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Introducing “The Paper Girls Show” Season One - Out Now!

“If you dream it, you can make it!” Introducing The Paper Girls Show, an original STEAM-based MIPTV- and Kidscreen-award-winning animated YouTube series from Global Tinker and FableVision Studios. Designed to inspire young girls to have confidence in their intellectual capabilities and create their own innovative solutions to everyday problems, the show follows Caily and Reese, best friends and makers who are fueled by curiosity and creativity! Along the way, they discover the fantastical paper world of Confetti, where they find inspiration to solve their real-world dilemmas. 

Each episode introduces viewers to a different type of accessible technology, from 3D printing to paper circuitry. Global Tinker also partnered with Brooklyn-based STEAM camp company and magazine Curious Jane and Taro’s Origami Studio to create free DIY STEAM-related craft videos and origami projects using affordable materials that align with projects highlighted in each episode. By infusing STEAM curricula with great storytelling, The Paper Girls Show empowers girls to create, imagine, and learn as they become problem solvers just like Caily and Reese. Season 1 is being released on The Paper Girls Show’s YouTube channel. Check back every Wednesday for a new episode!

The Paper Girls Show Episodes

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Episode 1: “Something Fishy
Reese is participating in a local fashion show and has to get crafty when Caily’s fish tank overflows and ruins all of her fabric. The girls head to the colorful paper world of Confetti for some inspiration from their friends Kami and Dev.

Episode 2: “Museum Mayhem
Confetti’s new recycling program threatens Queen Frivol’s prized landfill of non-biodegradable junk. To get around the new law, she declares her junk pile a national museum. With Queen Frivol’s junk pile getting bigger, Kami enlists the help of Reese and Caily to shut down the bogus museum and get rid of the supersized pile of junk.

Episode 3: “Mice To Meet You
The maker studio Stax by Jax has a mouse problem. The little furry critters have been sneaking in at night and nibbling on the pencils and books and infiltrating the shop’s snack stash. When the mouse problem becomes unbearable, the girls head to Confetti for help.

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Episode 4: “Bot We’re a Team
Reese and Caily’s robotics team can’t agree on a design for their robot for an upcoming competition. In Confetti, Kami introduces them to her uncle, Professor Seymour, a talented inventor who created the first robot Shredder. His story gives the girls an idea for how they can compromise and design a bot that everyone’s on board with.

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Episode 5: “The Inspo-Buddies
After Edie accidentally records over a treasured family vacation video, Caily is determined to lock her out of her computer. In Confetti, Queen Frivol is trying to steal Dev’s family’s secret lemonade recipe to win a contest. Caily and Reese show Kami and Dev how to write the recipe in invisible ink, and in the process, discover an idea for an Edie-proof computer lock. 

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Episode 6: “Paws-itively Fabulous
When Jax’s ferret Jennifer sprains her leg, Edie wants to help her get around the studio. In Confetti, Queen Frivol’s Shredders are polluting Parchment Pond with her unwanted garbage, and ruin an animal habitat in the process.

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Episode 7: “Dev-astated by Fame
The girls go to Confetti to cheer Dev up after a disastrous audition for the Confetti’s Got Talent show, judged by Queen Frivol. Caily shares her dilemma of wanting a drum set and her mom’s objection to the resulting racket. One of Dev’s comments inspires them to make a drum set out of paper and conductive ink, which they demonstrate on their DIY web show, “Made Wrong.” 

Episode 8: “Not Remotely Funny
Reese and Caily are mortified when their paper airplane note flies off course and lands on another student’s desk, earning them detention. Determined to perfect their paper plane, they jump at Kami’s invite to Confetti for a ride in Professor Seymour’s airship and navigate their way to a solution. 

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Episode 9: “A ‘Shred’ of Difference
Queen Frivol is furious when she discovers that her beloved Shredder, Melvin, has been recycling items from her prized junk pile at Uncle Seymour’s Fix It Shop. Kami and Uncle Seymour ask Reese and Caily to hide Melvin until the Queen calms down, and Melvin makes mountains of shredded paper for Edie’s Earth Day presentation.

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Episode 10: “Fin-tastic Fabio
Caily asks Jax for help figuring out why her fish Fabio isn’t feeling well. He encourages her to look at a sample of Fabio’s fish tank water under a foldscope, and Reese’s research catches the culprit. Kami asks the girls for help with Dev, who is terrified that Parchment Pond is haunted by glowing ghosts, but a paper microscope reveals the truth.

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Episode 11: “Let’s Make a Mistake
This music video for the song “Let’s Make a Mistake” is an anthem for The Paper Girls Show and the maker generation. The song celebrates imperfection, learning from mistakes, and encourages curiosity and out of the box thinking to help make the world a better place.

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Episode 12: “Trash Talk
Queen Frivol hosts a talk show, Trash Talk, with the help of her producer/camera operator/sidekick Melvin the Shredder. In this installment, she beats Dev at a rigged game of Name that Tune and snores through Kami and Uncle Seymour’s demonstration of solar power.

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May Madness: GPB Gaming Speedruns

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Get ready to rumble with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) Education’s May Madness! For the next three days, GPB will broadcast live speedrun gaming demonstrations of their three FableVision-developed learning games: Gasha Go!, Georgia Race Through Time, and Lights, Camera, Budget!

With the school year winding down and students preparing for both final assessments and summer break, this is the perfect opportunity to enjoy GPB’s award-winning games in action as competitors pit their knowledge of numeracy, Georgia history, and financial literacy against the clock and try to uncover 24 hidden primary sources, replace 30 toys, and produce a five-star movie for the world speedrun gaming record. Teachers, parents, and students are all invited to tune in and cheer them on!


Georgia Race Through Time All Sources Speedrun

Click here to register.

Step into Georgia history in Georgia Race Through Time as Savannah and her dog Peaches collect historical artifacts in order to win the Georgia Race Through Time scavenger hunt. Watch GBP’s own phenomenal scholar-athlete Michael Kuenlen on his first-ever live broadcast of an All Sources Speedrun demo of the Georgia Race Through Time Game. How long will it take Mike, Savannah, and Peaches to find all 24 primary sources hidden throughout the state? Will Mike’s formative year as an 8th grade Georgia Studies student see him through the challenge? Have Mike’s 15 years as a social studies teacher honed his information processing skills enough to foil avid competitors Elan Trusk and Musty Bureaux? Tune in Wednesday at 3PM ET to find out!


Gasha Go! All Toys Speedrun

Click here to register.

Jump into the colorful world of an arcade game in Gasha Go!, as players use their number sense, numeracy, and literacy skills to fill a gashapon-style toy machine with toy pods. Join GPB’s early learning education Ready to Learn rockstars Ashley Payton and Kimberly Mobley as they use their numeracy superpowers in a race against the clock All Toys Speedrun demo to save the day for busy Gasha Go! arcade workers and math friends Mash, Zoom, Bazzle, Deeja, Pow, and Tuft. Can their sense of what numbers mean and how they relate to one another be enough to replenish all 30 gashapon toys before the arcade opens again in the morning? Tune in Thursday at 3PM ET to find out!


Lights, Camera, Budget! All Stars Speedrun

Click here to register.

Find out what it’s like to be a Hollywood producer and make your own hit film in Lights, Camera, Budget!, a financial literacy game created by FableVision Studios, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and the Georgia Council on Economic Education that teaches personal finance and budgeting skills. Join GPB Education for an hour of economic excitement with GCEE financial literacy legends Chris “Cash Commander” Cannon and Mike “Money Master” Raymer as they take on the Georgia film industry with a limited budget for their inaugural Lights, Camera, Budget! All Stars Speedrun game demo. Will Chris choose the genre of action, horror, or romantic comedy? Will his funds hold out long enough to feed the crew and complete the soundtrack? Can he navigate the perils of personal finance to produce a five-star movie in today’s exceptional economic environment? Tune in Friday at 1PM ET to find out!

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Earth Day Spotlight: Smithsonian's Secrets of the Sea

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Happy Earth Day from all of us at FableVision!

This Earth Day is especially important because it’s the 50th anniversary of the holiday. To celebrate, we’re excited to announce the launch of the Smithsonian’s Secrets of the Sea. In Secrets of the Sea, viewers explore all the beautiful secrets of a coral reef and learn from explorers who have dedicated their lives to unearthing those treasures and the scientists at the frontlines of fighting climate change to protect habitats such as these. This immersive digital experience comes just in time for this holiday all about celebrating the planet.

While it’s always a good time to make sure we’re doing our part in being green and promoting a healthy, clean environment for people, animals, and plants alike, Earth Day reminds us of just how crucial it is for all of us to do our part. From turning off your faucet during your 20 seconds of handwashing to not buying what you don’t need, there are many little things you can do to help protect and care for our planet, even during this time of social distancing and staying safe at home. 

Education is an especially important aspect of fostering and promoting environmentally-friendly habits, and is central to the FableVision mission. Learning about our environment and how different organisms are affected by our actions can help us to be more aware. From the trees outside our windows to the tiny ocean species most of us never see, finding out more about other living things can broaden our horizons and show us just how important conservation and sustainability are. 

That’s why we were honored to partner with the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access on Secrets of the Sea. To bring the underwater world of the coral reef to life, FableVision created artwork and animation for the digital experience. Guided by reference art and research provided by the Smithsonian, FableVision designed scientifically accurate 2D zooplankton, and designed, animated, rigged, and skinned 3D models.

So this Earth Day, experience the wonders of the Earth’s coral reefs for yourself. And be sure to also check out our other projects created in collaboration with the Smithsonian, such as Weather Lab, an online game that helps you understand how North America’s weather is formed, and Good Thinking!: The Science of Teaching Science, an animation series that enhances science education for K-8 teachers and students. Both were created with the Smithsonian Science Education Center and are available online for free!

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Some of Our Favorite Resources in the Age of Social Distancing

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As many of us prepare for another few weeks of social distancing, FableVision staffers have filled our time with walks, cooking, dancing, crafting, and, of course, storytelling. Looking for some suggestions for activities you and your family can do together? We’ve gathered another list of some of our favorite resources for while we’re physically apart. 

For a list of Distance Learning resources (although there are some resources on this list that fit that bill as well), check out our other blog here.

Stay safe!


Yards for Yeardley: a virtual MOVEment from One Love Foundation

Feeling restless? Move for a good cause! Yards for Yeardley is a virtual movement organized by One Love, a foundation dedicated to educating young people about healthy relationships. In honor of the 10th anniversary of Yeardley Love’s death, One Love invites you to walk, run, dance, or get even more creative about how you want to move in order to help create a world where we know how to love better. Register online to pledge the number of yards you’ll move by May 3!


Go Wild! With Ranger Rick from National Wildlife Federation - available for free for a limited time!

Get a taste of the outdoors while you’re cooped up inside! Learn all about animals and wildlife in Go Wild! With Ranger Rick, a FableVision-developed app from the National Wildlife Federation. Answer trivia questions, play games, and hear some jokes while hanging out with your favorite raccoon buddy Ranger Rick.


Sesame Workshop’s Caring for Each Other Resources

In times like these, it’s important to keep caring for one another. Sesame Workshop’s Caring For Each Other initiative provides numerous resources for parents and children to cope with stress and continue playing, laughing, and learning together—with help from some familiar friends on Sesame Street!


WGBH’s Distance Learning Center

With so many incredible learning resources out there, it can be overwhelming to find ones that work best for you or your child. WGBH’s Distance Learning Center has gathered a collection of free, quality digital resources from PBS LearningMedia and other PBS programming that can easily be filtered by grade level and subject. 


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Hold a concert in your living room with BSO at Home

Putting together a soundtrack for your new stay-at-home routine? Look no further than the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s free collection of daily performances and behind-the-scenes videos. With new music every morning, BSO at Home will keep you tapping along to the beat with their live performances, backstage views of what it’s like to be in the orchestra, and inside looks into how orchestra members are spending their time at home.


GoNoodle: mindful movement for homes and classrooms (and current at-home classrooms)

Turn screen time into active screen time with GoNoodle! GoNoodle’s free videos and games—made with input from child development experts—promote movement and mindfulness in kids, from dance parties to yoga sessions. 


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Listen to a podcast, story, or song from Pinna

You don’t need a daily commute to keep listening to quality content! Pinna provides audiobooks and podcasts of all genres for kids 3-12. Pinna is extending its free trial period to 60 days. Use promo code PINNA4KIDS to receive your 30 extra days of listening.


The Family Dinner Project offers food, fun, and conversation

We’re not the only ones #stressbaking right now. Food is a great way to bring people together, and it’s now more important than ever to spend time at the dinner table with your family. Check out The Family Dinner Project’s FableVision-designed website for great recipes, family activities, and conversation starters! They also compiled their own stuck-at-home guide, which you can find here. And if you’re on a dessert-making spree, why not try this recipe for banana chocolate chip mug cakes or host your own virtual dinner party for family and friends?


Rock out with Fender

Do you dream of being a rockstar? A pop star? Or do you just have a guitar lying around? Fender is offering three months of free guitar, bass, and ukulele lessons online. Learn how to play your favorite songs at your own pace with Fender Play’s video lessons.

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April FableFriday: Peter Stidwill, Executive Producer

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“When there’s a lot going on, it’s a bit like conducting an orchestra,” shares Peter Stidwill, FableVision Studios’ executive producer. A working studio has many moving parts—departments, research cycles, partners—and Peter works with all of them to ensure harmonious production. 

Peter originally connected with FableVision during his time at Learning Games Network (LGN), a longtime FableVision partner, with whom the studio collaborated on the award-winning Quandary. His background includes jobs at the BBC and the UK Houses of Parliament, where he worked on game-based learning and digital educational tools.

In his role, Peter manages multiple animation, games, museum interactives, and other media, as well as oversees staffing to ensure that teams are set up to meet the varied needs of all projects and clients. From finding potential new partners to creating initial timelines to reviewing user feedback, Peter guides projects from inception to completion. “As a producer, I absolutely love being the ‘vision holder’ of a project,” shares Peter. This “vision” allows him to oversee every aspect of a project as the ultimate production maestro. You can catch him representing the studio at various panels at industry conferences—including an upcoming one in June! Read on for more details. 

What does a day in your life as executive producer look like, and how has your daily task list changed since first joining FableVision?
Although my transition to executive producer meant taking a step back from some of the detailed day-to-day production tasks, it allowed me to play a bigger role in finding and meeting clients and partners—brilliant people doing engaging and impactful work—and collaborating with them to shape the overall approach of new projects. A typical day for me includes talking to potential clients to scope out new partnership opportunities, mentoring and supporting our talented team of producers, working with FableVision’s skilled art, technical, and creative directors to plan resources, and meeting with individual production teams to kick-off new projects and review deliverables. And snacks. Lots of snacks. (Is it snack time yet?)

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What sets FableVision apart from other studios?
It’s all about the amazing diversity of people and projects. My FableVision colleagues bring enthusiasm, joy, and thoughtfulness to all our projects. And our clients and partners allow us to create some of the most worthwhile and important products, campaigns, and media that I could hope to work on, whether that’s bringing age-appropriate playful assessment to kids across the State of Georgia, or helping children and parents destigmatize conversations around mental health through an animation and graphic novel right here in Massachusetts.

What is challenging in your role? What is rewarding?
Each of our projects is unique at FableVision, and that’s what keeps them both challenging and rewarding! We have strong, solid processes for all the different types of media we create. At the same time, we constantly refine and customize our tools, approaches, and skills in order to meet specific goals, leverage new technology, and react to user feedback. It’s truly inspiring to see our production teams create so much fun content every day across such a broad range of projects, whether it’s a digital prototype to test a game mechanic, a cute raccoon character for an animation, or music for our latest app.

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You’ve worked on large projects like Zoombinis and Quandary! How do you approach projects of that scale, and what’s your favorite part about working on those kinds of projects?
The idea for a Zoombinis relaunch began while I was still working at Learning Games Network prior to joining FableVision, so I was excited to be a part of the team making the game a reality after coming to FableVision. One of my earliest roles was to write the game design document, which required me to have a strong understanding of the original game in order to reverse engineer the game logic. We also made alterations to the logic according to feedback we received from fans of the original and the original game designers: Scot Osterweil and Chris Hancock. The project truly was a team effort between TERC, FableVision, and LGN, and that strong partnership—as well as always honoring the original vision of the game while also modernizing it to maximize its impact of end-users, both those who have been fans for years and first-time players—was truly what made it a success.

Quandary was my first project at LGN, and being able to see the process from both the client and developer sides was very interesting for me. With a game like Quandary, which teaches ethics and perspective-taking through story and a card-sorting mechanism, it’s important to keep the game goal top of mind, along with considering scale, timeline, and other budget needs. In approaching a game like Quandary, the learning objectives and the impact of the game on the user are important to consider throughout the game design process. We’ve received incredibly positive feedback from educators and students, as well as the educational gaming industry through conference awards and talks, which really show the impact that a game can have on teaching social-emotional skills, such as problem-solving and comprehension.

In my role as executive producer, one of the most fun parts of a large-scale project is to map out the overall approach, beginning with an empty slate and blank timeline, and sketching out the components of the project, as well as balancing everything out to meet the needs, timeline, and budget. It often involves a lot of number wrangling in spreadsheets and planning software, but I find it to be a rewardingly creative and collaborative process in its own right.

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You have a background in engineering, with a focus on “virtual learning applications.” How has your background influenced your work at FableVision?
I always knew I wanted to combine art and technology in a way that helped inform and entertain. I also knew that I loved creating—be that films, games, or elaborate models of theme park rides. So educational media and technology was a perfect fit. That’s what I specialized in during my engineering degree, where I focussed on researching, creating, testing, and iterating on technology approaches that made a real impact for teachers and students. I’ve always tried to build on that experience and approach throughout my career.

You came to FableVision from Learning Games Network, who we’ve had a strong partnership with for years. What was it like working with FableVision as a client? How was the transition into FableVision’s production process?
I absolutely LOVED working with FableVision as a client. FableVision genuinely took the time and effort to understand and build on the goals of the projects I worked with them on. I think that’s part of FableVision’s secret sauce: each team member that touches a project during its development is empowered, encouraged, and motivated to add creativity to the finished product. It was a natural transition from LGN to FableVision, as I knew the people and mission was aligned with my own.

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You’re presenting in a Serious Play Conference panel in June on game-based assessments with MIT Education Arcade and Playful Journey Lab. How are game-based assessments gaining momentum in the edtech industry, and how has FableVision stayed at the forefront of this trend?
Game-based assessments are becoming more popular as an alternative to traditional testing that often takes the stress out of the assessment process. We’ve found that game-based assessments show a lot of promise in their ability to level within grade levels for students struggling with mastery of the standard. There are multiple entry points along the learning continuum to assess the standards in a game.

In designing game-based assessments, FableVision tries to approach them in a similar manner to our non-assessment projects, marrying content and game design. Good games—whether educational or not—inherently assess the player’s ability to perform in the game and provide appropriate leveling, feedback, rewards, and challenges in real-time. That’s what makes games such a great learning tool. And as they are digital, there is huge potential, but also potential pitfalls, with capturing that data and presenting it back to players and teachers. So when designing game-based assessments, we try to bring in our extensive knowledge of game design and user engagement, while adding on the additional assessment layer. 

Formative assessment, in particular, we find is where the benefit of a gaming approach can really shine through and where teachers can get insights into how the kids are doing and provide targeted interventions to help them. We design the backends of our assessment games so they collect data throughout and present that information to educators. The data that we deliver to teachers is always at the forefront of our minds. We are fortunate to have worked and continue to work with incredible partners and clients, in both the commercial and academic worlds, to apply the best practices from researchers, the feedback and insights from educators, and the experiences of players in this field over diverse subject areas and for all ages across a large number of games.

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You’re also an avid gamer—both playing and creating! What is your favorite game at the moment, and what overlaps do you see between the work you do at FableVision, the games you play for entertainment, and the projects you complete in your spare time?
I’m currently playing A Short Hike, a delightful and relaxing exploration game that builds a wonderful sense of place and adventure. Like many of the games I play and that FableVision makes, it fuses story, characters, and mechanics to create a fun, uplifting, and moving experience.

April showers bring May flowers! What’s your favorite rainy day activity, and how do you keep yourself entertained while stuck indoors?
Rainy days are always a great excuse to play both computer and board games. I’ve also recently got back into an old hobby of mine: video editing. While I love making non-linear experiences, I also find a lot of joy in the creativity of compiling linear stories.

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More About Peter:

Next on your to-read list: Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood.

Favorite hiking trail: Franconia Ridge Loop Trail, White Mountains, NH—conquered on my second attempt!

Best ride at your favorite theme park: Avatar: Flight of Passage, Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Public figure you’d most like to meet (dead or alive!): Kylie Minogue.

Favorite word: Omnishambles.

Preferred way to have a cup of tea: PG Tips with milk! (Good old English builder’s tea).

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