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File:BrainPOPstartscreen.png
The BrainPOP loading screen

BrainPOP is an educational website with hundreds of short Flash-based movies for students in grades K-12 (ages 6 to 17) about mathematics, technology, health, science, social studies, arts & music, and English. Most of the videos feature the site's recurring characters, Tim and Moby. The site is owned by FWD Media, Inc., based in New York.

Description of the site

Founded in 1999, the BrainPOP websites display animated, curriculum-based content that supports educators and are intended to be fun for students to watch.[1] The online resources include BrainPOP, for grades 3 and up (over age 9) and BrainPOP Jr., for grades K-3 (ages 6 to 9). The site also offers some movies in three different languages: BrainPOP Español for Spanish-speakers, BrainPOP Francais (French) and BrainPOP UK (English with UK-centered topics)[2] The site's newest resource, BrainPOP Educators, features free tips, tools and best practices by and for teachers and homeschoolers. Schools and parents can use the site to help shape the student's curriculum.[3][4]

BrainPOP also recently launched BrainPOP ESL in 2009, targeted at students learning English as a second language.

BrainPOP movies may be used to introduce a new lesson or topic, for illustrating complex subject matter or to review before a test. Content is aligned to USA state education standards and is searchable. In addition to movies, the site displays quizzes, experiments and other related content.[5] BrainPOP products are compatible with PCs, Macs, projectors and interactive whiteboards. No downloading, installation or special hardware is required.[6] The movies feature recurring characters such as Tim, Moby and Annie.[4] Most of the movies end humorously, often with Tim getting annoyed at Moby or vice versa.

BrainPOP was conceived by Avraham Kadar, M.D., an immunologist and pediatrician, as a creative way to explain difficult concepts to his young patients.[4] As of 2008, BrainPOP hosted more than 2 million unique visits each month, from thousands of schools and individuals worldwide. BrainPOP uses an in-house team of educators, animators, and writers to produce and continually update the site, incorporating teacher and parent input. The site has won numerous awards, including Apple Education: Recommended Curriculum Collections; Interactive Media Award: Outstanding Achievement, 2008; Homeschool.com Top 100 Educational Web Sites 2008; International Media Award: Best in Class, 2007; Association for Library Service to Children: Great Web Sites for Kids, 2006; Association of Educational Publishers: Distinguished Achievement Award, 2005; Homeschool.com: Top 100 Educational Web Sites, 2005; Telly Award Finalist: Education and Use of Animation, 2005; Media & Methods: Awards Portfolio Winner, 2005; Forbes Magazine: Best of the Web, 2004, 2002 and 2001.[7]

Characters

Tim

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Tim

Tim (short for Timothy) is a smart teenager in high school, who does most of the talking in the movies. He is of Welsh and Japanese ancestry. He can understand what Moby says. In many of the movies about instruments, it's shown Tim does not do well on playing instruments. The only instrument he could do correctly is the violin. Often at the end of the movies he will get Moby in trouble or have Moby get him in trouble. Tim also appears in the Internet Safety movie in Brainpop Jr. The design on his shirt always matches the topic being covered. Some of the movies imply that he likes Rita, and sometimes he shows affection to her. Tim owns pets that appear in some movies, and he wanted a pet kangaroo in the Land Biomes movie. Some movies show that Tim wears glasses and contact lenses. He can do Tai Chi Chuan. He is kind of a nerd, but is still nice. He is a hero to many kids around the world.

Moby von Robot III

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Moby

Moby is an orange robot who communicates in noises (similar to R2D2 from Star Wars) . He has three lights on his chest that light up every time he beeps, and Tim usually translates what he's saying. Moby is Tim's friend but loves to drive him crazy. Moby usually helps out by fetching things for Tim and asking questions about the topic they are discussing. As a robot, he can do things that Tim is unable to do, such as changing his hand into a freeze-ray, sending himself back in time, removing his head and using lasers. It is often hinted that he wants to take over the world with Tim. In one movie, it is supposed that Tim and Moby are brothers ("I'm going to tell Mom!"). Moby is sometimes portrayed as immature and childlike, as in the "Digestion" movie, where he beep-laughs about excretion, as well as in the monotremes movie. He also chuckles when Tim talks about puberty in the Judy Blume movie. Moby does some remarkable things, such as at the end of the Life Cycle of Stars movie, where he carries a trash can to outer space and throws garbage into a black hole.

Some of the movies, especially those in the Space sub-category, imply that Moby is of an extraterrestrial origin, such as the Earth movie. The Radar movie hints that Moby is from Saturn's moon, Titan. Sometimes, when Moby says too much about where he came from, or when Tim saw an old rock painting that featured a Moby-like robot coming out of a rocket and being observed by people, Moby has erased Tim's memory (e.g. the outer solar system movie). In the Milky Way movie, Moby points to the star he came from and explains he has a home planet, but when Tim asks him what's it called, he says that he doesn't remember. In the Mars movie, Tim mentions something about people mistaking Moby for a Martian, but when he is about to mention where Moby really comes from, Moby interrupts and glares at him angrily, prompting Tim to move on. However, the Leonardo da Vinci movie ends with Moby sliding down a panel on his chest, revealing a panel labeled "Robots by Leonardo", implying that he was invented by da Vinci.

Moby's favorite color is red, and he likes running (as his exercise). He also likes chocolate, peanut butter, peas and anchovy milkshakes. He also likes baseball. It's stated in the movies about Baseball, and Social Networking, that his favorite baseball player is David Wright. Moby plays the piano, the tenor saxophone and the electric guitar. Some of the movies show Moby owning collections. He has a pet blue dog-bird hybrid.[8]

Cassie and Rita

Cassie and Rita are two teenage girls, who are best friends and are mainly featured in comics that accompany most of the movies. They also occasionally appear in the movies, and even narrate a few of them, such as "Telephones" and "Period". Rita tends to be more composed and intelligent, while Cassie tends to be more absent-minded. A common theme in the comic strip is Cassie doing something silly and Rita helping her. In the movie on Motherhood there is a picture of Tim and Rita as adults, married, with two kids (this is seen again in the Adulthood movie).

Cassie

Cassie's favorite color is green. She has a goldfish named Puffer and two hermit crabs. Her birthday is November 10.

Rita

Rita's favorite colors are black and pink. She has a ginger cat named Pickle, which Tim takes care of in the Body Scans movie. She also owns a dog named Dakota that is shown in a "Just for Fun" comic strip. Her birthday is May 18. It is implied that Rita likes Tim, and that he returns her feelings.

Bob, the Ex-lab rat

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Bob the Ex-Lab Rat

Bob is a rat with a broken tail and a patched chest. Bob is featured in experiments called "Experiments with Bob the Ex-Lab Rat", which relate to the movies. People write to him asking for ideas for experiments - sometimes, he sends them to Tim and Moby so they can make a movie about them. Bob has been featured in a few movies and has conducted experiments in many of the movies. He is also sometimes shown at the bottom of a BrainPOP web page.

His favorite color is yellow. In the Causes of the American Revolution movie, it is stated that Bob has a Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather named Julius.

Gary and gary

Gary and gary are also featured in some comics on BrainPOP, called "How To With Gary and gary", which shows how to do something safely. The capitalized "Gary" is the father, and the lowercase "gary" is the son. Gary's favorite color is blue.

BrainPOP Jr.

BrainPOP Jr. was launched on September 4, 2006. It is similar to BrainPOP, but the movies are geared towards grades K-3 (age 6-9). They star Moby and a little girl named Annie. The movies were free until May 2007. Since then, subscriptions have been required to see most of the movies. The site offers a free "Movie of the Week", as well as several free movies in the different curricular areas.

Characters in BrainPOP Jr.

Annie

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Annie from BrainPop Jr.

Annie is a young girl who narrates the movies. She wears red framed glasses and also works with Moby. She has a sister named Mia who talks on the cell phone too much, is allergic to dust and gets angry when Annie says something embarrassing about her. There are many hints in BrainPOP Jr. that Annie is Mexican, like her dog's name (Sr. Marice), and she sometimes refers to her father as papi. Her best friend is named Becca.

She is allergic to eggs and gets red in the face when angry or embarrassed.

Moby

In BrainPOP Jr., Moby shows his emotions more often, like crying or being overly hyper. Moby is a little more kind hearted in BrainPOP Jr. than in BrainPOP. He can also do things the other Moby can't do like sneeze, eat human food and sweat and drink things like water. He can also can be sick and smell flowers.

Frank and Joey

Frank and Joey are two fish that star in the comic strip "Belly Up."

BrainPOP ESL

BrainPop ESL is a website with different levels(Level 1 as of December 9th,2009) and there are 6 units(as of 12/9/09) in each different level.Brainpop ESL has new features like:"Know More","Hear it,say it","Warm-Up","Words,Words,Words!","Play It", "Read it","Write It",and "You Can Do It".BrainPop ESL has Five Flash-Videos in each different "Unit".As the site adds new videos,the words get longer,and longer to pronouce.BrainPop ESL is a website that has free movies(as of 12/9/09)that doesn't have to do with having to "Log-In".BrainPop ESL is now used for grades and kids for ages 3-older.

References

  1. ^ BrainPOP profile at Education World, August 2006
  2. ^ BrainPOP profile at Web100.com
  3. ^ Hermitt, Andrea. "How to Use BrainPop as your Low Cost Homeschool Curriculum", eHow
  4. ^ a b c Seltzer, Sarah. "'Pop' Movies that Educate", New York Family magazine, May 2007
  5. ^ "BrainPOP Turns Dads Into Geniuses", Rare Bird Articles, August 18, 2003
  6. ^ BrainPOP Tour
  7. ^ BrainPOP's Awards page
  8. ^ Brainpop movies and profiles of Tim and Moby at Sparktop.org
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