WXXI

Go Public

Welder: I Can Be What?!

 

The Welder Video
More I Can Be What?! Videos

Who puts bridges together? What makes the metal in a car frame stay together? The answer is welding. Jen learns all the different things in our community that welders get to work on. 

Jen finds out how becoming a welder can change the way you look at the world. You see it in a whole different light. Once you look around, you start to understand all the different things that are welded from buildings to structural beams.  Even your car has welds!  

Support Materials
Use the resources below to help keep your kids learning – asking questions, learning new words, and exploring connected resources!

Discussion Questions

  • What is welding?
  • What do you like to build? What materials do you use?
  • How do welders protect themselves to stay safe?
  • Why do welders wear protective gear?
  • Why is it important to practice and learn from your practice runs?

More Welding Resources
These resources are from public media partner organizations – they’re educational, trustworthy, and will help you and your child learn more.

Electrician: I Can Be What?!

 

How do the lights in your bedroom turn on and off? Who changes the street lights or the lights in a stadium? An electrician. 

An electrician is a person who installs, operates, maintains, or repairs electric devices or electrical wiring. Jen digs in and works with an electrician to learn all about how she can install a light, change an outlet, and how electricians work both on teams and independently. 

The Electrician Video
More I Can Be What?! Videos

Support Materials
Use the resources below to help keep your kids learning – asking questions, learning new words, and exploring connected resources!

Discussion Questions

  • Do you like having a schedule or a routine?
  • Would you prefer to work inside or outside?
  • Does every house or building have a circuit breaker?
  • What’s the difference between 2-prong and 3-prong outlets?
  • Are you afraid of heights?
  • What kinds of tools have you used?
  • Do you work well on a team? Or do you like working more independently?

More Electrician & Electricity Resources
These resources are from public media partner organizations – they’re educational, trustworthy, and will help you and your child learn more.

Helicopter Pilot: I Can Be What?!

 

You’ve heard of an airline pilot, but what about a helicopter pilot? Jen meets a special kind of helicopter pilot who helps in emergencies. 

Ambulances help transport people to hospitals if they are injured. In this episode, Jen meets a medical helicopter pilot who helps people get to the hospital faster than any ground transport. 

Helicopter Video Pilot
More I Can Be What?! Videos


Support Materials
Use the resources below to help keep your kids learning – asking questions, learning new words, and exploring connected resources!

Discussion Questions

  • Can helicopter pilots fly other planes?
  • Can airplane pilots fly helicopters?
  • Why does the weather impact whether a helicopter can fly or not?
  • Do airplanes have to balance like helicopters?
  • Helicopter pilots need to know a lot of technical words. 
  • Are the crews the same on a medical helicopter and an ambulance?
  • Why do you think it’s important to stabilize a patient before driving or flying?

More Helicopter and Pilot Resources
These resources are from public media partner organizations – they’re educational, trustworthy, and will help you and your child learn more.

Diesel Mechanic: I Can Be What?!

 

Diesel Mechanic Video
More I Can Be What?! Videos


Mechanics work on cars, trucks, and vans, but who works on BIG trucks like tractor trailers, garbage trucks, or ambulances? Jen meets up with a diesel mechanic who owns a fleet repair shop where he works on and maintains large vehicles.

Support Materials
Use the resources below to help keep your kids learning – asking questions, learning new words, and exploring connected resources!

Discussion Questions

  • Why are tires on vehicles all different sizes?
  • Do you think it would be easy or hard to roll a tire?
  • What does it mean to balance a tire?
  • Do you use checklists for any of your work?
  • How do you keep track of all your tasks?
  • What’s the difference between a mechanic and a diesel mechanic?
  • Do you think the computers inside of a vehicle are the same as the computers you use?
  • What kinds of things can you take apart and put back together?

More Diesel & Mechanic Resources
These resources are from public media partner organizations – they’re educational, trustworthy, and will help you and your child learn more.

Back to School Resources

Explore different topics and tools for back-to-school and also useful year-round.

Back to School with PBS KIDS

WXXI Back to School: It’s Time for Kindergarten!/ De Vuelta a la Escuela: Es hora de kinder!

Download Kindergarten Booklet

Back to School

There are also some great resources that PBS KIDS and PBS LearningMedia have pulled together to support your family during this new season of learning:

Explore the full PBS KIDS for Parents Back-to-School Hub: Find more articles, games, activities, and snacks for busy back-to-school time. 


WXXI’s Back-to-School Digital Backpack is a digital toolbox full of resources to help families, educators, and students in any learning setting. Our digital backpack includes the following:

Fantastic New York • On-Demand

Discover the Fantastic New York you never knew!

The mystery, the adventure, the surprise and delight behind some of our state’s most intriguing people, sites and stories.

Watch the First Episode: Fantastic New York: Boldt Castle: Fresh off of producing the award-winning documentary, Journeys Through the Finger Lakes, WXXI Public Media producers and hosts Jason Milton and Katie Epner dig deeper to divulge the enduring stories that embody the strange and unique personality of our state. Discover the Fantastic New York you never knew and experience the crazy history lesson you always wish you had.

Science Education Resources

WXXI Education has curated a list of useful Science learning resources (lesson plans, content collections, partner sites, interactives, and printables) for students and educators in grades 6-12.

To support instruction, WXXI Education has pulled together a list of educational resources available through PBS LearningMedia:

PBS LearningMedia: Science Subject Area – Explore natural phenomena and scientific practices with videos, lesson plans, and interactive tools.

All of the above topic areas are available as PBS LearningMedia Science One-Sheets to share with students and educators. One-sheets include a clickable link and QR code for easy access. 

Favorite Science Collections
There are tons of Science tools available through PBS LearningMedia, here are WXXI Education’s top 5 Science collections:

1. NOVA: Gross Science: Why do we smell different when we’re sick? Why does cheese smell like feet? Why don’t vultures get sick from eating rotting meat? Science is filled with stories: some of them are beautiful and some of them are gross. Really gross. Gross Science, a YouTube series hosted by Anna Rothschild, tells bizarre stories from the slimy, smelly, creepy world of science. In this collection, you’ll find original short-form videos and DIY experiments from Gross Science, which is produced by NOVA and PBS Digital Studios. Learn about amphibians that eat their mother’s skin, strange uses for bacon, how poop can be used to cure an infection, and more gross science topics.

2. California Academy of Sciences: The California Academy of Sciences is a renowned scientific and educational institution dedicated to exploring, explaining, and sustaining life on Earth. Based in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the Academy produces free online courses, award-winning Planetarium shows, short science videos, K-12 training toolkits, and compilations of teaching strategies for the science classroom.

3. NOVA: The NOVA collection on PBS LearningMedia contains over 1500 resources from NOVA’s broadcast and digital productions that educators can use in their lessons to spark and enrich student knowledge of STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics). NOVA’s resources are primarily designed for use in middle and high school STEM classrooms.

4. NASA Planety Sciences: In these videos and interactives from NASA, catalogued and adapted by WGBH, explore the exciting discoveries from NASA missions about the planets, moons, and other objects in our solar system. You’ll also find interactive lessons for middle and high school students and for teacher professional development!, as well as three professional development videos from WNET showing planetary science in action in a high school classroom.

5. Nature: This collection of science videos and media-enhanced lesson plans draws upon the powerful documentaries of public television’s award-winning natural history series, Nature. The video segments have been carefully selected to engage students with key curriculum concepts. The lesson plans incorporate hands-on activities, online resources, and video to interactively and creatively address topics and standards in Life Science/Living Environment and Earth Science.

Additional Science Resources from Partner Organizations

Annenberg Learner Series – Educator Science Resources

Social Studies Education Resources:

WXXI Education has curated a list of useful social studies learning resources (lesson plans, content collections, partner sites, interactives, and printables) for students and educators in grades 6-12.

To support instruction, WXXI Education has pulled together a list of educational resources available through PBS LearningMedia:

PBS LearningMedia: Social Studies Subject Area – Explore natural phenomena and scientific practices with videos, lesson plans, and interactive tools.

All of the above topic areas are available as PBS LearningMedia Social Studies One-Sheets to share with students and educators. One-sheets include a clickable link and QR code for easy access. 

Favorite Social Studies Collections
There are tons of Social Studies resources available through PBS LearningMedia, here are WXXI Education’s top 5 Social Studies collections:

1. Teaching with Primary Source Inquiry Kits: As the perfect springboard for middle and high school student research projects, TPS Inquiry Kits have five primary sources, mostly from the Library of Congress, and one secondary source. Many of the primary sources are images, maps, audio, or video to support accessibility by students of any reading level. Each kit features three thinking questions to guide students, and web-based tools to help them analyze the historical sources. Explore each inquiry kit, and find the thinking questions under Support Materials.

2. PBS NewsHour | Daily News Story: PBS Newshour Classroom helps teachers and students identify the who, what, when, where, and why-it-matters of major national and international news stories. In partnership with PBS LearningMedia, we are proud to bring you the Daily News Story which takes the best of the PBS NewsHour news program and pairs it with discussion questions, lesson plans, and stories developed specifically for students. The lesson plans and resources help achieve Common Core State Standards goals and cover core academic subject areas ranging from civics and government to world affairs and education.

3. American Masters: American Masters, public television’s award-winning biography series, brings unique originality and perspective to exploring the lives and illuminating the creative journeys of our most enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists and filmmakers – those who have left an indelible impression on our nation’s cultural landscape.

4. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross: Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. recounts the full trajectory of African-American history in his groundbreaking series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. The series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed — forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds. Using video clips from The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, this collection of lesson plans addresses a wide range of themes of the African-American experience from 1500 to the present.

5. Teaching the Vietnam War: This collection of videos and lesson plans can help students explore the social and political dynamics of the Vietnam War. Students will examine why, how, and by whom the Vietnam War was fought, how it affected U.S. citizens at home, and how factors shifted over the course of the war. Students will identify the Vietnam War’s legacy and lasting toll on veterans. This collection includes resources related to The Vietnam War, a ten-part documentary series that aired on PBS September 17-21, 2017. The series represents the latest work from filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick and featured archival footage and testimony from nearly 100 witnesses, including American veterans who fought in the war and Americans who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians. 

Annenberg Learner Series – Educator Social Studies Resources

Keep informed about what’s happening in your community and WXXI by signing up for our newsletters.

Sign Up