Thinkabout, "a cooperative project for acquiring skills essential to learning", is an instructional program for children, produced in 1979 by the Agency for Instructional Television, in association with various contributing television stations in the[United States and Canada. It was distributed to PBS and educational stations across the US and Canada as late as the mid-to-late 1980s. A sequel, Thinkabout II, followed.
The 60 programs produced were aimed for fifth and sixth grade students to understand their learning process in topics as varied as language arts, mathematics, study skills, as well as thinking skills.
Thinkabout was funded by various state and local agencies, including the Exxon Corporation, with additional support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, one of very few CPB-funded programs not distributed by PBS.
Program listing
1. Why Bother? 2. Brainstorming 3. Blockbusting 4. You Can Remember 5. Estimating 6. Approximating 7. Using Estimating and Approximation 8. Find Your Guide 9. What's the Meaning? 10. Meaning is More Than Words 11. Remember the Audience! 12. But, What Does it Mean? 13. The Biggest Picture 14. Where are You Coming From? 15. Make a Present for the Future 16. What Do You Know? 17. Where Should I Go? 18. What Should I Know? 19. There are Ways to Remember 20. Classfying Objects 21. Classfying Information 22. People 23. There are Many Ways to Go 24. People Patterns 25. Communication Patterns 26. Cultural Patterns 27. Nature's Patterns 28. Search for the Unknown 29. Drawing Conclusions 30. Checking Conclusions 31. Practice for Success 32. One Step at a Time 33. Plan Ahead 34. Calm Your Jitters! 35. What are They? 36. Where Do You Get Them? 37. How Do You Change That? 38. Design a Language 39. Symbols 40. More Than You Think 41. Summarizing 42. Using Maps and Models 43. Get Ahead with Goals 44. Should I Believe? 45. What's Important? 46. What's Enough? 47. Point of View 48. Persuasive Techniques 49. Make a Deal with Yourself 50. Styles of Communication 51. Planning a Presentation 52. Making a Presentation 53. Making Your Point 54. Making it Come Alive 55. Making Something New 56. One Thing Leads to Another 57. A Matter of Time 58. There's Always a Risk 59. Hanging in There 60. Plan a City of the Future
Trivia During the 1979-1980 school year, AIT partnered with Weekly Reader magazine, in which Weekly Reader included a special Thinkabout feature in their 4th and 5th grade editions. This series is unrelated to the 1980s BBC Two program of the same name, which was seen in the 1980s and 1990s; unlike the US series, the British series' focus was on science.
External links Thinkabout TVOntario fan page; includes episode guide