Website review by Emily Pohlonski, Common Sense Education | Updated May 2019
OK Go Sandbox
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OK Go Sandbox

Creative music video-inspired STEAM design challenges

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Grades
1–12
Subjects & Skills
Arts, Math, Science, Critical Thinking
Price:  Free
Platforms:  Website
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5 images
Guided inquiry and engineering design challenges are available for each music video.
Music videos are engaging and hook student interest.
Behind-the-scenes videos explain how the music videos were made.
Each video is paired with worksheets and directions for hands-on challenges.
Some lesson plans are leveled with general and advanced options.

Pros: Fun music videos are a great hook; kids are motivated to create their own innovations using STEAM skills.

Cons: Lessons are organized on the site by music video, making it hard for teachers to match activities to their specific needs.

Bottom Line: After watching OK Go music videos, kids will be excited to make new creations by integrating art, science, and math.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

OK Go Sandbox clusters its materials by music video. Teachers need to keep digging to realize all the site has to offer. The tools work best if teachers take the time to explore each of the connected resources and build a plan that works for their grade level and classroom. For example, How Parabolas Work has two lesson plans using the same set of videos. The General Parabolas guide is geared toward middle school students, and the Advanced Parabolas guide is aligned with high school Common Core standards. This might be useful for teachers who are differentiating within one class; the entire class can watch the video, but different groups may engage in different tasks afterward.

Resources that support each other are grouped on the site. In the "Hit the Note" lesson, students are asked to use the Google Science Journal app to tune glass cups and play a song. OK Go Sandbox has paired this with a Science Journal scavenger hunt to help students familiarize themselves with another great free tool.

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Standards:

OK Go Sandbox hooks kids with indie group OK Go's music videos and then follows up with guided inquiry and engineering design challenges. Elementary through high school students get ideas from the videos and use them to make their own creations. 

Lessons are linked to physical science, math, and art standards. Kids use parabolas to figure out how the band achieved zero gravity in the "Upside Down & Inside Out" video. The flip books in the "One More Moment" video inspire students to make their own flip books, where art and innovation are emphasized more than any particular content. Each video is paired with lesson plans that include worksheets and directions for hands-on challenges. For example, students are asked to graph the parabolas they find in two differently shaped bowls. 

OK Go Sandbox encourages creation and innovation in math, science, and art as students use phenomena to figure out music videos. These inquiry and design challenges provide opportunities for students to engage in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Science and Engineering Practices.
 
In the "Chain Reaction Machine" lesson, students build a machine that links multiple simple machines together. They're encouraged to match their chain reaction to the timing of the OK Go song "This Too Shall Pass." It's clear from the videos that the members of the band OK Go -- and their directors -- have a real passion for figuring things out. This makes the behind-the-scenes clips particularly powerful, as they explain the various innovations involved in creating each music video.
 
In OK Go Sandbox, lessons are driven by the videos and not by specific grade-level standards. As a result, the math, science, and standards from each lesson come from a variety of grades. This makes it difficult for teachers to select lessons that meet their specific classroom context. That being said, the videos make for interesting phenomena, and with a little tweaking, the lessons can be made to fit multiple grade levels.
Overall Rating
Engagement

Members of the OK Go band are joyful and curious, helping inspire students to embody these characteristics as well. The lesson handouts are visually appealing and support engaging hands-on classroom tasks.

Pedagogy

Lessons employ a phenomena-first approach by using science and math to figure out music videos. Inquiry and design challenges provide opportunities for students to engage in the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices.

Support

Some lesson plans are leveled -- general and advanced -- to support different learners. Teachers could benefit from an online community to share successes and challenges using the resources provided.

Common Sense reviewer
Emily Pohlonski Classroom teacher
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Key Standards Supported

Congruence

  • HSG.CO.5

    Given a geometric figure and a rotation, reflection, or translation, draw the transformed figure using, e.g., graph paper, tracing paper, or geometry software. Specify a sequence of transformations that will carry a given figure onto another.

Creating Equations

  • HSA.CED.1

    Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems. Include equations arising from linear and quadratic functions, and simple rational and exponential functions.

  • HSA.CED.2

    Create equations in two or more variables to represent relationships between quantities; graph equations on coordinate axes with labels and scales.

Geometry

  • 5.G.1

    Use a pair of perpendicular number lines, called axes, to define a coordinate system, with the intersection of the lines (the origin) arranged to coincide with the 0 on each line and a given point in the plane located by using an ordered pair of numbers, called its coordinates. Understand that the first number indicates how far to travel from the origin in the direction of one axis, and the second number indicates how far to travel in the direction of the second axis, with the convention that the names of the two axes and the coordinates correspond (e.g., x-axis and x-coordinate, y-axis and y-coordinate).

  • 5.G.2

    Represent real world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.

Measurement And Data

  • 3.MD.4

    Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units— whole numbers, halves, or quarters.

  • 3.MD.8

    Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.

Quantities

  • HSN.Q .2

    Define appropriate quantities for the purpose of descriptive modeling.

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Key Standards Supported

Energy

  • 4-PS3-3

    Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.

  • MS-PS3-1

    Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.

Engineering Design

  • 3-5-ETS1-3

    Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

  • K-2-ETS1-3

    Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

  • MS-ETS1-2

    Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Matter and Its Interactions

  • 2-PS1-1

    Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

  • 3-PS2-2

    Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

  • 1-PS4-1

    Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.

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