Twin Cities Public Television is producing seven new episodes for the DragonflyTV GPS (Going Places in Science) series. DragonflyTV is a weekly science television series on PBS targeted at children ages 9-12. DragonflyTV GPS presents children engaged in inquiry-based investigations, on-location in science centers across America. The purpose of this project is to 1) complete a full season of GPS episodes, giving PBS programmers a complete "season" and 2) shine the GPS spotlight on the network of smaller science museums, showing the distinctive contribution they make to their communities and to informal science education. The series presents authentic inquiry-based investigations, created by and for children. The programs focus on children doing their own scientific investigations and sharing the excitement that comes from making their own discoveries. Each investigation will demonstrate the direct connection between learning experiences in science centers and the application of those lessons in everyday life. DragonflyTV segments are cleared for any and all uses beyond broadcast, and are distributed on DVDs, videotapes, streamed online and even offered for iPod downloads. The GPS programs will involve ten or more science center partners, and be coordinated with the assistance of lead partners -- the Association of Science Technology Centers (ASTC) and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Multimedia Research and RMC Research will conduct formative and summative project evaluations, respectively.
Consumer Reports Television will produce a series of four half- hour TV specials and companion outreach materials, called "YOU TEST IT|," for public television broadcast and broad educational and home video distribution. Targeted for children ages 7 to 13 -- particularly those from low-income, minority families -- the project will draw on the resources of Consumers Union, the non- profit, scientific, research and education organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine and ZILLIONS, the Consumer Reports for Kids. The "YOU TEST IT| series, created by an experienced team of children's TV producers, focuses on testing and evaluating popular products -- from observing the bubble-power of bubble gum to measuring the efficiency of 10-speed bicycles. Using lively, state-of-the-art techniques appealing to kids, "YOU TEST IT|" will encourage children to use science and math skills to investigate and, ultimately, solve real-world problems. Each of the 4 programs will cover a broad product theme such as Foods/Snacks, Toys/Games, Sports/Recreation, and Electronic Gear. Activity Guides, expanding on these topics, will delve more deeply into the science content of each show, providing hands-on learning materials for children. With repeated broadcasts of "YOU TEST IT|" over hundreds of PBS stations, and reuse of tape and print materials, millions of children will gain greater access to objective product information and greater awareness of science and its importance in everyday life.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joyce NewmanEdward GrothSusan Markowitz
KCTS has received support for the production and outreach for the second season of 'Bill Nye the Science Guy.' Each program in the 39 program series will focus on a single science theme developed around two or three learning outcomes and is presented with a fast and colorful pace and style suited for today's generation of nine and ten year old viewers. The host, Bill Nye, joins viewers and guests as they explore science topics in his laboratories and in field locations. Children also will perform on-camera experiments in a home setting. In most shows, guest scientists and celebrities, selected to ensure a diverse representation, will be featured. Segments in the programs include: 'Check it Out' a small experiment performed in the lab or at home by child actors. 'Try This at Home' an experiment viewers may attempt at home after receiving instructions on the air. 'Way Cool Scientist' a scientist demonstrating his or her work as it relates to the topic of the program. 'Music Video Parody' video tailored to popular music genres such as rap or 'grunge' or pop music. 'Consider the Following' Bill presents a concept to the viewer in a one on one segment. 'Big Demonstration' Bill, in the laboratory, uses equipment to demonstrate an element of the theme. 'Celebrity Cameos' featuring both teen and adult celebrities with a high recognition factor. 'Fake commercials' like the music videos, humor ous parodies of advertising. Outreach for the second season will include a quarterly newsletter to be mailed to viewers homes. This eight page newsletter will include regular columns such as 'Ask Bill' and 'Try this at Home.' It will be designed to appeal to children ages 8 to 12 and will contain a column for parents. During the second season, at-home science kits will again be available to viewers. These free kits will enable children and their families to perform scientific experiments together at home. The video series will be produced by McKenna/Gottlieb Producers Inc. and KCTS Television and will be syndicated for broadcast by Buena Vista Television (the syndication division of Disney Productions). The second season also will be broadcast daily on PBS. This will give the series a presence on both public broadcasting and on commercial television in many markets. Buena Vista Television will provide $3,000,000 toward the production budget and PBS will provide $2,000,000 for production. KCTS is seeking a corporate underwriter to provide $1,000,000 for additional outreach and promotion. Elizabeth Brock of KCTS will be Executive in Charge of the project. Bill Nye is the principal science writer for the series as well as host of the series. The series producers will be Erren Gottlieb and James E. McKenna. These four people will serve as Co-PI's of the project. The advisory committee consists of scientists, science educators, evaluators, and curriculum developers. Members include: H. Prentice Baptiste, Arthur B. Ellis, Caroline Herzenberg, Gilbert S. Omenn, Senta A. Raizen, Matthew H. Schneps, Paul H. Williams, Carole Ann Kubota, and Sally Luttrell-Montes.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth BrockWilliam NyeJames McKennaErren Gottlieb
Twin Cities Public Television is producing a new national initiative, the "Science Center Showcase" (SCS) for DragonflyTV, the weekly science television series targeted at children ages 9-12. The initiative will entail six new episodes presenting children engaged in inquiry-based investigations, on-location in science centers across America. The series presents authentic inquiry-based investigations, created by and for children. The programs focus on children doing their own scientific investigations and sharing the excitement that comes from making their own discoveries. Each investigation will demonstrate the direct connection between learning experiences in science centers and the application of those lessons in everyday experience. The SCS will involve ten or more science center partners, and be coordinated with the assistance of lead partners, ASTC and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Multimedia Research and RMC Research will conduct formative and summative evaluations, respectively. The SCS model combines DragonflyTV's unique strengths in media with the rich resources of the nation's science centers. For informal science professionals, the SCS will define new ways media and museum professionals can work together and learn from each other. It will also provide new opportunities for partnerships and collaboration between public television stations and science centers across the country. For the television audience, the programs will demonstrate the richness and variety of sciences experiences for kids in science centers and beyond. Through new collaborative efforts with ASTC, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and other science centers, the DragonflyTV's "Science Center Showcase" project has the potential to communicate to a national television audience the richness and variety of engaging opportunities for authentic STEM inquiry that are available for young people at science centers across the country. The project also has the potential to a) contribute to research into how knowledge is transferred from science centers to experiences in the natural world, and b) educate exhibit developers and television professionals in new approaches to informal science education.
The Exploratorium is developing the pilot for a Saturday morning science-oriented, live-action, film and animation, national network television series for teens aged 13 to 17. The half-hour show will present everyday science and the process of problem solving in a fast-paced, hip, and challenge-oriented format. Two teams, each of three teenagers, will compete in a series of challenges which require the application of common sense knowledge, observation, experimentation, and problem-solving strategies useful in science. The object is to demonstrate that real-world problem solving makes use of many skills and may have more than one solution. The Exploratorium will administer the project and will be responsible for the science content. Production will be done by Colossal Pictures, a San Francisco production studio experienced in animation and youth-oriented programming.
Children's Television Workshop is producing the second season of "CRO," an animated television series designed to bring informal science education to Saturday morning commercial television's large, demographically diverse audience of children. Each of eight new programs to be broadcast on ABC has the goals of: 1) entertaining six- to eleven-year-old viewers while increasing their familiarity with and interest in basic science and technology principles, 2) stimulating viewers' interest in science and technology by showing that they are not abstractions, but integral parts of daily life, and 3) convincing youth that discovering the workings of science and technology can be fun. In addition to the television series, CTW will develop and distribute a range of supporting materials. These include a twelve-page activity book; a four-color, four-page user's guide for informal science education leaders; two four- color, sixteen-page comic books that include puzzles, brain teasers, and simple experiments; an eight-panel activity poster; and inclusion of "CRO" material in 3-2-1 Contact magazine. Part of the distribution of these materials will be through CTW's partnerships with youth-serving organizations such as YMCA's , 4-H Youth Development Education, and Boys and Girls Clubs. The series also will be released on home video and CTW is considering development of an interactive product based on the series. Key staffing for season two will include Franklin Getchell who will continue from season one as co-principal investigator and Joel Schneider, who will replace Ed Atkins as the other co-principal investigator. Schneider will be responsible for content development of both the television series and of the ancillary materials. Jeffrey Nelson, formerly Executive Producer o f Square One TV, will join "CRO" as Executive Producer.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joel SchneiderFranklin GetchellMarjorie KalinsJeffrey Nelson
The ZOOM children's television series, which reaches over 5.4 million children each week, teaches viewers the scientific processes as well as delivering science and mathematics content. The outreach materials and activities provide viewers with opportunities to explore, experiment and share their creativity. WGBH is requesting $1,303,776 of a total budget of $3,977,936 to produce 20 new shows for the ZOOM series. There also will be a new ZOOM campaign, the ZOOMsci Club, which will provide a unique way for kids to deepen their science and math knowledge while engaged in ZOOM's hands-on activities. The campaign includes: the new television programs, new print materials and outreach activities, and a new area of the ZOOM website that includes an on-line forum for kids to share results of their experimentation. ZOOM has been chosen by PBS as the first children's "local/national" show. This PBS initiative capitalizes on the strength of local public television stations and provides the opportunity for stations to customize ZOOM to serve the needs of their local markets. The stations can produce and insert segments that honor local kids for their volunteer activities and feature local kids answering questions. Stations also can localize outreach activities, producing their own local ZOOM websites and launching ZOOM Into Action campaigns to motivate kids to volunteer.
Twin Cities Public Television (KCTA) is producing and evaluating a pilot for a new science series for children ages 8-12 to be produced in conjunction with Miami University of Ohio and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Called Dragonfly, the pilot will be based on the children's magazine of the same name and will consist of segments presented by children that document their own science investigations and presentations by professional scientists of work in related fields. Each program will include two or more presentations by children, one or two presentations by scientists, a science challenge to be resolved within the show, one or two hands-on activities to engage viewers at home, and a presentation of children's artwork or poem in which they express their impressions of science and nature. The series would be coordinated with the Dragonfly magazine and with a parallel program, Dragonfly Quest, an Internet and youth-based activity pilot endeavor funded under another grant. The Executive Producer would be Richard Hudson, who has previously served as Executive Producer for Newton's Apple, a series also produced by KCTA. Chris Myers, of Miami University and creator of the magazine, will have primary responsibility for the science content, and Phyllis Marcuccio at the NSTA will be responsible for the coordination between the television project and the magazine, which is published by NSTA. The producers will work with an advisory committee that includes Gerald Wheeler, Lawrence Lowery, Joan McShane, Hardy Eshbaugh, Shawn Carlson, Kenneth Phillips, Milton Chen, James Steinbach, and Cheryl Gotthelf.
Twin Cities Public TV is producing 13 half-hour programs of a new science show for children to be on public television. The show would be based on the children's magazine, "Dragonfly," and would present children doing science experiments that they developed and planned themselves. From time to time, the children would be joined by adult scientists who tell of their own research, their discoveries, and their love of science. The goals of the project are to foster in children a greater interest in science and the process of scientific inquiry; demonstrate the parallels between children's scientific explorations and the research conducted by professional scientists; and feature and promote science projects involving under-represented communities, particularly ethnic minorities and girls. Outreach for the project will include a monthly "Young Investigator's Field Book," a Dragonfly TV teachers' companion multi-page insert that will be integrated into the NSTA grade school and middle school journals for teachers, and a Dragonfly TV website. The project also will establish community outreach partnerships with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the 4-H National Science and Technology Network.
This project will produce an educational 30-minute DVD/TV film and interactive website with classroom materials about climate change and its effects on biota by presenting past and current research on the Adelie penguin, Antarctica's most accessible indicator species. The project will target students in grades 5-8. Each component of "Penguin Science" will present an engaging case study to teach students about ecology, the complex science of climate change and its impacts, both positive and negative. It will not only feature the work of David Ainley and co-PI's Grant Ballard and Katie Dugger, but also William Sladen who began the first NSF-sponsored penguin studies 48 years ago during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Archival film clips of Sladen and his work from the 1970 documentary, "Penguin City" (CBS), will convey the value of long-term research and show biotic changes during just one professional lifetime. The project will be completed in 2007 to coincide with the International Polar Year.
This proposal requests matching support to create a dynamic science, engineering, and technology careers museum exhibit--SET Careers, for distribution to science museums and technology centers. The exhibit kiosks with related career graphics surrounds, incorporate multimedia platforms, using MacIntosh authoring software to dreate information landscapes' computer motion programs like Quicktime, and Cd-1 or DVI videodisc technology. Yound museum visitors (teens and Preteens) will be invited to enter into an exciting interactive exploration of thirty self-narrated video profiles of people in science and engineering, try our animated/reality video simulations of a work experience in these fields, and obtain additional information from a database of over 200 more science and math-based professions. The videodisc profiles, database, and a personal interests component will also be developed in alternative media formats (video, audio, print, computer disc) for broad distribution to community and youth education networks, schools, and libraries. Specific emphasis in this project is being placed on reaching and attracting female, minority, and disabled youths.
The goal of this project is to educate children between the ages of 10 and 18 about the ecology of insects and forests, how human activities affect their interaction, and how scientific research is conducted. It will disseminate information throughout Indiana based on research award DEB 0345331, Cicadas and Forests Education. For a period during May and June 2004 the United States was captivated by periodical cicadas in an unusual convergence of popular and scientific interest. This project will use this heightened awareness as a vehicle for informal science education as additional broods emerge in 2007 and 2008 in the Midwest and South. The project will use existing video footage from the research to produce a documentary film on periodical cicadas for airing on public television stations and distribution on DVDs to schools; an interactive computer-based presentation in PowerPoint; and an interactive 3-D animation of the cicada life cycle for use in a science center. Project collaborators include local public television stations, Wonderlab (a science museum), the Indiana State Museum and school systems in Indiana.