So we didn’t know it, but we were perfectly primed for the announcement that Pixar in a Box is now live on Khan Academy. A free site that teaches all kinds of STEAM lessons and promotes creativity, targeted at kids my daughter’s age? Yes, please! All of us living under this roof were excited by the news.
Through a series of video lessons, interactive exercises, and hands-on activities, students will discover how the academic concepts they learn in school enable Pixar filmmakers to create new worlds, animate unique characters and tell stories through animation. Although designed especially for students in middle and high school, these resources are available to learners of all ages, completely free of charge.
“By working with Khan Academy on Pixar in a Box, we hope to encourage the excitement of learning and creative thinking for middle and high school students and to provide the tools to do it,” said Ed Catmull, President of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Students can access Pixar in a Box here and learn:
· How combinatorics are used to create crowds, like the swarm of robots in WALLE.
· How parabolas are used to model environments, like the forest in Brave.
· How weighted averages are used to create characters, like Buzz Lightyear and Woody.
· How linear and cubic interpolation are used to animate characters.
· How trigonometry is used to create the worlds in which Pixar stories take place.
· How simultaneous equations are used to paint all of Pixar’s images.
You can only imagine how excited my husband, the math major, is about all of this.
“These lessons are the first phase of the project,” said Brit Cruise, Content Producer at Khan Academy. “While the first year focuses on math, future Pixar in a Box lessons will explore science, computer science, arts, and humanities.”
“For years, we’ve heard from teachers at every grade level interested in creating animation-based curricula,” said Elyse Klaidman, Director, Pixar University and Archives. “We’ve wanted to provide free online resources for them, and Pixar in a Box makes that dream a reality. We hope that it not only gives students a behind-the-scenes look at how our movies are made but also gets them excited about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) concepts.”
I’m really excited to check out Pixar in a Box and spend some time learning side by side with my daughter. This is a perfect opportunity to send her a message that learning can happen any time, at any age. And when you can do it with Disney and Pixar? All the better!
PRIOR POST: Thank you, Netflix, for making Project Mc² and giving tweens STEAM heroes #StreamTeam
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