{"id":76219,"date":"2021-05-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-professor-plays-prominent-role-in-development-of-pbs-kids-show-elinor-wonders-why\/"},"modified":"2021-07-21T17:19:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T17:19:43","slug":"uri-professor-plays-prominent-role-in-development-of-pbs-kids-show-elinor-wonders-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/uri-professor-plays-prominent-role-in-development-of-pbs-kids-show-elinor-wonders-why\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 professor plays prominent role in development of PBS Kids\u2019 show Elinor Wonders Why™"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — May 17, 2021 — Long before the PBS Kids show Elinor Wonders Why\u2122<\/em> and its multi-platform teaching and learning resources were launched in September 2020, 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor of Education Sara Sweetman helped build the foundation for the show\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Sweetman, who has already won praise<\/a> for work on other PBS Kids shows such as The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot 溏心vlog免费B站<\/em> That<\/em>\u2122 and Sesame Street\u2122<\/em> for her ability to help show the creators and producers how to boil down science concepts for little ones, was asked in 2016 by PBS to help develop a request for proposals for new children\u2019s shows and accompanying learning media.<\/p>\n

The co-creators of the show, Jorge Cham, who holds a Ph.D. in robotics from Stanford University, and Daniel Whiteson, who holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley, emerged as the winners from the process.<\/p>\n

\"Sara<\/a>
Sara Sweetman. 溏心vlog免费B站 photo by Nora Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey are scientists who have also made names for themselves as comedians,\u201d Sweetman said.  \u201cCreating children’s media was a new adventure for them, but they obviously had the science background and they know how to be entertaining, so I worked with them to ensure the content was age appropriate and educational.”<\/p>\n

Cham is a cartoonist for the online comic, \u201cPiled Higher and Deeper\u201d (PHD Comics), and the two have collaborated on a book: \u201cWe Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweetman worked with the duo on scripts and educational games, and her team at 溏心vlog免费B站, Kelly Shea, a Ph.D. student in education who worked with Sweetman on a research project for The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot 溏心vlog免费B站 That<\/em><\/a>\u2122, and Lisa Jones, a Ph.D. student who works part-time with 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Guiding Education in Math and Science Network (GEMS-Net), developed a preschool curriculum based on the series.<\/p>\n

Eighty Elinor Wonders Why\u2122<\/em> episodes will be shown on PBS affiliates during a year-and-a-half and three video games that accompany the shows are already in use. Four more are in development.<\/p>\n

Like The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot 溏心vlog免费B站 That\u2122<\/em>, Elinor Wonders Why<\/em>\u2122 offers a wide range of free teaching and learning resources that accompany the show.<\/p>\n

Before designing the curriculum, the team worked with educators at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Child Development Centers in Kingston and Providence to get a sense of how preschoolers experience the natural world in suburban and urban settings.  Sweetman, Shea and Jones collaborated with Rhode Island PBS, and Rhode Island teachers, several of whom participate in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Guiding Education in Math and Science Network<\/a>, and home child care providers. They also worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop the teaching and learning materials for a world dominated by a pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked on a suite of resources to support parents and educators,\u201d Sweetman said. \u201cWe were in the planning stages when the pandemic hit and we adjusted the curriculum to be responsive to unique teaching situations caused by the pandemic. The curriculum can be delivered virtually or in-person to students.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said teachers and home child care providers \u201cwere an essential part of the development and testing of the lesson plans. Their dedication to teaching and passion for young children shows in the innovative materials that were created.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe at Rhode Island PBS have been privileged to work on this project with Professor Sweetman and her team at 溏心vlog免费B站, as well as with early childhood and family child care educators,\u201d said Jon Rubin, director of Education Services at WSBE Rhode Island PBS. \u201cThis powerful local collaboration reaches well beyond our region to provide state-of-the-art digital media resources to families across the country through the PBS system, to support children’s development of literacy and STEM skills,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The main character in the animated show, Elinor, a little rabbit that shares the same first name with Cham\u2019s daughter, and her friends, Ari, a bat, and Olive, an elephant, celebrate 4- to 5-year-olds\u2019 ability to ask questions and make careful observations of our natural and our designed world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are finding is that more and more children are spending increasing amounts of time in the engineered world — computers, tablets, cell phones — and less time in the natural world. They don\u2019t understand where the engineered world comes from,\u201d Sweetman said. \u201cElinor helps make connections between the natural and the designed environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot 溏心vlog免费B站 That<\/em>\u2122 focuses on physics, while Elinor Wonders Why\u2122 <\/em>focuses on the natural world,\u201d Sweetman said. \u201cThe Cat focuses on experimental and engineering design and Elinor focuses on asking questions and making observations as she encounters the outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 professor said Elinor and her friends are part of an Explorers Club that encourages children to go outside and explore.<\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t have to be some grand adventure. \u201cElinor wants pre-schoolers to see the wonder in the living community you might discover under a rock in your own neighborhood, \u201d the education professor said.<\/p>\n

Parents, teachers and home child-care providers should be confident that Elinor Wonders Why\u2122 <\/em>and the accompanying materials are top quality multi-platform teaching and learning tools, according to Sweetman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the people I know at PBS take children\u2019s education and programming very seriously,\u201d she said. \u201cI also know that people trust that PBS has the best interests of children at heart. Our research has shown that quality, well-developed technology is good for children, their families and teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elinor Wonders Why\u2122<\/em> is part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS Ready to Learn Initiative with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — May 17, 2021 — Long before the PBS Kids show Elinor Wonders Why\u2122 and its multi-platform teaching and learning resources were launched in September 2020, 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor of Education Sara Sweetman helped build the foundation for the show\u2019s success. Sweetman, who has already won praise for work on other PBS Kids […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76992,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76219\/revisions\/76992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}