Maryland Public Television

Owings Mills, Maryland, 21117

Last updated on August 14, 2024

Grant awarded by

Library of Congress

Region

East

Organization Type

Maryland State Agency

Congressional District(s)

Fiscal Year Of First Grant

FY 2022 [10/01/21 - 09/30/22]

Contributing Organization(s)

FableVision, Maryland Humanities, Barat Education Foundation

Organization description

Maryland Public Television, commonly known as MPT, is a public television network that broadcasts throughout the entire state of Maryland and the District of Columbia and into parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. MPT is Maryland’s only statewide broadcaster. Headquartered in Owings Mills, MPT is a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and is a producer of both locally and nationally distributed TV programs and digital content. As a public service and educational media organization, MPT has a longstanding commitment to education.

Thinkport is MPT’s gateway to educational offerings for PreK-12 teachers and students, child care providers and families. With hundreds of standards-aligned resources, Thinkport is a trusted destination for educators to access high-quality content to inspire student learning. Thinkport’s catalog of credit-bearing online courses supports early childhood and K-12 educators with opportunities to meet their professional learning needs.

Project description

Case Maker is a web platform that delivers customizable, inquiry-based, civics-learning challenges using primary sources from the Library of Congress. The pre-made civics challenges are designed for use in remote and in-person middle school classroom activities. Teachers can customize any of the civics challenges by:
> Editing text to accommodate student learning needs.
> Adding new sources from the Case Maker primary source bank, or deleting existing sources from the challenge.
> Integrating external links to relevant content for the lesson.
Educators are encouraged to facilitate discussion around sensitive topics to create context, and help students understand different perspectives. Case Maker enjoys a cooperative relationship with other TPS projects such as FableVision’s Civics! An American Musical, and Maryland Humanities’ TPS Inquiry Kits. Civics! An American Musical introduces civics topics in a fun and engaging way, prompting a thirst for greater understanding. Case Maker then provides an opportunity to extend learning from the role-playing game. Meanwhile, TPS Inquiry Kits complement both projects by providing students with deeper historical context and starter research kits that extend their learning and offer a springboard for further investigation.