YouTube and Google.org have committed a $2.5 million grant to Class CrunchLabs, providing additional funding to expand the free STEM curriculum founded by Mark Rober.
The grant follows the recent launch of the Class CrunchLabs YouTube channel and will support additional educational content, teacher resources, research and translations.
Class CrunchLabs was developed in partnership with the National Science Teaching Association.
Its standards-aligned curriculum is designed for students in grades three through eight and is already available in 34 languages through YouTube.
Additional curriculum units are expected to be added on a rolling basis.
The program combines videos featuring Rober, “Science Bob” Pflugfelder, guest presenters and student co-hosts with hands-on classroom activities, teacher guides and assessments.
Subjects span areas including electric and magnetic forces, kinetic energy and thermal energy and are designed around the Next Generation Science Standards.
One available unit, Carnival of Collisions, uses the physics behind carnival games to teach students through experimentation and design challenges.
Students investigate how the games work before developing, testing and presenting engineered games of their own.
The new funding is intended to allow Class CrunchLabs to continue producing educational material while making more of the curriculum accessible internationally through translation.
The program is designed to remain free for teachers and families and does not require schools to purchase a new technology platform.
KEY QUOTES:
“The best part of building Class CrunchLabs has been hearing from teachers that their students are genuinely excited for science class and asking for more. We believe great science learning should grab kids’ attention and then get them building, experimenting, investigating, and figuring things out for themselves. With support from YouTube and Google.org, we can bring that kind of science learning to even more students around the world, in more languages, and keep it completely free for teachers and families.”
Tara Graham, Executive Director of Class CrunchLabs
“For years, Mark Rober has been the internet’s favorite science teacher, and now he is bringing that same magic directly to classrooms. At YouTube, we are incredibly proud to support Mark on this massive labor of love, providing the platform to help him scale his hands-on, standards-aligned curriculum to teachers and students everywhere.”
Katie Kurtz, Global Head of Youth and Learning at YouTube
