Brittany Jill Cohen - Now What? With Britt & Shawn

At a Glance

Organization: Independent Educational Media Initiative
Role: Co-Creator & Digital Media Producer (2020–2024)
Scope: Designed and produced a K–6 YouTube learning series integrating science, art, and physical activity through hands-on, story-driven lessons.
Scale: 30+ episodes reaching 300,000+ viewers and 1,600+ subscribers worldwide.
Tools: DaVinci Resolve (video editing), Canva (graphic design), YouTube Studio (publishing and analytics).
Outcome: Developed an accessible model for curiosity-based learning that merged pedagogy and play, earning recognition from OISE (U of T), TheDad.com, The Homeschool Advantage podcast, and others.

Background

Now What? began as an independent educational media initiative during early lockdowns in 2020, created to inspire curiosity and connection through hands-on learning.

Co-hosted and produced with my husband and fellow educator, Shawn Matts, the series turns everyday questions into experiments, art, and discovery for learners in grades K–6. We developed more than 30 interactive lessons that blend science, art, physical activity, and inquiry-based exploration, reaching over 300,000 unique viewers worldwide and 1,600+ subscribers.

The series bridges play and pedagogy — turning kitchen tables into classrooms and encouraging learners to ask, “Now what can I try on my own?”

Challenge

When classrooms around the world closed, children and families were flooded with disconnected content — crafts without context, lessons without application. As two educators watching the sudden shift to at-home learning, Shawn and I asked ourselves, “Now what?”

We saw a clear gap: most at-home learning resources focused on either creativity or comprehension, rarely both. Children were watching demonstrations without opportunities for deeper exploration, while parents and teachers sought activities that meaningfully reinforced learning.

Our challenge was to design engaging digital lessons that connected curiosity + context + creativity, helping kids actively construct understanding.

Approach

To address these challenges, we combined instructional and technical design approaches — integrating sound pedagogy with creative media production to deliver engaging, accessible learning experiences.

Instructional Design

Relevance & Engagement

Selected high-interest topics and timely themes to capture attention and build authentic connection. Episodes explored topics such as optical illusions and dinosaurs and highlighted special events like Earth Day.

Clip from Mission Possible: Earth Day showing a map with stages to complete in order to achieve the mission, demonstrating how environmental awareness was integrated with physical activity and engagement.

A clip from our Mission Possible: Earth Day episode combining environmental awareness with movement. (clip length: 0:44)

Learning through Storytelling

Framed each episode around a central question or curiosity, often using green-screen “travel” to bring learners into new contexts (e.g., global sites, underwater ecosystems, outer space, or prehistoric habitats).

Clip from Valentine’s Day Pop-Up Cards featuring green-screen travel through colorful animated scenes, illustrating how storytelling and imaginative settings introduced learning concepts.

A clip from our Valentine's Day Pop-Up Card episode, demonstrating storytelling through imaginative travel. (clip length: 2:10)

Concept Simplification

Broke down complex ideas into clear, sequential explanations, using age-appropriate language and visuals to support understanding.

Footage from Crawling Paper Spider Craft showing classification of spiders, demonstrating how complex science ideas were simplified through visuals and narration.

A clip from our Crawling Paper Spider Craft episode, simplifying classification.
(clip length: 1:10)

Experiential Learning

Combined clear explanations with hands-on experiments, creative projects, and movement-based challenges, inviting children to learn through doing, moving, and imaginative play.

Clip from Popsicle Stick Catapult episode featuring materials arranged on a table while Shawn describes each item, modeling clear explanation of materials for hands-on learning.

A clip from our Popsicle Stick Catapult episode, demonstrating clear explanation of materials needed. (clip length: 0:28)

Social Awareness & Inclusive Representation

Integrated inclusivity, representation, and connection into each episode, celebrating diverse identities (e.g., Pride Month), modeling curiosity, and encouraging learners to see themselves as capable explorers and creators.

Our Pride — Tape Reveal Art episode, illustrating our approach to inclusive representation and social awareness. (video length: 11:15)

Extended Learning

Closed each episode with “Now what?” prompts, offering reflection questions or ideas for continued exploration beyond the video — encouraging self-directed discovery and family or classroom discussion.

Clip from Pride — Tape Reveal Art episode showing Brittany suggesting ways to extend learning and exploration beyond the video, encouraging self-directed discovery.

A clip from our Pride — Tape Reveal Art episode, illustrating how each episode ended with suggestions for extended learning.
(clip length: 0:25)

Technical Design

Visual Brand Identity

Designed branded intro, title cards, thumbnails, and accompanying resources using consistent colors, typefaces, and iconography.

Intro sequence for Now What? With Britt & Shawn.

Opening credits for Now What? Britt & Shawn. clip length: (0:15)

Opening credits for our physical activity series, Mission Possible.
clip length: (0:10)

Multimedia Production

Developed full end-to-end production pipeline: scripting, set design, green-screen filming, and editing. Used DaVinci Resolve for editing, Canva for graphics, and motion graphics for visual reinforcement.

Behind-the-scenes image of green-screen filming for Mission Possible: Leprechaun Mission alongside final edited frame, illustrating the transition from production to post-production.

Behind-the-scenes look at the green screen process for Mission Possible: Leprechaun Mission, from filming to final edit. (clip length: 0:22)

Clip from Mission Possible: Arctic Mission featuring Brittany and Shawn traveling to the Arctic.

A clip from our Mission Possible: Arctic Mission video, demonstrating engaging use of multimedia.
clip length: (0:50)

Ensured copyright-safe sourcing for all music, imagery, and attributions in each video description, with the channel’s theme song also credited in the closing credits.

Screenshot from 3D Op Art video description showing attribution details for music and imagery to model proper copyright compliance.

Screenshot of the 3D Op Art video description, illustrating proper attribution and copyright compliance.

Closing credits from Popsicle Stick Catapults episode listing licensed theme-song credit.

Closing credits from our Popsicle Stick Catapults video, demonstrating licensing credit for theme song.
clip length: (0:26)

YouTube Analytics

Managed metadata, thumbnails, and SEO to improve discoverability, drawing on analytics and audience insights to refine visual design and content strategy over time.

Thumbnail design for Tornado in a Bottle (May 2020) showing early layout with simple typography and imagery.

Video card from our Tornado in a Bottle episode, filmed in May 2020 — an early iteration of our graphic design style.

Thumbnail design for Valentine’s Day Pop-Up Cards (Feb 2023) reflecting refined visual identity.

Video card from our Valentine’s Day Pop-Up Cards episode, filmed in February 2023, reflecting the evolution of our video card and thumbnail design.

Impact

Over time, Now What? evolved from a homegrown creative experiment into a recognized educational resource. What began as a simple idea — to combine explanation and exploration — soon reached classrooms and families around the world. Teachers shared episodes to complement virtual lessons, and parents began using our videos to spark at-home inquiry.

As viewership grew, we refined production quality, visual storytelling, and topic range. The result was a scalable model for accessible, story-driven learning — one that continues to generate organic engagement years later.

Highlights:

🎥 30 + educational videos produced across STEM, Arts, and Physical Education

🌍 300,000 + unique views worldwide — placing the channel in the top 6–10% of all YouTube channels by lifetime reach

👥 1,670+ subscribers — within the top 8% of creators by audience size

🧠 Featured by OISE (U of T) — invited to present on digital pedagogy

🧩 Spotlighted by TheDad.com for fun and engaging at-home physical activity

🎙️ Interviewed on The Homeschool Advantage podcast

💻 Extended impact through small-scale educational media collaborations

Reflection

Through Now What?, I honed skills central to my learning-design practice — rapid skill acquisition in digital media, story-driven instructional design, creative collaboration, and data-informed iteration.

The project embodies my philosophy that learning — whether in a classroom or online — should be interactive, imaginative, and human-centered. What began as a creative response to uncertainty evolved into a sustainable digital learning space, reaffirming that instructional design is storytelling at scale — and that meaningful learning can happen anywhere curiosity leads.

To learn more, visit Now What? With Britt & Shawn on YouTube.

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