Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) conducted summative evaluation of Origins of the Universe, the 4-part NOVA miniseries. The Origins series chronicled the history of the earth's formation, how the universe evolved to permit the emergence of life on earth, the likelihood that there is life beyond earth, and the tools and techniques scientists use to study the universe. In June 2007, Thomas Levenson, MIT professor and Executive Producer of the series, won the inaugural Walter P. Kistler Science Documentary Film Award for his work on Origins. An extensive outreach campaign accompanied the series
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jennifer BeckJennie MurackUnicorn Projects, Inc.Irene F Goodman
Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) conducted a summative evaluation of the first season of NOVA scienceNOW, the PBS series that explores cutting-edge scientific and technological innovation in real time. The evaluation included two primary components: 1) an evaluation of the television series, and 2) an evaluation of the outreach, which consisted of a companion website and a series of Science Cafes hosted around the country. GRG's evaluation was designed to assess the project's effectiveness in meeting its overall goal of engaging a variety of audiences more deeply with scientific research in
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.
The Chedd-Angier Production Company requests a planning grant to develop a popular new television series together with integrated outreach and online components. The series, "Science Out There" (working title), will feature the work of field scientists as it happens and where it happens, anywhere in the world. The target audience for the series is the young, adventure-seeking adult. The work of the development phase of the project includes refining the creative approaches to the series; producing a ten-minute demonstration tape; developing a list of suitable research projects for the series; developing a business strategy and conducting formative evaluation of the pilot. An advisory group and Connecticut Public Television will support the planning work. Multimedia Research will conduct the evaluation.
The Land Information Access Association seeks funds to support planning activities related to "Listening to the River," a project that will ultimately result in a new model for engaging teens and adults in environmental activities that can be transferred to other community groups and institutions. This long-term project focuses on an environmentally and regionally meaningful topic (i.e. watersheds), brings together teens and adults in scientific discovery, transforms these explorations into radio segments and creates a children's museum exhibit. Planning grant activities include: (1) a program summit to build new partnerships with informal-learning organizations and reinforce existing community networks; (2) assessment of the potential for a scalable, model project; and (3) focus and refinement of program goals and objectives.
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.
WGBH is producing four, two-hour programs on the lives of scientists. These programs will be the initial programs in a continuing series of television portraits of distinguished scientists to be broadcast as regular features in the prime-time science series NOVA. The scientists to be covered in the first four programs are Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, and Percy Julian. By illuminating the lives and scientific careers of these important figures, the programs will enhance public understanding of such basic scientific concepts as evolution, the solar system, the chemical bond and the structure of the atom. Ultimately, the programs will give viewers a new perspective on the process of scientific discovery. Ancillary educational support for the programs will include enhanced content on the web site at NOVA Online and classroom support material in the NOVA Teacher's Guide that is mailed to 60,000 teachers nationwide. WGBH also has formed an outreach partnership with the American Library Association to create informal educational resources for use by families, youths, and adults. The core of this special outreach plan is a set of Library Resource Kits that will be available to all 16,000 public libraries. Paula Apsell, Executive Producer for NOVA, will serve as PI for the project. Members of the advisory committee include: Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, MIT; Kenneth R. Manning, Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and of the History of Science, MIT; Noami Oreskes, Associate Professor of History, University of California, San Diego; Daniel I. Rubenstein, Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University; and Neil D. Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium.
Strange Days on Planet Earth combines a 4-part television series and outreach program produced by Sea Studios Foundation (SSF) for National Geographic Television and Film and Vulcan Productions, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The project comprises three primary components: a broadcast series, website, and a national consortium of informal learning institutions. The project team expects that through consistent messaging and content, these components, when integrated, collectively offer the public enriched opportunities to
Strange Days on Planet Earth combines a 4-part television series and outreach program produced by Sea Studios Foundation (SSF) for National Geographic Television and Film and Vulcan Productions, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The project comprises three primary components: a broadcast series, website, and a national consortium of informal learning institutions. The project team expects that through consistent messaging and content, these components, when integrated, will collectively offer the public enriched opportunities