Cool Concept Mapping on BrainPop

Don't you just LOVE BrainPop Jr.? The more I use this resource, the more I admire how well developed it is for educationally sound and student-engaging material. Annie is the ever curious child who both learns and teaches her robot friend Moby. He doesn't always quite understand new concepts but Annie has a way of making her explanations both simple and complete.

We have all used the "Hard Quiz" and "Easy Quiz" features, along with "Pop a Joke" and "Word Wall". Perhaps you have explored the "Activity" "Belly Up" or  any of the other features that support learning.

But note that there is a NEW feature called Make-a-map that you should definitely check out!

Make-a-map is a timely addition to the features selection because it allows you and your students to create Concept Maps that will add a visual component to both learning and assessment.

Let's suppose you are doing a research project or classroom unit on Butterflies. You already know that BrainPop, Jr. has a great movie and supporting features on this topic. But now, you can PAUSE the movie, take a snapshot and drag it into your concept map. Within the concept map, if you click on the snapshot it will play just that part of the movie! You can go to WORDs and drag any of the important words or vocabulary into your concept map. You can create your own ovals or rectangles to enter text. You can choose from applicable images to add to the concept map. And of course, you can change text, shape, color, lines, arrows and more to customize your concept map to further define ideas.

Here are two examples of concept maps I created from the Butterflies topic and movie:

Here I clicked on the little camera in the movie to take screenshots and drag them into my concept map. Note the PLAY button on each of the images.



Here I pulled in some of the vocabulary words to add to my concept map:

As we begin to implement some of the Keys to Literacy components, take advantage of the new slate of lesson plans and features that BrainPop, Jr. has to offer. 

Want to know more? "POP" in and ask me - I'm always happy to help.

Did you find a great feature or have an idea to share about BrainPop, Jr.? Share it in a COMMENT below!