After reviewing the material submitted by Diane Judd on BrainPOP Science: How the World Works, and accessing the BrainPop website, I do say that it does present useful engaging activities for an array of science concepts. The site contains an assortment of online experiments, animated movies, interactive quizzes, comic strips, activity pages, quizzes, and a personal question & answer forum and relate to a number of different science topics relevant to science curriculum around the nation.
The information given on the BrainPop website is separated by discipline and then subject matter within the discipline. The information is tied to core curriculum and is both difficult to learn as well as prerequisite information that students will need to know in order to build on that knowledge in advanced classes within the discipline. Take acids and bases for example. Learning about acids and bases is a part of my 7th grade core curriculum. After learning the basic differences between acids and bases, my students are expected to retain that information to later use when they take Chemistry in high school. BrainPop does a good job at explaining the differences between acids and bases in an animated video and continues to test the students knowledge with a series of quizzes and numerous activities and experiments. They also go further in depth and discuss acid rain and its affects on our planet.
The video provided would be used as explanation: to introduce what the characteristics of acids and bases are. The activities, experiments and quiz would allow the student to practice and apply that new knowledge.
After learning the material posed on BrainPop regarding acids and bases, the student should be about to distinguish between the properties of an acid and a base and explain how they are similar and how they are different. The student will also be able to list specific uses of acids and bases.
The material is geared towards a middle school student
The multimedia video can be effective and furthering the learning process if the teacher holds a discussion regarding the video after the video or in-between sections. The interactive sections of this website can be used effectively if the teacher uses the results from the quizzes and assignments and tailors the next lesson to address misconceptions and weaknesses. The learning goals are easily identifiable. The learner is investigating differences among acids and bases through multiple interfaces.
Ease of Use,
BrainPop website is very well organized by discipline, and then broken down by subject. The site is very user friendly and geared towards kids. The buttons are entertaining and colorful. The whole set up of to page is inviting and things are easy to find.
If in a specific subject interface, a person can easily navigate away to other parts of the same interface or change subjects all together. The site offers numerous quizzes for the user to take to assess how well they know the material. The user has the option to email the results, print results, or view results. Like I mentioned before, the software is very user friendly and most student can navigate through the site without trouble.
Video, quizzes, experiments, Q and A sections, and activities are all ways the material is presented and all of these ways are student friendly.
One potential downfall to BrainPop is that it is not free for the full version. The user must pay almost $100 annually for access. This may cause some educators to shy away for the site.
BrainPop is a wonderful resource. Do you have access to Discovery Streaming or Learn 360? I have had students embed the BrainPop videos into their StAIRS and WebQuests in the past. As long as the students have access they can watch the video. The videos are protected since you do have to have a login and password. That would be same for Discovery/Learn 360 too.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many resources to use as extension or remediation. Our students are fortunate to have these resources if they have Internet access.