Topic Roundup
BrainPOP Recent Topic Roundup: March 2024

As we roll into spring, we’re excited to unveil the latest from BrainPOP. Since our last update in September, our team has created new topics in digital citizenship, arts and music, math, science, and social studies. Our content is meticulously designed to align with various standards, ensuring teachers access engaging resources that help students build essential literacy skills—like understanding the main idea, interpreting unfamiliar words and phrases, and drawing evidence to support their analysis. Whether you’re interpreting data in math class or analyzing a historical text in social studies, literacy skills are there—and so is BrainPOP.
New on BrainPOP
Digital Citizenship
Artificial Intelligence More and more, computers are performing tasks that we normally think of as requiring human intelligence, from answering questions on websites to driving cars. Students will learn all about this so-called narrow AI. Much of it is based on machine learning, where computers are programmed with instructions and fed data, then trained to recognize patterns and eventually make decisions on new data. These AI models are built on artificial neural networks, which mimic the brain’s neural network. In addition to learning how AI works, students will find out potential risks and benefits of AI, as well as how to interact with it responsibly.
Math
Bar Graphs All graphs express data visually, but bar graphs are especially helpful when it comes to comparing related groups of data. Students will learn how to construct these graphs, and how to use them to analyze data and spot patterns while solving one- and two-step word problems.
Comparing Prices (Update) It can be hard to determine the best deal on something you want to buy. Students will learn the importance of considering more than just price when sorting through competing offers. They will learn about calculating unit rates, finding hidden costs, and decoding reviews, as well as weighing factors such as quality and added features.
Patterns Using the concept of arcade games, students will learn how to identify a pattern’s rule to predict the next numbers in a sequence or find a missing number. They will be introduced to one-step and two-step rules, both of which will help Moby find a game-winning strategy.
Perimeter of Polygons Perimeter is the total distance around the outside of a closed, flat shape. This topic will teach students how to calculate the perimeter of various polygons. They’ll also learn shortcuts to find the perimeter of a regular polygon and the length of a polygon’s missing side.
Proportional Relationships (Update) Two things are proportional when the mathematical relationship between them—the ratio—stays the same as they scale up and down. This topic teaches students how to identify proportional relationships from pairs of values in a given table. They will learn to find the constant of proportionality, and use it to fill in missing values—with both whole number constants and fractions.
Arts and Music
Elements of Art Help students discover their artistic side! Students will be introduced to the seven basic elements of art: line, shape, form, color, value, space and texture. From paintings and photographs to sculptures and multi-media works, these elements are fundamental to all forms of visual art.
Hip-Hop and Rap (Update) Fifty years ago, this musical movement started in the Bronx, New York, and it’s since grown to become a multibillion-dollar industry and major influencer of popular culture. Students will take a trip back to hip-hop’s humble beginnings and learn about the genre’s four foundational elements—rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti. They’ll meet pioneering DJs, like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, who expanded the culture and led to hip-hop’s huge rise.
Science
Anxiety Sweaty skin, racing thoughts, pounding heart—these are just a few of the ways that anxiety can take hold when we’re worried or nervous about something in the future, like a big test or a new social situation. This topic will explain how anxiety is wired into our brains, and why our brains respond through fight-or-flight when we sense a risk. Students will discover how this reaction can be helpful for focusing our attention on a problem, and they’ll learn helpful strategies to calm down when they need to. They’ll also find out what happens when anxiety gets in the way of living life, and how that can be an anxiety disorder.
Electricity (Update) Get all charged up about electricity, and discover how it runs our world! Students will learn about the connection between lightning and static electricity, and how it is possible to generate a spark by rubbing certain materials together. They will also learn about current electricity, the steady flow of charge many of our devices depend on. They’ll find out how a series of discoveries led scientists to get electricity to flow—and uncover one of the forces that rule our entire universe.
Social Studies
Black History Month How did February come to be Black History Month? It started about 100 years ago, with a historian named Carter G. Woodson. Born to formerly enslaved parents, Woodson became only the second Black person to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Students will learn how he started an association devoted to saving, researching, and spreading the word about Black history, and how he created the first national February celebrations to showcase and honor such history.
Groundhog Day Every year on February 2, people from all over North America eagerly await the emergence of the groundhog from its burrow. If it stays out, that’s seen as a sign that spring will arrive early. However, if it goes back inside, the forecast is six more weeks of winter. Students will learn all about this unique holiday, from the science between seasons to the centuries-old traditions celebrated by European tribes to mark the changing of the seasons.
Passover Every spring, Jews around the world celebrate a holiday that’s all about freedom. Students will learn how families gather for special meals called seders, where they say prayers, sing songs, and retell the story of how God freed the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Different gatherings focus on different traditions, but the focus is always on liberation, and expressing gratitude for the freedom folks enjoy now.
Powwows Every year, hundreds of powwows are held across the United States and Canada, featuring traditional Native music, dance, arts, and culture. Students will learn how powwows come from a time when Native cultures were repressed, and how being forced together eventually led to a new intertribal identity. They will understand how powwows have become a place for people to celebrate the survival and flourishing of Native cultures.
Renaissance The Renaissance in Europe marked an explosion of artistic achievement in Italy—and much more. Students will learn all about the radical changes made from the 14th through 17th centuries to art, science, technology, religion, and the boundaries of the known world. They will explore how European societies rebuilt after the Black Death, and how the fall of the eastern empires flooded the West with new ideas, transforming the world.
Trials (Update) Laws are the rules that govern society, and trials are a way to solve disputes about the law. Students will learn how trials work and the key differences between civil and criminal trials. They will also gain insight into how frequently (or infrequently) trials actually happen.
New on BrainPOP Jr.
-Ful and -Less Check out this beautiful, flawless movie, in which Annie and Moby explain how to use the suffixes -ful and -less. Students will learn the definition of suffix and how suffixes change the meaning of a base word. They’ll understand that -ful means “full of,” in contrast to -less, which means “without.”
Stay tuned! Here’s what we’re working on in the coming months:
- Adding and Subtracting Decimals
- Adding and Subtracting Mixed Numbers
- ADHD (Update)
- Ancient Hawaii
- Compounds and Mixtures
- Coordinate Plane Word Problems
- Hammurabi’s Laws
- Spread of Islam
- Unit Rates
Denesha Williams is production manager on the BrainPOP Editorial Team.