Curious George and Super Why showed up in person in the hallways of PBS on Thursday to the squeals of delighted children and grinning parents. The two PBS characters were there to announce a new array of online games on the PBSKids website that not only entertain but are specifically designed to educate in amazing ways.
In response to the national assessments that show that over 60% of American children perform below proficient levels of math and reading by grade four, PBS took the initiative as a nationwide educator to create a research-based online curriculum. PBS officially launched the first collection of online educational content today, which can be found at the PBS website at PBSKids LAB.
PBS is no slacker when it comes to content, so it’s no surprise the magicians at PBS did not settle for the usual video or online games. They integrated 21st-Century technology to create games that astounded the assembled crowd. Not only are the games web based, but are also designed to be used on an interactive whiteboard or in conjunction with an iPad, iPod, or iPhone.
Educational media is coupled with technology to engage and teach all students ages 2-8. Using common core and national standards to guide their content, PBS contracted with university professors, teachers, professionals working with low income children, and math and literary experts to create the educational side of these games. In designing these games, PBS used complicated mathematical and literacy frameworks to make sure certain math and literary skills were covered in the online content. The math framework includes numbers and operation, geometry and spatial concepts, measurement and data, and algebra. The literary framework includes print concepts, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognitions, and fluency with connected text. PBS also paid special interest to English language learners.
Parents and teachers have their own portal on the PBS website (PBSKidsLAB). The lab portal is actually better suited for parents because it gives the ages and specific skills each game is tailored to teach and encourage. There, you can find specific activities that parents and teachers can do at home or in the classroom. Kids can skip it all together and go to the kid’s portal and just click on their favorite character. To hear more, just subscribe to the hashtag #PBSKIDSLab.
PBS highlighted a few of the new games to the “oohhs” and “aahhs” of those present. They first exhibited, on the interactive whiteboard, Sketch-a-Mite with Cat in the Hat. This game allows children to interact with the Cat in the Hat. Children no longer just watch or play games for points, they actually interact with the Cat in the Hat to accomplish tasks such as stacking shapes faster than the termites build a tower. Players are not locked into using only the pre-established shapes in this game, but can create their own shapes. Multiple children could spend hours exploring a game like this, rooting each other on and helping each other, all while learning spatial concepts. Moreover, the software allows teachers to modify the games toward the children and their skill levels. While demonstrated today on a whiteboard, the games can also be played on a computer.
Next, PBS demonstrated two games from Curious George’s Busy Day. There are sixteen fun experiences that George may go through in any given day, with the children interacting with George. In one game, Monkey Jump, a webcam actually puts the children into the online game. While George jumps, the children jump with George to shoot balls into the toy store, counting along to determine the number of balls that make it into the toy store. Not to worry if you don’t have a webcam, just click on George to make him jump and shoot the balls into the toy store, still counting along. And, of course, while the underlying purpose is to get the children to learn numbers, counting, and associate the words and numbers with counting, it also gets them moving with George. Another Curious George game, Bubble Pop, utilizes the computer’s microphone. The children clap their hands or say “pop” to pop the game bubbles, counting along as each bubble pops. Again, if your computer does not have a microphone, children just click on the bubbles to pop them, still counting how many they pop.
An additional cool feature is the Curious George Game Maker that assists teachers or parents in creating specific games for their classrooms using preloaded graphics from Curious George, again with the goals of teaching math and literary skills.
PBS also gave an exclusive peek into their next generation of games, which they refer to as augmented reality experiences. They are free apps for the iPod, iPhone or iPad. The beta game actually used the camera on the iPhone to project the game into the world around you. They hope to release these later this year, with counterparts for Androids hopefully being developed in the next year.
In an age where parents have so much to worry about what our children will find online, PBS continues to be a safe place that is working hard to educate and entertain our children. Curious to know more? Just follow our favorite curious monkey to PBS Kids Lab.
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