PBS has a long history of creating award-winning children\u2019s media and has published a wide range of free educational apps. PBS stations often seek organizational partnerships for help in reaching families with the free digital resources they produce. One such collaboration is between WGBH and ALSC<\/a> as we together introduce a new series of apps developed with National Science Foundation funding. These PEEP Family Science<\/strong><\/a> apps feature characters children love from the Emmy Award-winning preschool STEM series on public television, PEEP and the Big Wide World<\/em><\/a>\u2014combining brief, animated stories with playful, hands-on science for families to do together. Far from being an app solely offering STEM games, PEEP Family Science incorporates videos and tips for parents, modeling how to engage children in science learning. Adults are integrally involved in the navigation, prompts, and activity how-to. It\u2019s a parent guide in digital format.<\/p>\n \u201cPEEP Family Science\u201d is on Google Play and the App Store. There are four apps to choose from (shadows, sound, color, and ramps) and each is available in Spanish or English. Here is the shadows app is shown:<\/p>\n WGBH developed the apps with the Center for Children & Technology at the Education Development Center<\/a>. They were designed for parents and children, especially those served by home visiting programs\u2014programs in which educators visit homes to give parents the skills and tools needed to foster children\u2019s healthy development and school readiness. The apps were tested over a two-year period with nearly 200 diverse families from long-established home visiting programs, HIPPY USA<\/a> (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) and AVANCE<\/a>.<\/p>\n Research revealed families overwhelmingly enjoyed the app, that it conveyed important science content and vocabulary, and gave parents new ideas for helping children with science. Critically, parent and child actively explored science topics together<\/em>. They learned science is all around them to discover and that they can do investigations with very simple materials. Families who were initially skeptical also discovered technology can be a real learning tool\u2014and that PEEP Family Science actually brought their family together in a shared learning experience.<\/p>\n If you are inspired to check out PEEP Family Science, please consider whether it makes sense to provide on your library\u2019s tablets or in your preschool programming. For more information about the effort, visit peepandthebigwideworld.com\/peepfamilyscience<\/strong><\/a> or contact Gay_Mohrbacher@wgbh.org<\/a><\/p>\n Collaboration Note:<\/strong>\u00a0 ALSC Board approved a partnership with WGBH in October 2015 to further the strategic goals of Advocacy and Learning and Development. Sharing information about \u201cPEEP Family Science App\u201d aligns with ALSC\u2019s aims of demonstrating librarians\u2019 expertise as media mentors and providing examples of digital media resources for young children grounded in parent-child interaction. <\/span><\/p>\n Today’s guest blogger is Gay Mohrbacher. Gay is a Senior Project Manager in the Education Department at WGBH Boston. <\/em>She presents workshops and online trainings on preschool science. She can be reached at\u00a0<\/em>Gay_Mohrbacher@wgbh.org<\/a><\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/exploring-shadows-650x359.jpg\")
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