Hero Elementary

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 8 claims (4 for, 1 mixed, 3 against) · 3 studies (2 causal, 1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 3 report an effect size · 8 claims rest on one study

Description

Hero Elementary is a multiplatform K–2 science and literacy curriculum programme offering themed activity playlists for use in formal and informal learning settings.

Components

• Hero Elementary science playlists for K-2 after-school programs: The Hero Elementary playlists are organized sets of K-2 science activities — "interactive games, educational apps, non-fiction e-books, hands-on activities, and a digital science notebook" — each centered on a conceptual theme in K-2 science (e.g., Pushes and Pulls, Changing Motion, Classifying Matter, Solid or Liquid). Five playlists were piloted across eight weeks in after-school programs, with educators completing three to four playlists. (Li et al. (2019))
• Hero Elementary multiplatform science program and its playlist structure: Hero Elementary is a multiplatform, equity-focused educational initiative providing science and literacy instruction to kindergarten through second-grade learners from underserved communities, funded by a U.S. Department of Education Ready to Learn grant. Its central structure is the playlist: "Each playlist focuses on a given science concept" and contains an animated television story, a live-action song-based video on a Science and Engineering Practice, a digital or analog game, two hands-on activities, a digital journal, and a non-fiction e-book. Content types and their in-person implementations are summarized in Table 1, and distance-learning supports and modifications in Table 2. (Li et al. (2022))

Claims

• Students were highly engaged in the in-school environment, with engagement increasing over the implementation duration. [+W]
• Teachers found Hero Elementary playlist hands-on activities easy to implement because materials were supplied and prepped. [+W]
• Teachers found the animated videos the easiest Hero Elementary component to implement virtually and fun and engaging for students, and described them as an equal, shared platform for students with IEPs and English learners [+W]
• Digital notebooks presented technical difficulties with projection and loading during in-school implementation. [-W]
• The Hero Elementary playlist intervention showed no statistically significant effect on K-2 students' science knowledge (effect size 0.10, p ~ 0.38) [-W]
• The playlist intervention showed no significant difference in post-implementation science attitudes on the Emerging STEM Learning Activation Survey [-W]
• Educators rarely facilitated connections between playlist activities or to students' lives; introductions focused on instructions and logistics, and debriefings were often unstructured reviews of the activity [~W]
• Educators' adaptations of the modified Hero Elementary resources, including accommodations and modifications, provided students with greater access to the virtual learning content [+W]

Related Products and Programmes

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Key Sources

• Li, L., Maher, B., Weiser, G., Orenstein, A., Chow, E., & Atienza, S. (2019). Hero Elementary playlist pilot study in after-school programs. San Francisco, CA: WestEd. https://www.wested.org
• Li, L., Hayakawa, M., Freese, J., Daniels, B., Weiser, G., Luttgen, K., Lor, M. C., Schneider, M., Huang, C.-W., & Jensen, E. (2022). Pivoting an in-person transmedia science program to a virtual program during a pandemic: Lessons learned. Children, Youth and Environments, 32(3), 53-81. http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=chilyoutenvi

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	hero-elementary
title	Hero Elementary
description	Hero Elementary is a multiplatform K–2 science and literacy curriculum programme offering themed activity playlists for use in formal and informal learning settings.
status	review
product_kind	curriculum
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-09
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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