Brain Pop Jr.

I have always used Brain Pop to show videos to students as a whole class. The students always react well to the videos and enjoy watching them. I have just recently learned though that Brain Pop Jr. was available as an app. Brain Pop Jr. is a website that has tons and tons of education videos for students. It is a young girl and her friend Moby discussing and testing many topics. They make the videos fun for the students by adding in jokes and making them humorous. The website and app allow you to search endless topics and give you an overview of the video. The video also gives you stopping points where they think you should stop and talk to your students about what they are talking about thus far. The students can also answer questions after the videos in a pre-made quiz that the app and website gives you for each topic.

The students have been learning all about friction and forces and motion in science the past few weeks. Most of the students understand the concept of force and how it affects us. There are still about four or five students in the class that cannot grasp the concept and do not understand it. The other day, I decided it would be a good idea to pull those students aside during Team Time and help them better understand forces and motion. I pulled up my Brain Pop Jr. app and found a video on pushes and pulls (the two types of forces.) I decided to use Brain Pop Jr. in a small group setting. Something new that I had not tried before. The students responded very well to it and it allowed me to address specific questions they had about the topic. I stopped the video periodically to ask them question and discuss with them to gauge their understanding. I believe having them watch the video in a smaller group and actually having discussions with them greatly helped
their understanding of forces and motion.

I am definitely going to use Brain Pop Jr. again for small group. It allows me to understand exactly what the students are not comprehending and having the video allows the students to see a visual up close which allows them to understand it better.