The Whynauts

Like most businesses, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science faces many challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many schools are unable to take educational field trips and museum visits. The leadership at the Perot Museum wanted to create a new way to connect with educators and administrators, students, and families to continue their mission – to inspire minds through nature and science!

The Perot Museum partnered with Groove Jones to develop an interactive component to its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) education programming. The result was a highly engaging and fun video series, aligned with TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) that brings a new learning experience to students across Texas.

The Whynauts series is not a virtual museum tour. The Whynauts feature adventures both inside the Perot Museum and they travel anywhere across Texas! Yes, by the use of digital visual effects, the cast travels to all points around the state in the Whynauts QuadCopter. They also use their Imagination Station – a 3D holographic machine that transports the Whynauts instantaneously to different environments and situations.

The Whynauts connect what’s happening in classrooms, while creating connections to our local community — whether that is how to predict tomorrow’s weather or knowing what dinosaurs lived in Dallas more than 100 million years ago.

The 10-episode series is sponsored by the Perot Foundation, the Lamar Hunt family, Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ IF/THEN Fund at Texas Women’s Foundation, and PetroCap. Each episode includes a bilingual, standards-aligned curriculum and educator resources delivered to educators.

The program supports parents and students through hands-on, fun supplemental activities. Teachers can use the series as a resource for science learning and STAAR review! Students in grades K-8 learn alongside The Whynauts, discovering and developing deep knowledge about the topics teachers cover in their classrooms. These in-depth videos, educator guides, and student activities bring STEM to life— igniting a spark of joy amid current learning loss due to COVID-19.

Over 60,000 students have registered for the first five episodes, and several districts have incorporated The Whynauts into their curriculum!