In the past decade or so, indie rock band OK Go has made a tremendous collection of videos to accompany their songs. Yesterday, they unveiled a new project, the OK Go Sandbox.

Here’s part of the band’s announcement, providing some background:

Over the last few years, we’ve received an increasing number of messages from teachers who show our music videos in their classes…We’re super proud, but we’re also just kind of shocked.

These teachers are heroes. Rock videos aren’t the first place anyone would look for educational material, so when one of ours shows up in a class, we can be sure the teacher has gone actively exploring unexpected territory for wonder and inspiration to bring back for their students. That’s noble. They’ve dedicated their lives to the betterment of others. We, on the other hand, spend our time playing guitar and shooting confetti at people and trying to weasel our way onto zero gravity planes.

So we’re trying to step up our game here. We want to help…So far, we’ve made a handful of videos that focus on concepts underlying three of our videos, and there are lesson plans and other teacher resources posted with them. You can check out everything at OK Go Sandbox.

Teachers, we’re very excited to see how you use these materials, and anxious to learn from you what’s working, what’s not, and what you’d like from us in the future. We want this project to be ongoing, so please don’t hesitate to send us your comments and suggestions.

I know I’ve got at least a few teachers reading, and I hope you’ll take a few minutes to poke around the site. OK Go fans, and nerds in general, are also likely to enjoy the behind-the-scenes looks which show how some of these videos were made.

Previously in OK Go videos: Gravity’s Just a Habit