Why Animation?
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The decision to animate Building Empathy was made for very specific reasons.
Research shows that animation increases engagement among people of all ages. It’s also been proven that animation
increases learning in science-based lessons.
These two facts were key when we were determining how to produce the program – but there is another aspect we felt
was even more compelling a reason to animate Building Empathy and set it among aliens in outer space.
The topics discussed in a program like this can be sensitive – and when other humans are presenting material that may
make us feel uncomfortable, our defenses naturally rise. Those humans may be like us or very different from us
– but the kinship between us all as people can “get in the way” of hearing sensitive messages.
If instead this information is presented by aliens, make-believe creatures, and purple- and pink-skinned beings,
it’s easier to prevent those defenses from rising. We can listen and laugh, taking in the humor of the vignettes and
allowing the animation to do its job from engagement and learning standpoints.
Thus, we invested in animating this program to help ensure we all can understand and embrace the learning
to help us build our own empathy through intention.