Watch these cool Asians teach you some math.

CAAM videos use cultural and artistic diversity to teach middle school math lessons.


This is pretty cool. The Center for Asian American Media has produced a series of short videos that use cultural and artistic diversity -- and a little bit of ukulele -- to teach middle school math lessons.

Learn Middle School Math with CAAM and PBS LearningMedia

The 2-5 minute videos were produced, written and directed by Kar Yin Tham, CAAM's director of education initiatives, who says she wanted to make diversity "the central starting point" in the lessons.

"The challenge was to figure out what math concepts were inherent in each artistic or cultural tradition, and how to best present them. To accomplish this, we collaborated with math educators, artists, musicians, and community based organizations."

Some of the collection's highlights include:

'Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings' Screening & Discussion

Jake Shimabukuro in attendance! Sunday, December 21 at the Japanese American National Museum



For those of you in Los Angeles, don't miss evening of ukulele awesomeness.

The Japanese American National Museum, First Pond Entertainment, Visual Communications and Angry Asian Man present a special screening of Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings, Tad Nakamura's award-winning documentary on international ukulele sensation Jake Shimabukuro. The screening will be followed by a discussion and a special holiday performance by Jake himself!

It's happening Sunday, December 21 at the Japanese American National Museum. Here are some more details:

Life on Four Strings wins Gotham Audience Award

Tad Nakamura's ukulele documentary edges out 12 Years a Slave and Fruitvale Station



A huge congratulations to our friend Tad Nakamura, director of the feature documentary Jake Shimaubukuro: Life on Four Strings, which won the Audience Award last week at The Gotham Independent Film Awards. This was no small feat, considering that Tad's humble doc about internationally renown ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro was up against huge critical darlings like 12 Years a Slave and Fruitvale Station. But thanks to some hustle and online support, Life on Four Strings took home the trophy.

Here's the video of Tad accepting the award:

Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings on DVD

The feature documentary Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings is now available on DVD.

Beautifully shot, and mixing exhilarating performance footage with personal interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, the film tells the inspirational, heartfelt story of a musical sensation. A musical sensation who happens to totally shred on the ukulele. Award-winning filmmaker Tad Nakamura traces Shimabukuro's incredible virtuoso career, from his humble island beginnings to international superstardom.

Take a look at the trailer:

Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings National PBS Broadcast Premiere, May 10

Make plans, set your DVRs and take note that the the PBS national broadcast premiere of Life on Four Strings, a documentary portrait of ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, is going down this Friday, May 10 at 9:00pm (check your local listings). Three years in the making, award-winning filmmaker Tad Nakamura tells the heartfelt story of a musical sensation whose instrument of choice happens to be the ukulele. And he totally shreds. Take a look at the trailer: