READING RAINBOW, produced by Nebraskans for Public television/Great Plains National ITV Library, is a fifty part continuing PBS children's television series which entices children ages five through eight to read good books. The present project seeks to integrate quality science books into their nationally successful PBS series, thus encouraging children's interest in science and making science books more visible. Six science programs have been produced with prior NSF support; this award will support the production of nine additional half hour READING RAINBOW programs with scientific themes that will become an integral part of the on-going series. A special promotional effort will also be funded to reach early elementary teachers who have not yet discovered Reading Rainbow programs. Targeted at five to eight years olds, READING RAINBOW receives heavy in- school use as well as at-home viewing. It is carried by virtually all PBS affiliates, reaching 95% of the nation's households and 8 million series viewers. In addition to receiving all major children's television awards, READING RAINBOW has demonstrated both increased summer reading and increased requests by title for the books reviewed. The opportunity for increasing attention to science books for early readers is outstanding. NSF support is 31% of the total budgeted; the remainder will be provided by the Kellog Company, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by PBS station.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Twila LiggettLee RockwellJack McBride
Children's Television Workshop proposes to produce a fourth and fifth season of SQUARE ONE TV, a daily series on mathematics for children ages eight to twelve. Season Four will consist of 40 new half-hours for air on PBS stations beginning September 1991. Consistent with CTW's experimental mission in education, CTW also proposes to undertake a new programming approach to expand the reach of SQUARE ONE TV to a family audience by converting the daily detective serial featured in the series, MATHNET, into four one-hour specials for family viewing. These Season Four MATHNET Specials will be researched to test their effectiveness. Eleven hour-long weekly SQUARE ONE TV programs will be produced for Season Five to be aired in addition to re-broadcasts of the daily series starting January, 1993. Seasons Four and Five production will capitalize on the educational impact and appeal of prior seasons. Mathematical content will be based on research and in conjunction with the Series Advisory Committee and consultants. The additional seasons will be supported by a full range of promotion, community outreach activities, and school services, including teacher's guides.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David ConnellKeith MielkeEve HallJoel Schneider
THE DR. FAD SHOW is a daily television series for children ages 6 to 12 that encourages creativity, inventiveness and problem solving in a lively half-hour format. Each program is taped before a studio audience and high-lights the inventions of young participants as well as the fads and inventions of the past, present and future. Created and hosted by Ken Hakuta, or Dr. Fad as he is known to millions of young viewers, the series will combine thirty-five brand new shows with thirty previously produced episodes for a total of sixty-five programs. The series will be produced and packaged next spring and summer at WETA-TV in Washington, D.C. and will be ready for national broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as early as fall of 1991. THE DR. FAD SHOW will be accompanied by a significant outreach and promotion effort, as well as an educational component that will include an activity and teacher's guide. The programs have already won the endorsement of the National Education Association and the National Inventive Teaching Association (NITA) among others, as well as the enthusiastic support of parents, teachers and a legion of dedicated young viewers and participants.
Children's Television Workshop is embaring on a ground- breaking experiment in informal science education: the production of an entertaining animated series of 13 half- hour programs for Saturday morning commercial television, based on David Macaulay's bestselling book, The Way Things Work. The audience will be six- to eleven-year olds, with special focus on minority and economically disadvantaged children. The series' primary goal will be to entertain children with lively and appealing characters in a dramatic storyline, while stimulating children's interest in the scientific principles behind the workings of familiar machines and illustrating the action of their parts. NSF support will enable CTW to adapt the CTW Model -- the collaborative process used in earlier NSF-supported programs, 3-2-1 Contact and Square One Tv -- to the opportunities of the animation format and the realities of the partnership with a commercial network. Through a development agreement with CBS, CTW has begun the process of developing the series concept, characters, and storylines. Upon successful completion of this phase, production will follow with an anticipated broadcast premiere in fall 1992. NSF's $2.36 million support will allow this project to be possible by completing the series' funding; it will allow CTW to conduct significant formative research and summative analyses of educational impact, and to reach large minority and economically disadvantaged audiences through wider promotion and the creation and distribution of complementary print materials.
READING RAINBOW is a multi-part PBS children's television series that encourages children ages five through nine to read good books. The program format involves book reviews through narration and illustration with an overall program theme set by a lead book. With support from NSF they have produced and aired five half hour programs devoted to science books and science topics as part of the READING RAINBOW series. The present proposal will add an additional eight programs that focus on scientific themes over the next four seasons of the program, demonstrating to children how science is integrated into all aspects of their lives and encouraging them to read science books. The series utilizes a thorough system of book and program topic review before material is selected for each program. Scientists, educators, librarians, teachers, parents, and children evaluate candidate books for interest, appropriateness, readability, and suitability for television treatment. READING RAINBOW programs are evaluated for effectiveness after they are produced to provide feedback for future programs. The resulting programs are having a substantial effect on home, school, and library. Booksellers are reporting dramatic increases in sales of reviewed books; librarians greatly increased requests for and use of materials. Recent READING RAINBOW book reviews have led to new covers and new marketing programs for books, and teachers are using materials during the school year following summer broadcast. Publishers, seeing an increased market for books for young children, are encouraging new work by authors and illustrators. A $750,000 award over three years is recommended: $250,000 for FY 87, and additional amounts of $250,000 in FY 88 and $250,000 in FY 89.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Twila LiggettStephen LenzenJack McBride
The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science proposes to build on its program of activities that involve children in science and bring them into contact with the approaches, objects and equipment that scientists use, with each activity designed to stimulate thinking and heighten interest in science. Cardinal features of the program are the development of hands-on exhibits, science kits for classroom use and a studied tie with the children's television program, "3-2-1 Contact." The goals are to coordinate these activities with hands-on science activities for students in grades 3-6, and to coordinate classroom activities with those at the museum, which conducts "3-2-1 Contact Days" throughout the year when students come to the museum and take part in experiments, observations and enrichment lessons and actively manipulate museum objects. The museum now will refine the program components, including improvement and duplication of the hands-on kits, continuation of the workshops for elementary teachers and development of new participatory exhibits dealing with insects and endangered species, and will present them to an expanded audience. One-third of the children in the state live below the poverty level, and fifty per cent represent minority populations. As most of these children lack such out-of-school experiences these informal science activities are particularly meaningful.
Award-winning Scholastic Productions, Inc. proposes to produce 39 fully animated, half hour television programs, based on the successful children's science book series, The Magic School Bus. We are seeking funding for the initial three seasons (13 episodes per season) which will be produced over a four year period. Designed as an informal science education series for PBS, it is targeted primarily for 6-9 year-olds, with special attention given to reaching girls and minority children. The series has clear science pedagogical goals: 1) to motivate children to further science study, 2) to present science facts, concepts and systems, and 3) to inspire positive attitudes towards science and education for students and teachers. Throughout the production, audience research and field testing will ensure that the programming is effectively meeting these goals. The series features a remarkable teacher, Ms. Frizzle, who takes her class on equally remarkable field trips. While other teachers may go to a museum, Ms. Frizzle leads her class onto a yellow school bus that shrinks (along with its students) to the size of a cell to journey through the human body, rocket into outer space, or travel into the eye of a hurricane. Thus, the series makes science tangible and relatable for an audience of children who are still concrete thinkers. We will create a broad outreach program, utilizing the publishing and distribution resources of Scholastic Productions' parent company, Scholastic Inc., (the largest publisher of children's materials in the English-speaking world), and other targeted organizations. Through viewer guides, series publicity and promotion, magazine editorials, community and after-school programs, we expect to reach a large and culturally diverse audience, including minorities frequently not served by PBS.
Children's Television Workshop (CTW) will produce two additional seasons of SQUARE ONE TV, a daily series of mathematics for children aged 8-12. The first season of 75 half-hour shows premiered on public television stations in January 1987. The second and third seasons will each consist of 65 programs to capitalize on the success of Season I and compound its educational utility. SQUARE ONE TV has three goals: to promote positive attitudes toward, and enthusiasm for, mathematics; to encourage the use and application of problem solving processes; and to present sound mathematical content in an interesting, accessible and meaningful manner. Based on preliminary research results, the series appears to be meeting these goals. The series has attracted a substantial audience from throughout the country during its initial season, and a very positive reception from mathematicians, parents, teachers, and the press. Most importantly, the target-aged children are enjoying and learning from the series. The goals and content for additional seasons will basically remain the same, with refinements made as research results are assembled and digested by in house staff in conjunction with mathematics advisors. Production plans will take advantage of the learning experiences acquired from Season I. The additional seasons of SQUARE ONE TV will be supported by a full range of promotion, community outreach activities and school services, including teacher's guides. Season II should be ready to air in September 1988. The highly skilled production team responsible for season I remains in place: Dave Connell, Vice President and Executive Producer, CTW; Dr. Keith Mielke, Vice President for Research, CTW; Dr. Joel Schneider, Content Director, SQUARE ONE TV; and Bettina Peel, Director of Research, SQUARE ONE TV. An 18 member National Advisory Board is chaired by Dr. Gerald Lesser, Bigelow Professor of Education and Developmental Psychology at Harvard, and more than 15 additional distinguished mathematicians, scientists, and educators serve as project consultants. With the addition of SQUARE ONE TV to the existing 3-2-1 Contact science series, america's children now have a full hour a day of math and science learning opportunity at home. Continued development of SQUARE ONE TV mathematics programs is essential to sustain our national commitment for improved mathematics and scientific literacy for our young. An award of an additional $3,000,000 for FY87 and $3,000,000 for FY88 is recommended.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David ConnellKeith MielkeBettina PeelJoel Schneider
"3-2-1 Contact," the nationally broadcast award winning children's public television science series, has been reaching children aged 8-12 with daily half hour science programming since 1980 with support from both the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education. In seven seasons of production, CTW has produced 225 regular and two special shows, generating an estimated 633 million viewings by the target audience and more than 1.66 billion viewings by viewers of all ages. With completion of primary show production, the series will begin repeat broadcasts in the fall of 1989 drawn from the library of existing programs. This final award will support continued broadcast of the series and insure the widest possible distribution and utilization of "3-2-1 Contact." CTW will implement a Transition Plan to sustain series broadcast, establish series access as a VCR based science resource, and insure permanent access for teachers, schools, and out of school resources to the "3-2-1 Contact" program library. Broadcast activities will include supporting a portion of the costs of residuals for rebroadcast for a five year period, production of five "3-2-1 Contact EXTRAS" -- single topic half hour specials with high visibility -- and encouraging increased off air taping of the series by teachers. Support for school use of the series will be strengthened with the development and distribution of topic indexing software and teacher guides, the creation of short "3-2-1 Contact" segments specifically tailored to the classroom needs of teachers and a series blockfeed to schools to create a permanent archive of shows. Community outreach partnerships will be strengthened and home video opportunities explored as well. This five year award will allow millions of American children the continued opportunity to view science programming after school on a regular basis, and will assist their teachers in making effective use of "3-2-1 Contact" program materials in classroom settings.