Why is Brainpop Helpful

Early in my teaching career I was introduced to a truly wonderful educational website known as Brainpop. The site’s URL is http://www.brainpop.com.What’s so great about Brainpop.com? Why is it a great educational resource for your child or your classroom? I believe it’s so good because it uses cartoon-like animation and humor to get across an educational message that truly keeps my students interested. My usually always enjoy watching a Brainpop video in my social studies classroom and I have become to rely on it as a valuable tool to teach important social studies content to my class.

If United States government and law is what you’re interested in then, there is a whole list of things to choose from here. There are video selections made for topics such as the branches of government, how a bill becomes a law, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution just to name a few. I’ve relied heavily on these videos to teach and review these important concepts for my seventh grade students.

For regular social studies topics there are selections on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, George Washington and the American Revolution, Egyptian Pharaohs, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Greek Gods. Just about any major topic that you can think of for middle school age children is listed here for you to use.

I’ve only used it for social studies but if you need information and videos for science, math, arts, technology, health and English, they have plenty on all of these topics too. Under the technology category there are videos on the internet, blogs, viruses and plenty of other choices.

After you view the video then you have the option to play a review quiz. There are options there to play it as a review or graded quiz. You can click on a link for more information on that topic a few other helpful related links.

Now a resource such as this is a valuable tool for learning. Some of the videos are offered for free and many of them are very good. If you want the full range of videos at your disposal then you have to become a member and pay their subscription fees. This excellent site offers great material and for them to continue to do so costs money. Many schools get cut rates for a school to use and I would imagine they offer some individual options for a single user too. I am certain that there is great value in Brainpop to use as an educational resource in teaching your classroom or perhaps even your own child at home. Try some of the free videos today and see for yourself.