Complexly

Video content increasingly dominates students' lives, both as passive consumers and active contributors. Our conversations with educators always land in the same spot: in addition to teaching core subject content, teachers are asked to cover concepts like media literacy, source verification, storytelling, and more to meet the demands of the current media ecosystem. So we made the Crash Course Creator Lab. This new (FREE) offering is a modular, 4-unit lesson plan that helps student storytellers create their own educational video. Through worksheets, discussions, activities, and guided production, students gradually build skills to better understand, consume, and create media. As their final project, students then use this new skillset to research, write, revise, and produce their very own educational video. Send the educators in your life to https://lnkd.in/gB9wKQ6C to learn more!

We’re so excited to share that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation renewed their support for SciShow with a $500,000 grant to produce more Deep Dives, Expand the Residency Program, and to highlight important questions and profound insights from books in the Sloan Foundation’s Book Program. The Sloan Foundation was an early champion to the Deep Dive program, supporting previous narratives on the Chimpanzee Wars in Gombe, and Isaac Newton’s secret fascination with alchemy. The SciShow team is excited to continue working with them and exploring this partnership. The renewed partnership makes SciShow’s impact greater, allowing the team to lower barriers to knowledge-building across more diverse projects and series on the channel. To learn more about how this grant will help these projects, check out the full story at: https://lnkd.in/gGeq-iyp

It’s time for another trip to see the working labs of the world! SciShow is so excited to be back exploring more cutting-edge science in the field. Check it out all week at youtube.com/scishow!

As leaders in the educational media space, Complexly wants to return to the SXSW EDU in 2027. There, we’ll collaborate with and learn from other education creators. We also want to host panels to share our knowledge and experience. Your votes help get our panels on the schedule! Read more about our PanelPicker proposals below, and follow the links to vote! 😬 Sex, Religion, and Politics: Sensitive Topics in Education - https://lnkd.in/gr25ezaD Sex, religion, and politics are not known for being polite conversation topics. But they come up in the classroom precisely because they are so polarizing and because they are part of being human! So, how can we address these topics ethically, inclusively, and without shame? A panel of educational media makers, curriculum developers, and teachers discuss. Featuring: Charlie Hunt, Kristin Lehner, & Meghan Modafferi 🧑🔬 Why Facts Alone Don't Stick - https://lnkd.in/gBhGcymw Content that is too information dense often fails. What makes people actually remember? Writers, producers, and presenters from some of YouTube’s top educational channels will connect learning science (cognitive load, memory, narrative structure) to real choices in educational media. We can bring real examples of how scripts evolve from core facts to engaging narratives without sacrificing rigor. Featuring: Danielle Bainbridge, Daniel Comiskey, Tom Lum, & Nicole Sweeney

Complexly has been creating free educational content—SciShow, Crash Course, PBS Eons, Bizarre Beasts, and more—for nearly 15 years (and over 6 billion views!). This year, we have leaned into our mission by becoming a 501c3 non-profit! Join us September 16th for our first in-person benefit show in Los Angeles! https://lnkd.in/gmCPygCs

Congratulations to everybody at Complexly and PBS who helped make Eons: Life and Death on Pangea a reality! It's the kind of project you'll only find on PBS. The series tells the story of one of the most dramatic moments in Earth's history, the Great Dying, when more than 80 percent of species vanished. From mega-monsoons to giant terrestrial animals, it traces how life on Earth reached the brink of collapse (and how the planet recovered). Everybody worked so hard on this, and it's thrilling to see that the show has been in the PBS app top 10 since launch. This is part of a growing wave of creator-led longform titles from PBS Digital Studios that bring our YouTube audiences to the PBS app. Eons is one of PBS's most beloved YouTube series, and I'm in awe of how Brandon Brungard, Seth Radley, Kallie Moore, Blake de Pastino, Michelle Barboza-Ramirez, Gabriel-Philip Santos, Darshana (Darcy) Shapiro and the rest of the team built on those foundations to create a sweeping, deeply researched and immersive longform series. Special shout out to Josef "Tuna" Metesh at Complexly for composing an incredible original score! I'm so proud to have executive produced this show, but it wouldn't have been a success without the many PBSers who made this happen: Betsega B., Darren Knabe, Maribel Lopez, David Catania, Elis Estrada, Tania B., Serena Aubrey, Michael E. Tang, Stephanie Kennard and more (you know who you are). I feel lucky to work with you all.

Over the last nine years, Eons, our show with PBS Digital Studios, has built a global audience of deep time fans, amassing more than 757 million video views across YouTube and the PBS app, with 3.17 million YouTube subscribers and more than 1.1 million podcast downloads. And today, our impact gets even bigger with the launch of the new broadcast series Eons: Life and Death on Pangea. This sweeping, immersive series expands a trusted brand with field exploration, expert insight, striking animations and dynamic on-screen graphics that vividly bring to life the Permian Period. Our team took their skills to a new level, venturing outside the studio to go to places where the Permian can still be witnessed up close. And now we get to bring that story to new audiences around the globe. The first two episodes of Eons: Life and Death on Pangea are available now on the free PBS app, www.pbs.org/eons, and PBS stations (check local listings)! Tune in weekly on Wednesdays to take a journey through deep time.

Cosplay For Science is hosting a free screening of episode 1 of our new PBS Eons series, Life and Death on Pangea, during San Diego Comic Con! Join some of the Eons crew at Digital Gym Cinemas on Saturday, July 25 at 10am and 11am! See the first episode before it premieres on July 29th and stick around for a Q&A with hosts, Gabriel and Michelle, and series writer, Farhan Mitha. Free screening. RSVP required. Seating is not guaranteed. First come, first serve. Please arrive at least 15 minutes prior to screening. RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/gRHBpvDn

We are honored to announce a partnership with the Andrew Carnegie Foundation who have awarded a $600,000 grant to Complexly for a special series on SciShow. This grant will fund an 8-video series on important issues in nuclear science like nuclear risk, nuclear misinformation, and the consequences of nuclear weapons. We’ll get into the nitty gritty details of some of these topics with two Deep Dives and six regular SciShow videos! For the first time, SciShow will also be making supplemental materials for educators to use in the classroom as they follow along with the series. All of this grant-supported work is exactly what we hoped to be doing when we became a non-profit earlier this year. We’re so excited to further our mission of inspiring curiosity and lowering barriers to knowledge-building thanks to this generous partnership with the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. Read more about the project here: https://lnkd.in/gqsSSqYR

Will we see you at Open Sauce this weekend? A handful of folks from Complexly will be attending the event, including Hank Green and Caitlin Hofmeister! Here's everything we're up to while we're there: Friday - July 17 2:25 PM - "How to Build a Community That Does Not Suck" A session moderated by Caitlin Hofmeister, bringing together creators and operators who have built communities that members actually use, value, and renew. 4:00 PM - "Fems and Thems Meet Up" Caitlin Hofmeister is hosting a meetup in the Catalina room at the Grand Bay Hotel San Francisco! There will be crafting, with materials and instructions to guide attendees through making therapy fidget putty, discussion questions to prompt conversation between creators, grab and go fidget toys for attendees to use during the conference, and light snacks and beverages provided by the hotel catering team. 4:50 PM - "Save the World, Keep the Audience" Hank Green built Complexly to make education a mission, not just a format. Matt Fitzgerald 🔜 Open Sauce led the largest creator-driven fundraising campaigns ever made, most recently #TeamWater with Mark Rober and MrBeast. In this conversation they talk about how to move from content to cause and the rise of creator philanthropy. Saturday - July 18 11:25 AM - "Ask Hank Anything Live" Hank Green hosts a live AHA, with special guest William Osman Sunday - July 19 10:30 AM - "Houston, We Have A Panel" Hank Green moderates a panel of creators talking about what's actually exciting right now, what's overhyped, and what the next few years of spaceflight look like from the people watching it closest.