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Have you heard of Khan Academy? We’ve used them for quite a while to brush up on math skills or other concepts. It’s a really great resource for parents and teachers and it’s free! They recently teamed up with Pixar to create Pixar in a Box, free interactive lessons that show how concepts they learn in school are used in real life.
“Through a series of video lessons, interactive exercises, and hands-on activities, students will discover how the academic concepts they learn in school enable Pixar filmmakers to create new worlds, animate unique characters and tell stories through animation. Although designed especially for students in middle and high school, these resources are available to learners of all ages, completely free of charge.”
From Pixar in a Box:
Explore how animators bring characters to life with the help of Animation curves.
Starting today, students can access Pixar in a Box and learn:
- 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.
We will definitely be checking out Pixar in a Box throughout the year as well as all the other great resources that Khan Academy has to offer!