Brain Pop was founded in 1999, originally "conceived by Avraham Kadar, M.D., an immunologist and pediatrician, as a creative way to explain difficult concepts to his young patients," according to their website. Today, they claim to be used in about 20% of U.S. schools, with a growing international audience. It is full of games, movies, and tutorials that touch on many content areas. Mostly the videos deal with topics in the big four content areas, Math, Science, English, and Social Studies, but they branch off into Technology and the Arts as well. There is a Spanish version of this site, too, which might be great for second language learners.
Brain Pop is a website that requires you to pay for full access, though it does offer freebies. It is for all age students, though I think the cartoons do tend to skew a bit young. I do not know how much high school students would like to be seen watching these videos or playing these games, though I certainly do think that they are informative for students at many grade levels. (Hey, I like them myself, but I am not worried about what a bunch of teenagers think of me.) I certainly see this site being used by a teacher for the videos (such as a short refresher or info blast) or by the students, perhaps in a small work station they can rotate to and from.
The site is not very commercial (I saw no pop-up ads or banners trying to get me to buy products). Occasionally they partner with other publications, like National Geographic, but this site seems relatively free from external advertisement.
The pros are that this site can be one-stop shopping for some teachers and students, with plenty of videos, games, and even practice materials and short quizzes. The games are frequently linked to the videos and information pages that are relevant to the topic being covered, which can facilitate connection-making. There is a decent amount of free material available, too. A trial version that gives you more access to everything is also available for folks who are interested in the site.
The cons are that some of the practice materials are very basic and not very challenging, versions of online worksheets. Also, like I said above, I am not sure where the ceiling for students who would want to be seen navigating this site by their peers would be, though I would wager they could look over things at home for review without censure.
With all these pros and cons, I still think there are many worthwhile attributes to Brain Pop. I invite you to go check it out for yourself.
This is their main site: http://www.brainpop.com/
Here are some representative videos:
Cesar Chavez (in commemoration of Labor Day)
Mars (Astronomy)
Angles (Geometry)
Fotografía (en Español)
Here are some representative games:
Refraction (fraction practice)
Pavlov's Dog (behaviorism)
Coaster Creator (physics)
ESL Games
