Keep Curiosity Alive!

The Kids Should See This

@LisaBerghoff

It used to be that it was challenging to find content to show and use in the classroom. It was a problem. Educators had to know just the right search terms, dig through catalogues, and watch countless hours of junk to finally get to a video that was worthy of showing to students. Often, the topic or the content of the video would be excellent, but the production quality would be terrible. Sometimes the opposite was true. Now, we find ourselves in the reverse situation. It is so easy to create high quality videos quickly. Videos are being created at such a fast pace that it is hard to keep up. There are so many videos out there that are good, and the length is right, and the content is on point; but we once again find ourselves spending so much time vetting these videos because anyone can look like an expert.  YouTube has become a valuable resource, but also a huge source of frustration. Our students spend so much of their time consuming videos without intentionality that much of their curiosity seems to have gone by the wayside. 

I recently was introduced to a site that houses a library of curated videos designed to spark curiosity and start conversations. The Kids Should See This stands out as a site that has engaging videos but also one that is designed around all of the things we want for our students: to promote awe and wonder, to lift up the work of real people, museums, and universities, who are doing incredible things. There is no algorithm here, every video is vetted by a real person who is also an educational media curator who is also a mom. 

What Is The Kids Should See This? 

The Kids Should See This is a website that houses over 7.000 short-form videos designed for the classroom. There are over 2,700 searchable topics spanning STEM, the arts, nature, history, culture, and more.  Over 2,000 featured museums, artists, universities, experts, innovators, and creators are represented. The videos are organized by topic, searchable, and it is easy to find the most recently added content. 

Why Should I Use The Kids Should See This?

The site sets itself apart from other video creation sites because it is completely independent, free, and embodies all that can be good about utilizing technology in education. The site is guided by public media's mission- universal access to quality educational content. There are no adds, no distractions, and no extras. Each video is accompanied by a short piece of text to provide some context. The Kids Should See This is on a mission to turn screen time into genuine discovery time and encourages co-watching as a springboard for face to face discussion. There is no need to log in. If you want to support the site, you are encouraged to make a donation but there is nothing required to use it. Since there is no login, you can safely ask your students to use it because no information is being collected. 

How Do I Use The Kids Should See This? 

This is very simple. Just go to thekidshouldseethis.com and start exploring. Hover over the topics to see a drop down menu of subtopics in each category. You can also use the search feature to look up a specific topic. If you think there is nothing there that is relevant to your content, I highly suggest you click on More Topics, where you can see an A to Z menu of all video collections. I did a fun activity for myself where I typed in many many topics that I know are covered and discussed in our classes. I also tried to see if there was a search term that would yield no results at all, the word "burpees" came up with zero hits. It took me a long time to find one. 

When you find a video you would like to use with your students. All you need to do is click the link icon in the green sidebar and share it. That will take your students directly to the page you want them to see. This streamlines the process for your students, allowing for more time to just watch and think about the video, and less time searching. 

This is an excellent tool for:

• The beginning of a lesson. To spark interest and give everyone some baseline knowledge.
• The middle of a lesson, when students are struggling and could use a bit of a brain break without completely checking out.
• Towards the end of a lesson or unit as a wrap up, review, or extension to build on what has already been learned.
• During class, to help students reengage and to split up the time.
• As homework, to get students thinking about and wrestling with information in a way that is not high stakes.

Here is just one example, it's a three and a half minute long video about someone who built a prosthetic arm using legos. I can think of at least three different departments that could use this in class. 

Are you ready to get started with The Kids Should See This? You don't need any help with this one, but if you want someone to bounce ideas off of and think about the possibilities, I'm here for it! Feel free to reach out to me.