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.
The Field Museum will develop a 10,000 sq. ft. exhibit "Life Underground: Foundations of the Biosphere." This exhibit will introduce visitors to underground ecosystems and the importance of soil upon which we all depend. Visitors will be invited to explore the diversity of underground organisms and the vital processes in which they participate. It will consists of three main parts: 1) Underground Expedition, where things will be enlarged 100 times life-size; 2) Changes Over Time, which will highlight the dynamic nature of soil communities and forces of change, and 3) a World Tour, which will compare soil communities from a variety of ecosystems including forests, grasslands, deserts, tundra, among others. The exhibit utilizes ideas and research from all four of the museum's academic disciplines -- botany, zoology, geology and anthropology and will incorporate hundreds of specimens from the museum's botany, mycology, and zoology collections to illustrate the diversity of organisms in and around the soil. Complementary educational programming will be developed and the project is especially targeting rural and inner city residents. School and community programs will extend the exhibit into classrooms, vacant lots, and community centers. The materials developed for use in a formal education setting will be integrated with current objectives of the existing curricula. In addition, on-line access to the content of the exhibit and complementary educational materials will be provided. The scheduled opening date for the exhibit is May, 1998 and during the ten year projected life span of the exhibit and complementary programming, it is expected that more than eight million people will be introduced to "Life Underground."
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
M. Frances Muraski-StotzGregory MuellerDebra Moskovits