Project Zero

05/20/2026

📣 Healthy Hacks for School: Low-Cost Designs for Supporting Learning and Well-being in Schools
May 27 @ 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET
REGISTER: https://casieonline.zoom.us/meeting/register/wTdbe9H9SrKpkS9t1XHGNQ #/registration

Back by popular demand with new breakout sessions!

How can educators, architects and designers support learning and well-being through simple and low-cost designs? Join CASIE and PZ's Daniel Wilson for this free interactive workshop:

🌟 An opening talk of key conditions for learning and well-being (senses of agency, belonging, curiosity, satisfaction) and qualities of spaces, materials, and objects that support them.

🌟 Parallel break-out sessions moderated by distinguished practitioners that will offer practical and low-cost strategies for supporting learning and well-being in a variety of school settings.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Healthy Hacks for Schools: Low-cost designs for supporting learning & well-being in schools. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

05/13/2026

🎭 🖼️ 🤸 Today from NPR: "If you want to stack the odds in favor of living a long life ... Ignite your creative expression and participate more in the arts. A new study finds this may help boost longevity by slowing down your rate of aging."

The arts are in PZ's DNA and have been for 60 years, from our P*s and research strands to the very suite we live in at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

❓ What's your favorite arts-forward PZ practice?

Eat well and exercise. That's the classic advice for living a long, healthy life. A new study suggests another habit to add to the list: Let your creative juices flow.

05/08/2026

What's the difference between curiosity 🔎, awe 🤯, and wonder 💭 and why does it matter for learning?

Megan Powell Cuzzolino joins The Learning Geeks podcast to explore curiosity as an epistemic emotion, the relationship between awe and meaning, and why widening our aperture might be the antidote to fear-based thinking.

LISTEN NOW:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s8-e10-awe-wonder-and-curiosity-part-1/id1413446184?i=1000766601191
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/365ZdfTIFZHU9WZZjQkmYj?si=DUAmYouKSS6qW24yk-wLtQ&nd=1&dlsi=d0cc09e5a9274076
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2ZdhqRmpgE

What's the difference between curiosity, awe, and wonder and why does it matter for learning? In this episode, we welcome back three friends of the podcast: ...

05/06/2026

📣 PROJECT ZERO ONE-DAY CONFERENCE
Learning and Thinking that Make a Difference
May 19 | 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
MuseumLAB Pittsburgh

Join fellow educators and leaders for an invigorating day of learning coordinated and co-hosted by PZ and the Northgate School District!

WHAT'S INCLUDED

🌟 Morning plenary with Mark Church, co-author of "Making Thinking Visible" and "The Power of Making Thinking Visible"
🌟Morning and afternoon workshops led by experienced practitioners who use PZ ideas in their teaching and learning contexts
🌟Lunch
🌟Closing session

Join us in person to explore ideas that inspire real change and spark fresh thinking in the classroom and beyond!

05/04/2026

▶️ Stream Now
PZ Page Turners: Making Learning Visible with Mara Krechevsky

We’re in groups all the time: When does a group become a *learning* group? Watch Mara lead a session with Harvard Graduate School of Education students on one of PZ’s cornerstone projects. Mara shares key highlights from a PZ research collaboration with the municipal preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and preK-12 educators in the U.S.

PZ Page Turners: Making Learning Visible with Mara Krechevsky

04/24/2026

🎙️ Thinkability S5 E4: "Noticing, Noticing"
with David Perkins and Shari Tishman

Have you ever noticed *noticing*? 👀 This simple act of perception is so basic that we often don’t, well, notice it. But it’s actually quite remarkable, especially when you consider how selectively we notice some things and not others. In the latest episode of the Thinkability podcast, Dave and Shari explore this odd but everyday phenomenon. Along the way, they ask: How can we get better at noticing, and how it relates to learning?

LISTEN NOW:

This basic act of perception serves our everyday lives in endless ways. What does it involve, how can we get better at it, and how can it support thinking and learning?

04/22/2026

TOMORROW: 🎨Free Family Craft Morning at Harvard Graduate School of Education
April 23 | 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Gutman Library, 6 Appian Way

Join Louisa Penfold of PZ's Art|Play and HGSE students for a free school holiday event featuring drop-in activities, workshops, and printable resources! Activities:

• "Things that Roll" ball run construction zone
• Cardboard sculpture making
• "World Kitchen" participatory theatre workshop
• "Weaving Bits" workshop
• Printmaking and scanography

All parents and carers must pre-register and bring identification on the day to enter. The event space is fully accessible.

RSVP:

Join Dr Louisa Penfold and HGSE students from 'Arts and Learning Practicum' for this free school holiday event featuring drop-in activities, workshops, and free printable resources. Participants must pre-register in advance to attend. Date: Thursday April 23 Time: 10:00 am-12:30 pm Location: Gutman....

04/22/2026

👁️ Howard Gardner looks back on his seminal publication, Frames of Mind—and the future of multiple intelligences.

https://bigthink.com/books/frames-of-mind/

03/16/2026

🎉 ANNOUNCING PZ'S NEW WEBSITE 🎉
https://pz.harvard.edu/

After 13 years, PZ has a new look and website—and it's truly a site to behold:

· Sort and search through ~90 thinking routines
· Download resources from a library of 500+ activities, books, and tools
· Explore current research happening worldwide
· Meet our talented team
· And much more!

🙏 Thank you to the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation for generously supporting Project Zero in this initiative!

03/03/2026

🤸🧩 Let's Play! 🧩🤸
Teaching Strategies for Playful Learning
🗓️ Apr. 6 to May 3 | Online Mini Course
https://pz.harvard.edu/professional-development/events-institutes/lets-play-teaching-strategies-for-playful-learning-0

Play is central to how children learn. Yet incorporating play into a formal school setting can be challenging—because the nature of play and the nature of school are often at odds. Based on frameworks developed in PZ’s Pedagogy of Play project and funded by the The LEGO Foundation, Let's Play! introduces core principles and practices of playful learning and gives you the opportunity to design and try out a playful learning approach in your own context.

You'll explore ways to bring more playful learning via:

🙌 Virtual hands-on activities
🙌 Illustrations from classroom and online practice
🙌 Experimenting with playful learning and teaching tools both online and in-person (when possible)

You'll work in small study groups, answering key questions:

🧐 What does learning through play look and feel like?
🤩 How can a shared understanding of learning through play enhance a learning experience?
🙃 How can educators create conditions in which playful learning can thrive?

🗣️ “Taking the course really heightened my awareness of the power of play in learning; building empathy, cultivating the imagination, and using laughter and creativity to fuel connection.”