Bring Project-Based Learning to Life with BrainPOP’s Make-a-Movie

When students are active participants in their learning, they’re more engaged and more likely to retain what they’ve learned. Enter project-based learning.

Project-based learning is a student-centered approach that encourages learners to explore real-world problems and challenges while deepening understanding and developing essential skills. It fosters critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration while giving students voice and choice in how they learn and demonstrate what they know.

However, making time for project-based learning on top of an already crowded lesson plan is no easy feat. But what if we said you can incorporate project-based learning activities into the lessons you’re already teaching? 

How Teachers Use Make-a-Movie for Project-Based Learning

Make-a-Movie is a unique tool available on BrainPOP 3-8 that allows students to make their own BrainPOP movies and flex their higher order critical thinking skills to show what they know. Students can drag and drop images, add text, and record their own voice narration to build a story based on their background knowledge from the related BrainPOP topic–bringing project-based learning to life, without adding hours to their teacher’s prep time. 

Hear from three educators who used Make-a-Movie for their classroom projects. 

Student-Led Projects to Spark Curiosity

Becky Higgins put her students in the director’s chair by allowing them to choose the topic for their movie-making project. After watching the BrainPOP movie of their choice, students were assigned to complete different activities, such as Vocab Builder or Connected Texts, to build background knowledge and help retain information. 

“The students started doing research about their given topic on their own! They worked in groups or pairs and helped each other solve problems,” Higgins said. Then the students were given the spotlight by presenting their movies to their classmates. Higgins recalls, “I kept hearing, ‘Wow! I didn't know that’ [from their peers]... The kids’ eyes were shining with happiness. Thank you, BrainPOP, for giving the children a chance to be successful.”

Cross-Curricular Integration to Boost Engagement and Understanding

4th grade teacher Thomas Bruno took a cross-curricular approach to his class’ movie-making project. Bruno’s students were tasked with reading books from the Who Was? series about famous American heroes and events, such as Lewis and Clark, Amelia Earhart, Pearl Harbor, Muhammad Ali, and the Underground Railroad. Afterwards, they turned their research into engaging, informative movies to share what they’ve learned. 

“The activity was a fantastic way to combine books with BrainPOP videos,” says Bruno. “The students were so excited to share their completed work with teachers, administrators, and their friends! We made over 50 films in the 4th grade!”

Creative Projects to Build Joy, Community, and Confidence

Rebecca Dietor, a BrainPOP School Champion, turned a weather report project into a memorable community-building event full of creativity, celebration, and student-led storytelling. “The students came in after lunch to an ‘orange carpet’ where we took some fun photos and did a little runway walk,” Dietor says. “Then they were judges and had a special form I created to rate each movie [that was presented]. I tallied up the points and awarded the top students! They loved it all!” 

Create Flexible, Engaging Projects with BrainPOP’s Make-a-Movie

By incorporating project-based learning through Make-a-Movie, teachers can follow Higgins, Bruno, and Dietor’s lead to create inclusive, flexible experiences that engage every learner.  They can trust that they’re meeting their students where they are in creative, engaging ways—without compromising time and capacity—by offering multiple ways to access content, express their understanding, and connect learning to their own interests. It’s one more way BrainPOP supports meaningful learning that sticks.

To get started on your own Make-a-Movie project in your classroom, download our Resource Kit.

Jordan Bremus-Wyles is the Sr. Manager, Content & Social Media Strategy at BrainPOP, with a Bachelor's in English and Journalism. She is a youth advocate and mom of two. Jordan's favorite BrainPOP character is Tim.