Target Audience: PreK
Subjects/Skills: STEM
PEEP and the Big Wide World is a bilingual (English/Spanish) multimedia initiative devoted to preschool STEM learning. The Emmy-winning show stars a wide-eyed chick (Peep), a skeptical robin (Chirp), and an irascible but endearing duck (Quack). The three feathered friends live in a large urban park—the “Big Wide World”—a place teeming with science adventures.
PEEP features animated episodes and games for preschoolers and easy-to-do Anywhere Activities that are fun ways for parents and children to learn simple science concepts together.
The PEEP Science Curriculum was first created for Head Start teachers. PEEP resources were then expanded to include video-based professional development, focusing on center-based educators as well as the needs of family childcare educators. These educators, who care for children in their homes, are a neglected group with far fewer support systems than center-based educators, especially when it comes to science instruction. The curriculum focuses on six science areas developmentally appropriate for preschoolers and features several hundred lessons.
PEEP Family Science is designed specifically for families served by home visiting organizations—programs that support families with preschool educational resources to use at home. Aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework, it comes with four mobile apps loaded with videos and science activities.
Reach/Impact
PEEP Family Science received a Teachers’ Choice Award, a Parents’ Choice Award, and a five-star rating from Common Sense Media. A 2019 research study (available here) conducted by the Education Development Center with over 200 diverse families found positive differences in attitudes and knowledge with parents who used PEEP Family Science compared to those who did not. Parents reported:
- doing substantially more science activities with their children;
- using more strategies to support their children’s learning through media;
- feeling more confident about helping their child learn science.
The full research report is available here.
Since 2007, PEEP has reached over 500,000 educators.
Contact Us: education@wgbh.org.