STEAM Emphasis, Resources Added to California K–12 Online Content Project for Students and Educators

• By Kristal Kuykendall
• 01/24/22

California's 6 million K–12 students and over 300,000 educators now have free online access to science, technology, engineering, arts, and math learning resources from Gale, an expansion of California’s K–12 Online Content Project.

The STEAM lessons now available at all California K–12 schools and public libraries is part of the California K–12 Online Content Project, a joint program between the California State Library and Riverside County Office of Education to enhance learning environments through digital resources. The Online Content Project includes educational resources from Encyclopaedia Brittanica (PreK–12), ProQuest (grades 3–12), and TeachingBooks.net (PreK–12), at no cost, for use by every public school and student in the state. Gale is the fourth provider to join the project.

For the STEAM content additions, the California K–12 Online Content Project partnered with Gale, part of Cengage Group, in an effort to better support and strengthen STEAM learning, according to a news release.

The new STEAM sections from Gale include:

• National Geographic Kids, where students can explore adventures in science, nature, culture, archaeology and space.
• Interactive Science, where students can manipulate 3D interactive models to visualize and understand biology, chemistry, earth, and space science concepts.
• Environmental Science, where students can learn about environmental issues that affect people globally through topic overviews, journals, news, and multimedia content.

The Online Content Project provides teachers, school librarians, and students with a variety of digital information and tools that include: magazines, books, scientific research, newspaper articles, photos, videos, educational tools and more — all aligned with California educational standards and student data privacy laws. Gale is the fourth provider to join the project.

Californians can access Gale’s STEAM resources 24/7 from any computer or mobile device without the use of a library card or password, as the website uses geo-authentication for determining access permissions. Additionally, the Online Content Project offers integrated workflow tools from Google Workspace for Education and Microsoft Office 365 tools, as well as language translation, downloadable audio, and easy ways to share and save content, according to the announcement.

“Libraries play a crucial role in making knowledge accessible to empower learning and to enrich lives,” said Paul Gazzolo, senior vice president and general manager at Gale. “The California State Library’s K–12 Content Project is a game-changer for students and educators in the state, and we couldn’t be prouder to participate in bringing the library to learners.”

Michigan-based Gale, part of Cengage Group, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries.

For more information, visit California’s K–12 Online Content Project webpage.