On Tuesday, September 8 at 10 a.m., young viewers of Rhode Island PBS will take a trip to Animal Town in the one-hour premiere of Elinor Wonders Why. The new animated series stars Elinor, Animal Town’s most curious and observant bunny, and her two best friends, Olive the elephant and Ari the bat. By exploring Animal Town, the three friends meet all kinds of characters, each with a lesson to share about respecting others, the importance of diversity, caring for the environment, and working together to solve problems. After the premiere, the half-hour program airs weekdays at 10 a.m. on Rhode Island PBS, digital 36.1.
Rhode Island PBS Education Services played a special role in testing the educational resources accompanying the series. That opportunity doesn't happen every day, so we proudly invited the Rhode Island PBS Coordinator for Family Literacy Mayra Monterroso to be our guest blogger and share the fascinating story and her experience. Thank you, Mayra!
As the latest PBS KIDS broadcast and digital property to be funded by a Ready To Learn grant to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS from the U.S. Department of Education, Elinor Wonders Why celebrates children’s innate desires to be curious and make observations about the natural and engineered world around them. In each episode and digital experience, Elinor and her friends ask intriguing questions and make careful observations that lead to new discoveries. They model science and engineering practices and vocabulary that can encourage the viewer to engage in their own investigations and communicate with others about the interconnected natural and created communities in which we live.
As the coordinator of Family Literacy at Rhode Island PBS, my role in this project was to manage and produce events that engaged Family Childcare partners in helping to conceptualize and iterate on the development of Elinor Wonders Why resources for educators and caregivers of children ages 3-5. Our cohort of Family Childcare educators was selected to reflect programs across the spectrum of quality in our state. This would allow us to create resources that would be of value to all programs and families.
Rhode Island PBS embarked on this project early in January 2020 with two kick-off events to welcome and introduce educators in formal center based/school settings and Family Childcare settings to the project. During these two events, educators engaged in lessons and discussions around technology integration in the preschool setting. The lessons modeled how to use PBS LearningMedia resources to promote successful science instruction. They also engaged in smaller planning groups that included an overview of Elinor Wonders Why resources, goal setting, defining roles for team members, brainstorming curriculum ideas, and logistical planning to achieve project goals.
Our team in the Education Services Department of Rhode Island PBS worked in collaboration with national PBS Education and Sara Sweetman, Assistant Professor and science advisor at University of Rhode Island, to produce a comprehensive 12-week science curriculum which will be adapted for use by informal educators (including Family Friends and Neighbors, museum/nature center/station/library educators). Through this project, we will create four units of study, which include media-integrated, whole group science and engineering lessons, cross-curricula center-time activities, and outdoor learning experiences.
When the Corona virus pandemic hit, we had to adjust our plans for field testing of resources as we could no longer access programs in person, nor could they interact with children face-to-face to test our newly created resources. We shifted to virtual meetings with our internal team as well as with educators working on the project. Our face-to-face lessons were converted into virtual lessons that could be used with children and their families. In addition, review tools were created so that the educators could provide feedback.
Although by the end of June some programs had re-opened for in-person services, the majority of our participants had not re-opened due to health and safety concerns. At the end of July, we were ready to test resources from the senses unit and the virtual lessons were provided to educators for review. Educators were provided with a virtual lesson that included videos, activities and transition supports. We were happy to find that most of our testing cohort of Family Childcare educators were providing in-person services again by this time, and were able to test the lessons with children. It has been an amazing project to work on with so many invested educators and a team that has been extremely supportive regardless of all of the challenges that have come our way with this pandemic.
Using the Elinor Wonders Why video and digital resources as the foundation in curriculum development, we will support adults in both school and in-home settings as they facilitate rich science learning and meaningful media integration with children. All resources created through this project will be made available on our Rhode Island PBS LearningMedia platform in both English and Spanish. Our hope is that these resources will be of benefit not only to educators, but to families and children as well.