About Us

Making Learning Joyful, One Break at a Time

We're a team of educators, neuroscientists, and parents who believe that the secret to better learning isn't more time on task — it's smarter breaks.

Our Story

How It All Started

BrainBreak.org was born in 2022 inside a noisy fourth-grade classroom in Austin, Texas. Dr. Emily Chen, a cognitive neuroscientist turned elementary school volunteer, noticed something surprising: the students who took short, structured breaks during lessons weren't falling behind — they were outperforming their peers by measurable margins.

Intrigued, Emily partnered with her colleague Marcus Thompson, a 15-year veteran teacher, to design a semester-long pilot program. They introduced two-minute brain breaks every 20 minutes across three classrooms. The results were striking — a 23% increase in on-task behavior, a 31% decrease in disciplinary disruptions, and overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and teachers alike.

What started as a shared Google Doc of brain break activities quickly grew into a grassroots movement. Teachers across the district began requesting the resource. Then teachers across the state. Then parents. Then school administrators from other countries. By the end of 2023, the team realized they needed a dedicated platform — and BrainBreak.org was officially launched.

Today, BrainBreak.org is the world's largest free library of evidence-based brain break activities. Every activity on our site has been reviewed by educators, tested in real classrooms, and grounded in peer-reviewed neuroscience research. We believe that every student — regardless of zip code, school budget, or background — deserves access to tools that make learning joyful and effective.

💡 2022 The idea is born in an Austin classroom

📝 2023 Pilot program reaches 500+ students

🚀 2024 BrainBreak.org launches publicly

🌍 2026 50,000+ educators in 120+ countries

Our Mission

What Drives Us Every Day

Our work is guided by three core pillars — making brain breaks accessible, evidence-based, and genuinely useful for educators and families everywhere.

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Free & Accessible to All

We believe every child deserves access to tools that improve their learning experience. That's why BrainBreak.org will always be 100% free — no paywalls, no premium tiers, no hidden costs. Our resources are designed to work in under-resourced classrooms, home environments, and everywhere in between. We translate our most popular content into multiple languages and ensure our site meets WCAG accessibility standards.

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Evidence-Based Activities

Every activity on BrainBreak.org is grounded in peer-reviewed research from cognitive science, developmental psychology, and education studies. We don't publish fads — we publish methodologies that have been tested in real classrooms and validated by researchers. Each activity includes citations and a plaintext summary of the science behind it, so educators can confidently explain why brain breaks matter.

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Practical Tools for Educators & Parents

Theory is useless without implementation. That's why we focus on creating resources that can be used immediately — printable schedules, classroom posters, parent guides, administrator toolkits, and step-by-step activity instructions. We listen to our community of teachers and parents to understand what they actually need, and we build for them, not for academic journals.

By the Numbers

Our Impact So Far

500+ Activities Curated, tested, and research-backed

50,000+ Educators Using our resources in their classrooms

2M+ Students Reached Across all ages and grade levels

120+ Countries Educators on every continent

$0 Cost — Always Free No paywalls, no premium tiers, ever

Our Team

The People Behind BrainBreak.org

A small, passionate team of educators, researchers, and community builders dedicated to changing how the world thinks about learning and rest.

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Dr. Emily Chen

Founder & Educational Neuroscientist

Former cognitive neuroscience researcher at UT Austin turned education advocate. Emily's groundbreaking work on attention restoration in children led to the creation of BrainBreak.org. She holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers on learning and attention.

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Marcus Thompson

Head of Content & Former Teacher

A 15-year veteran of elementary and middle school education, Marcus brings real classroom experience to every activity on the site. He led the original pilot program in Austin and now oversees content creation, ensuring every brain break is practical, inclusive, and genuinely fun for students of all ages.

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Dr. Sarah Nakamura

Research Director

With a background in developmental psychology and pediatric neuroscience, Sarah leads our research review process. She ensures every activity meets rigorous evidence standards and maintains partnerships with universities and research institutions worldwide. She previously directed the Learning & Development Lab at Stanford.

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Alex Rivera

Community Manager

Alex builds and nurtures the BrainBreak.org community of educators, parents, and administrators. From managing our social channels to orchestrating webinars and teacher workshops, Alex ensures that every user feels heard, supported, and connected. A former school counselor, Alex understands the human side of education.

Our Values

What We Stand For

These four values guide every decision we make — from the activities we publish to the way we build our platform and engage with our community.

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Evidence First

We don't follow trends — we follow the science. Every brain break activity, recommendation, and guide on our platform is rooted in peer-reviewed research. When we cite a statistic, we link the source. When we recommend a technique, we've verified it works in real classrooms. Our users trust us because we earn that trust with rigor, not hype.

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Accessibility

Brain breaks should work for everyone — students with disabilities, learners in under-resourced schools, families without internet at home, children with ADHD or autism. We design with inclusion at the core: our site is screen-reader compatible, our activities require zero equipment, and our content is free in every sense of the word.

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Joy in Learning

Learning shouldn't be a grind. We believe that moments of joy, silliness, movement, and creativity aren't distractions from education — they're essential to it. Brain breaks bring laughter into classrooms and homes, and that laughter creates the emotional safety students need to take risks, ask questions, and grow as thinkers.

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Community-Driven

Our best ideas come from the teachers, parents, and students who use our platform every day. We actively listen to feature requests, activity suggestions, and feedback. Our community forums, teacher workshops, and parent webinars aren't afterthoughts — they're the heartbeat of BrainBreak.org.

Get in Touch

Whether you're a teacher looking for support, a researcher interested in collaboration, a parent with a great activity idea, or an administrator exploring a school-wide program — we'd love to hear from you. Our team typically responds within 24 hours.

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Email hello@brainbreak.org

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Community Forum Join 10,000+ educators sharing ideas

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Based in Austin, TX — working globally