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Teachers, we hope you’ll join us for our latest Virtual Professional Learning Series, Our Planet. In this three part series, we’ll use PBS’s recently broadcast show, Life from Above, as the basis for exploring new ways to teach students about our planet. In the show, cameras in space tell stories of life on our planet from a brand-new perspective, revealing its incredible movements, colors, patterns and just how fast it’s changing. We’ll use these learnings to help students think about what needs to be done to preserve the planet, and how they might reshape the future. 

This series will air in advance of Earth Day, with expert guests to answer your questions and PBS Digital Innovator All-Stars to supply plenty of lesson ideas for you to road-test and use this month and throughout the rest of the year.


Our Current Planet

March 19 @ 7pm ET

In the first episode of our three-part virtual professional learning series, Our Planet, we will explore spectacular satellite imagery from the PBS documentary, Life From Above. The stunning footage reveals never before seen details about our planet, and challenges us to assess the current state of our Planet. 

 Tune in to this episode, hosted by PBS Digital Innovator All-Stars Sebastian Byers, Aaron Maurer and Sharon Clark, to find out how students, scientists, and educators can use Earth imagery to study our changing planet and advocate for a sustainable future. For educators, we will discuss how to bring films such as Life From Above, Inventing Tomorrow, and other PBS Learning Media resources into your classroom.


Our Changing Planet

March 24 @ 7pm ET

In the second episode of our three-part virtual professional learning series, Our Planet, we will consider our changing planet--what needs to be done to sustain human life here, and what’s needed to prepare to live elsewhere. We’re thrilled to be able to introduce educators to Astronaut Abby (Abigail Harrison), an aspiring astronaut and STEAM education advocate who uses social media to encourage young women to go into science and engineering, and who shares her dreams of exploring Mars.

 Hosted by PBS Digital Innovator All-Stars Aaron Maurer, Sharon Clark and Sebastian Byers, the episode will help educators plan lessons for their classroom using Life From Above and other resources to help their students think about sustainable living here on this planet (farming, smarter cars, green planning) and to plan for the possibility of an “earth independent” life.



Our Future Planet

March 31 @ 7pm ET

In the final episode of our three-part virtual professional learning series, Our Planet, we will consider our future planet. We’ll tackle some problems facing our planet that were surfaced in the first two episodes, and help educators create engineering design lessons that will encourage students to think about solutions to future problems. 

Hosted by PBS Digital Innovator All-Stars Sharon Clark, Sebastian Byers and Aaron Maurer, the episode will focus on hands-on classroom projects that support scientific inquiry, human-centered problem solving and “future-ready” skills. We’ll introduce two projects--a landfill project and a solar energy project--that educators can use in their own classrooms to help students think about their own relationships to our planet, and how they might change their behaviors to help plan for a sustainable future.


PBS Digital Innovator All-Stars Educators

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