BrainPOP at 20: Empowering a New Generation of Creators and Critical Thinkers
Posted by jglassman on
BrainPOP launched in 1999 with the recognition that kids are innately curious. From the very beginning, we engaged that curiosity through short animated movies that make complicated ideas simple and clear. The beloved characters’ explanations helped kids experience the sudden burst of understanding that our founder called a “brain pop.” Twenty years later, BrainPOP has captured the hearts and engaged the minds of over 300 million children worldwide. Proven to raise academic achievement, BrainPOP has been a trusted resource to more than six million educators in over 35,000 schools.
The world has changed in many ways since those early Internet days, and so too has BrainPOP. Today, our rigorous learning experiences go far beyond a movie and quiz, offering a rich array of resources and tools that meet each student’s interests and needs while developing their critical, computational, and creative thinking skills across the curriculum. With BrainPOP, kids have endless opportunities to be creators and take agency over their learning, whether they are making movies on megalodons and Greek Gods, connecting ideas in a concept map about sharks, or creating coding projects like an Agatha Christie museum, a story about solar power, or a game featuring even and odd numbers.
Recognizing that social and emotional competency is key to success at school, at home, and beyond, BrainPOP provides resources that support these important skills and strategies. Explore our SEL collection to find topics modeling mindfulness, conflict resolution, perseverance, and more, and discover activities for kids to apply their understanding and be creators, such as coding a message of courage or producing an anti-bullying campaign with our movie maker.
Together, all of BrainPOP’s resources promote deeper understanding and higher-order thinking, while seamlessly and meaningfully making your state’s standards accessible and engaging for all students. Every resource and activity is thoughtfully integrated into our 1,000+ topics across the curriculum while maintaining what kids love best about BrainPOP–its playfulness.
