Arlington, VA, August 18, 2015 – PBS LearningMedia and the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) today announced a partnership to bring new digital resources to teachers and students. Beginning today, the professional development series Good Thinking! will now be available on PBS LearningMedia, the media-on-demand service for educators that serves over 1.6 million users across the country. Additional content created specifically for students is also available through the new Smithsonian collection, which can be found at http://to.pbs.org/smithsonian.
“We are thrilled to announce our partnership with the Smithsonian, and to offer these valuable science resources for educators and students going back to school,” said Alicia Levi, VP of education, PBS. “PBS and Smithsonian share a common mission in developing high-quality learning resources and the new series and games will be a key addition to our science offerings and tools.”
Good Thinking! is an original animated series by the Smithsonian Science Education Center and FableVision Studios that brings viewers into the classroom of science educator Isabella Reyes as she explores “the science of teaching science”. Drawing from peer-reviewed research in science, cognition, and pedagogy, Good Thinking! distills valuable findings from hard-to-access journal articles to promote effective classroom practices. The series is available now on the SSEC’s YouTube channel. The newest episode, “Attack the Knack,” features research on student motivation and mindsets and is currently available exclusively through PBS LearningMedia.
In addition to Good Thinking! (for teachers of grades K-12), the Smithsonian Science Education Center collection within PBS LearningMedia also features games and digital series for students, including:
- Shutterbugs: Wiggle and Stomp – a game that teaches students movement and motion concepts while visiting rare animals at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (for kindergarten)
- Showbiz Safari – a game that teaches students about the diversity of plants and animals in different habitats by casting plants and animals in movies (for grades 1-2)
- Bumper Ducks – a game that teaches students what happens when two objects collide and how mass impacts the acceleration of an object by using animated rubber ducks (for grades 6-8)
Additional content will also be added throughout the year, including:
- Ada Asks – an animated and live-action video series that encourages students to join the curious Ada as she answers students’ biggest questions about science through some seriously amazing investigations! (for grades K-2)
- Morphy – a game that teaches students that animals have external structures that are important for survival. Students must guide an alien creature through an Earth-like planet while adapting different animal structures (for grades 3-5)
- Disaster Detector – a game that teaches students how to analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast disasters by becoming a “Disaster Detector” for a city (for grades 6-8)
For more information on Good Thinking!, visit http://www.ssec.si.edu/goodthinking. When sharing on social media, please use #GoodThinking.
PBS LearningMedia offers more than 100,000 digital resources aligned to national and Common Core State Standards. For more information on this collection and other classroom-ready resources available through PBS LearningMedia, visit www.pbslearningmedia.org
About PBS LearningMedia
As America’s largest classroom, PBS offers digital content and services for teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS LearningMedia, a partnership of PBS and WGBH Educational Foundation, is a free and paid media-on-demand service offering educators access to the best of public media and delivers research-based, classroom-ready digital learning experiences to engage students in exploring curriculum concepts that align with National and Common Core State Standards. Nationwide, more than 1.6 million educators and users have registered access to more than 100,000 digital resources available through PBS LearningMedia. More information about PBS LearningMedia is available at www.pbslearningmedia.org or by following PBS LearningMedia on Twitter and Facebook.
About the Smithsonian Science Education Center
The mission of the Smithsonian Science Education Center (formerly the National Science Resources Center) is to improve K–12 teaching and learning of science for all students in the United States and throughout the world. The center is nationally and internationally recognized for the quality of its programs and its impact on K–12 science education.
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Media Contact:
Atiya Frederick, PBS; 703.739.5147; anfrederick@pbs.org
Allison Salzberg, 360 Public Relations; 617.585.5793; asalzberg@360pr.com
