bluebonnet Learning, EL Education K-5 and 6-8 Language Arts, and Savvas myView Literacy—searchable through the Browse by Curricula function on the teacher homepage.
We are always improving BrainPOP and also publish new topics every month. Recent additions include:
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The AI Literacy Collection, developed with Digital Promise, covers topics like AI and misinformation, AI and bias, and AI and personal data
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Unplugged Activities: No-device activities that extend a movie's topic into offline discussion or collaboration
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Live Mode: Real-time, teacher-led quiz mode where a whole class answers questions together
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BrainPOP (3–8) covers seven subject areas: Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Health, Arts & Music, and Engineering & Tech. Each subject contains multiple topics, and each topic is built around a short animated movie with related learning activities such as leveled quizzes, vocabulary practice, and reading passages.
Schools and districts can purchase BrainPOP (3–8) alongside BrainPOP Jr. (K–3) to cover their elementary and middle schools.
On BrainPOP, a lesson starts with a short animated movie that introduces a topic, and every activity on the page connects back to that movie. After watching, students and teachers can choose from activities such as:
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Vocab Builder and Connected Texts to reinforce vocabulary and reading comprehension tied to the movie's topic
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Quiz, Challenge, and Live Mode to check understanding, individually or as a whole class
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Make-a-Movie and Creative Coding to apply or demonstrate understanding through a student-created project
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Unplugged Activities, Worksheets, and Graphic Organizers for offline, no-device practice
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Primary Source activities for document-based analysis in subjects like social studies and ELA
Teachers can use these activities in whole-class, small-group, or independent settings, and can assign specific movies or activities to individual students or classes.
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School pricing is based on student population size, and subscribing to more than one BrainPOP product (such as BrainPOP Jr. or BrainPOP ELL) qualifies for a bundled discount.
A single classroom license for BrainPOP (3-8) costs $330 per year and gives one teacher front-of-class access to movies and quizzes.
To get an exact quote for a school or district, contact a BrainPOP representative.