Cyberchase is the only mathematics series for children on U.S. television. Cyberchase is designed to engage children aged 8-11 in mathematics, help them develop knowledge and skill in math and problem-solving, and reinforce the usefulness of mathematics. The content of Cyberchase supports the 3rd-5th grade standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. While Cyberchase will continue to be broadcast nationally on PBS, this broad implementation proposal will expand access to Cyberchase's entire body of materials on a reconstructed online portal. This new digital portal will house all of Cyberchase's multi-media mathematics content including 94 episodes, over 50 online math games, and scores of activities. The portal will organize materials by math topic, allow for on-demand viewing and downloading, and create guided learning trajectories to make it easy and fun to explore a math concept more deeply. Ongoing outreach will sustain Cyberchase's PBS presence and its impact on communities. Multimedia Research will conduct front-end/formative evaluation to inform design decisions. MediaKidz Research and Consulting will help set up online tracking mechanisms in the prototype phase and will track and analyze data once the portal is launched. The project will partner with online content providers such as Yahoo Kids and NSDL's Science and Math Informal Learning Educators (SMILE) pathway, and Science Buddies to expand distribution and use. They will also work with existing partners, both in the formal and informal arenas, to introduce the new portal to a wider audience. These partners include the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM), Girl Scouts, Girls, Inc., National Engineering Week Foundation (EWeek), and VITAL (Video in Teaching and Learning). Cyberchase online currently attracts 500,000 unique visits a month. The proposed portal will continue to serve this audience in improved ways and serve new audiences who cannot or do not watch PBS stations. It will also provide a home for the material for the expanding numbers of young people who are spending increasing time online. Besides expanding access to Cyberchase materials, the new portal will be able to provide guided learning paths through which users will be prompted to navigate around themes or concepts. To test whether the new learning pathways succeed in encouraging children to use related media on the site, tracking mechanisms will be designed and the resulting data analyzed.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sandra SheppardFrances NankinMichael TempletonBarbara Flagg
KCTS, Seattle's PBS affiliate, is producing a series of three one-hour prime-time science education television specials starring Bill Nye. The specials will be aimed at a family audience and will be designed to promote informal science learning through an entertaining presentation of science in everyday life. Topics currently being considered for the specials are The Science of Sports, The Science of Learning, and The Science of the Future, thought other topics, such as Pseudo Science, also are being considered. Each program will maintain the entertainment values of enthusiasm for science so prominent in the Bill Nye the Science Guy series but will have a strong narrative element and air of suspense as Bill embarks on a journey of discovery, greater depth of content and presentation, and longer uninterrupted segments. The programs will be supported by a multi-pronged outreach program to reach parents and children through local PBS stations and science museums, community organizations serving disadvantaged populations and, possibly, a tie-in with a national chain of quick family restaurants. Many of the same team that created Bill Nye the Science Guy will work on this project including Bill Nye; Elizabeth Brock, Executive Producer; and Erren Gottlieb and James McKenna, producers. The production team will work with fourteen scientists and science educators who will advise the project on presentation and outreach. This group also will review and comment on all scripts and drafts of outreach material.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
William NyeJames McKennaErren GottliebBurnill ClarkRandy Brinson
Treasuring our Natural Heritage: Natural History and Environmental Science Education is a multifaceted project that will be developed by the Idaho Museum of Natural History. Their goal is to heighten an understanding of issues surrounding the concept of biodiversity among the general public. By using the metaphor " the economy of nature," they will present three concepts: biodiversity which will include the idea of keystone species, natural capital, and extinction debt & conservation biology. This approach and the use of this metaphor is based on pre-exhibit research work that demonstrated that rural Idahoans understand this as a system of exchange, where each species holds a different 'occupation' and a variety of occupations is critical to the health of the economy. This project will bring participants in touch with the value of scientific research through presentations by scientists whose recent research results will provide a deeper understanding of the living systems around them. Views of elders from Idaho's Native American tribes will be included to add a critical human dimension. With this award they will develop a series of three small traveling exhibits, three-part educational video series for public broadcasting, and three multimedia science kits for use by children's groups on each of the three concepts noted above. With this multifaceted design it is anticipated that this program will reach 50% of Idaho's 1.2 million people. It is anticipated that the exhibits will become generally available once they have completed their circulation in Idaho.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stefan SommerAllen JacksonAmy LaffertyAndrew GibbonsAlbert Strickland
WGBH is producing Seasons II and III of ZOOM, a television series featuring kids that gives viewers in the 8- to 11-year-old range a chance to explore, experiment, and share their creativity with the world. Each season would consist of 40, daily, half-hour shows -- each including a number of science and/or mathematics segments. A unique aspect of ZOOM is that every idea and activity on the show comes from a child who writes or e-mails the show and who is credited on-air for his or her contribution. Production staff and a working group of advisors with expertise in science and math education take these raw ideas and develop them into program segments and outreach projects designed to encourage "habits of mind" -- a set of problem-solving skills and dispositions toward science and math that has been developed in concert with the advisors. Three over-arching science and math-based themes also guide the way science and math are presented over the course of a season. Outreach for Seasons II and III will build on the solid base of outreach developed for Season I, and will consist of: ZOOMerang: Every child who communicates with ZOOM will get something back such as a compilation of science and math activities, jokes, poems, recipes and a series update. ClubZOOM: A set of standards-based science and math activities will be developed along with guidance for how to create after-school clubs. This effort will be pilot tested at 20 sites. ZOOMzones: These are areas in science-technology centers and museums that are devoted to ZOOM and include opportunities for youth and families to interact with science and math content featured on ZOOM. Ten pilot ZOOMzone sites were developed for Season I (from 80 applications). The number of ZOOMzones will be increased and continuing support will be offered to existing sites during Seasons II and III. ZOOMdays: During Season III, WGBH will develop ZOOMdays at shopping malls to reach youth who may not have access to ZOOMzones or ClubZOOM. ZOOMweb site: This web site provides an outreach extension to the TV series by collecting and sharing submissions; illustrating and producing science and math activities; creating a ZOOM community; providing research links to other sites; and aiding adults who are interested in furthering ZOOM's science and math activities in their homes, classrooms, museums and after-school programs.
This is a pilot for a half-hour, weekly children's science education series produced for broadcast on PBS by McKenna/Gottlied Productions, Inc. and KCTS Television in Seattle, Washington. One half-hour program and prototype ancillary material will be produced and tested with children, parents, and teachers. The series is designed to make science accessible and interesting to children ages 9 to 12 by relating science to their interests and everyday activities and by presenting basic concepts from elementary science curricula in a humorous and exciting format. The host is Bill Nye, a popular television entertainer and science aficionado. In each program, Nye is assisted by children, well-known science experts, and celebrity guests. Experiments and demonstrations will use inexpensive, safe household items to enable viewers to follow along at home or in the classroom. Ancillary material will consist of a parent's guide to assist parents in encouraging their children to participate in science activities and develop problem-solving skills, activity cards for children to encourage self-directed learning, and a teacher's guide to support classroom use.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth BrockWilliam NyeJames McKennaErren Gottlieb
SOUNDPRINT, the weekly half-hour nationally broadcast public radio documentary series, proposes a 16-program SOUNDPRINT SCIENCE SERIES comprising four thematic components of four programs each, which explore and examine current issues and ideas in the areas of 1) Biodiversity and Species Management; 2) Invasions: The Predator and the Prey; 3) Cultural Geography; and 4) The Meanings of Science. The series offers listeners a variety of experiences illustrative of the breadth of what is defined as science. Scientific thought and method are presented through a humanistic storytelling approach that capitalizes on the imaginative quality of sound to immerse listeners in the exploration of phenomena. Each documentary explores a single subject, placing it in a meaningful context, and taking listeners beyond the surface of simple fact reporting. Programs translate complex scientific ideas into accessible, memorable stories that increase awareness and understanding of science for a broad population (SOUNDPRINT REACHES OVER 250,000 LISTENERS EACH WEEK). The SOUNDPRINT SCIENCE SERIES will be broad cast as a series of quarterly, month-long specials, with promotional, education and community outreach materials provided to stations. Post- broadcast application of the programs includes development of teacher guide packets targeted to the middle school level and repacking of programs for educational purposes in multi-media and interactive settings. Cassette copies of programs are shared by listeners in professional, educational, and informal settings. Major scientific disciplines involved include: biology, environmental sciences, geography, life sciences, mathematics and physics. The Proposed SOUNDPRINT SCIENCES SERIES is submitted to the National Science Foundation Informal Science Education Program. Programs in the series are geared to a broad, general audience, elementary through adult populations.
WGBH Educational Foundation is producing a prime time television series and informal education outreach component entitled 'A Life of Science.' Each of the six one-hour programs in the series will profile a contemporary woman scientist: Lydia Villa-Komaroff, biologist; Melissa Franklin, physicist; Misha Mahowald, computational neuroscientist; Marcia NcNutt, geologist; Lynda Jordan, biochemist; and Patty Jo Watson, archaeologist. The stories will present their scientific quests and careers but also will be about scientific lives. An outreach plan, which centers around a national campaign called 'The Missing Persons Investigation,' will target two primary constituencies: girls and boys 11-14 years of age and their adult teachers and youth service community leaders. The project will serve these audiences in formal school-based settings as well as in the informal settings of community-based organizations and institutions. Beyond these immediate target groups, the outreach project will reach a broad and diverse national public through related activities including demonstrations exhibits, community campaigns at local public television stations, and media partnerships. A comprehensive promotion plan has been devised to inform the public of both the series and the outreach component of the project.
SOUNDPRINT is requesting $901,273 over 16 months to produce a series of radio documentaries entitled Making Connections: SOUNDPRINT Explores Science and Technology, related educational outreach materials, multimedia non-broadcast applications, and an aggressive distribution plan. Sixteen half-hour original science documentaries, distributed through national Public radio will address three broad areas of science and technology. These include: the limitations and possibilities of scientific achievement; the requirements of sustainability (surviving); and the explanation science offers for human behavior. An additional 21 programs will be repackaged as special broadcasts to be distributed to over 200 public radio stations. Target audiences include middle school and secondary school students, and adults.
Blackside, Inc. is producing a television series and an outreach component about minority scientists. The goals of the six-hour prime-time series, "Breakthrough: People of Color in Science," are to raise the consciousness of the general public that is largely unaware of the significant contribution of scientists of color and to provide role models that will encourage young people to consider science and engineering careers. The programs will feature the work of contemporary African-American, Latino and Native American scientists and engineers who are active in cell biology, astrophysics, applied mathematics and other fields of science. The stories of their scientific achievements will present both women and men, old and young, at different stages of their careers, and will explore the professional, educational and social worlds they live and work in. Viewers will have immediate access to a comprehensive follow-up effort that will connect them with local, regional and national opportunities in informal science education. Blackside will collect information from existing resources and institutions as well using source material from several extensively researched databases geared toward minority students. Using all of this information, Blackside will create a metadatabase that will connect teachers, parents, mentors, and students to a rich variety of educational programs: extracurricular classes, mentoring programs, national science contests, teacher training workshops, and a myriad of on-line services. To ensure immediate access and, where possible, to customize the information to viewers needs, Blackside will disseminate it through a variety of means: an 800-number with a direct fax-back capability, an on-line service, a CD-ROM, and a printed packet delivered by mail. A principal target audience is gatekeepers in students' lives: parents, teachers, and scientists interested in becoming mentors. The target audience also includes students from fourth th rough twelfth grades. Joseph Blatt will serve a PI for this project and co-executive producer for the television series. His previous experience include serving as executive producer of "Scientific American FRONTIERS" and as a producer/director for several NOVA programs. He also has been executive producer for three television series/college credit courses in mathematics. Henry Hampton will be the other co-executive producer. He was the creator and executive producer of the 14-hour, award winning series, "Eyes on the Prize," about America's civil rights movement. The principal educational consultant will be Ceasar McDowell, assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Michael Ambrosino, the original executive producer of NOVA, will be the principal science television consultant.
Wisconsin Public Broadcast will incorporate a science strand in "Get Real!," their television series for children 8-12 year olds in Wisconsin. The series presents positive images of children involved in, and succeeding at, a variety of areas. The Wisconsin-based stories are field-produced; and kids are involved on-screen and off as hosts, reporters, subjects of stories, as interns during production, and as sources of story ideas. The series is broadcast on both public and commercial stations in Wisconsin and receives multiple repeats. The science and technology strand: . connects science concepts to children's known experiences and activities and tells stories about kids involved in science-related activities; . models and reinforces positive attitudes towards, and involvement in science and technology and affirms the value of children's ideas, and the importance of asking why?; and . reinforces viewers' active connection to the science content by making suggestions for projects to get involved with, and by encouraging children to discuss and question their knowledge of science and the world around them. The series is an important element integrated into both informal and formal education throughout Wisconsin. It is supported by teacher materials and science video segments that are sent to every elementary school in Wisconsin. In season two, material also will be created for parents and children to use at home. A "Get Real!" kids club helps kids feel ownership of the series. Members receive a newsletter that includes suggested at-home science activities, book lists related to the series, features about the show, places for families to visit, and behind-the-scenes articles about kids in the series. Every elementary school library and public library in the state also received "Get Real!" materials including a poster and display items. James Steinback, the creator, original producer, and executive producer of "Newton's Apple," will be the co-PI with overall responsibility for the project. Kathy Bissen will be executive producer of "Get Real!" and David Wallach will be series producer. The series is produced in the three Wisconsin Public Television studios -- in Madison, Green Bay, and Menomonie -- and, therefore, can find and produce statewide stories.
WGBH Educational Foundation is producing Season I of Zoom, a daily half-hour television series for children aged 8 to 11. Zoom, which is based on the highly successful 1970's series of the same name, features a cast of seven children who engage in activities and examine ideas submitted by youth who watch the show. The new Zoom will have an enhanced educational concentration, an emphasis on science and math activities and projects, and a comprehensive outreach campaign. A major focus of the series will be to develop "Habits of Mind" which promote the capacity to think about the same ideas and evidence in multiple ways; collect, organize, and recognize patterns in data; identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations; and develop skills of estimation, judgment, and data literacy. Season I will have three over-arching science and math-based themes: Structures, Things That Go, and Living Things. Each program will include two or three science and math segments, as well as encouragement to try these activities at home. From time to time, the cast will provide a "challenge" for viewers by asking them to conduct an activity as home and send in their results for presentation on a later show. Field-produced segments will feature children engaged in science or math projects that they have found particularly fascinating and have done on their own. The series also will revisit projects or "challenges" over the course of a season to demonstrate that science is an on-going, evolving endeavor and that new information may change old assumptions. Zoom outreach activities will include a Zoom science guide for educators, a World Wide Web Site, museum Zoom rooms, community partnerships with three national organizations that work with underserved children. In addition, every viewer who writes, calls an 800 number, or sends an e-mail will receive a free four-page newsletter with directions needed to complete activities from the series and to tackle challenge s that the cast issues to the audience. Kate Taylor will be Executive Producer for the project. She has been co-executive producer for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and for Degrassi Junior High. The Science and Math Director will be Candace Julyan, Senior Project Director at TERC. The Director of Outreach will be Beth Kirsch who oversees the development and implementation of national outreach campaigns for WGBH. The staff will work closely with a group of consultants and advisors with expertise in such areas as science and mathematics, informal science, outreach, and evaluation.
National Public Radio will produce and distribute a weekly, one-hour program entitled, "Weekly Edition: Science, The Environment, and Technology," which consists of a compilation of the best science stories aired during the previous week on "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered," and "Weekly Edition." Each program will be varied, looking back at the week in science and reviewing main stories. The hour format also will enable the producers to go into greater depth than was done in the daily coverage. They will expand the news pieces with additional interviews and/or out-takes reporters were unable to use on the daily programs. As part of the NPR outreach program, the project will develop "Weekly Science" on "Kids Connection (Science Friday)" as part of the World Wide Web. Each week, that week's program as well as additional science information and bibliographies will be entered on the "Science Friday" homepage. The PI and executive producer for the series will be Anne Gudenkauf, Senior Editor at NPR. Richard Harris and Joe Palca will host the series. Harris has been an on-air host for NPR produced summaries of congressional action on health reform and both have substituted for Ira Flatow on NPR'S TALK OF THE NATION: SCIENCE FRIDAY. The program producer will be Jane Greenhalgh.