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FableVision Celebrates Women's History Month 2017

Over the past 20 years, we’ve dedicated ourselves to compelling story-enriched media for learners of all ages – and that includes highlighting diverse and powerful representations of female characters. In honor of  the 30th anniversary of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating female characters we’ve created and worked with over the years. From purple-haired rockstars to influential educators, we’re proud  to draw inspiration from trailblazing women.

Gathered here are just a few of our favorite FableVision feministas. Check out our portfolio for more inspiring characters!

Vita
Zebrafish, Children’s Hospital Trust

Vita marches, sings, and fundraises to the beat of her own drum. In Zebrafish, this earnest teenager is all about making a change in her community. It’s not just her purple hair and rockin’ voice that make her stand out, but her desire to make a difference in the world. When her friend Tanya gets sick, Vita uses the power of music to help move the world to a better place.

Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein
The Powder & the Glory, Powder and Glory Productions

Though they never met each other, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein built an industry that’s now worth over $150 billion dollars. These two women not only revolutionized how makeup was viewed but how women saw themselves. Together with Powder and Glory Productions, FableVision animated sequences for the PBS film, The Powder & the Glory, a documentary that channeled the energy of the Roaring Twenties and life in the 1930s.

Neshama Ryman
The Klumz, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro New York and Western New York

At 10 years old, Neshama Ryman has illustrated, written, narrated, and directed her own animated short film, The Klumz. Neshama took the innate clumsiness of her favorite imaginary creature, and turned it into something beautiful. FableVision helped the driven young artist turn her dream into a reality.

Alice Marriott
Hot Shoppe, Marriott International

Welcome to “The Hot Shoppe.” Opened in 1927 by Alice and JW Marriott, the little cafe grew into what is now Marriott International. Alice was Marriott’s first cook, and acted as co-founder with her husband. Resourceful and driven, she’s a role model for the entrepreneurial spirit. The animated series shares Marriott’s core values and for both hotel employees and the public alike: a fun reminder of their priorities from day one.

Savannah Harper
Georgia Race Through Time, Georgia Public Broadcasting

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see back in time? With her motorbike and trusty canine companion, Peaches, Savannah Harper does just that. This self-reliant young woman is the star of Georgia Race Through Time, a history game that takes players on an exciting journey across the state of Georgia. As an antiques collector with a special gift of seeing back in time, Savannah is a reminder to celebrate personal uniqueness and do what you love.

Isabella Reyes
Good Thinking! The Science of Teaching Science, Smithsonian Science Education Center

Isabella Reyes is a confident, funny educator who learns as much as she teaches. In the animated series, Good Thinking!, Ms. Reyes works to dispel common scientific misconceptions. An experienced teacher, Ms. Reyes is a self-proclaimed science nerd who understands the importance of education. With good humor and a bright personality, Ms. Reyes has educators learning and laughing alongside her as she demystifies the science of teaching science.

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March FableFriday: Chad Dorsey, President and CEO of The Concord Consortium

chaddorsey_concordconsortium

FableVision Studios has been working with The Concord Consortium for several years now. The nonprofit research and development organization in Concord, MA and the San Francisco Bay Area in California focuses on transforming STEM education through technology. At its helm is Chad Dorsey: educator, scientist, explorer, maker, and long-time FableVision friend. Together with Chad and the team at The Concord Consortium, we’ve collaborated on innovative game-based learning solutions, including Geniverse and GeniConnect, which focus on genetics and biotechnology for middle and high school students.

“To The Concord Consortium’s delight, we find that our work brings out the inner scientist in everyone,” shares Chad. “To us, of course, that’s no surprise, because we see fascination lurking in the world around us every day. But it’s the biggest treat in the world to be able to bring amazing phenomena and concepts out for everyone to discover and appreciate.”

By identifying the best uses of educational technology, The Concord Consortium is working to produce a new generation of STEM-literate learners, workers, and citizens. And after chatting with Chad, we think you’ll agree that fascination is, indeed, lurking all around. 

Tell us a little bit about your role at The Concord Consortium and the work the organization does.
The Concord Consortium has been creating innovative educational technology for over twenty years—since the Web was a toddler!—and I've been here as President and CEO for the past eight of those years. I have the distinct honor of being able to work with a ton of fascinating projects and amazing people to forge new and better ways of teaching and learning science, math, and engineering. We provide our resources and technology available for free to learners, educators, and developers around the world and continuously conduct research to help better understand the learning they make possible.

What makes The Concord Consortium's worldview stand out as distinctive? How is that reflected in how you approach your work?
We have long recognized that technology has exceptional potential to facilitate teaching and learning in STEM areas. A great many STEM topics involve concepts that are difficult to convey or grasp through traditional teaching methods. With technology, we can open up huge opportunities for tackling ideas that might otherwise be inaccessible. We recognized this from our early years, as we pioneered the use of probes and sensors for collecting data (often using mobile devices, but long before any concept of a smartphone existed). We saw how the ability to collect hands-on data about the world in real time made phenomena come to life and enabled students to explore things we never would have imagined.

That same notion really carries through all of our work—whether we’re adapting algorithms from research chemistry to create a world of interactive molecular simulations or creating tools that make intriguing patterns jump out from within complex datasets, we employ technology in ways that make the invisible visible and explorable.

chaddorsey

The Concord Consortium has programs for formal classroom settings and informal learning spaces, including afterschool programs, for grade levels ranging from elementary to higher ed. How does this affect your approach to building content and programs for so many audiences?
We try to think about the world as learners first and foremost, so holding tight to that notion of exploring concepts and phenomena helps keep our work centered on a core that can apply to all audiences and settings in different ways. We also mirror aspects of this approach in our technology development. For example, when creating new simulation technology, we tend to create general purpose engines for simulating whole aspects of a domain (e.g., molecular motion, ecosystem dynamics, motion of fluids, and thermal energy). Doing this means that we can create open-ended, accurate, virtual representations of phenomena deliberately geared toward exploring and learning STEM concepts.

Because these simulation engines are so flexible, we can easily use them in different ways depending upon the scenario—in one case, we may develop sequenced classroom lessons around a set of simulations, whereas in other cases, we may develop a game or even a museum exhibit powered by the same underlying simulation engine. Keeping the science at the center in this way ensures that all of these uses are meaningful ways of engaging with the topic. We’re even finding that this approach, together with today’s ubiquitously available technologies, permits us to explore how learning can bridge across settings. We’re creating experiences that allow learners to encounter the same concept in a museum exhibit, back at home and again at school, each time in a manner appropriate to each setting, so that each encounter extends and builds on the learning from the last.

How did The Concord Consortium’s path happen to cross with FableVision’s?
We have been lucky enough to have Penny Noyce on our board of directors through the years. As part of her work with the Noyce Foundation seven to eight years ago, she ran across FableVision and suggested that we might find some kindred spirits there with complementary talents. As usual, she was very right! Now, Penny is writing and publishing great science-related fiction stories for kids through her company Tumblehome Learning. I guess she has always had a nose for sniffing out the intersection between science learning and great storytelling.

What has your experience been like working with FableVision on Geniverse and GeniConnect? 
It’s been an absolute blast! These projects have been close to my heart, because they grew out of the work that brought me to Concord in the first place. And they’re just so much fun—who couldn’t love developing games and simulations in which students breed dragons to learn genetics? The work itself draws on a long heritage carrying across from Paul Horwitz’s early educational technology work decades ago, so it builds on a wealth of know-how and research. But the work with FableVision has brought it to an entirely new level, making it a beautiful, engaging world while retaining its scientific accuracy and kids-as-active-scientists ethos.

And as Penny suggested we would, we found ourselves striking common chords with FableVision’s people and approach from the very first moments. The working relationship has been excellent at all times—I think this is because both companies focus so much on having great people who deeply love what they do. We’ve also discovered lots of “inner geeks” around FableVision’s halls as we’ve worked together. I like to think we’ve been responsible for coaxing them out into the open! (I have it on good authority that more than one FableVision developer has clocked late hours at home unexpectedly hooked on trying to crack our dragon genetics puzzles!)

 What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?
What am I not excited about? There’s just so much cool stuff we’re doing right now. We’re working on projects that will pass virtual thunderstorms straight through middle school classrooms, with students "taking data” and building meteorological computational models to issue forecasts and predict where the storms will go. We’re creating new modeling and simulation engines to allow students to explore plate tectonics and geophysical processes in a hands-on way. We’re applying intelligent tutoring and machine learning techniques to provide real-time feedback to students and teachers as they go through games and curricula or as they engineer 3D houses and design solar panel arrays. We’re using infrared cameras that “see” heat energy to transform the chemistry classroom experience. We’re giving students from all over their first maker experiences by allowing them to quickly design and construct moving mechanisms out of paper and cardboard and then control them electronically. And I probably just missed a dozen others… 

What has your own experience in the classroom and laboratory taught you about the importance of STEM education for the modern learner?
In my years as a middle school and high school physics teacher, I learned the importance of letting students grapple with ideas for themselves and engage in "productive struggle” to learn through inquiry. As a physicist by training, I have also personally seen the benefit of figuring out solutions through persistence. I’ve found that people with STEM backgrounds often have a worldview influenced by these types of experiences, and I’ve seen it show in the way they approach the world. Experiences that derive things from first principles, either mathematically or logically, convey a sort of secret power that transfers to many applications far beyond science. In today’s world, where problems are messy and complex and so many solutions need to be discovered for the first time, this perspective is crucial. For both work and basic citizenship, I believe the practices of STEM learning are more and more becoming the practices we need for modern life!

The Concord logo carved with Chad's  Shapeoko desktop computerized router.

Word around town is that you’re a big maker! What is the importance of the Maker movement for STEM education?
It’s clear that the Maker movement is mirroring huge changes in society. It’s amazing—new and affordable fabrication technologies, open software, idea exchanges on the Internet, and streamlined supply and manufacturing chains have come together to really change the entire game. The transformation from raw idea to actual sophisticated, working thing has never been more accessible to so many people. Though this is a very exciting change societally, finding the meaningful place for it in STEM education has been a bit more elusive. I view these days as analogous to the Heathkit days of computing—it was clear that something big was afoot as early computers began to arrive onto the scene, but the path from that point to future educational applications was still shrouded in the fog. Many of our early jumps reflect this unsurety today; there is a ton of positive energy around makerspaces, and the hobbyist tools I play with in my spare time and with my kids are incredible, and still I sometimes don’t know how to make the solid connection to STEM education.

I do think that some things are clear, though. I’ve definitely come to believe that today’s children need to grow up with the notion that anything you can imagine can be created. I know that they need to understand that computers and electronic devices should be thought of as modular building blocks that exist to be bent to their will, as a medium for their ideas. I believe that this notion will become an important aspect of what "computational thinking” means in the future. And I believe that engineering is in many ways redefining itself in real time in front of our eyes.

Listened to any good podcasts / read any good books lately?
Great question—how much space do we have?

There are always the true classics: Radiolab and 99% Invisible are absolute must-listens for anyone and everyone. Newcomers like Startup and Serial have really upped the game. The irreverence of entries such as Reply All, the first season of Surprisingly Awesome and the gem that was Mystery Show is really refreshing.

And then there has been the whole crop of political podcasts that have become essential listening for us as Americans: Slate’s classic Political Gabfest and the New York Times’ The Daily are as important as the newspaper, and Politico’s Nerdcast is a close companion. 

For dessert, all the fun ones: future tech views from Flash Forward and Futuropolis, new ideas from Tell Me Something I Don’t Know or TED Radio Hour, or erudite dives into language with Lexicon Valley are all great as well.

What are five places that you’ve traveled to that you’re most likely to recommend? 
Hmm… I guess the best way to characterize travel is through those unforgettable moments tied to places on the globe. A few everyone should have on their bucket list:

  • Traveling by dugout canoe up a river in rural Malaysia to view the secret colonies of synchronized blinking fireflies
  • Participating in an all-night new year’s ceremony by bonfire in a Lisu hill tribe village on the border of Thailand and Burma
  • Soaking in the view from the top of a mountain in Montana's Absaroka-Beartooth range
  • Climbing Budapest’s hills at night to identify the buildings stringing along the banks of the Danube below
  • Wandering down pretty much any back street in Paris, stopping to gaze in a patisserie window on every corner

And I’ll hopefully have another one soon—in a few weeks I’m heading to Dubai to be part of the first-ever set of educational technology demos at GESF, the “Davos of Education.” I hear Dubai is more like visiting another planet than another country, so I’m excited to see what it’s like.

 

Chad Dorsey is President and CEO of The Concord Consortium. Chad's professional experience ranges across the fields of science, education, and technology. Prior to joining The Concord Consortium, Chad led teacher professional development workshops as a member of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. There, he developed technology-embedded assessments, analyzed Web-based phenomena and representations for an online library, and co-authored an NSTA Press book of science formative assessment probes. Chad has also taught science in classrooms from middle schools through college and has guided educational reform efforts at the district-wide and whole-school levels. While earning his B.A. in physics at St. Olaf College and his M.A. in physics at the University of Oregon, Chad conducted experimental fluid mechanics research, built software models of Antarctic ice streams, and dragged a radar sled by hand across South Cascade Glacier. Learn more about The Concord Consortium and the work they do on their website.

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Digital Learning Day: Five Game-Based Learning Tools for Success Through Play

As the education technology world continues to evolve, exciting new products and services are emerging to strengthen and create unique learning experiences for leaners of all ages. Digital Learning Day was established in 2012 to spotlight the many different facets, tools, and applications that support and empower teachers and students. It applauds educators who are getting creative with their digital resources to open up a whole new world of discovery. In honor of Digital Learning Day, we’re sharing some game-based learning tools we’ve developed with a few of our partners.

We’ve been in the educational media industry for over 20 years. Throughout this journey, we’ve held on to our belief in the power of learning through play. This roundup of resources offers a look at immersive play in diverse content areas including history, civic engagement and reading, logic, financial literacy, leadership, resiliency, and social emotional skill building. Players learn and develop skills as they play exciting roles of daring explorer, investigative journalist, and even a wily con artist.

We’d love to hear and learn from you! Share how you’re implementing game-based learning tools in the comments below.

Zoombinis, TERC
Make me a pizza! Through Zoombinis, players learn important life skills including algebraic thinking, data analysis, and theory formulation in a fun and engaging setting. With 12 puzzles and four levels of increasing difficulty in each, players are constantly challenged, improving their problem-solving skills as they advance through the game. Play the revamped classic game you know and love!

Con ‘Em If You Can, Commonwealth
Con 'Em If You Can is a fun, interactive strategy game developed to help players learn how to spot and avoid investment fraud. The game turns the tables and players are cast into the role of fraudster, learning key techniques – phantom riches, reciprocity, scarcity, social consensus, and source credibility – to scam the residents of Shady Acres and thwart the Fraud Fighting Agency!

Operation: REACH, Boys & Girls Club of America
Players set sail on the SS Chelonia to rescue crewmates stranded along a mysterious island archipelago. Aboard the ship, players work with the Captain to navigate and mediate interpersonal conflicts among the crew that threaten the success of the mission. Only with communication, resiliency, collaboration, and empathy will they be able to gain the strength and knowledge to face the final mystery of the Fog, and return safely home. Players gain social emotional learning skills by utilizing tools to keep their stress and anxiety at bay.

Read to Lead, Classroom, Inc.
After the Storm and Community in Crisis places middle schoolers in the fictional city of Port Douglas – a community devastated by a hurricane. By leading the daily news website and running the community center, students assume a leadership role in the community and pick up literacy skills along the way. The literacy learning games in the Read to Lead series promote vocabulary, multi-media production and editing, and work place readiness through real world simulations.

Ripped Apart: A Civil War Mystery, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History
Ever wondered what it’s like to work at the Smithsonian? With the sudden and curious departure of her last intern, Museum Curator Isabella Wagner needs help solving a mystery dating back to the Civil War. Ripped Apart invites players to immerse themselves in the 19th century by exploring the photographs and belongings of mysterious characters from America’s past as an intern at the museum. The app aims to improve the understanding of American history, while helping players get a feel for the critical thinking skills, analysis, and tools museum curators use to study and classify historical objects and artifacts.

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February FableFriday: Mikaela Johnson, Production Assistant

Everything’s coming up roses. With Valentine’s Day a couple weeks away, we’re thinking sweet thoughts about our staff, but especially for Mikaela Johnson. The newest member of our production team has been hard at work helping our producers pull together complex projects with big impact. Her love story with educational media started when she was a kid—and she was familiar with one particular piece in our portfolio before she even started

“Well I guess you could say my journey began with playing Zoombinis at my family friends’ house when I was very young,” shares Mikaela—and it wasn’t just games that caught her interest.

“Some of my earliest home videos include me as an infant sitting in front of the television watching Arthur or other PBS programs,” Mikaela says. “When I think about my own childhood and the role that media played in development, I realize how important it is to make sure the content out there is going to foster healthy development in kids.”

With Mikaela’s day-to-day devoted to spreading the love for all things media-related, we sat down with her to learn more about her adventures in production, advice for budding professionals, and Mikaela’s unmatched affection for breakfast food.

 Welcome, Mikaela! What’s your journey to FableVision story?
I formally entered the world of public media through WGBH in Boston. I spent my first summer at WGBH interning with On Campus Radio, where I learned the ins and outs of news reporting and radio production. The following summer I returned to WGBH, this time in the children’s department, and became an intern for High School Quiz Show. I fell in love with media production, primarily but not limited to children’s media. I started as a freelancer at FableVision helping with some big animation projects and eventually joined the team full time as a production assistant, where I get to work on a full suite of media!  

Can you walk us through a typical Monday in your shoes at FableVision?
On Mondays I begin the day by catching up on emails and then checking in with the producers to see what’s on tap for that day. We have a weekly staff meeting where we discuss deliverables for that week and get updates from the various departments. The coolest part about these meetings is that each week a different FableVision staff member will showcase one of the awesome projects that he/she has been working on! Throughout the day I am scheduling and attending client meetings, checking in with artists, animators, and developers to make sure they have all the tools they need, and participating in various project discussions. Every day is different, and I always have to be on my toes.

What advice would you give to an aspiring producer looking to break into this industry?
The more experience you have with media production at the time of applying to jobs the better candidate you will be. But experience alone won’t get you your dream job—you have to show your passion not only for projects you’ve completed in your internships and at school but for the types of projects that you would be taking on. At the end of the day, you have to put your heart into the work that you’re doing so you need to demonstrate what you bring to the table.

Production work involves a lot of juggling and multi-tasking. How do you stay organized?
I’ve become very into making checklists—on my phone, on my computer, and in my email. I’ve found Google calendar reminders to be particularly helpful with respect to meeting deadlines and keeping track of meetings.

What's one skill you'd love to pick up inside or outside of the studio?
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to become an expert at knitting. I’ve already attended my first FableVision knitting club night and learned the knit stitch, but I have a long way to go!

Nestled in the woods of Maine is a pretty sweet liberal arts haven. Tell us about your time at Colby College.
I absolutely loved every minute of my time at Colby, and I will forever be grateful for the longstanding relationships that I created there. Colby has an incredibly tight-knit, prideful student body, one that I believe is a product of its remoteness. One of my favorite parts of Colby was how much time people spent outdoors, even when it wasn’t really warm enough to do so. The second any sign of Spring hit after the brutally frigid winters, people would hang out outside all across campus. I also played for Colby’s varsity squash team for all four years and worked as a Research Assistant in Colby’s Child Development Lab.

Tell us about your experience playing for the varsity squash team! What did you learn about working with a team from that time?
My squash team at Colby became my family, and I think it had a lot to do with how supportive we were of each other day in and day out. Being part of a small team that spent at least three hours a day together taught me the importance of communication and the effectiveness of group discussions. Before our matches we’d each share our individual goals for that match and our group goals, which allowed us to help each other reach them. If we weren’t performing at the level we wanted to be performing at, we’d sit down together and brainstorm ways to become stronger players individually and as a group. I learned how to both give and take feedback in a constructive way and how important it is to lean on other team members.

You have a background in psychology and child development. How has this shaped your work in the educational media arena?
I’ve always been fascinated by the way children think and learn, an interest that spurred from years of babysitting and working in preschool classrooms. As part of my research for the psychology department, I spent more than 50 hours in preschool and after-school programs where I interacted with children, assisted staff, and collected data for projects that studied child development. Over the past few years, I’ve watched the progression of technology and its increasing integration into classrooms. The more I see it in action, the more I want to help work on the educational programs and tools used in school and beyond.

Rumor has it that you were a member of the pottery club at Colby. How did you foster this interest and is it still a part of your creative life?
One of my roommates and I decided we wanted to try out pottery so we joined the club. We went to the studio late at night and taught ourselves how to make pots—most of our work ended up being a bit uneven or lopsided, but it was a great way to de-stress!

How do you relax and unwind after a long day at the studio?
For me, the best way to unwind is by going to the gym or to a spinning class on my way home from work. My three roommates and I usually cook our dinners at the same time, so it’s fun to come home and chat with everyone while I cook. I finish the night by watching an episode of a funny TV show, like Parks and Recreation or Friends, and then finish up the night with a half hour of reading.

More things to love about Mikaela!

Favorite book with all the feels? A few weeks ago I read the book Commonwealth by Ann Patchet that DEFINITELY had the feels.
Sport that’s closest to your heart? Squash
A city you adore? Florence, Italy where I studied abroad my junior year of Colby.
A movie you fell in love with at first sight? My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Ice cream flavor you’re smitten with? Mint Oreo
Food that un-breaks your heart? As Ron Swanson once said, “There has never been a sadness that can't be cured by breakfast food.”
Tea or coffee love affair? Coffee
Valentine’s Day – Hallmark holiday or most romantic day ever? I spent the past four Valentine’s Days with my squash team, traveling for tournaments. If I spent those days with people I love doing something that I love, does it count as romantic?
An animal you cherish? Sheep. In my sophomore year at Colby, my mom sent me the softest stuffed lamb during exam week, and it was love at first sight. Lamby sleeps on my windowsill now!

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