Soundprint Media Center, Inc. and RLPaul Productions, produced a cross-media package that includes a website (capecosmos.org), radio programs, and museum-based family events related to the 50th anniversary of the Space Program. The project, Out of This World (OOTW), is a program that sought to stimulate interest in science by presenting the little known stories of African-Americans and women who contributed to the U.S. Space program, and to provide historical context for the scope and reach of the nascent aerospace science program. Through radio documentaries and collaborations with science centers and museums, including the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM), OOTW broke new ground in developing an integrated media project that reached different audiences. The deliverables included: three radio documentaries (; an educational DVD package with 20 video mini-documentaries, curator interviews with space research pioneers and a learning guide; an interactive website that recreates a space mission circa 1961, and a series of live two-way video conferences between NASM and some 14 partner museums and science centers. OOTW used the power of investigative journalism and the reach of public radio and local science museums to connect with adults and school-age children, to cut across demographic categories, and to include a significant number of minority and at-risk children.
This Proposal is a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) to fund a new science radio show targeted specifically for commercial talk radio. The proposed 10 one hour programs will be co-hosted by Neil de Grasse Tyson, astrophysicist, popular best selling book aurthor, writer, host of PBS scienceNow, and the frequent contributor on cable television networks including The Daily Show. The programs would be broadcast on CBS Talk Radio Statiion, KLSX. The program will feature a variety of celebrity guests as well as scientists who share an interest in space and science. Listeners will be encouraged to interact with the guests calling in to pose questions and voice opinions. The programs will present traditionally dry or technical topics in a humorous format. The recent pilot program on KLSX generated the most call-ins ever during a weekend talk show on that station. The goal is to reach an audience that is not otherwise served by current programming on public radio and to eventually become self-supporting on commercial radio.
This project reached the underserved Hispanic audience with 200 ninety-second Earth and Sky programs in Spanish for broadcast on commercial and public radio stations, and longer programs (8-15 min.) with interviews with Hispanic scientists, teachers and writers who serve as role models for Hispanic young people. Programs were on the cieloytierra.org web site ith Spanish language science blogs, daily sky charts and links to other relevant Spanish and scientific web sites. Project partners included The Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.
WGBH plans to produce a special NOVA series, The Fabric of the Cosmos, based on the best selling book of the same name by physicist Brian Greene. The four 60-minute television programs will be the center piece of a multimedia project that employs multiple platforms including national primetime PBS broadcast, the PBS Web site, podcasts, and an educational outreach campaign that features "Cosmic Cafes." Project goals are to: 1) enhance the public's appreciation of physics by exploring the unfinished story of space and time; 2) find innovative ways of using animation and graphics for television, the Web and on the new media platforms to explain these concepts; 3) bring challenging and exciting ideas in science to people unlikely to encounter them elsewhere by holding public events in communities across the country; and 4) forge effective collaborative partnerships with the American Institute of Physics (AIP), American Physical Society (APS), National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), American Library Association (ALA) and others to maximize impact of the project. Multimedia Research will conduct formative evaluation and Inverness Research Associates will conduct summative evaluation.
400 Years of the Telescope was an interactive, multimedia project enabling the public to participate in real and virtual telescope experiences, understand the far reaching advances that the telescope has made possible, and discover how technology, science, and society are interconnected. Partners included PBS (Southern Oregon Public Television - SOPTV), Interstellar Studios, Leading astronomers and science writers, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), Carnegie Science Center (Buhl Planetarium) and 'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai'i. A two-hour, high-definition documentary, aired twice on PBS in 2009, kicking off the International Year of Astronomy.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kris KoenigJames ManningRose TsengMark StanislawskiShawn Laatsch
This project is designed to develop a 3D planetarium show and a TV documentary to describe our Universe, Galaxy and Solar system. This is a significant project for public and youth as they do not comprehend this aspect of their world with clarity. New technology using a 3D film is anticipated to be attractive and capture the audience's attention better than previous exhibits methodology. The Detroit region has been selected for testing various aspects of the planning project. The partners include the Detroit Science Center, the Detroit Public School system, Dr. Mark Morris (Astronomer) at UCLA, the Cranbrook Institute of Science, Detroit Public Television, and the Carnegie Science Center. Subsequent dissemination of the results and techniques increases the potential for Nation-wide impact.