The Planning Period is the Michigan Learning Channel’s weekly newsletter for educators. You can subscribe on YouTube and through email to receive weekly content recommendations, teaching tips, mini PD, and more.
On The Planning Period this week, we’re celebrating Black history and looking ahead to the future with STEM innovators, a NASA video challenge, and an exploration of place-based learning. Plus, check out an incredible interactive 3D model collection of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions.
What’s On MLC
Black Scientists & Engineers
It’s still Black History Month and National Engineers Week—so why not highlight Black scientists and engineers as inspiration for students?
The Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers (from NOVA) features short, engaging profiles—perfect discussion starters for any grade level. The video lessons feature ready-to-use discussion questions that make it easy to integrate into science, math, or career exploration.
Try this: Show a video, spark curiosity, and challenge students to research or interview a STEM professional in their own community.
Hemingway & Place-Based Learning
If you teach Old Man and the Sea or any of Hemingway’s short stories, check out the Ken Burns’ Hemingway on PBS LearningMedia with clips from the documentary, discussion guides, and lesson plan ideas. The digital series Let’s Go Back from WCMU also includes short videos exploring the northern Michigan landscapes that shaped Hemingway’s early years.
Try this:
➡️ Have students journal about places they’ve visited in Michigan.
➡️ Compare their experiences to the landscapes Hemingway knew 100 years ago.
➡️ Challenge them to write a Hemingway-inspired short story set in Michigan in 2025 or 2050!
Black Futures & Student Storytelling
The end of Black History Month is a great time to talk about Afrofuturism—a mix of sci-fi, history, and culture that imagines thriving Black futures.
Last year, students at Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint created explainer videos on Afrofuturism—watch them for inspiration, and then have your students create their own videos using our media project template. You’ll find tips and lessons that walk them through storytelling, research, and digital production.
💡 Bonus: Send us student videos—we’d love to feature them!
Leonardo da Vinci: 3D Interactive Models
Did you see Ken Burns’ latest film about Leonardo da Vinci? If you want to bring da Vinci’s inventions to life while getting your students engaged with thinking about history, design, engineering, and art, check out PBS LearningMedia’s interactive tool featuring da Vinci’s original designs in 3D.
Here’s what we recommend:
🔹 STEM: Have students modify a prototype based on modern materials.
🔹 Social Studies: Compare materials and technology in da Vinci’s time vs. today.
🔹 ELA: Write a creative story featuring one of da Vinci’s inventions.
What We’re Watching
Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work
As we wrap up engineering & CTE Month, we’re watching Binary Minds, a new WKAR series on that dives into how AI is impacting art, healthcare, and education. These 30-minute specials feature Michigan experts discussing AI’s impact on these fields, through the lens of creativity, ethics, career pathways, and more.
Pair with our media literacy guide to help students analyze purpose, meaning, and impact.
Media Challenge
NASA’s CTE Video Challenge: Careers in Space
February is Career & Technical Education (CTE) Month, and NASA is challenging students to create short videos on careers essential for future space missions. Think beyond astronauts—NASA needs experts in engineering, food science, welding, and more!
We love this project and prompt because it can help build futures literacy—helping students think critically about innovation and career pathways — and it’s a perfect digital storytelling challenge (we love helping with digital storytelling challenges!) Visit our media hub to find all kinds of resources to get your students started, and send us anything that your students make so we can feature them on the Michigan Learning Channel!
