OK Go has partnered with The Playful Learning Lab to launch OK Go Sandbox, an initiative to provide classrooms around the world with amazing content to use alongside the band's music videos. Created with support from Google and Morton Salt, OK Go Sandbox was formally announced on March 15 at the National Science Teachers Association Conference in Atlanta, GA.
OK Go Sandbox is an an online portal providing educators and students a way to engage with concepts in playful and unexpected ways. From design challenges created around science and art to informational videos about the band's creative process, the site is full of content created specifically for classroom audiences. Using OK Go's creative and widely viewed music videos as a starting point, OK Go Sandbox will be a place where learners are encouraged to try new things and to follow their own curiosity.
"We want to give teachers whatever tools they need to connect the joy, wonder, and fun in our videos to the underlying concepts that their students are learning," shared OK Go singer and video director, Damian Kulash.
Led by Kulash and The University of St. Thomas's The Playful Learning Lab director, Dr. AnnMarie Thomas, OK Go Sandbox is the direct result of feedback from hundreds of educators. After hearing from teachers who use their videos to inspire students and explain concepts in their science, math, art, and music classes, the band and Thomas set out to create additional educational resources.
"OK Go's music videos provide such a rich jumping off point for a variety of projects and discussions," added Thomas. "It's exciting to work with educators to bring the magic and joy of these videos into their own classrooms, in a way that also lets them address concepts that they are trying to teach their students."
Behind-the-scenes videos, lesson plans, activities and challenges, and additional educational resources can be found at okgosandbox.org/.
