Dune's Island - A Free Video Learning Series
Eric Matyas
United StatesMember Posts: 900
Hi everyone,
If you happen to have kids (or know someone who does) here's a brand new free resource that I hope is helpful. It's a website for my video learning series, “Dune’s Island,” which aims to teach kids environmental stewardship in a really fun way through stories and characters. Within the site you can freely access all the episodes, support documentaries and even tie-in curriculum (like vocabulary, math problems, writing prompts and more.)
In the coming weeks, I’ll be expanding the site with all kinds of activities and more cool documentaries, so please be sure to bookmark it. In the meantime, any and all feedback is welcome and very much appreciated. Enjoy and stay safe.
Comments
Activities like games?
Yep, I plan to create learning-based video games that take place in the world of "Dune's Island." Also print-outs and paper-based things for teachers...(lots of schools don't have computers for each student.) But for homeschooling families, video games would be great. It might be a cool project for indie developers to get involved with. :-)
Lots of folks have asked if I created the music for the films, but that wasn't my function on them. I wrote and directed these films with the intent to hopefully help kids (and grownups) learn important things regarding the environment.
Here's a link to the page on my new site where everyone can freely access all of the "Dune's Island" episodes. I’ve enabled the download function on Vimeo so people don’t even have to be online to share them with their kiddos.
Enjoy…and please feel free to share with anyone who might find it useful.
https://www.dunesisland.org/episodes
Stay safe and healthy.
I had always intended "Dune's Island" to be an immersive learning world. The idea was to produce films that teachers and home educators could actually pull lessons from to share with their students. After completing the episodes, a team of science teachers went through the films and created curriculum for grades K-5 that ties into the episodes.
Here's a link to it: https://www.dunesisland.org/curriculum
Please feel free to share it!
Here’s our page where you can access all of the episodes. I think it looks pretty good for a community project! Please help us share it with the world.
https://www.dunesisland.org/episodes
If you've been following my music sharing thread over the years, you know that I'm not one to toot my own whistle, but I've been getting some very positive feedback about "Dune's Island" from parents and teachers so I included a "Praise for Dune's Island" page on the site.
Given the current environmental situation, I believe that this is a very important project. Getting the word out about it is a massive challenge, though...especially since it has no advertising budget. If you think "Dune's Island" might be helpful to someone you know, please share it with them. Thanks in advance!
Here's Episode 1 of my free learning series. Mr. Binnacle sends Dune and friends to the inlet to try to spot Buster, an endangered sea turtle whose tracking device is faltering. For ages 7-12. Please share with family, friends and teachers!
:-) https://www.dunesisland.org/
Here’s a short clip from one of our episodes: “Pelican Problems.” All of the episodes are free to watch and even download to your computers so you don’t have to be online to use them. I sincerely hope they are helpful to you and your families!
https://www.dunesisland.org/
cool, i will ckeck that course
Awesome...full episodes can be seen here as well:
Enjoy and please share! :-)
Hi everyone,
I’m working on worksheets and activities that parents and teachers can download for their students…the idea being that the island serves as a microcosm and provides a way for kids to build their math, science and reading skills. I think this will be a really cool way for kids to learn.
If you haven’t seen the videos yet, here’s a link the website:
https://www.dunesisland.org/
Check them out…they are free to watch and download.
Eventually I’d like to have tie-in video games…any ideas?