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.
Education Development Center (EDC) is developing and implementing a three-year project to promote the informal learning of key basic mathematical concepts and skills among undereducated adults throughout the country. The effort will be part of EDC's Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA). The principal components of the project will be: Ten new, half-hour episodes of the television series, TV411, which is currently carried by approximately 100 public television stations. The new programs will shift the emphasis of the series from reading literacy to mathematics skills. In addition to covering a broad array of mathematical concepts, procedures and vocabulary, the programs will have an explicit focus on problem-solving strategies and attitudes about mathematics. A multi-level national outreach and marketing campaign to attract viewers and users to the materials and to increase carriage of the series. An in-depth implementation effort will be conducted with outreach partners is six large metropolitan areas. EDC will adapt the outreach, marketing and promotion aspects of this focused effort so that it can be used by all television stations that commit to carry the series. Formative and summative evaluation to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the materials and to inform the understanding of the impact on viewers and users of these types of materials.
National Geographic Television is producing a large-format, 3D film, "Sea Monsters," about prehistoric marine reptiles. The project will also include formative and summative evaluations, educational materials for home, after-school and classroom use, professional development for educators, an interactive website and innovative outreach to underserved youth. The film will present the current scientific understanding of Mesozoic marine ecosystems and the biology and behavior of prehistoric marine reptiles. The storyline of the films sets paleontological discovery into historical context, and reveals much about the scientific method and process of inquiry. Innovative intercutting between live-action paleontology sequences and photo realistic 3D animation of the reptiles will bring the fossils to life and allow audiences to make connections between the remains that are uncovered and the reptiles' activities, all of which are driven by concrete evidence in the fossil record. Sea Monsters will have a strategic impact on the field of informal science education by using groundbreaking computer-generated imagery technologies, and by demonstrating that a strong, dramatic storyline is a powerful and effective method for communicating scientific concepts. Standards-based lesson plans for the classroom and informal activity guides for families will augment the impact of the film. National Geographic has teamed with leading scientific experts and formal and informal education specialists to inform and advise the project. Multimedia Research and Knight-Williams Research Communication, respectively, will conduct formative and summative research.
PEEP and the Big Wide World, produced by WGBH, is an award-winning daily half-hour math and science television series for 3-5 year old children, complemented by an outreach campaign designed to encourage greater family involvement in children's math and science exploration. PEEP's three intended impacts are to: (1) empower families to feel more equipped, more confident, and more inclined to facilitate science and math exploration with their preschoolers; (2) engage preschoolers in science explorations that promote positive attitudes and inquiry skills; and (3) provide project partners with appropriate educational resources for both the English- and Spanish-speaking families they serve. The project's deliverables include: - Ten new animated PEEP stories in Spanish and English, which will introduce a new bilingual character to bring to life PEEP's science and math-based curriculum for Spanish speakers; - Ten new live-action segments in Spanish and English, which will show children, their siblings, parents, and grandparents actively engaging in "Anywhere Math and Science"; - Collaborations with the project's long-standing partners (National Head Start Association, National Education Association, and National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies) and with new groups that specialize in delivering science content and messaging directly to Latino families (Self-Reliance Foundation, National Latino Children's Institute, and Hispanic Communications Network).
KCTS is producing Sci-Squad, a national weekly science education television series for children ages 8 to 10. The thirteen half-hour programs in the series will show a team of kids, the Sci-Squad, who use inquire and collaboration to seek the solution to a science problem. The team is led by Howzit, a young woman computer whiz. Working cooperatively the team investigates each scientific subject through a combination of first-hand experimentation, Internet surfing, field research, and visits to real-world scientists. Each of the characters models a different mode of science inquiry in search to a question the team receives at the beginning of each program. Youth who view the programs will be encouraged to follow along with the Sci-Squad and will be challenged to observe, measure, think critically, analyze results, and devise further experiments. Outreach materials to support science activities by viewers include an Explorer's Guide for youth, a Parents Guide, and a Guide for Teachers. There also will be collaborations with science and youth serving organizations such as Boys & Girls Club of America, Family Math, GEMS, Science Linkages in the Community, the National Science Teachers Association, the National PTA, and, for the Hispanic population, ASPIRA and the National Council of La Raza. Bill Jersey, President of Quest Productions, will be the Senior Producer, Director, and Co-Project Director. The creator of the project and Co-Project Director is Pierre Valette, a producer and writer of documentaries for Quest Productions and previously an Associate Producer in Children's Programming at WGBH. Elizabeth Brock will be the Executive-in-Charge of Production for KCTS. The Senior Science Consultant is Ted Ansbacher who previously was Director of Exhibits at the New York Hall of Science and Director of Education/Senior Scientist at The Chicago Museum of Science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bill JerseyPierre ValetteElizabeth BrockJeff GentesBarbara Flagg
The New York Hall of Science, in collaboration with the Lawrence Hall of Science, is producing and evaluating an application of recently available technology, the random-access audio player, which offers the promise of improving the effectiveness of learning at science-technology center interactive exhibits. The audio "tours" that are being produced and tested will have varying degrees of branching and layering appropriate to the nature of each exhibit unit design. A "highlights" audio tour will be created for the Lawrence Hall of Science and an audio tour focusing on a single group of light, color, and vision exhibits will be created for the New York Hall of Science. The audio tours will be tested with two different categories of audience at each site: the general public on weekends and schools groups on weekdays. Alan Friedman, Director of the New York Hall of Science, will be the Principal Investigator. The Lawrence Hall of Science will be represented by Brooke Smith. The audio tours will be written and produced by Steve Tokar, the producer of Science Today a daily radio science program on the CBS radio network. Beverly Serrell, Director of Serrell & Associates, will conduct the evaluation of the audio tours at each site.
The Great Lakes Science Center plans to enhance an existing facility by adding the Great Lakes Situation Room. This addition makes innovative use of live theater techniques to provide interactive programming for the visiting audience. The Great Lakes Science Center is a relatively new addition to the Informal Science arena but the visitation has double the expected projections. The programs for the situation room are: Science and Information Technology Show; Great Lakes Data Quest; My Own House Data Quest; and Mathematics All Around Us. These new programs, linked to the Great Lakes Environment and exhibitions throughout the facility will further enable the visitor to actually learn about science, environment, and technology using a unique format and "state of the arts" tools made available by informational technology. This project will impact a large, diverse audience in the Great Lake's area and beyond. It has the potential for replication in other museums and science centers. The goals of this project are to enhance the visitor's experiences and learning while at the science center. The themes for the programs will explore some popular topics among the visiting audience. This is a three-year project that will quintuple the programming capacity of the theater, enhance its role in providing Informal Science Education, provide new active learning experiences and expand the center's capacity for accommodating larger audiences of families and school students. The cost sharing for this award is 66.5% of the projected total budget.
The Delta Research & Education Foundation (DREF) is following up on a successful planning grant with the Science and Everyday Experiences (SEE) Initiative. The SEE Initiative will be implemented by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, a non-profit organization composed of 190,000 predominantly African-American professionals, that provides programs and services to promote human welfare. The program offers a five-year, comprehensive approach to the delivery of resources designed to help parents and caregivers of African-American children in grades K-8 effectively support informal science and math learning. By partnering with the AAAS, SEE provides members of the 800+ Delta chapters with leadership and professional development training in informal science education. The first phase of training is a three-day professional development workshop for Delta regional officers and members. Regional leaders are prepared to conduct State Chapter Leadership Professional Development Workshops. State Chapter workshops are 12-hour sessions that train 4,200 sorority members per year to sponsor ongoing family science events. Finally, Delta members that are K-12 or community educators will be designated as Parent Educators. SEE Parent Educators will receive 40-hour training sessions from AAAS, which enables participants to provide parents with 24 hours of informal science education. It is anticipated that 2,800 SEE Parent Educators will be trained during the life of the grant. Delta chapters are located in seven geographical regions, which encompass 40 states and will serve as the primary mode of dissemination. Promotion of the SEE Initiative will occur in conjunction with media partners. A 30-minute science radio talk show for families will broadcast nationally on Radio One and inquiry-based science inserts will be placed in the Afro-American Newspaper, which has a circulation of 6.5 million. Other outcomes include an informational website, as well as science activity cards for families and training materials. This project will impact 17,500 families per year.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara DavisSue WhiteLouise TaylorShirley Malcom
The Shared Signing Science Planning Project will develop a prototype of a web-based Signing Science Pictionary. The prototype will be piloted to families and caretakers of deaf and hard of hearing children to study the feasibility and effectiveness of the learning technology and identify the activities that are most effective in helping deaf children learn life science at informal science centers. The project team will also compile a dictionary of science terms with the intention of including the terms in a full version of the Pictionary. The final Pictionary will be comprehensive; including scientific terms from life, physical, Earth, and space science and will be presented in animated sign language accompanied by written explanations and pictorial illustrations. The project will also produce a video guide with a description of activities that parents can implement with their children. The planning project will result in a prototype with 100 life science terms of species found at the three informal science centers the children and parents will visit to test the prototype. These informal sites are hands-on and exploratory featuring marine organisms and a range of terrestrial flora and fauna to touch and interact with. To prepare for the site visits, parents and caretakers of deaf or hard of hearing children will be taught how to use the Pictionary with children through a Flash-based movie that introduces the interactive features and assists the parents in engaging with their children in three activities using the signing scientific vocabulary. The preparatory vocabulary work with the parents and children will lay the educational foundation for the visits to the informal science education sites. Families will test the initial project prototypes with deaf children using a control group for comparison. Pre-tests will be used to assess childrens' vocabulary before use of the Pictionary. Follow up tests will test knowledge of the new words and will include field observations of children in museums, zoos, and farms, where the new terms will come to life in corresponding exhibits. The results of the ongoing evaluation will be compiled into a guide for other developers of similar materials for the deaf community, and will impact the development of the final project. The project will broaden participation of an underserved audience in STEM learning and generate new knowledge about how to effectively integrate emerging learning technologies into exhibits and programs for deaf learners.The project team includes TERC and Vcom3D and collaborators from Gallaudet University Regional Center at Northern Essex Community College, the College of the Holy Cross, and the Learning Center for Deaf Children. Participating informal science education institutions are represented by the EcoTarium, Davis' Farmland, and the Stone Zoo. These partnerships provide the necessary expertise and support for the proposed project to have significant impact on advancing STEM learning in informal settings for children with hearing disabilities through the use of assistive learning technologies.
National Video Resources, in cooperation with the American Library Association and the Society for the History of Technology, is developing and implementing a national project that will engage an out-of-school adult public in libraries around the country in a thoughtful discussion on the impact of science and technology in the 20th century. Using documentary television and film as the basis for discussions lead by local science educators and/or historians of science and technology, participants will examine the rapid introduction of new communications technologies in the 20th century and how major technological innovations have impact on our work and home lives. Topics to be covered include the automobile, radio, film, television, the computer, and the Internet. Fifty libraries across the country will participate in the pilot phase.
The critically acclaimed film "STAND AND DELIVER" accomplished the formidable task of focusing national attention on the achievements of minority students in higher mathematics. As a motivational tool for educators, the film's value can hardly be overstated. "STAND AND DELIVER" will now have a second life as a play for the stage. The intimate human drama of the story of Jaime Escalante and his inner city A.P. calculus class will be re- written and confined to one set - a classroom - making it a natural for the theatre. Best of all, junior and senior high schools already have the resources to stage a first-rate production. Since almost all the roles depict students and teachers, "STAND AND DELIVER" should be a natural choice for school drama clubs across the country. The transformation of the movie into a play will take place in three stages: First, the screenplay is adapted into a stage play. Second, the initial stage production is mounted. Third, the play is published and made available to schools and theatre companies for local performances.
The Widmeyer-Baker Group (TWBG) working in conjunction with The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Incorporated (NACME) proposes to design and implement a campaign of Public Understanding and Engagement of Mathematics targeted toward national, state, and local audiences. The primary goal of the campaign is to engage the publics' thinking about what students in the United States should know and be able to do in mathematics in the middle school grades and the reasons mathematics is important to successful careers and to live an interesting and productive life. The approach will expose a diverse cross-section of Americans to mathematics using math puzzles designed by NCTM. TWBG will make widespread use of these camera-ready math puzzles in a variety of ways and formats. The primary audience for this campaign is the general adult population. The secondary audience is the middle school students and their parents, including persons serving as parent surrogates (i.e., extended family, foster parents, daycare providers, etc.). This initiative will be a grassroots effort capable of reaching every community throughout the United States. TWBG will be expected to make creative use and/ or collaboration with mass media, policy/administrative/teaching and grassroots organizations, corporations, and federal and state agencies in dissemination of the message about the campaign.