< Teachers And Those Magical OK Go Videos: A Match Made In Science?

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The band OK Go is known for their complex and elaborate music videos.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HERE IT GOES AGAIN")

OK GO: (Singing) It could be 10. But then again, I can't remember half an hour since a quarter to four.

CHANG: Maybe you've seen that one where they're all dancing on treadmills, jumping back and forth in time to the music. It's been viewed at least 41 million times. This month, they're out with a new release. And what they've dropped is not a new album or a fresh music video. It's curriculum. Elissa Nadworny of the NPR Ed team explains.

ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: It turns out those videos are super popular in classrooms.

DAMIAN KULASH: Definitely not how you start out a rock band - going like, you know what? Let's teach.

NADWORNY: That's Damian Kulash, the lead singer of OK Go. He and the other band members have been hearing from teacher fans and the students who watched those videos in their classes for years.

JENNIE MAGIERA: A treadmill is a really actually great way to teach rate.

NADWORNY: That's Jennie Magiera. She taught in Chicago public schools for 10 years.

MAGIERA: If you're at, you know, a 3.5 speed, that's a rate. If you're at 6.2 speed, that's a rate. So how many miles per hour is that? How fast are you going? How much harder is your heart beating?

NADWORNY: She says these videos are great for teaching math and science. There's physics, algebra, calculus, lessons on quadratic equations, coordinate planes, gravity.

JANET MOORE: It kind of nullifies the question of, when am I ever going to need to use this?

NADWORNY: And that's a question Janet Moore gets a lot in her college math classes for non-math and science majors at the University of Illinois. Moore also leads workshops for other teachers training them to use OK Go videos. One of her favorites...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS TOO SHALL PASS")

OK GO: (Singing) When the morning comes.

NADWORNY: The "This Too Shall Pass" video. It's an incredible four-minute Rube Goldberg machine. Dominoes trigger a marble. A rolling tire turns on a bunch of lamps. A guitar with spoons chimes water glasses perfectly timed to the instrumental break. A piano falls from the ceiling. A TV gets smashed. Eventually, the band members are sprayed with paint. For students, there's a huge question. How did they do that?

MOORE: It sparks inquiry. It sparks curiosity.

NADWORNY: And, Moore says, it's also a great intro to energy concepts.

MOORE: When you understand math and science concepts, you can see the world around you differently.

KULASH: Given that teachers are taking this thing that we've made and running into a whole new really exciting place with it, is there some way that we can like make that journey easier for them?

NADWORNY: Lead singer Damian Kulash says to answer that question, OK Go partnered with the Playful Learning Lab at the University of St. Thomas. They surveyed more than 600 teachers. And educators told them they wanted three main things - classroom materials, challenges and assignments and access to the band.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "OK GO SANDBOX - Q&A FOR THIS TOO SHALL PASS")

TIM NORDWIND: Hey, everyone, I'm Tim.

KULASH: And I'm Damian. We are in the band OK Go. Back there, of course - Andy and Dan.

NADWORNY: So the band made more behind-the-scenes videos.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "OK GO SANDBOX - Q&A FOR THIS TOO SHALL PASS")

KULASH: Why don't we teach you some about the concepts that are in the video? And maybe you can use them to build some things yourself.

NADWORNY: Explanation of concepts - what exactly is a parabola? - challenges for students to try, like using a compass on your phone to make music.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "OK GO SANDBOX - SENSOR SOUNDS PT. 1 - INTRODUCTION")

KULASH: Science, light and sound. Science, light and sound.

NADWORNY: And lots of questions and answers - and it's all free.

KULASH: The universal we're trying to get at in so many of our videos is just curiosity and wonder and that sort of - that excitement about the world where like you want to uncover something magical.

NADWORNY: Goulash says if classroom teachers, the real experts who instill and nurture creativity, want more tools, how could the band say no? Elissa Nadworny, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UPSIDE DOWN & INSIDE OUT")

OK GO: (Singing) Upside down and inside out, and you can feel it. Upside down and inside out, and you can feel it, feel it.

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