The first site that I chose to evaluate is BrainPOP which is found at http://www.brainpop.com/. BrainPOP is a site that offers animated 3-5 minute videos on over 600 hundred of topics in the areas of social studies, science, English, math, health, arts & music and technology. The videos are narrated/hosted by animated characters named Tim and Moby. Each video also includes things like a quiz, experiments and printable worksheets. <br><br>
BrainPOP is a site to which you must subscribe to gain full access. You can, however, view a few videos for free to get an idea of what the site has to offer. I decided to take advantage of a free 14 day trail subscription and after having full access, I am very impressed with the site.<br><br>
BrainPOP videos are aligned to the standards of all 50 U.S. states. A state standards tool allows teachers to find BrainPOP videos that correlate to the standards for a state and grade in each subject. Using the tool, you choose the state, grade level and subject and you are shown a list of state standards as well as BrainPOP movies that correlate to the standards.<br><br>
The first standard that I selected was Geography 3A which is “use map elements or coordinates to locate physical and human features of North America”. Only one video came up in my search which was a bit disappointing. The video that resulted from my search is entitled Geography Themes. Some of the topics it covered are movement, location, place, people and interacting with the environment. The video was fairly general but so is the standard so it seems an appropriate response to the search.<br><br>
I tried another search to see how many videos are available to support the teaching/learning of a different standard. I selected Geography 3B, 3.7 which is “Grade Level Indicator: Places and Regions: Analyze reasons for conflict and cooperation among regions of North America including: Trade; Environmental issues; Immigration”. This time 9 videos resulted from my search. They include The American Revolution, Causes of the American Revolution, Civil War, Civil War Causes, Vietnam War, War, World War I, World War II and World War II Causes. It is noteworthy that the more detailed grade level indicator resulted in more options for a more detailed response.<br><br>
The intended audience of BrainPOP is grades 3-8. I think the videos are well suited to this age range although they may seem too elementary to some middle school students. Having said that, I believe there are many videos I could watch on BrainPOP and learn from. Thus, even the more advanced middle school students could possibly get something out of BrainPOP.<br><br>
I think BrainPOP would be an excellent tool to use with students who struggle with certain skills, especially reading. In fact, given the vast number of subjects that are included in the BrainPOP video library (600 videos to date), this website could open up a whole new world of learning to students who struggle with reading and other skills.<br><br>
There are teacher and parent resource buttons on BrainPOP that provide information on how to effective use BrainPOP at home and school. The teacher resource area offers ideas on how to use BrainPOP to supplement classroom teaching. In addition, the website indicates that lesson plans are forthcoming.<br><br>
The website offers a list of awards received and testimonials from subscribers.<br><br>
Subscription costs range from $99.00 for a family subscription (1 year with 3 log-ins per day) to $975.00 for a school subscription (1 year with unlimited log-ins). I personally think it is a bit expensive but I do appreciate that they do not have pop-ups or any kind of advertising on the site. Further, I think the subscription nature of the website would likely result in the expectation of and resources for frequent updating and expansion of the site.
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