News and Updates
BrainPOP’s Back-to-School Countdown Begins at ISTE
It’s that time of year again: The BrainPOP team is hitting the road for ISTE! We’re eager to connect with some of the brightest minds from schools and classrooms nationwide, and Booth 2634 is the hot spot you won’t want to miss.
And Moby’s not the only one coming along for the ride. BrainPOP team members, alongside some special guest stars, will host live demos to give you a closer look at the inner workings of BrainPOP and BrainPOP Science—and you’ll also get ISTE-exclusive sneak peeks of our fall feature lineup.
The needs of our classrooms continue to be the driving force behind everything we build, and we’re excited to show what we’re working on for you.
New School Year, New BrainPOP Reports
We know that every subject and every student benefits from stronger literacy skill development because the need to comprehend and express complex ideas is universal.
That’s why we’re supercharging BrainPOP with new reports and dashboards that make it easier to see how student assignments improve learning outcomes, strengthen literacy skills, deepen comprehension, and encourage creative opportunities to demonstrate understanding across subjects.
Meet Students at Their Level: Our New Teacher Insights Dashboard
The best learning tools are guided by the needs of teachers. That’s why we collaborated with educators to co-design your new dashboard, providing teachers with the following:
- Formative assessment insights from student and class-level performance on Pause Points, Quizzes, and Challenges to help inform data-driven instructional decisions
- Increased opportunities to differentiate instruction and reinforce key concepts during individual or small-group instruction
- Student-level proficiency data on how student assignments provide consistent engagement with essential literacy skills in order to drive progress and learning outcomes
See the Bigger Picture: Our New Literacy Skills Report for Administrators
You already know that consistent use of BrainPOP assignments leads to a statistically significant increase in learning gains in literacy across subjects. So this fall, we’re bringing insights and proof to your school and district administrator reports by enhancing them with our new Essential Literacy Skill Report.
- Get a snapshot of which essential literacy skills classes and schools engage with most often.
- Track monthly trends that show teachers’ focus shifts throughout the school year.
- Monitor how students are progressing toward grade-level skill proficiency across subjects.
BrainPOP Science Gets an Engineering Upgrade
Science teachers also have fun surprises heading their way from BrainPOP Science, our new solution for middle school science classrooms, which connects classroom learning with real-life applications, so students aren’t just studying science and engineering—they’re doing it.
Engineering Projects Guide Students to Think and Write Like Engineers
Engineering Projects launch this September to complement our existing Science Investigations. Students make observations, analyze data, and engage with science and engineering practices in real time (and real life!)
We’re so excited that these new Engineering Projects introduce a blend of digital and hands-on engineering, so that students can experience the full breadth of the engineering process that mirrors the balance of technology and tangible work from the real world.
Tune In to the History of Science with Our New Soundbytes
Soundbytes bring science investigations to life with bite-sized 3−4 minute mini-podcasts that explore the history behind scientific concepts, highlighting stories that don’t make the headlines. Students are not just reading and writing about science; they’re listening to it, discussing it, and integrating different views, leading to a richer understanding and a deeper connection with the subject.
Take an example for a test ride in our Physical Science Investigation on levers and pulleys.
Meet the Brains Behind BrainPOP
But that’s not all! Explore beyond the exhibit hall booth to hear directly from our team of experts during thought leadership panels and poster sessions throughout the week.
Developing and Measuring Creative Skills in Learning Through Play Setting
In collaboration with The LEGO Foundation, learn from Dr. Yigal Rosen, chief academic officer, and Dr. Michele Newstadt, senior director of learning design, about their ongoing work building an assessment engine designed to help educators strengthen and assess students’ multidimensional skills, like creativity and critical thinking.
From Data to Action: Analyzing and Interpreting Assessment Data
Dr. Melissa Hogan, director of efficacy, will help you learn how to turn data into actionable teaching strategies, guiding you through protocols for identifying patterns and performing root cause analysis. You’ll leave with a roadmap to use assessment data effectively, helping you make informed decisions and improve student achievement.
Building High-Impact Literacy Skills for All by Centering Learner Variability
Join Dr. Barbara Hubert, alongside industry peers from the NYC Department of Education and New Visions for Public Schools, to explore strategies for designing accessible literacy instruction tailored to each student’s needs.
Learn more about where BrainPOP is headlining at ISTE, including two additional poster sessions with Dr. Barbara Hubert.
Hear From Your Peers
We also have teachers and education leaders on deck. These folks have unlocked the power of BrainPOP and BrainPOP Science in their classrooms, and want to empower others to follow suit.
And our BrainPOP superstars (Certified BrainPOP Educators, or CBEs) are here, too—eager to share their tips, tricks, and insider info with you.
- Rebecca Gratz will dig into how BrainPOP Creative Coding makes computer science fun, accessible, and less intimidating for kids as early as kindergarten, and their teachers!
- Learn from Jessie Erickson how to use BrainPOPs to deepen word knowledge, improve literacy skills, and turn your classroom into a positive, supportive environment where students feel emotionally secure, psychologically safe, and ready to learn.
- Mason Nichols knows writing doesn’t have to be taught in isolation. Join him to learn how BrainPOP can help you incorporate writing into your lessons, no matter what subject you teach.
- Have you used Make-a-Movie yet to give students agency and ownership over their learning process? Learn how Lynda Last uses this beloved BrainPOP creative project to invite students to step into the teacher’s role (and director’s chair) and demonstrate understanding in innovative ways.
- Dig into the value of play with Sean Arnold as he walks through BrainPOP GameUp, which incorporates play-based learning across academic subjects.
See you at Booth 2634!
Meeting the faces behind BrainPOP classrooms is the best part of our jobs, so don’t forget to stop by to say hi, stay for a demo, and pick up some swag!
But whether or not you make it to ISTE this year, we’re so excited to make our way back into your classrooms this fall to continue to be there for all of your teachable moments.
Our fall feature lineup is rooted in our core belief that we don’t just want students to learn–we want them to understand, explore, and question the world around them, building the universal skills they need to become confident readers, writers, and thinkers.
Michelle Strom is associate director, product marketing at BrainPOP. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology, and is a former classroom teacher.
