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Course: Pixar in a Box > Unit 1
Lesson 1: IntroductionEducator's guide
Hello educators!
Pixar in a Box is designed to help students answer an age old question: Why do I need to learn this stuff? Our answer to this question is a series of interactive lessons, each of which demonstrate how a concept introduced in school is used for creative benefit at Pixar.
Lesson design
Each topic we offer breaks down into two lessons.
Lesson 1 is for all ages and focused on a design challenge
Each topic begins with a design-focused lesson that doesn't require math concepts beyond the elementary level. We hope people of all ages try these lessons. The goal is to first get you creating things with interactive tools while exposing the connections to mathematics.
Lesson 2 is more focused on technical concepts
This leads to a second lesson which dives deeper into the concepts involved. It begins with a lesson briefing identifying grade level, prerequisites, and relevant Common Core State Standards. Lessons are designed to increase in difficulty so that students can attempt more advanced material.
Topics
- Lesson 1: Modeling grass with parabolas – all ages
- Lesson 2: Calculating parabolas – grade 7 through high school
- Lesson 1: Modeling with subdivision surfaces – all ages
- Lesson 2: Mathematics of subdivision – grade 7 through high school
- Lesson 1: Introduction to animation curves – all ages
- Lesson 2: Mathematics of animation curves – grade 8 through high school
- Lesson 1: Building crowds (combinations) – grades 4 to 7
- Lesson 2: Counting crowds (binomial coefficient) – high school
- Lesson 1: Rendering 101 – all ages
- Lesson 2: Mathematics of rendering – high school and above
How long do lessons take?
We've designed each lesson to fit within an hour or less.
Hands-on activities
We've created hands-on activities to extend our introductory lessons. You'll find these at the bottom of lessons under "hands-on activities". Here are links to take you directly to our activities:
- Learn hand drawn animation in this three-part activity.
- Appropriate for all ages
- Apply combinations to create a crowd of dinosaurs using a small number of parts.
- Appropriate for grades 5 to 8
- Use string art construction to weave parabolic curves by hand.
- Appropriate for all ages
More activities coming soon!
Help us expand!
If you have feedback or suggestions, please connect with us in the Q&A below. If you design your own lesson plans or activities around our content please share it here. We love to feature community-built content.
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this time was more amazing than the last time(1 vote)