BrainPOP Science
New to BrainPOP Science: Back to School 2024
Big news! This back-to-school season, BrainPOP Science is getting updates that will support students and teachers alike. New planning and grading resources will help teachers focus on what matters—those precious instructional minutes—while students will challenge themselves, build skills, and take the lead in their own learning.
Learn more about each of BrainPOP Science’s updates below—all of which are available for Back to School 2024. Bonus: in addition to all of the below, BrainPOP Science is launching 7 new Engineering Projects, including projects about bridge-building, collisions, and sustainability.
Note: As we build these new features, you can expect that some resources, reports, and functionalities will be temporarily unavailable to account for behind-the-scenes work. Learn more here.
New Features
Grade CERs in No Time: BrainPOP Assisted Grading™
What it is: BrainPOP Assisted Grading™ for CER suggests scores for student-submitted Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) written responses—along with a teacher-only view of the rationale for each score—which saves teachers’ time, and gives students a more consistent grading experience. Teachers review grades before releasing them to students, meaning this feature follows the U.S. Department of Education’s guidance of using artificial intelligence with a “humans in the loop” approach.
Why teachers will love it: While written responses are increasingly important in science education, CERs take an enormous amount of time and effort to grade. Assisted Grading decreases the barrier to entry of assigning CERs to students—helping students get more practice in evidence-based writing without affecting teachers’ bandwidths.
Develop Word-Building Skills: Vocabulary
What it is: Before diving into the meat of the Investigation, students are presented with content-specific Tier 3 vocabulary words—without explicit definitions. The goal? Use word structure and context clues to decipher what the word might mean…and continue to build the meaning of the word as they move through the rest of the investigation.
Why teachers will love it: Introducing key terms without definitions requires students to use critical thinking and deductive reasoning, skills students can transfer to other grades and high-stakes tests–all in a low-risk environment.
Bonus: Teachers’ new Answer Key flow includes a printable vocabulary list with definitions so teachers can build word walls, make flashcards, or deliver vocabulary instruction in their own creative way.
Help Students Succeed: Student Scaffolds
Coming fall 2024
What it is:
- Built-in prompts to help students write observations: with scaffolds that mirror instructional best practices, students will slowly learn what an observation is, practice writing one with guidance, and finally feel confident writing one on their own.
- Multimodal, technology-enhanced question types give every student a chance to succeed—and also happen to mirror the format and rigor of those students will see on state tests.
- These auto-graded activities are transferred seamlessly into teacher reports, which will help teachers differentiate future lessons.
Why teachers will love it:
These features set every learner up to use stronger evidence in their CERs—every step of the way.
Whether they’re answering varied question types, developing confidence through fading scaffolds in observation cards, or getting the differentiated support they need, BrainPOP Science’s updates will be accessible and just-challenging-enough for every student.
Feel Supported: Teacher Resources
What it is:
- Teacher Toolkit, which helps teachers who are new to BrainPOP Science or new to the field get oriented and learn how to make the most of BrainPOP Science—with advice on everything from how to connect to your school’s SSO to Pro Tip videos from our own BrainPOP Science Learning Design team.
- Implementation Guide, which works as a glossary of everything on BrainPOP Science, and lists the various ways to use each part of it in the classroom—including Individual Resources (activities that are assignable by themselves, without the context of the Investigation). The Guide also breaks down the power and pacing of each Individual Resource to help teachers make the most of their precious classroom time.
- Students’ auto-graded activities mean that teachers can track their class’ progress —without the grading time.
Why teachers will love it: Teachers will be able to leverage their in-class time to the fullest extent—without laborious prep work in advance—and feel like they have a partner in every step of their BrainPOP Science journey.
Easy Progress Tracking: Enhanced Teacher Reports
What it is: Actionable, user-friendly reports to track the information that teachers need to inform future instruction. There are three levels of reporting—Assignment Progress, Activity Progress, and Standards Performance—to allow teachers to look at students’ progress in as macro or micro a view as they want. Each report is broken down by student, and displays scores with the ability to filter for specific results.
- Assignment Progress looks at the activities that comprise the steps of the Investigation or the Engineering project
- Activity Progress breaks down each activity—data manipulative, movies, simulations, etc.—by question.
- Standards Progress looks at the Science Content Standards that have been covered during that investigation
Why teachers will love it: These reports have been created with the help of science teachers to cover exactly the information that teachers want—in the format they need. BrainPOP Science’s auto-graded activities and the new CER assisted grading mean that teachers don’t have to spend time grading or compiling data. With the click of a few buttons, they can see which students need help—and on which specific activities, science standards, or specific questions.
So, which update are you most excited about this back-to-school season? Ready to explore BrainPOP Science?
AnnaLiese Burich is a product marketing manager at BrainPOP with a history of Edtech writing experience. She holds an MA in Magazine Journalism and an MA in English Literature.
