Innovative online learning program helps Canadian families cope with COVID-19

The Planet Protector Academy, a ground-breaking digital/interactive classroom program, has been adapted for home use, and it is having a measurably positive impact on kids’ and parents’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Planet Protector Academy (PPA) is a suite of web-based environmental educational programs with an innovative arts-based approach to learning and youth engagement. It was designed to be delivered in elementary school classrooms, but since COVID, PPA creators DreamRider Productions have adapted the content and relaunched it as the Planet Protector Academy: Home Edition.

Delivered free via live webcasts, the Home Edition includes learning for kids aged 6-11 on environmental issues PLUS new content on mental health, hygiene and other pandemic-coping topics, such as how to do a “Superhero Calming Breath” to help with fear and anxiety.

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In a survey of Home Edition users, 46 per cent of parents said the PPA: Home Edition helped their family cope with COVID. Children also responded:

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• I feel more cheerful: (82%).

• I feel more calm and relaxed: (71.5%).

• My life was more interesting this week: (80.7%).

The program combines web technology, video, comedy, music and fun to inspire offline action. It’s a unique hybrid: a digital format that inspires kids to sing, move, breathe, create and imagine. The Home Edition is delivered through weekly one-hour sessions on different topics, including climate, waste, water and emergency preparedness.

DreamRider actors Sara Holt and Ian Gschwind host the program live from their living rooms, taking kids through lessons and activities that include singing, dancing, games and crafts. Kids become Apprentice Planet Protectors, part of the PPA’s exciting superhero story line. They receive “missions” they can do at home, to inspire family members to change behaviours, like turning off lights, taking shorter showers and reducing waste.

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Kids are loving it – and parents are finding relief as well, not only from the burden of keeping their kids occupied during the pandemic, but also from watching their kids participate joyfully in the program’s activities, at a time when fun and inspiration have been hard to come by.

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Teachers are doing the program with their students as well. Joe Filipone, a Grade 3 teacher with School District 40 in New Westminster, B.C., noted there is of growing list of online home learning tools, but many use a game format. He said the PPA: Home Edition “is the first one I’ve used where kids can have a real connection. It’s one thing to be a game, but there’s something in a live interaction. The Planet Protector Academy: Home Edition was superb! Easily the best thing my class has done since schools were closed!”

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Aliya Jackson, of Prince George, B.C., feared her 11-year-old son Terran would be bored with the program, but when she logged on and ran the first module, “I could hear him laughing. He said, ‘This is so much fun!’” Along with the requisite math and grammar lessons, the PPA: Home Edition has become part of their daily routine. Planet Protector Academy is “100 per cent” part of a well-rounded educational experience, she said.

Another child said that, after a week of participating, “It felt the whole time like I was in a giant hug!”

Michael Tanaka, a parent in Burnaby, B.C., called PPA: Home Edition “a real bright light for our family during this time. Out of all the at-home education activities we have tried, Planet Protector Academy was the only one which our son could independently participate in, giving us parents a valuable hour of work and chore time at home." 

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The environmental educational benefits of the Planet Protector Academy suite are well-documented. The PPA: Home Edition has revealed that the program’s arts-based methodology, and its emphasis on fun, kindness, and authentic connection to each other and to nature, are uniquely suited to help families cope with the stress of living through a pandemic.