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education front and center1,750,000+STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES CANBENEFIT FROM ACCESSIBLE RESOURCES ONPBS LEARNINGMEDIA TM THANKS TO WGBH’SGROUNDBREAKING WORK IN MEDIA ACCESSPartners in EducationWGBH has a long history of creating educational media for use in classrooms.When Teachers’ Domain, our acclaimed online library of multimedia resourcesfor classrooms, recently joined forces with PBS’s educational online efforts to launch PBSLearningMedia TM , we took our commitment to a whole new level. The ambitious, freeonline service aggregates the highest-quality, curriculum-based public media content—much of it gleaned from WGBH’s own productions—and delivers it to PreK–16 teachersvia an innovative digital platform. One year after its launch, the new service is thriving.More than 500,000 busy, budget-constrained teachers in 42 states, including Massachusetts,can now call up thousands of on-demand digital resources to capture students’ interest andimprove performance.It’s no wonder then that when Massachusetts competed successfully for two federalRace to the Top grants aimed at raising student achievement, it turned to WGBH to be itsmedia partner. WGBH is now working with teams of educators to organize and developmultimedia resources for more than 100 curriculum units for grades K–12 in math, science,social studies, and English language arts. We also are helping the Commonwealth develop itsfirst-ever, easy-to-use online hub of curriculum-based multimedia resources for educatorsand parents of kids through age five.Today, WGBH is capitalizing on our educational expertise and media-rich archive tocreate the digital resources that educators want, students need, and families trust.historyhere and nowPowerful StorytellingWe’re removed from the Civil War by a century and a half. But thanks to theinsight and innovation of WGBH’s American Experience, millions ofAmericans feel a personal connection to the events and legacy of the war that nearlysundered the Union.Death and the Civil War premiered on PBS in September 2012 to mark the 150thanniversary of the Battle of Antietam—the bloodiest day in American history, when23,000 Union and Confederate troops were killed, wounded, or listed as missing.The film, based on a prize-winning book by Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust andlauded as “wrenching and riveting” by The New York Times, brought history home toa nation still wracked by war. This powerful link prompted the National Endowmentfor the Humanities to commemorate Veterans Day with screenings of Death and theCivil War and panel discussions that brought veterans and their families together withrepresentatives of service academies and liberal arts institutions. The ultimate goal:creating stronger educational support for returning service members.In January 2013, the 150th anniversary of the signing of the EmancipationProclamation, our three-part series The Abolitionists delved deep inside the passionatemovement to end slavery—the fatal flaw in the fabric of our republic that led to theCivil War. The series interweaves drama with traditional documentary storytelling tobring to life the individual struggles of five men and women who prayed, fought, andwrote to abolish slavery.smart appsAfter the first iPhone app for Martha Speaks,WGBH’s popular language-skills series for youngchildren, was shown to give kids a 31-percentvocabulary boost, we developed two more.The Martha Speaks Story Maker for the iPhonehelps kids turn words into stories, and the MarthaSpeaks Word Spinner for the iPad uses interactivegames to increase vocabulary, while givingthe whole family a chance to get in on the fun.42STATESOFFER PBS LEARNINGMEDIA TMTO EDUCATORS THROUGH THEIRPUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONSWILLIAM FAULKNER ONCE SAID, “THE PAST IS NEVERDEAD. IT’S NOT EVEN PAST.” TIME AND AGAIN,WGBH HAS UNLOCKED THE PAST—WITH ITS NUANCESAND CONTINUING IMPACT—FOR AMERICANS OF ALLAGES AND INTERESTS. HOW WE DO THIS IS SIMPLE TOSAY, AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLICATE: THROUGHORIGINAL RESEARCH, CONSUMMATE STORYTELLING,AND FRESH APPROACHES.all over the mapWGBH is innovating on many fronts to connect pastand present. Take American Experience’s Abolitionist Mapof America, an interactive website and iPhone app thatcontains geo-tagged photos and documents drawn fromour partner museums, libraries, archives, and PBS stations,as well as clips from The Abolitionists.MILLION VIEWERS WATCHED THE INITIAL BROADCASTOF DEATH AND THE CIVIL WAR, WITH NEARLY 59,000ONLINE VIEWS OVER THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS4 WGBH ANNUAL REPORT 2012 | 2013 55.7