The low quality of education in Indonesia is evidenced by the position of Indonesia in the 62nd rank out of 72 countries involved in the PISA survey in 2015. The low quality of education is caused by several factors including lack of innovation in learning methods in each subject, especially history subjects, historical subjects are wrong one of the least desirable subjects for students, according to Zenius's online education institution infographic survey . This is because history subjects have only focused on memorization and seem very boring. Whereas in the 2013 curriculum it was explained that every student who has stepped on high school must have metacognitive abilities in each subject including history subjects, but in fact metacognitive skills (HOTS) have not been possessed by students, this is due because of the lack of training of students in each learning to achieve knowledge of high order thinking skills (HOTS). Knowledge at the metacognitive level can be trained through active learning models with brainstorming methods. The research used the True Experimental Design method or actual research, by applying the research group pretest posttest control group design. This research divides the two classes, namely the experimental class and the control class, with the research sample using the Simple Random Sampling formula which is random sampling. The results of this study mention there are differences between the experimental classes using the brainstorming method and the control class using the scientific approach. The difference can be seen through testing the hypothesis that the t test with significance level criteria is less than 0.05 obtained data for (0.000) on the knowledge spec, then after the t test, the researcher also performs the n-gain test to determine the effect of different brainstorming methods using the scientific approach , in the n-gain test a score of 60% was obtained for the experimental class and 48% for the control class. And than on the aspects of high order thinking skills (HOTS) in the experimental class with C4, C5 and C6 cognitive level indicators, the pretest values were 2.30, 2.13 and 2.23 while the posttest values were 3.50, 2.78 and 3.16. In the control class on the aspect of high order thinking skills (HOTS) with cognitive level indicators C4, C5 and C6 the pretest values were 1.84, 1.93 and 1.80 while in the posttest values were 2.93, 2.69 and 3.1. apart from the aspect of knowledge, the success of applying the active learning model with the brainstorming method can be seen from the acquisition of learning management scores, student activities and questionnaires. In managing learning there are differences between the experimental class and the control class, the experimental class gets an average score of 3.81 and the control class gets an average score of 3.41. then on the activity sheet the experimental class students get an average score of 3.60 and a control class of 3.17. the brainstorming learning questionnaire given to the experimental class obtained an average score of 92.69% with very strong criteria. Key Words : Active Learning Model, Brainstorming Method, High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)