Alessio (@asober) very kindly provided us with physics lesson ideas and activities to try in the classroom and at home. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen to a human body in space without a spacesuit or similar challenging questions, you’re going to love these.

For students:

Click to download the student's worksheet

For educators:

Click to download the Teacher's Edition

Rocket back to Starship BrainPOP

“Great opportunity for staff to review the resources. A fresh approach to using video within the curriculum. All the responses were very positive.”

Rhona MacKenzie, West Dunbartonshire Authority

What a lovely thing to say. But what’s Rhona talking about? One of our new POPteach workshops.

BrainPOP itself is so simple to grasp there’s not much call for conventional “training”. So we don’t offer it.

The key challenge is to raise awareness of what BrainPOP UK can do in context – for YOU in YOUR lessons. A workshop where the focus is “BrainPOP plus CPD”.

A POPteach workshop is an opportunity to gather a group of educators together to talk Tim & Moby. They may be subscribers or they may be total newbies to BrainPOP resources – all are welcome. It may be facilitated by a BrainPOPper or a VIB. Or both!

Our pilot POPteach workshops have been held in Scotland. At the most recent our Scottish Ambassador, Kim Conway, worked with the West Dunbartonshire Authority to hold a twilight CPD workshop. Ten teachers from seven different schools attended. As is the BrainPOP way they got showered with cool BrainPOP merchandise including badges, pens and chocolates. We offered fruit too, but curiously that didn’t turn out to be as popular.

Kim ran through the site, highlighting gems such Deep Beep, Spotlights and POPboxes and offered practical examples of how BrainPOP can be employed in the classroom.

Participation is a key part of a POPteach workshop. Kim likes attendees to join in with the POPquiz, and it wasn’t long before teachers were leaping up to the whiteboard to select answers.

These are only tentative baby steps with POPteach – we’re still polishing the format and always looking for feedback.

Each attendee is asked to give the experience a mark out of 10. We’re proud to say we received a 10/10 across the board. Did the chocolate sway people? Who knows. A good result either way. These are some of the workable ideas the teachers took away with them (everyone at this workshop had not used BrainPOP before, though some were aware of us):

• Use movies within classroom as discussion starters.
• Tell the staff. Log in and try it out.
• BrainPOP will tie in with my current topic. I intend to share BrainPOP with my colleagues – it is a useful resource.
• Using movies with class related to current movies being sponsored.
• Would like to use the videos for science.
• Share with staff.  Use  free trial period in lessons with my class (P6) particularly in relation to e-safety.
• Make use of the free trial in cross curricular areas and across stages.
• I intend to use BrainPOP in line with Es and Os within the classroom if the video enhances the concepts we are covering.
• Share with the rest of the staff and try out during the trial period.
• To enhance my lessons. To incorporate into topics using ACfE links.
• All useful. This was excellent. Great for pupils (+staff).

It’s only fair to mention what was noted we could do better:

• Could have had more ‘hands on’.

In particular it was great to hear how useful Deep Beep, our Curriculum Matching Tool, could be. Some teachers mentioned how easy it would be to incorporate BrainPOP links into topics they are currently teaching.

One thing that was said to us was “Good to see site, often ended up on it through Google but didn’t know what it was”, which is a lesson for us and a good reason why we might be holding more POPteach events round the country soon.

And finally, as is our wont, we couldn’t help but offer some lovely BrainPOP UK prizes! Congratulations to Kate Watson from Levenvale Primary who won a BrainPOP UK T-shirt, Carolann McVey from Levenvale Primary who won a goodie bag, and Marion Henry from St Mary’s Primary School in Alexandria who walked away with a class set of badges.

On the Spotlight homepage you’ll find a Film Making Quiz, Digital Animation Activity and Traditional Animation FYI.

We’ve included the following topics in the Making Movies Spotlight too:

• Analogue & Digital
• Digital Animation
• Drama
• Drawing
• Filmmaking
• Graphic Design
• Imagination
• Photography
• Television
• Traditional Animation
• Writing Dialogue
• Writing in Sequence

Extra activities you’ll find on POP Spot include:

Make a Tim & Moby movie competition – The closing date for entries is midnight on 16th December so you’ve only got two weeks now to pull off some movie magic!

Movie competition prizes – A little more info on just what you could win for your movie making efforts.

Tim & Moby’s Guide to Making a Movie – Handy links and top tips from our movie making pair.

Green screen fun and short, short stories – Roger Hurn weaved some magic tales for us a few weeks ago. Then we had some fun with Oxford scenes.

Luckily, we have a Mac in the office with iMovie and iMovie has a green screen function included. And, also luckily, it’s perfect for beginners. We hot-footed it out to the wilds of Summertown, acquired a green tablecloth, threw it over our Whiteboard, and we were set.

So, here are the fruits of our labour [Roger's] for you to enjoy. We hope these short, short stories and story starters inspire some of you to get movie making!

Story starter – It’s behind you!

Story starter – I thought I was right…

Story starter – The Door

Story starter – The Last Man Left Alive

Story starter – The Wise Guy

Story starter – The Holiday

Short, short story – The Skillful Tailor

Short, short story – The Skeleton

Short, short story – Hard Times

Short, short story – The Giant

Short, short story – Top Dog

Visit the Making Movies Spotlight >>>

“The conference is a collaborative and world-wide community effort to significantly increase opportunities for globally-connecting education activities“

I was honoured when Adina Popa, an award winning teacher, nominated me to give one of the keynotes at this incredible online event.

But I was nervous of accepting, given the value of some of the other names on the schedule – including one of my favourite voices in edtech,  Ewan McIntosh .

But fortune favours the brave so I said yes for two reasons:

1. I felt I had something I wanted to share and contribute to the global discussion
2. I wanted to get a reaction/feedback to those idea/thoughts

My talk was titled “Global Resources for Global Citizens – Teachers as Guides” and its essence was about the power of TeachMeets to break through many of the cultural and professional barriers that prevent 21st Century Teaching and Learning. This is how it was summarised, hopefully to get people interested enough to join in!

“In this short presentation, Eylan will demonstrate how BrainPOP’s experience of learning, in a range of global settings, languages and settings, has shown that there are key behaviours and lessons that can be shared to improve best practice for all 21st Century Educators. In the networks that BrainPOP takes part in, whether it be BrainPOPEducators, TeachMeets, BrainPOP Maestros, or in our PLNs, they talk to and understand the work that some of the most effective teachers are engaged in –using BrainPOP as the contextual hub. Eylan hopes to provide time and stimulus for debate – especially around the overuse of the word ‘Creativity’!”

Two other BrainPOPpers, from the US team, also contributed talks: Allisyn Levy (Director BrainPOP Educators) on The Value of Online Communities for Educators and Kari Stubbs (Vice President 21st Century Learning at BrainPOP) on Lessons Learned from the Chilean Miner Rescue .

I would urge you to listen to some of the other amazing speakers – the full listing of which can be found here. Thanks to all those who joined in at the time, and those that have watched since and for their kind comments.

We were invited along by class teachers, Mhairi Healy and Lindsay Purdon, to observe an S2 English class in action. The teachers decided to bring two S2 classes together for a creative World War One lesson.

40 kids rolled through the doors and we were immediately impressed at how quickly they got organised.

The lesson objectives were clear:

1. In groups, come up with a slogan to encourage men to sign up and help the war effort
2. Create a propaganda poster and include your slogan.
3. Make a presentation to the rest of the class where you make a persuasive argument to young men to sign up and fight.

To provide a little context and focus everyone’s attention, Mrs Healy and Ms Purdon played the World War I movie. Then, in groups of 4 and 5, the kids got to work.

It was wonderful to see how quickly each group immersed themselves into the tasks assigned, easily deciding who got what job. They had one class period to come up with the slogan, design a poster, and write and practice their presentations. They all worked really well considering the time pressure. Slogans and design seemed to be a doddle to this lot – why don’t we find it that easy?!

One hour up!

Attention to the front again to watch the BrainPOP UK movie on Public Speaking. We loved how the teachers decided to use the movie – rather than play the whole thing, they started it halfway through to cover the most relevant points for the second half of the lesson. It worked really well as a way of focusing the class’ attention after the discourse and loud creativity of the previous hour.

Presenting to BrainPOPpers (and everyone else in class)

All of the groups did well with their presentations. Given the little time they had to prepare, we were excited to see how varied the presentations were and how innovative some of the groups could be.

And the winner is…

After some “x-factor style” deliberations we picked a winner – a group with an original idea which they carried off with real enthusiasm for the goal – to recruit young men to the British Army. They were men who were in the army themselves and could proudly say it was great to be fighting for their country; we were convinced to sign up ourselves!

The winning group were given some specially made tartan badges and Ms Purdon got a prize-winning cup (a.k.a. BrainPOP UK mug).

We finished off with a fun Q&A session and, fortunately, the kids had some good questions. We were asked what our favourite movie was and Ann picked Etymology (Moby speaks in this one!) which promptly led into a discussion and explanation of what etymology actually was – very appropriate for an English class.

We had a fantastic time at Calderglen High School. As well as the English Department we visited the Gaelic Department – one classroom! We were warmly welcomed though our Gaelic was left wanting…

Good luck Calderglen for the rest of the school year and Glee fun in English! It was a pleasure visiting your school and we hope to be back again soon. We’ll leave the last word to adorable BrainPOP fan and VIB, Mrs Healy:

In this brand new BrainPOP UK movie, Tim and Moby shine a light on the festival of Divali.

Find out why this five-day celebration is so important to people who follow Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Learn what the name “Divali” actually means, and see how the holiday reflects some of the most basic beliefs of the Hindu religion. Explore some of the Hindu mythology behind Divali, including the legend of the return of Rama and the worship of deities like Laksmi and Kali.

And discover many of the customs of Divali, from the lighting of lamps and fireworks, to the taking of ritual oil baths and making delicious sweet treats.

You’ll also find additional information about the festival in the FYI. And afterwards, why not check out this Divali for Kids page on Activity Village for arts, crafts and other Divali activities?

We hope you enjoy the movie and learn a lot. We’ll keep the lights on for you!

On the Spotlight homepage you’ll find an Agatha Christie Graphic Organiser, the Prewriting FYI, and a Similes & Metaphors Activity.

The topics highlighted for Weaving Tales include:

• Agatha Christie
• Charles Dickens
• Frankenstein
• Homer
• Idioms & Cliches
• Lord of the Flies
• Poetry
• Prewriting
• Roald Dahl
• Similes & Metaphors
• Show not Tell
• Types of Writing
• The Writing Process

Extra activities to do on POP Spot, as well as a heap of helpful web links, include:

Make a Tim & Moby movie competition – weave a tale then make the movie!

Teachers as Storytellers – telling stories should be more than just reading from a book at the end of the day – but why?

12 Top Tips for Telling a Story – how to impress your listeners, maintain attention and weave a good tale.

10 Story starters – everybody’s got to start somewhere. Play these audio clips from Roger Hurn for a little inspiration.

‘What is your character like?’ – an audio recording of Roger Hurn’s poem to get you thinking about characterisation.

There’s so much fun to be had weaving a tale, you best get started now!

Roger Hurn explains why teachers have an essential role in maintaining and creating our cultural heritage. Whether it be sitting around a single person, listening; group story telling; digital storytelling – using art, music, animation, etc; or playing games built around narrative, Roger Hurn suggests that teachers are inheritors of a tradition as old as the campfire.

Roger Hurn has been a primary school teacher, a deputy head teacher, a head teacher, a university lecturer and a teacher trainer. Roger has also been a consultant advisor to the Home Office and the Children’s Directorate on how to help children develop a positive attitude to school. Roger is now a full-time writer and storyteller and has travelled all over the UK and beyond making author visits to schools. His book East of the Sun, West of the Moon was chosen by Scholastic as one of their ‘Great Read’ books for World Book Day 2009. Roger has also written two series of the best selling Mystery Mob books for less able readers as well as a wide range of educational resources.

1. You must care about the story you tell. If you don’t then your listeners won’t either.

2. Have an attention grabbing opening.

3. Have a small number of characters. (Avoid War and Peace.)

4. Choose a story with a logical structure. (A beginning, middle and end usually works best.)

A storyboard for the beginning of our Queen movie

5. Keep the story moving with plenty of action.

Run, Moby, run!

6. Only use telling details that advance the story.

7. Have a satisfying ending. (A good story resolves tension.)

We love the end of our Einstein movie!

8. Robin Williams might be able to pull it off with style but don’t put on too many voices. (You’ll only mix up your Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort.)

9. Be very careful if you invite the children to join in. (You’ll be giving them a licence to kill your story.) Take heed from Black Books.

10. Don’t ask the children questions while telling your story. (If you do you may get an answer you didn’t want. Or two. Or three. Or ten.)

11. Don’t surround yourself with props…or costumes. (They break, bite or fall on your foot.)

12. Don’t use microphones or special effects. (You’ll only electrocute yourself or disappear in a puff of smoke.)

Alakazzam!

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