The Institute of Science and Society at Central Washington University plans a series of six workshops during 1991 on issues involving science and technology which are of current interest in the State of Washington. The purpose of the series is to inform public officials on critical issues where science plays a central role. Thus, state legislators, city and county executives, excutives in key state and local governmental agencies,judges, attorneys, the news media, and corporate executives will be invited to participate. The workshops will be conducted at Central Washington University, the state capitol in Olympia, or other locations which are easily accessible or relevant for the workshop topic (e.g., hosting a workshop on radioactive waste at the Battelle-Hanford Pacific Northwest Laboratory).
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mike McCormack
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Science Museum of Minnesota is requesting $279,577, of a total budget of $339,074, to plan and conduct a four-day international conference exploring issues, current practices and future directions related to furthering public understanding of current research in science and technology. The conference will bring together leading museum professionals, scientific researchers, science journalists, television producers, web developers and others who are already engaged in preliminary work for such an effort and who stand to learn from each other's experiences. The conference will center on the role of museums in informing the public about research, but will include representatives from other media and institutions crucial to its success. The specific goals of the conference are to: Explore challenges and barriers that hinder the development of public understanding of research programs. Identify "best practices" and promising models, tools and technologies for presenting current research to the public. Develop partnership strategies for creating public understanding of research program collaborations across the museum, media and research communities. Identify strategies for selecting significant research stories that are relevant to the public. Develop funding strategies and operational approaches that help sustain a consistent public understanding of research effort. The project will be under the direction of David Chittenden, Vice President for Education at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Advisors to the project include: Carol Lynn Alpert, Museum of Science, Boston; John Beatty, Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Minnesota; Graham Farmelo, Head of Science Communications, Science Museum of London; Richard Hudson, Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul; Ken Keller, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; Rob Semper, The Exploratorium; David Ucko, Koshland Science Center and Science Outreach, National Academy of Sciences; and Bonnie VanDorn, Executive Director, Association of Science-Technology Centers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David ChittendenAnne HornickelDonald Pohlman
The Educational Film Center (EFC) is developing a science, engineering, and technology careers exhibit for distribution to science museums and technology centers. The core of the exhibit kiosk, with related career graphics surrounds, is SET/QUEST, an interactive multimedia program for both Macintosh and PC/Windows using CD-Rom as the full motion video source. Teens and preteens will enter an interactive exploration of thirty careers with first person video profiles of people in science and engineering; animated/reality video simulations of a work experience in these fields, decision screens, and a database of over 200 more science and math-based professions. The documentary profiles, database, and a personal interest career match component will also be developed in alternative media formats (video, audio, print) 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 youth. A parent outreach component has been developed and will be implemented by the Directorate of Education & Human Resources Programs of AAAS. The concept of the parent effort is to work directly with and through the national offices of four major national organizations with different institutional community roots -- Science Museums, Public Libraries, Schools, and Community Based Organizations -- to involve parents and families with SET Project materials and to provide them with information with which they can foster their children's pursuit of science and math education and careers in these fields. Initial efforts will be conducted in 18 cities. The project is a collaborative endeavor among three organizations: The Educationa l Film Center which will be responsible for management and development/production of the software and documentary video profiles; The New York Hall of Science which will be responsible for the exhibit kiosk and graphics, will design and develop the student workbook and user installation print, will serve as the principal test site for the exhibit, and will advise on software, interactive multimedia design, and installation options; and COMAP which will be responsible for direct involvement of the Advisory Board, for selecting and hiring content consultants, for assuring the accuracy of the science and math content, for formative and summative evaluation, and for developing and preparing community leader and school users guides for publication. Stephen Rabin, President of EFC, will serve as PI for the project.
Twin Cities Public Television, in association with Red Hill Studios, is producing and disseminating an Exploring Time television special and associated outreach material. The project will augment and leverage the Exploring Time traveling exhibit now being developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota (NSF grant #99-01919). The goal of both the exhibit and the television special is to increase the public's understanding of our world by revealing the unseen world of natural change -- the multitude of changes that are occurring in the present but at rates too slow or too fast to be seen. The television special will provide visual explorations of changes that take place over a vast range of timescales -- from billionths of seconds to billions of years. The television series and exhibit will be supplemented by a range of materials. Both low- and high-bandwidth, web-based material will be available and a teacher's guide will be developed for middle school classrooms. A "Time Explorers Toolkit" will be available to both formal and informal learners. This CD-ROM includes detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to create time-lapse movies. The project also will coordinate outreach with the Community Technology Centers Network, the organization that supports technology centers that serve individuals from underrepresented and low-income groups.
WGBH Educational Foundation is requesting funds to produce 20 new shows and new outreach and Web activities for "ZOOM," which will be renamed "Hot Seat." "Hot Seat" is a daily half-hour PBS television series targeted to kids ages 8 to 11. Uniquely by and for kids, the program gives its viewers a chance to explore, to experiment and to share their creativity. The series, along with its far-reaching outreach, offers its audience an innovative curriculum that promotes the acquisition of basic math and science knowledge and the development of problem solving skills called "Habits of Mind." The intended impacts are to: (1) establish a project that uniquely integrates television, the Web and outreach as a model for how media can teach science and math; (2) engage kids and teach them science and math content and process skills; (3) provide curriculum and professional development to organizational partners. Innovation includes developing three new content areas for the series -- Invention, Space Science and Earth Science -- and evolving the project design by incorporating new production techniques that enhance the "reality factor" of the science programming. Outreach for the project will include printed materials for kids, families and educators. A new collaborative partnership is being developed with the American Library Association to help distribute the new afterschool curricula to librarians across the country. "Hot Seat" will support the existing network of "ZOOM" outreach partners and convert the museum "ZOOMzones" to "Hot Seat Spots." "ZOOM" currently is carried by 269 public broadcasting stations and is viewed by 4 million children each week.
The Center for Science and the Media is requesting $2,006,069, of a total budget of $5,597,518, to develop the Science and Technology News Network (STN2) that will produce science news segments to be used by local television stations in their news programs. The products delivered to the stations will include 90-second video news stories in two versions -- with and without voice-over; scripts that local newscasters can read on air; topical and regional tips sheets to help producers localize the stories; follow-up research and one-on-one support by the project staff; explanatory or science-angle sidebars; web stories to introduce upcoming TV stories and provide more in-depth coverage; and Internet support with resources important to local TV producers. The project also provides content to the abcnews.com science site and to ABC News One, the network affiliate news service. The science modules will produce segments in both English and Spanish. The PI and General Manager for the project is Eliene Augenbraun, a former research scientist with experience in management and media. The News Director and Co-PI is Ira Flatow. They will work with an advisory committee of scientists and science journalists.
KCTS, the public broadcasting station in Seattle, WA, is producing and distributing15 new half-hour episodes for the children's television series, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Topics being considered for these programs include: Caves Jungles Animal Behavior Entropy Home Demo Lakes and Ponds Felines Convection Smell and Taste Life Cycles Minerals Adhesives Atoms and Molecules Organs Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors The project also will include outreach to viewers, teachers, and parents by providing the following materials: A teachers kit to be distributed to 150,000 fourth-grade teachers nationwide Fifty thousand free copies of a printed parents' guide and 15-minuted video distributed through an off-air off and community partner groups Meet a Way Cool Scientist national print contest in which children will be invited to write and illustrate a profile of a scientist in their community Nye Labs Online, a Web site with series information, science topics, hands-on experiments, and an e-mail connection to Bill Nye and the production team Conference Presentations and workshops about the project's approach to science education for PBS stations, teacher groups, and the three partnering organizations, Girls Incorporated, the National Urban League, and the National Conference of La Raza Rockman Et Al will conduct a summative evaluation to extend the understanding of the show's impact on children's attitudes toward and understanding of science. It also will examine the size and composition of the in-school audience, and will assess the use and value of the outreach materials.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth BrockJames McKennaErren GottliebWilliam Nye
Wisconsin Public Broadcasting will continue the incorporation of a science strand into "Get Real!," their television series for children 8-12 year old. The series presents positive images of children involved in, and succeeding in, a variety of areas. The 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 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. In this third season of the series, the producers will expand coverage of the series to five additional states adjoining Wisconsin. They are convinced they can do this without losing the local interest and participation of local institutions which has been a great factor in attracting and holding viewers. James Steinbach, the creator, original producer, and executive producer of "Newton's Apple," will be the co-PI with overall responsibility for the project. The series is produced in the three Wisconsin Public Television studios -- in Madison, Green Bay, and Menomonie -- and, therefore, can find and produce stories which reach out into a wide geographic area.
Quest Productions is producing and testing the pilot phase for a series of weekly television programs entitled, Doing It. The series which is targeted at six to ten year olds is co-production with KCTS, the producer of Bill Nye the Science Guy in Seattle, will focus on science and technology-oriented themes by introducing viewers to men and women who develop and apply science and technology in their everyday lives. In each program, two young "explorers" will journey to a place in the real world that fascinates them and, with an adult guide, explore the inner workings of the particular site and how science is involved in what the person does. An additional character, a young woman named Howzit Work, will serve as a role model for the process of figuring out how and why things work. Each episode will end with a Doing It at Home segment which feature an activity or investigation selected from one of the activities designed by the GEMS project at the Lawrence Hall of Science. Ancillary material designed to encourage child/parent involvement is science include a Doing It booklet, and Internet Home Page, and a CD-ROM. The PI and Senior Producer will be Bill Jersey. His children's TV credits include 3-2-1 Contact, Sesame Street, and Bi-Lingual Children's Television. Pierre Valette, who helped develop and produce the pilot for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? is the creator of the project and will serve as Project Director. The Executive-in-charge of Production at KCTS is Elizabeth Brock, one of the developers of Bill Nye the Science Guy. The Senior Science Consultant is Ted Ansbacher, former Director of Exhibits at the New York Hall of Science. Evaluation will be conducted by Barbara Flagg. They will work closely with an advisory team of formal and informal science educators.
Commercial television is a powerful medium that has rarely succeeded in bringing scientific and technological information to its vast viewing public. For approximately eight years Don Herbert and his series "HOW ABOUT..." has brought science news to millions of viewers across the country. This series is carried on over 150 commercial TV stations in 80% of the major markets. The objectives of the program are to further the public's understanding and appreciation of the importance of science, technology and medical research to our way of life. Research Communications Ltd. will conduct a two-tiered study to determine the impact and effectiveness of these news inserts. A telephone survey will be conducted with station managers and news directors to document the decision-making process. The second step involves a series of focus groups with home viewers to determine the effectiveness of the series. Viewers will be asked a series of questions as well as responding to sample news segments. The research firm and Prinicpal Investigator have extensive experience in the media research area. This project of $27,700 is a modest evaluation investment which could provide clues and insights in mapping further commercial media strategies.
The Get Real! science strand will model and reinforce positive attitudes towards,and involve in, science and technology. It will seek to affirm for children the value of their ideas, and the importance of asking Why? It will tell stories about kids involved in science-related activities (such as science camps, inventors' fairs and wildlife rehabilitation programs), and connect science concepts to children's known experiences and activities. These ideas are basic to constructivism-that people grow based on what they already understand, adding levels of knowledge-and are central to Get Real! It will enforce 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. We will also direct students to appropriate informal science education organizations (such as science centers and zoos) and to their teachers, for further discussion and information. (Teachers guides will be developed as part of this project.)
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