Rocky Mountain PBS’ education and production services are proving key components in the station’s ability to leverage PBS KIDS-oriented community partnerships that lead to meaningful engagement with families, educators and funders alike. Here are a couple of examples:

3,2,1 … Blast Off!

Working in conjunction with the Children’s Museum of Denver’s rocket science exhibit, Rocky Mountain PBS produced a “Thinking Like an Engineer” video tutorial and curriculum packet designed to help educators incorporate the science of air and skills of thinking like an engineer into the classroom. The bilingual curriculum is available via PBS Learning Media, which has over 14,000 teachers signed up from Colorado. United Launch Alliance (ULA) is an underwriter for both Rocky Mountain PBS and the Children’s Museum. As funder for 3,2,1 … Blast Off, ULA was thrilled with the additional exposure and the opportunity to collectively support two community organizations aligned with the company’s interests and goals. Rocky Mountain PBS was also happy to introduce the underwriter to the natural synergies between PBS primetime science programming and the STEM focus of their local PBS KIDS service and community partnerships.  Check out 3,2,1 … Blast Off!

StoryBlocks

As part of its literacy outreach activities around its local PBS KIDS service, Rocky Mountain PBS works closely with the Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL), and as such, recently produced a collection of 30-60 second videos designed to model to parents, caregivers, and library staff some songs, rhymes, and fingerplays appropriate for early childhood. Each video clip includes helpful early literacy tips to increase caregivers’ understanding of child development and pre-literacy needs, and the clips are available in Spanish and English. With funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and Colorado Libraries, the videos complement the literacy curriculum of PBS KIDS programming and are posted on the CLEL site, the RMPBS site, PBS Learning Media and YouTube. Up next? RMPBS’ February taping will include StoryBlocks in Portugese and French. Check out StoryBlocks.

Moving Forward

Rocky Mountain PBS is currently exploring ways to expand its partnership with Colorado State Library around the Library’s Storytimes program, literacy-based events that address special segments of the population, including bi-lingual, kids on the Autistic spectrum, and sign language, among others.