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Comment by aerophilic | Hacker News Reader

My kids have loved watching Mark Robers videos, have the subscriptions (one of both the backpack and crunchpack), and we uploaded our video for SatGus.

If you have young kids (6-15) these are perfect educational tools. Highly recommend. Only downside is some of them are a bit “mischievous”. For example a “Bobbie trap” that launches balls at whomever tripped the wire. Good times…

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We just started watching Mark Rober videos. I started with some random old videos and they were great. Nice educational content in the middle of an entertaining video.

Then the algorithm handed us some more recent videos and they felt like a pivot to Nickelodeon style content: We watched Mark Rober run through a green slime obstacle course with a lot of loud noises and action, but basically zero educational value.

So as someone new to this: Any tips? Should I be sticking to old videos only if I want some educational value? My kids only watch with me as an activity we do together, so I’m always looking for good videos that can keep us away from the content farm stuff.

He's gone all in on the Crunch Labs brand, which is kind of built around the younger audience. This isn't a bad thing, but it does mean that older edutainment enjoyers kind of age out of his stuff. Not to say there's no value in them, but there will be more of an entertainment focus than prior edutainment focused videos.

I recommend checking out Stuff Made Here; great build videos of engineering principles in an entertaining fashion to show building cool complicated stuff.

Xyla Foxlin, a wonderful maker, also posts educational videos between her projects, like an in-depth look at how plane wings work.

Great recommendations. Steve Mould is another in that vein, and Kurzgesagt (though quite different stylistically) is one of my favorites and could be something you’re looking for.

Steve Mould has a great vibe. Combination of a sort of subdued humility and intelligence.

> Stuff Made Here

Whenever I am feeling smart or particularly talented, I like watching Shane's videos. I'm swiftly reminded that I have no idea what the hell I'm doing and carry on.

That's me reading Hacker News every day.

He doesn't either, does he? But he's great in outlining how to get to the point of having enough idea to go through with his project.

I like that he still shows the struggle, so it’s not like he’s pretending to know it all. I find this helps give me perspective when I’m in a similar situation, where everything seems to be going wrong.

Veritasium is cool, too!

I like practical engineering, but my kids aren't ready for how awesome Grady is... yet.

Put Technology Connections in your pocket for when they are ready.

I’m 37, and his Hack Pack stuff has been pretty fun. Sure, it’s easy, but fun.

Do the skills build on each other where they need to be done in order?

I got a subscription, but wasn’t super interested in the first one, so it’s still sitting in the box. Then the other boxes started showing up. I now have a full year’s worth and haven’t done a single one, because I feel like I should start with the one I’m least interested in.

They don’t… just do whichever one you are most interested in doing. Each box more or less stands alone (at least that is what I am observing from my kids assembly of them)

They use some similar ideas (a servo is still a servo in a different context), but they are totally independent of one another. Do the one you find most fun!

They’re all good though, tbh.

The first squirrel video might be the best youtube video ever. Surprising, entertaining, informative, accessible. I'd start there!

Reminds a bit of Mr Beast

The best ones seem to be the year or two just before the launch of Crunch Labs. Decent educational content, lots of excitement for engineering and science, and no real shilling. Lots of the newer stuff feels like it was created or edited by the Mr Beast team.

Some of Mark’s cameos on other channels since Crunch Labs started have been good, though.

Take a look at the "Maker Secret Santa" series of video's. It's a yearly collaborative series between a bunch of different maker channels. It can give you a great idea as to what makers you'd like to follow.

i had the same experience. my solution was to configure youtube kids to only show my whitelist of mannually approved videos.

Same! Mark Rober is what changed my mind about YouTube for kids. He's a wildly popular creator that's even shilling a product and yet... I'm ok with all of it? He seems to very legitimately care about sharing getting kids excited about STEM, and if he gets rich doing it: great! The product is less offensive than the sugary cereal I watched commercials for while watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. Definitely one of the few YouTube channels I let my kids watch unattended.

There's shilling a product because someone handed you a bag, and then there's building a product you believe in. You feel okay with it because it's clearly the latter versus another NordVPN commercial. Even if the product ends up failing (and I am under no predilection to believe this will) he has presented nothing but honest enthusiasm towards his goal that you can't help but root for it.

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