Sep 27, 2026 · 3 min · 3 segments
Welcome to Radio PZ, a podcast from Project Zero, the oldest research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. You may know us from our most popular tool: thinking routines! But, today, we…
So you're wondering why we're called Project Zero, and you're not the only one.
It all started nearly 60 years ago when our founder, American philosopher Nelson Goodman, asked a powerful question of the U.S. education system.
What is the role and potential of the arts in learning? The answer at the time was essentially zero.
PZ, as we're affectionately known, took a human-centered approach to learning when rote-based lessons were head of the class.
Novel research in the arts is our origin story, and we've continued to grow and innovate with the times.
Core ideas of assessment, character and ethics, civic agency, creativity, intelligences, thinking, understanding, and educating with the world in mind are essential to our work.
When others ask, what's next? We look for what's possible to help today's learners in this complex, changing world.
And it's a big world with big questions that PZers have never been afraid to lean into.
Since 1967, we've been developing powerful approaches, frameworks, and tools that help educators and students thrive.
It's also a busy world filled with busy teachers, school leaders, museum instructors, and folks who are dedicated to learning.
bringing our PZ voices to your commutes, your walks, your lesson planning, and all the spaces in between.
Every year, our website is accessed over 3 million times, and every day we're asked, will your event be streamed? Where can I learn more? How can I visit PZ in person? People seek out PZ for our biggest hits, like the 90-plus thinking routines that originated here.
They also seek out PZ for the transformational research that has emerged from projects like Visible Thinking and Slow Looking and our work in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
But above all, educators seek out our people, like Howard Gardner, the creator of multiple intelligences theory, and David Perkins, a giant in thinking dispositions and teaching for understanding, two PZers who also happen to be founding members of our little think tank that could.
So you're wondering why we're called Project Zero, and you're not the only one.
It all started nearly 60 years ago when our founder, American philosopher Nelson Goodman, asked a powerful question of the U.S. education system.
What is the role and potential of the arts in learning? The answer at the time was essentially zero.
PZ, as we're affectionately known, took a human-centered approach to learning when rote-based lessons were head of the class.
Novel research in the arts is our origin story, and we've continued to grow and innovate with the times.
Core ideas of assessment, character and ethics, civic agency, creativity, intelligences, thinking, understanding, and educating with the world in mind are essential to our work.
When others ask, what's next? We look for what's possible to help today's learners in this complex, changing world.
And it's a big world with big questions that PZers have never been afraid to lean into.
Since 1967, we've been developing powerful approaches, frameworks, and tools that help educators and students thrive.
It's also a busy world filled with busy teachers, school leaders, museum instructors, and folks who are dedicated to learning.
bringing our PZ voices to your commutes, your walks, your lesson planning, and all the spaces in between.
Every year, our website is accessed over 3 million times, and every day we're asked, will your event be streamed? Where can I learn more? How can I visit PZ in person? People seek out PZ for our biggest hits, like the 90-plus thinking routines that originated here.
They also seek out PZ for the transformational research that has emerged from projects like Visible Thinking and Slow Looking and our work in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
But above all, educators seek out our people, like Howard Gardner, the creator of multiple intelligences theory, and David Perkins, a giant in thinking dispositions and teaching for understanding, two PZers who also happen to be founding members of our little think tank that could.
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