With the 2026–2027 faculty 12 months again in session, legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, in collaboration with PBS LearningMedia, right now introduced that they are going to be bringing classroom content material to the official Ken Burns YouTube Channel.
In partnership with PBS LearningMedia, the service that gives free, curriculum-aligned digital assets to academics and college students nationwide, the digital programs from “Ken Burns within the Classroom” mix professionally edited movie segments with interactive classroom supplies to make historical past participating, immersive, and accessible for contemporary studying environments.
“I’ve all the time thought that our shared historical past ought to be accessible to everybody, therefore my long-term partnership with PBS for all of our work and with PBS LearningMedia to make sure that academics and college students have entry to our movies and academic supplies.” Ken Burns stated. “Bringing these academic supplies to YouTube is a pure extension of how we’ve tried to interact educators and college students straight, empowering college students to ask robust questions, study completely different views, and see themselves within the ongoing American story.”
The primary three programs accessible on YouTube right now are centered on The American Revolution. The six-part, 12-hour documentary sequence directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt examines how America’s founding turned the world upside-down. 13 British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in revolt, received their independence, and established a brand new type of authorities that radically reshaped the continent and impressed centuries of democratic actions across the globe.
The preliminary launch focuses on themes surrounding America’s early historical past, together with:
Course content material chosen from amongst Ken Burns’s greater than 40 movies, together with The Civil Warfare, The Mud Bowl, and The Vietnam Warfare, will probably be accessible within the coming weeks. Every course was developed by PBS LearningMedia and options free assets to raise the educational expertise:
- Classroom-Tailored Movie Content material: Professionally edited segments designed to suit busy class agendas.
- Built-in YouTube Quizzes: Interactive video quizzes that enable college students to check their comprehension in real-time.
- Free Instructing Supplies: Classroom supplies developed by PBS LearningMedia designed to invoke thought-provoking questions.
“PBS LearningMedia’s partnership with YouTube permits us to deliver Ken Burns’s most iconic movies, contextualized for the classroom, to much more academics and college students,” stated Lori Brittain, Vice President of PBS LearningMedia. “Starting with The American Revolution, these programs will develop college students’ understanding of a few of the most pivotal moments in our historical past, strengthen their important pondering abilities, and assist them draw their very own conclusions in regards to the previous.”
Whether or not you’re a trainer trying to improve your lesson plan or a scholar desperate to discover historical past by dynamic video content material, these programs are utterly free and accessible now on the official Ken Burns YouTube channel, and educators may also discover the complete assortment of Ken Burns’s classroom assets at PBS LearningMedia.