BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. question

[SewingMom2many]

I've been reading reviews and it looks like most people think it's worth the cost so I'm considering it.

Is it just cartoons though? I'm not sure it would hold my kids' attention if it didn't include real life videos like How It's Made, Popular Mechanics, etc.

[Farrar]

It's just cartoons. They're useful because they're tailored to specific school content, which is different from something like How It's Made, which you will definitely learn something from watching, but which won't necessarily teach all the exact basic vocabulary that you, as the teacher, are looking for.

[Saddlemomma]

We have been using it as a supplement for 3 years and DD loves it!

 

We are studying virology this first marking period (DD's choice) and I found a BP video titled Viruses.  I had her watch the video and do the quiz.

 

Then I had her read the FYI articles:

• Way Back When - discusses the history of viruses and how they were first discovered
• In Depth - Discusses the Ebola virus, how it was named, where it came from,  what disease manifests from the virus, and symptoms.
• Trivia - provides interesting trivia about viruses
• Modern World - discusses how the words "virus" and "viral" can be applied to technology today and their different connotations.

Lastly, she played one of games I preselected: "You Make Me Sick", a game about bacterial and viral infections.  In it she had to spread a bank of bacteria on items in a kitchen to ensure the host would become infected and sick.  She had to choose those items most likely to spread the bacteria. In the second part of the game, DD was a virus and had to navigate around white blood cells and try to penetrate healthy cell hosts to infect them.

 

If you are a subscriber like me, you can access their teacher resources with lesson plans and answer keys to worksheets.  Free webinars are also available on all sorts of educational topics.  In fact I just recently received a notification from BP that they will be having one on 9/4/14 titled "Back to School with BrainPop".  Description: We'll cover the basics, best practices, and creative teaching strategies so you can engage your entire class from day one. This webinar is great for both newbies and veteran users alike, featuring all the tools you'll need to get the most out of your subscription.

 

BrainPop is one resource we will continue to subscribe to.

 

[Meadowlark]

Following-I hesitate to take the plunge because I'm not crazy about cartoons either. I'd much rather my kids learn about Abe Lincoln for example, and see a real life picture of him. I'm not really sure what the fuss is all about with BP, but it sure seems to be popular.

[Kerileanne99]

We have both Brain Pop and Brain Pop, Jr. My dd likes both and watches them daily.

If you have an IPad you can download the apps for free, and watch the free movie of the week and a few more. I would imagine you can do the same on the website, but I never tried. Watching a few might give you a better feel for whether or not you will like it.

Also, if you go the app route you can just do it for a month for like $6?

[Korrale]

We watched the free movies for a long time.

My son loves them. And frankly I do also. The content is great. It is all in a QandA format. A non verbal beeping robot kind of asks questions and a child answers the questions.

I find a lot of educational content falls into the realm of edutainment when it comes to cartoons. But this is different. The segments are so short that there is no messing around.

[Farrar]

I definitely don't think it's for every family. But calling it a "cartoon" is definitely misleading. It's a short educational explanation, geared toward kids, wrapped in a slightly appealing, easy to swallow format. They have a free trial (or they used to). I'd do that for a week and watch a bunch and see if you like them. One of my frustrations was wanting to use them for content and seeing that there was a lot of stuff we were doing that simply wasn't covered in history. On the other hand, science is pretty well covered and it's really useful for when some cultural reference comes up - like in a book you're reading and it's not the thing you're studying - an artist, an historical figure you're not up to yet, etc.

[Ad astra]

Try the free movies and see how your kids like them. I was going to subscribe to BrainPop Jr. through TestingMom but my DS showed very little interest in it. We found the narrator's voice and the beeping sound a bit annoying. Great concept but not worth the price for what we'd get.

[kbernt]

It held my kids' attentions. Each one of the five has used it at some point. My youngest (9yo then) was using it last year just as a supplement and it was her choice of what she watched. She just had to watch a BP video about 3 times a week to check it off on her chart. Sometimes she did the quizzes and sometimes not. I've also used it for science concepts as an assigned list of titles for maybe 8th grade. That worked well too. There has always been a lot of pausing to watch as you walk by the DC doing the viewing in this house, since everyone likes them.

[Korrale]

The beeping annoys me! But I wonder about that. Is it a way to retain attention? Wake the kids up?

 

I think Farrah hit the nail in the head. It is an explanation in an easily digest able format for a little kid.

 

Annie and Moby made my 4 year old become very diligent with hygiene. Hand washing, teeth brushing are done with joy now.

[rmtzc2009]

The beeping annoys me too!  My kids on the other hand love it!  It does hold their attention and they even enjoy the quiz after the video to test what they learned.