Series

How Things Work

8 episodes

Five short explainers from National Geographic Kids, two to three minutes each, that open up a familiar object and show the mechanism inside. A 3-D printer melts plastic and stacks thin layers until a solid shape exists. A digital camera swaps film for a sensor that turns a scene into a grid of pixels. A lava lamp's blobs rise and fall as heat changes the wax's density. A trebuchet flings a load by dropping a counterweight. The odd one out is gecko feet, where millions of microscopic hairs grip glass. That makes a natural partner to the engineered examples for a design or biomimicry conversation.

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what this series covers

What How Things Work covers

8 episodes in the library, tagged for Pre-K–2nd. Heaviest coverage: Science and Technology. Between them they line up with 5 distinct standards across 3 frameworks.

Episodes per grade

Pre-K: 8
K: 8
1st: 8
2nd: 8

Episodes per subject

Science: 8
Technology: 8

NGSS (Science) 2

2-PS1-4Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.
3-PS2-1Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

ISTE (Technology) 2

ISTE.1.1.dTechnology fundamentals: understand how the technology you use works, and try out new tools confidently.
ISTE.1.4.cPrototypes: build, test, and improve prototypes through cycles of revision.