MacGillivray Freeman Films is producing and distributing "Greek Odyssey," a large-format film presenting archaeology as a sophisticated, precise science that utilizes highly advanced technologies to reconstruct the past. The film will examine research in Athens, the Greek islands and beneath the Aegean Sea where archaeologists, geophysicists and conservationists collaborate to solve and record the mysteries of ancient civilizations. Audiences will discover the process and importance of scientific research to our understanding of Greece's past and its extraordinary influence on our world today. Outreach will include a Museum Resource Guide, Family Fun Sheet, Teacher's Guide, Website and a Scientist Speaker Series. Greg MacGillivray will serve as Co-Producer/Director/Director of Photography, Alec Lorimore will be Co-Producer, and Stephen Judson will be the film editor. The Lead Science Advisor is Mark Rose, a member of the Archaeological Institute of America and Managing Editor of Archaeology magazine. Science advisors include: George Bass, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A & M University; Sandy MacGillivray, Co-Director of Palaikastro excavations on Crete; and Floyd McCoy, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii.
9710718 Kleiman Cultural Research and Communications, Inc. is developing a project that will center around a one-hour documentary program entitled Promises to Keep. The film, now in its planning phase, will chronicle the day-to-day efforts of students, teachers, and parents at one inner city public high school as they work to implement standards-based math and science reform while maintaining their commitment to full educational equity. The goal is to inform viewers about a significant reform effort underway, heighten their awareness of the possibilities of high quality math and science education for all, and stimulate them to support or initiate similar efforts themselves. During the planning phase, the applicants will focus their efforts in several critical areas: 1. Develop a better definition of the target audience so that the next stage can be designed best to address the needs and interests of that audience. 2. Clarify the goals, structure, and content of the program. For example, is the proposed film to be primarily motivational or should it provide a "blueprint for change?" How, specifically, does the school achieve its goals of excellence and how will this be conveyed in the film? How can school around the country relate to the examples set by Thurgood Marshall High School? 3. Design a strong outreach, promotion, and distribution plans to assure that this will reach the intended audience. 4. Assess the location constraints that will be present during production. 5. Familiarize the advisors with the school where the film is to be made. The Co-Principal Investigators and film producers for the project are Vivian Kleiman, an award winning producer of such programs as Color Adjustment and My Bodies My Business, and Sharon Wood who has produced, directed, and or written programs for Portrait of America and Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren. Project advisors include Dennis Bartels, Yolanda George, Donna Gerardi, Nancy Kreinberg, and Tom Romberg.
LIVING ON EARTH is a new weekly National Public Radio newsmagazine about the people and politics of environmental change. It goes beyond the ecological segments on NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and MORNING EDITION to meet the growing demand for consistent, high quality, balanced and in-depth coverage of the environment, and scientific discoveries and advancements relevant to the rapidly changing ecology of our planet. Audience research consistently shows that information about the environment is a priority to a broad majority of public radio listeners, and these listeners are twice as likely as all adults to take personal and political action in relation to environmental concerns. With the premiere of Living On Earth in April 1991, public radio in the U.S. began serving its national audience with its first journalistically strong environmental show, Living On Earth. Each week's edition of Living On Earth begins with a one minute billboard, followed by a five minute newscast summarizing national and world ecological and scientific developments. The newscast includes modular breaks so that stations can insert two minutes of local environmental news. The balance of each program is devoted to a theme, with produced reports followed by a five minute newscast summarizing national and world ecological and scientific developments. The newscast includes modular breaks so that stations can insert two minutes of local environmental news. The balance of each program is devoted to a theme, with produced reports followed by interviews, commentaries, and occasional humor. From time to time the show is devoted to a full-length documentary or debate special. Standards of thoroughness, fairness, and excellence result in shows that stimulate as well as inform. Distributed by National Public Radio, the program is available to more than 400 NPR stations in the U.S. Already 160 of those stations have signed up to air the program. Many environmental issues -- sustainable energy, population, biological degradation, sustainable economic development and pollution, for example -- are of global concern and cut across political, racial and cultural boundaries. Material and information for Living On Earth is obtained from diverse producers and will be exchanged with public radio services around the world.
Summerhays Film is requesting a planning grant to support the development of a large-format film and related educational materials to educate Americans about issues related to U.S. territorial waters. The critical strategic impact of the full project, entitled America's Ocean Challenge (AOC), is to measurably increase the American public's understanding and appreciation of our marine heritage, leading to public awareness of personal responsibilities for maintaining ocean health. The goal of the proposed planning phase is to complete planning for a comprehensive ISE program to be delivered in three phases over ten years. The work is being carried out in collaboration with The Ocean Project and supported by an advisory committee of scientists and informal science education specialists. Knight-Williams Research Communication will conduct front-end evaluation.
WGBH Educational Foundation is producing a four-hour documentary special, "Fire," to be broadcast as a NOVA special. The series will present the story of fire as an important but often overlooked key to understanding the natural world and our shared environmental history. Humans have used fire in virtually every aspect of our existence: for heat and light, as a tool and a source of power, for the private rituals of spiritual life and the monumental reshaping of entire landscapes. Fire acts as a significant agent of change in our world today, and the interaction of fire and humans is now acknowledged as a significant part of global climate change research and of biodiversity and ecosystem health studies. Fire will examine these and other powerful and fundamental scientific questions related to fire being explored today. The project will integrate fire history with an understanding of the scientific principles of fire chemistry and behavior, and it will link that knowledge with ecology, agriculture, forestry and resource management. An integrated outreach campaign will accompany the television series. It will be built around a resource kit, offered in both print and CD-ROM formats, with activities and other resources for families and youth organizations at the late elementary and early middle school level. There also will be special web pages within NOVA's award-winning web site that will include the "Fire" resource kit materials. The PI and Series Producer will be Judith Vecchione whose credits include the NSF-supported series on women scientists today, "Discovering Women." Paula Apsell, Executive Producer for NOVA, will be Executive-in-Charge. The Film Director will be Kirk Wolfinger whose prior NOVA productions include "Submarine!," "Titanic's Lost Sister," "Daredevils of the Sky," and "To the Moon." The Series Senior Advisor is Stephen J. Pyne, Professor of History at Arizona State University. Dr. Pyne is an environmental historian and author of the five-book "Cycle of Fire" suite. Other advisors include: Norman L. Christensen, Dean of the Nicholas School of Environment at Duke University; Johann Georg Goldammer, Senior Scientist and leader of the Fire Ecology and Biomass Burning Research Groups of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry; Robert Huggins, Servicewide Education Coordinator for the National Park Service; Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago; Marcella Russell, Regional Liaison for the Massachusetts Parent Involvement Project; and Brian Stocks, Senior Fire Research Scientist at the Canadian Forest Service.
The long-running and highly successful National Public Radio series "Science Friday" is venturing in new directions. Given that basic research underlies all of the technological advances influencing our world and that tax dollars pay for that research, the public needs to be informed about the basics of research. To address this need for public education, "Science Friday" will examine the importance of research as a theme underlying all science and technology changes by: Finding the research roots at the bottom of each story; Exploring the cooperation among corporations, private institutions, and research foundations and illuminating how each plays a role in the research process; Following the research "bumps" along the road to illustrate that research success depends upon failures -- not all research produces positive results; Illuminating the barriers to successful research; Helping listeners understand the thought process of researchers; Scaling the "ivory tower" by enabling listeners to question and talk directly with researchers; and Helping listeners understand the role of basic research in policy-making. Ira Flatow, the host, will take "Science Friday" on the road and produce programs in Oklahoma, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, Arizona and other locations. He also will visit schools and universities and will speak at public events. NPR also will reactivate the "Science Friday Kids Connection" which will take each week's program and its guest scientists directly into classrooms across the country.
Night Fire Films is producing a one-hour show for PBS titled "Breaking the Maya Code," based on the book by Dr. Michael D. Coe. "Breaking the Maya Code" will explore the history of the decipherment of the Maya hieroglyphic script. The 400-year scientific detective story, climaxing in the past thirty years, will be told through footage shot at key locations in Central America, Europe and the United States, together with dramatizations, animation and graphics; archival materials; and interviews with major participants in the decipherment. An outreach campaign, including an extensive web site, will enhance the television viewing experience as well as promote further STEM learning. The program will be produced and directed by David Lebrun; Nicolas Noxon serves as Executive Producer. Michael Coe will serve the project as Principal Advisor, along with an extensive board of advisors of ethnographers, epigraphers, archaeologists, historians, iconographers and others. Multimedia Research will conduct formative evaluation of the program; Knight-Williams Research will conduct summative evaluation of the project. The National Endowment for the Humanities has granted $550,000 toward this project.
MacNeil Lehrer Productions is adding a significant science presence to the nightly "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" program by creating a Science Unit as part of their production staff. Each year for three years, the unit will produce at least 12 long-form documentary reports (8 to 12 minutes each), shorter (4 to 5 minute) videotape background reports to set up studio interviews, and brief (2 minute) news summary reports when appropriate. The NewsHour science production team also would collaborate with the NOVA team at WGBH through such means as production of a NewsHour companion report related to a planned NOVA documentary and use of a NOVA segment as a lead-in to a policy discussion on the NewsHour. Selection of story topics, information about developments in different fields of science, and validation of science content would be guided by a core advisory group that includes: Stephen Sass, Cornell University (Material Science, Nanotechnology) Ken Miller, Brown University (BioScience) Larry Smarr, Director of the California Institute of telecommunications and Information Technology (Infotechnology) Maria Ghirardi, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Energy) John Logsdon, George Washington University (Space) The project will be supported by "The Online NewsHour." This web site will notify viewers via email of upcoming segments; provide public forums with scientists, researchers, ethicists and policy makers; and allow viewers to obtain transcripts of the broadcasts. The forums, conducted after the broadcast, include one or more of the principals who appeared in the program responding to questions and/or issues raised by viewers. Formative evaluation will be conducted by Rockman Et Al and summative evaluation will be conducted by the Goodman Research Group, Inc.
National Public Radio (NPR) has been awarded a grant of $807,335 in declining amounts over a four year period for production of Science Friday, the weekly two-hour call-in radio show that deals with science topics. Over the four year period, NPR will make an increasingly larger commitment to the total budget of $1,763,768 until they assume total budgetary responsibility for the project in FY 2001. The series' goal is to make science easily accessible to the public and to help them realize the relevance of science and technology to everyday life. The format of the programs enables the public to engage in conversations with scientists and science educators to discuss contemporary science topics. Science issues anticipated to be included in future programs include: science and mathematics education, science literacy, science risk assessment and public policy, and the future of technology. In addition to the broadcast series, NPR will develop a web site for Science Friday which will distribute the radio series on demand via the Internet, bring Science Friday to cities and rural areas where the series is not broadcast, create live Internet chat groups where listeners can meet to discuss the program, provide sound bytes and audio files of guests, and create a "Science Day Book" which will be a calendar of events loaded with science opportunities for people in their own home towns. Science Friday also has established a joint project with Kidsnet, an established computerized clearinghouse for education through the media. Ira Flatow will continue as the series host and producer. Barbara Flagg of Multimedia Research has been engaged to assess the audience impact of the project.
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Kevin KloseWilliam BuzenbergBarbara Flagg
Earth Game is a five-day simulation, modeled on the war games the military have staged for a hundred years. An international group of scientists, diplomats and political experts will react to a simulated environmental crisis caused by global climate change. The period of play is 1995 to 2010. The proceedings will be videotaped and edited into four hours of television programming for international broadcast to a general audience in the spring of 1992. Earth Game is a project of WQED with the Smithsonian Institution, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Adrian Malone Productions, and the U.S. Naval War College. The objectives are: 1.) to stimulate greater public and governmental interest in the subject of climate change; 2.) to foster greater understanding of what we do and don't know about the causes of climate change, and 3.) to develop a greater appreciation of the dilemmas posed by the need for political action in the fact of the threats and uncertainties surrounding climate change. Senior Smithsonian scientists, Naval War College game design experts, the distinguished television producer Adrian Malone, and a small group of advisers are planning the event, which is scheduled to take place in Newport, Rhode Island in November 1991 at the historic facilities of the Naval War College.
The Educational Film Center, in collaboration with Dr. Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and John A. Newman, Professor of Physical Science at Cornell University, will produce THE MOLECULAR WORLD, a series of three one-hour specials for Public Television. The specials will outline this "century of synthesis," the historical contribution of chemistry to our everyday lives. They will further highlight the future impact of chemistry on new materials for transportation and communication, and ont he rational design of effective medicines. The programs respond to the need for public awareness about the molecular and chemical make-up of the natural world around us and within us. The public also needs to appreciate better the continuing role of chemistry in producing the new molecules which change our world. THE MOLECULAR WORLD is designed for a national television audience complementing the recently completed college telecourse "The World of Chemistry" and its High School adaptations. The National Science Foundation award constitutes 15% of the total cost of the project.
Oregon Public Broadcasting is requesting funds to produce three one-hour nationally broadcast television programs, a project website, community-centered outreach coordinated by AAAS in 7 U.S. cities, a seminar discussion guide and a series of 90-second programs as part of the "Earth &Sky" radio series. The subject and purpose of the project is to attract public interest in nanotechnology by examining the social, ethical, legal and environmental issuers surrounding its application. The television programs will be produced by Fred Friendly Seminars (FFS) and broadcast on PBS. Two science museums, Boston Museum of Science and the South Carolina State Museum, and the University of California, Berkeley, will host the FFS panels. The format of the Seminars is designed to produce thought provoking and nuanced discussions of contemporary issues. Collaborative partners in the project include AAAS, Lawrence Hall of Science and ICAN Productions. The outreach initiative includes outreach to "targeted stakeholders" in 7 US cities, four 90-second radio spots as part of Earth & Sky, a project web site and a Seminar discussion guide. Inverness Research Associates and Edu, Inc. will conduct both formative and summative evaluation of the project components.