Free Online Curriculum: Pixar in a Box with Khan Academy

Photo courtesy of Blogging Mom of Four

Does your family use Khan Academy?

I have had an awareness of it for a few years, but never looked into it for my kids. While on my Disney press trip last month, we were introduced to Pixar in a Box, which is a special set of lessons through Khan Academy.

Pixar in a Box includes a variety of video lessons, interactive exercises, and hands-on activities to teach kids how the academic concepts they learn in school enable Pixar filmmakers to do things like create new worlds, animate characters and tell stories.

Though the lessons are designed especially for students in middle and high school, anyone can sign up for Pixar in a Box for free.

I was completely blown away by Pixar in a Box and came home so excited to share it with Elias. He is incredibly creative and bright and I thought it would really spark his interest. I was right. He was so eager for me to sign him up and let him watch the videos about science, math and animation.

He even had me hang a Pixar Academy poster in his room. I love that he has that reminder that he can create anything right amongst football posters, Star Wars decals, etc.

Watch this overview with your child

Some of the things students can learn through Pixar in a Box:

How combinatorics are used to create crowds, like the swarm of robots in WALLE.
How parabolas are used to model environments, like the forest in Brave.
How weighted averages are used to create characters, like Buzz Lightyear and Woody.
How linear and cubic interpolation are used to animate characters.
How trigonometry is used to create the worlds in which Pixar stories take place.
How simultaneous equations are used to paint all of Pixar’s images.

This past week, Pixar in a Box launched a lesson all about water simulation and the technology they used in Finding Dory. In checking out the lesson, I was impressed by how Pixar in a Box took something as complex as particle systems and made it simple for children to understand.