The Science Education Department of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will produce and evaluate a pilot for a series of after school television program targeted at youth aged 9 -12. The series, which is based on the research into children's misperceptions about science conducted by the applicant, will help viewers make sense of often poorly understood or misunderstood science principles. The project will be highly interactive through the use of the Internet and 800 numbers. In the television series, viewers will see "evidence" for different ways to interpret basic science concepts and will be called upon to make sense of the key evidence, conduct further investigation on their own, and register their findings via the Internet and World Wide Web or by calling an 800 number. In response to the viewer's verdict, local stations will air either a "guilty" or "innocent" resolution -- both of which will clarify the science concept being considered. The PI for the project will be Philip Sadler, Director of the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Project Manager will be Matthew Schneps, Director of the Science Media Group. Education and science content will be the responsibility of Hal Coyle, a science teacher and curriculum developer, and Roy Gould, an Education Specialist at the Center. The principal science advisor will be Irwin Shapiro, Director of the Center for Astrophysics, and the chief educational advisor will be Charles Whitney, Prof. Emeritus Harvard University. The video will be produced in cooperation with Terra Associates in New York.
Children's Television Workshop proposes to produce a fourth and fifth season of SQUARE ONE TV, a daily series on mathematics for children ages eight to twelve. Season Four will consist of 40 new half-hours for air on PBS stations beginning September 1991. Consistent with CTW's experimental mission in education, CTW also proposes to undertake a new programming approach to expand the reach of SQUARE ONE TV to a family audience by converting the daily detective serial featured in the series, MATHNET, into four one-hour specials for family viewing. These Season Four MATHNET Specials will be researched to test their effectiveness. Eleven hour-long weekly SQUARE ONE TV programs will be produced for Season Five to be aired in addition to re-broadcasts of the daily series starting January, 1993. Seasons Four and Five production will capitalize on the educational impact and appeal of prior seasons. Mathematical content will be based on research and in conjunction with the Series Advisory Committee and consultants. The additional seasons will be supported by a full range of promotion, community outreach activities, and school services, including teacher's guides.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David ConnellKeith MielkeEve HallJoel Schneider
THE DR. FAD SHOW is a daily television series for children ages 6 to 12 that encourages creativity, inventiveness and problem solving in a lively half-hour format. Each program is taped before a studio audience and high-lights the inventions of young participants as well as the fads and inventions of the past, present and future. Created and hosted by Ken Hakuta, or Dr. Fad as he is known to millions of young viewers, the series will combine thirty-five brand new shows with thirty previously produced episodes for a total of sixty-five programs. The series will be produced and packaged next spring and summer at WETA-TV in Washington, D.C. and will be ready for national broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as early as fall of 1991. THE DR. FAD SHOW will be accompanied by a significant outreach and promotion effort, as well as an educational component that will include an activity and teacher's guide. The programs have already won the endorsement of the National Education Association and the National Inventive Teaching Association (NITA) among others, as well as the enthusiastic support of parents, teachers and a legion of dedicated young viewers and participants.
Children's Television Workshop is embaring on a ground- breaking experiment in informal science education: the production of an entertaining animated series of 13 half- hour programs for Saturday morning commercial television, based on David Macaulay's bestselling book, The Way Things Work. The audience will be six- to eleven-year olds, with special focus on minority and economically disadvantaged children. The series' primary goal will be to entertain children with lively and appealing characters in a dramatic storyline, while stimulating children's interest in the scientific principles behind the workings of familiar machines and illustrating the action of their parts. NSF support will enable CTW to adapt the CTW Model -- the collaborative process used in earlier NSF-supported programs, 3-2-1 Contact and Square One Tv -- to the opportunities of the animation format and the realities of the partnership with a commercial network. Through a development agreement with CBS, CTW has begun the process of developing the series concept, characters, and storylines. Upon successful completion of this phase, production will follow with an anticipated broadcast premiere in fall 1992. NSF's $2.36 million support will allow this project to be possible by completing the series' funding; it will allow CTW to conduct significant formative research and summative analyses of educational impact, and to reach large minority and economically disadvantaged audiences through wider promotion and the creation and distribution of complementary print materials.
National Geographic Television is creating multi-platform media to communicate the scientific and engineering stories unfolding in the Gulf region due to the major oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is one of the worst environmental disasters to occur in the U.S., and though traditional news outlets continue to report on the spill, there is little discussion about the scientific factors at play. They include the technology and engineering skills needed to stop the leak and contain the oil; the scientific and engineering efforts to mitigate its effects; and the potential impacts on the Earth system. Communicating these scientific and engineering concepts to the public is both critical and urgent. National Geographic is uniquely positioned to take the lead in reporting on the science and engineering behind the spill and its implications. Deliverables will include: a 60-minute "Explorer" documentary television program to air on the National Geographic Channels in September 2010; 16 weekly online "Science Journal" segments featuring interviews with scientists, engineers, and other experts, promoted through National Geographic's social media channels; ongoing online news coverage and blog reports from the Gulf region; and online content for children. Funding from the National Science Foundation will specifically support coverage of the yet-to-be-filmed science and engineering segments for the television program and digital content. The television program and digital content will reach a broad public audience with critical science and engineering concepts. The entire project is designed to communicate scientific messages from the Gulf in real time and over the longer term, and in so doing, to enhance public understanding of science and engineering as it relates to the oil spill crisis.
The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science proposes to build on its program of activities that involve children in science and bring them into contact with the approaches, objects and equipment that scientists use, with each activity designed to stimulate thinking and heighten interest in science. Cardinal features of the program are the development of hands-on exhibits, science kits for classroom use and a studied tie with the children's television program, "3-2-1 Contact." The goals are to coordinate these activities with hands-on science activities for students in grades 3-6, and to coordinate classroom activities with those at the museum, which conducts "3-2-1 Contact Days" throughout the year when students come to the museum and take part in experiments, observations and enrichment lessons and actively manipulate museum objects. The museum now will refine the program components, including improvement and duplication of the hands-on kits, continuation of the workshops for elementary teachers and development of new participatory exhibits dealing with insects and endangered species, and will present them to an expanded audience. One-third of the children in the state live below the poverty level, and fifty per cent represent minority populations. As most of these children lack such out-of-school experiences these informal science activities are particularly meaningful.
Independent Production Fund is producing a three-part public television series focusing on the latest research in the science of music. The programs will explore how cutting-edge science is revealing new connections between music and the human mind and body, the natural world and the cosmos. The series will follow researchers from a variety of fields including physiology, neuroscience, psychology, biology, physics and education, as they use groundbreaking techniques and technologies to unravel age-old mysteries about music's persistence, universality and emotional power. It will show how these researchers are shedding valuable new light on the way brains work. The impact of the programs will be extended through a content-rich companion web site and innovative formal and informal educational-outreach materials to both middle and high school age students, as well as a complementary radio component. Mannes Productions will produce the series; Goodman Research Group will conduct formative evaluation and Rockman et al will conduct summative evaluation.
WGBH is producing a new PBS television show with accompanying Web and outreach activities for 9- to 12-year-olds, to inspire a generation of budding engineers. "Design Squad" (working title) will be a 13-part television series, which combines the appeal of a game show with the drama of real-world challenges to engender enthusiasm and promote understanding of, and interest in, engineering and technology. Behind all the fun that this lively show envisions lays a serious educational purpose -- to get kids to think like engineers and understand how to use science and technology to solve real-life problems. The television programs will be complemented with materials and training for engineers to mount "Design Squad" events in public venues and run workshops in schools, afterschool programs and libraries, and an extensive companion web site. "Design Squad 's" three intended strategic impacts are to: (1) address a critical need in engineering education and children's television, (2) increase students' knowledge of engineering and the design process and (3) improve the public image of engineering, especially among girls and minorities. The WGBH production team will be lead by Brigid Sullivan and Kate Taylor. The Series Content Director is Dr. Daniel Frey of MIT. Goodman Research Group, Inc. will conduct the evaluation of the project.
Thirteen/WNET New York will develop and produce ten new episodes for a fifth season of Cyberchase. Broadcast daily on 340 PBS stations, Cyberchase has helped millions of children acquire a stronger foundation in mathematics. Cyberchase's content spans the 3rd-5th grade standards of the National Council of Mathematics. Ancillary materials, outreach and a highly popular Web site extend the learning and help make Cyberchase the sole mathematics media project available for the target age group of 8 to 11 year-olds. The new season will introduce a new campaign, "Math & Inventions: My Big Idea", to link mathematics and technology education and involve children in the invention process. These new programs will enrich the series' content while keeping viewers tuning in to the current shows. Plans include enhancing the Web site, building the inventory of multi-media outreach activities, strengthening the show's presence in after-school programs, and launching a new relationship with the museum community. Multimedia Research will conduct formative evaluation of two new elements to "My Big Idea" and a prototype of the online "Invention Machine." MediaKidz Research and Consulting (MRC) will conduct the pilot phase of a groundbreaking research study to evaluate the impact of varied media, and the interactions between the television series, Web site and outreach components, on children's mathematical thinking and attitudes toward mathematics.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sandra SheppardMichael TempletonBarbara Flagg
Twin Cities Public Television is requesting a planning grant to support the development of a new television series called SciGirls and related educational materials, building off the success of SciGirls Outreach and DragonflyTV. The goal of the planning process is to design a television series that could inspire millions of girls across America to discover the excitement of science, technology, engineering and math. The proposed planning phase will include: audience research about the current TV viewing habits of "tween" girls (ages 8-13), meetings of science and education advisors, formative evaluation of sample video segments, development of a treatment and business plan for the series. Barbara Flagg of Multimedia Research will conduct the formative evaluation of the SciGirls TV short video with girls of the target audience in five locations across the country.
Thirteen/WNET New York requests funds to develop and produce five new Cyberchase episodes, a multi-media Summer Challenge math initiative, plus serialized Web games and an online Cartoon Maker to involve kids in active, creative mathematical thinking. Now in its seventh production season and sixth year of daily PBS broadcast, Cyberchase has helped millions of children acquire a stronger foundation in mathematics. Cyberchase's content spans the 3rd-5th grade standards of the National Council of Mathematics, and targets children aged 8-11. The series goals include: 1) reinforce mathematical knowledge especially during the summer months; 2) expand opportunities for kids' involvement with Cyberchase math activities; 3) and inspire all children to approach math with enthusiasm and confidence. Ancillary materials, outreach, and a highly popular Web site extend the learning and help make Cyberchase the sole mathematics media project available for the target age group. The new season will build on the successful format to model effective problem-solving processes, expand the math-rich Web site and bring Cyberchase to today's new-media platforms to prompt children to do math. Season 8 will especially target the summer, when children's TV viewing goes up, informal educators provide special offerings, and children, especially the under-served, are at risk of losing math growth made during the school year. The Summer Challenge will create a first-ever math summer campaign for PBS Kids. Cyberchase is watched by four million viewers each week. The audience is 40% minority and includes equal numbers of girls and boys. Cyberchase Online receives 1.9 visits a month. The project summative evaluation will study the outcomes and impact on (a) the target-age children (conducted by Multimedia Research) as well as (b) 8 PBS stations and local partners, culminating in a white paper on best practices for presenting informal STEM education in the summer (conducted by RMC Research). Season 8 initiatives will strengthen existing partnerships and forge new collaborations. Existing partnerships include museums, 50 chapters of Girls Inc., National Engineers Week Foundation, PBS stations, Sally Ride Science, Ernst & Young, and new partners MANA (a national Latina organization) and the Girl Scouts.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sandra SheppardFrances NankinMichael TempletonBarbara Flagg
Kikim Media requests $743,316 to produce four half-hour television documentaries and associated outreach programs based on Michael Pollan's best-selling book, The Botany of Desire. The project explores the reciprocal nature of people's relationship with plants. The programs focus on the connections between apples and the human desire for sweetness; tulips and the desire for beauty; marijuana and the desire for intoxication; and corn and our desire for control over nature. The project will increase public understanding of diverse subjects including genetics, evolution, cognition and biochemistry as well as biodiversity, genetic diversity and the consequences of their loss. The project will have a broad impact through a national primetime PBS broadcast, an outreach program targeting adult audiences, and an educational module delivering appropriate content (excluding intoxication) to middle and high school audiences. Knight-Williams Research Communications will conduct the evaluation for The Botany of Desire television broadcast and outreach efforts.