POPtalk

If you visit BrainPOP UK in the next few days it may act a little…freaky.

You may see a few empty categories or movies that appear or disappear rather randomly and some new and unfamiliar sub-categories.

This blog post is to let you know that you’re not going barmy; it’s us making some long over due enhancements to the website. We’ve spent the last few months completely reviewing all our curriculum tagging on BrainPOP UK.

The most immediate change is to improve the findability of movies via the homepage using language the classroom teacher is comfortable and happy with. So we’re changing or adding brand new sub categories.

For example:

• “Cell Structure” will be changed to “Cells” and placed into a new sub category called “Life Processes”.
• “Weather and Climate” will be added to the sub category “Geography” under the main category “Humanities“
• “Using and Applying” is a brand new sub category.

Instead of taking the whole site down we thought we’d do them one by one over the next week or so. We hope it won’t effect your experience but if you can’t find a movie or quiz in that time then come back later and it will probably have returned. You can always use the keyword search at the top of the screen as the movies themselves are not going anywhere. Also if you link to any categories you may need to change the URL after it’s moved.

PS: We’re also re-vamping our Curriculum Planning tool (which we’re simply calling the FIND tool for now) and adding lots of new movies. LOTS of new movies. There’s a whole separate blog post coming soon about them.

PPS: You are going to be blown away with all the BrainPOPpy goodness that’s on the way.

How do we decide what movies to make? Well, thanks for asking, Chris. Believe it or not, all our movies are sourced from inquisitive people like you.

At the start of every movie Tim reads out a letter that has come to us from a child or teacher somewhere in the world. We get 1000′s of these emails and letters every year.

Some geniune real life examples:

• “Dear Tim & Moby, I think you should show a video on myspace. A lot of people use it and it is sometimes dangerous. Can you teach me a little bit more about it please?”
• “Dear Tim & Moby, How do you make and design toys and remote control cars?”
• “Dear Tim & Moby, Why do alligator mums and dads eat their babies when they’re little?”
• “Dear Tim & Moby, Hi there, I’m going to be teaching year 2 children about making an emergency call to 999. Can I suggest that you make a video clip about what the procedure would be, what questions they would be asked when they call and what constitutes an emergency? Your site is great and I will be signing up when my trial is up. Thanks!”
• “Dear Tim & Moby, Can you make a film about polymer?”
• “Dear Tim and Moby, what is anime or manga? I have heard its some kind of Japanese art form.”
• “Dear Tim & Moby, Cheese: I love cheese, I can’t get enough of the stuff, so how do you make it and where does it come from?”

What happens to my suggestion after I send it in?

Tim and Moby write back to everyone who writes in to request a movie (assuming you include your contact details).

All movie suggestions go into a queue where they are regularly discussed and, if we think it’s a topic we want to explore or enough people ask for it (or someone really goes the extra mile to suggest a movie) then we’ll likely go ahead and do it.

What movies we do is up to Tim and Moby, so there’s no guarantees. But you never know if you don’t try, right?

We LOVE getting suggestions from BrainPOPpers. So why not get your class to submit Tim and Moby letters on topics that interest them?

Wouldn’t you like to claim “that’s me!” in a Tim and Moby movie?

So if you have a topic you’d like to see BrainPOP UK explaining then you could send us “Dear_Tim_and_Moby”_letter and email it to timandmoby@brainpop.co.uk or post it into us:

Tim & Moby
BrainPOP UK
267, Banbury road,
Oxford
OX2 7HT

We’d especially like to see UK specific movie ideas – history, geography, famous British figures, culture and so on.

Remember, the foundation of BrainPOP UK is YOU. So keep your movie ideas coming!

PS: Who knows what other goodies we give to the lucky someone that gets their movie made?