BrainPOP UK

content and design

Design and navigation

Navigation around the site is very easy, and quick to master, but first time users may miss the icons which direct the user to introductory and help facilities, as these are not as prominent as the Curriculum areas icons, although they are on the home page.

The ‘Introductory Movie’ is a very good idea, as it explains the basics of the site very well, but I didn’t use this facility as it isn’t really clear that this is an explanatory guide.

The Homepage itself has seven colour coded categories for each area of curriculum. You can navigate by clicking on these categories and see the films available in each subject, or go through the sub-categories which are clearly displayed. Alternatively, you can search through the entire site, using a keyword from the Home Page, using the search bar. Extremely useful is the Curriculum Planning Tool, which allows the user to filter the displayed content by Key Stage and Subject. All these search options really make it easy to find what you are looking for.

A comprehensive ‘Teachers Use’ area, explains how to get the best from BrainPOP, and is most beneficial. The site is neither too fussy and difficult, nor too simple.

New films or topical films are featured on the homepage.

A simple zoom button makes the film larger – to fill the whole screen if required. I always used this on the Interactive Whiteboard, and it really is recommended for film viewing generally.

Curriculum coverage

BrainPOP sells itself on providing coverage of the National Curriculum, in the seven main subjects of English, Maths, Science, Arts, Technology and PSHE and Citizenship. Each subject area has a wealth of different animated films. For specific curriculum information on each film, the Curriculum Planning Tool should be used as a search engine. This will then bring up a list of available films for your chosen curriculum area and Key Stage, which details the QCA unit they can be linked to: giving information about the unit, taken from the Standards Site, enabling very good curriculum links to be made.

There are hundreds of films available, but obviously, during the evaluation, only a certain number could be used, and the following comments apply to those only. The content was found to be mostly relevant, but also to include information which is not a National Curriculum requirement or in QCA units (e.g. Acceleration within Unit 6E Forces). This is not necessarily a negative aspect, as the children loved to learn through the films and all additional learning outcomes were a bonus. This does highlight the necessity of choosing films carefully to ensure the content is what is required. Using the Curriculum Planning Tool really does help here as Secondary level films can be filtered out, for example.

The language used throughout the films is very child friendly and a great deal of attention has obviously been given to the quality of explanations. Technical language is mostly relevant, although some explanatory terms may not be familiar to children (e.g. a ‘run-on sentence’ within ‘compound sentences’ film). However, in this example given, the new terminology ‘run-on sentence’ did help the children to understand how to punctuate sentences better and proved very useful.

BrainPOP was developed in the USA, where it won awards and prizes in Education and Communication, and has been adapted for the UK. This has the advantage of a really wide range of topics, which I found extremely useful, as my school teaches around a Topic, using a Creative Curriculum approach. I often found extremely useful films which helped enormously. e.g. When learning about Nelson Mandela, a film about Apartheid, explained the meaning of ‘apartheid’ very clearly.

BrainPOP is a useful resource for any teacher, in terms of saving time, inspiring teaching and learning, aiding understanding, as well as being fun.

Planning

Very little familiarisation was needed in order to use this program. The most important thing is to view the entire film carefully to ensure the content is what you expect and appropriate for the lesson.

A hyperlink can be copied and pasted into planning, but it is still necessary to log on before the film will play. Films can also be bookmarked, ready for a lesson, or access by the children.

Suitable content for a lesson can be located through a search facility on the Home Page, or done using the Curriculum Planning Tool, which will filter the Key Stage and Curriculum area.

The ‘Teachers Use’ area of the site is a straightforward and really useful section which gives ideas for how to use the films. A Help section gives solutions to problems and ideas for use, both for Home and for School.

Overall, the site is simple to use, straightforward and quick to master.

Suitable for ages