WNET is producing and evaluating the pilot phase of a multi-media mathematics education project for children aged nine to eleven. The centerpiece of the project will be an animated television series for national broadcast via PBS. In each of the weekly programs, a team of young characters would be drawn into a computer and become protagonists on intriguing missions in locations as varied as a contemporary theme park or the deserts of ancient Egypt. Facing an evil adversary, the young heroes use mathematics to overcome challenges in the course of their travels and adventures. At the end of each episode viewers will be invited to use mathematics to solve a cliffhanger. The series will be supported by a targeted national outreach campaign with cooperating public television stations and three national partners. Ancillary material will consist of an interactive Internet site and print materials including a magazine with activities, puzzles, problems, and comics. The PI for the project will be Ruth Ann Burns, Vice President and Director of Educational Resources Center at WNET. The two key Math Content Directors will be Mari Muri, currently an advisor to the Connecticut State Department of Education, and Carey Bolster, Director of the PBS Mathline K-12 projects. Joel Schneider of Children's Television Workshop will be the Lead Content Advisor. The Series Producer will be Kristin Martin who has most recently served as Lead Producer for The Magic School Bus. Edward Kaskt, a computer animator with extensive experience with Children's Television Workshop, Nickelodeon, ABC, NBC, CBS, and HBO will be the series' Creative Director.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ruth BurnsCarey BolsterSandra SheppardBarbara Flagg
National Public Radio (NPR) has been awarded a grant of $807,335 in declining amounts over a four year period for production of Science Friday, the weekly two-hour call-in radio show that deals with science topics. Over the four year period, NPR will make an increasingly larger commitment to the total budget of $1,763,768 until they assume total budgetary responsibility for the project in FY 2001. The series' goal is to make science easily accessible to the public and to help them realize the relevance of science and technology to everyday life. The format of the programs enables the public to engage in conversations with scientists and science educators to discuss contemporary science topics. Science issues anticipated to be included in future programs include: science and mathematics education, science literacy, science risk assessment and public policy, and the future of technology. In addition to the broadcast series, NPR will develop a web site for Science Friday which will distribute the radio series on demand via the Internet, bring Science Friday to cities and rural areas where the series is not broadcast, create live Internet chat groups where listeners can meet to discuss the program, provide sound bytes and audio files of guests, and create a "Science Day Book" which will be a calendar of events loaded with science opportunities for people in their own home towns. Science Friday also has established a joint project with Kidsnet, an established computerized clearinghouse for education through the media. Ira Flatow will continue as the series host and producer. Barbara Flagg of Multimedia Research has been engaged to assess the audience impact of the project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kevin KloseWilliam BuzenbergBarbara Flagg
The Self Reliance Foundation in association with the Hispanic Radio Network over a five year period will produce and distribute a variety of daily Spanish-language radio programs on science education topics and follow-up outreach services to network listeners on science education and career opportunities. The applicants will add two science related episodes each week to Buscando La Belleza, the four-minute daily radio series for families that focuses on social issues, work issues, women's rights, and educational and career opportunities. It is carried on 100 stations with a weekly cumulative audience of 2,567,000 listeners. The new episodes will include: 52 role model interviews with Hispanic men and women who have careers in science, mathematics, and technology from technical positions not requiring a college degree to Ph.D.'s engaged in cutting edge research; 26 family involvement episodes with suggestions for parents to build their confidence in helping their children with homework, doing simple science activities with their children at home, encouraging their older children in their studies, and working with schools and community organizations; and 26 academic and career resource/success stories highlighting Hispanic students who have been successful in their pursuit of careers in science, mathematics, and technology. The second series included under the grant is Salvemos Nuestro Planeta, a two-and-a-half minute series that focuses on environmental issues. It currently is carried on 89 radio stations twice a week with a total weekly cumulative audience of 2,494,300. The producers will expand the series to seven original episodes per week with five episodes focusing on science, mathematics, and technology themes: general science literacy, environmental management and technology, computers and information technology, environmental activities for youth, and SMET career opportunities. Outreach will consist of a national Spanish language toll free phone number that will refer listeners to resources related to opportunities for scholarships in science and engineering, activities and resources for parents and children in science education, etc., and in some cases, connect callers to the subject of that days interview. The PI will be Roberto Salazar who has been chief assistant to Vicente Llamas at the Comprehensive Regional Center for Minorities. He has been involved in numerous science education project for Hispanics and has a background in radio. The Executive Producer will be Jeff Kline. Major science consultants will be Vicente Llamas, Director of the Comprehensive Regional Center for Minorities, and Estrella Triana, Hispanic Science Education Director for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Roberto SalazarGilbert SanchezRobert Russell
NACME will produce a three year public service advertising campaign designed to shape the educational choices children make in junior high and high school with respect to mathematics and science. The ads, featuring actor/director Spike Lee, will aim to increase the number of children in grades three through eight who understand the relevance and value of mathematics and science to life in the adult world. The campaign also will be directed towards parents with the goal of helping them recognize the importance of learning mathematics and science to their children's future. The components of the project will be: For each of the three years of the project, development and distribution of one 60, one 30, and one 10 second television spot; For each of the three years of the project, development and distribution of three 60, three 30, and three 10 second radio spots; Annual development of print ads and marketing materials to be delivered to selected consumer magazines, educator's publications, in-school magazines, newspaper "kid pages," comic book companies, and bus shelter and transit card carriers; Annual development and distribution of 100,000 full-color student brochures to reinforce the concepts outlined in the campaign; Annual development and distribution of 100,000 brochures for parents to engage them in their children's science and mathematics education; Establishment of a toll-free 800 number for students to call to request information. Each caller will be sent both the student and the parent brochure; Development of promotional materials including buttons, games, science experiments, math puzzles, T-shirts, etc.; Annual public relations campaigns including press conferences, media tours, in-school demonstrations, and personal appearances; Annual evaluation of the project including monthly reports of fulfillment of requests received via the 800 number. Development, production, and distribution of the campaign will be the responsibility of a task force consisting of: Ronni Denes, NACME's vice president for communications and public affairs; George Campbell Jr., President of NACME; Lea E. Williams, executive vice President of NACME and formerly served as vice president, educational services, of the United Negro College Fund; Catherine Morrison, director of research; and Ismael Diaz, director of precollege programs. The ad agency for the NACME/Ad Council campaign is Tracy-Locke. Rob Britton, manager of Advertising and Direct Marketing for American Airlines will serve as campaign director.
Lichtenstein Creative Media is producing a national public radio series that examines recent advances at the frontiers of brain research and explores the scientific, behavioral, medical and social/ethical implications of those advances. "The Infinite Mind" is a weekly, one-hour program hosted by Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health and head of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. He is an internationally recognized authority on the brain and behavior. While each program will focus on one specific topic (e.g., "How Children Learn"), the series covers a full spectrum of issues involving the human brain. The format for the programs includes documentary segments, interviews and discussions with research scientists, listener call-ins, guest essays and special reports.
This project creates and implements a national parent engagement and education campaign. It provides a framework for all parents to explore existing and alternative forms of assessment within the context of changes in current classroom math curriculum and practices. The campaign also provides a mechanism for enhancing communication between teachers, schools and parents in order to ensure support for math strategies and practices by all members of learning communities nationwide. Project products include: * A thirty-minute documentary on mathematics reform and assessment, to be broadcast by public television stations, that will also include a viewer's guide and local publicity materials. * A Community Education Kit containing a Leader's Guide, Parent's Handbook, and short videotapes. Project materials and activities are designed for parents of elementary-age children, with a specific emphasis for materials on grades 3-5.
Reading Rainbow is a long running, highly acclaimed children's television series designed to engage children in reading. Over the years, the series has incorporated both a science strand and a mathematics strand. Nebraskans for Public Television is now producing two additional math-focused programs and one integrated math/science program. These programs will further integrate math-oriented books into the series, will heighten the visibility of quality children's math-oriented books, and will model how children can understand and enjoy mathematics and science in the world around them. Outreach will be coordinated with libraries and museums nationwide. The project also will expand the "Math for Families Workshops," which were previously developed, from 50 public broadcasting stations to 100 stations. The workshops also will be integrated into the PBS "Ready To Learn" endeavor.
Living On Earth is a weekly, impartial news journal devoted exclusively to coverage of ecology that is carried on 274 NPR stations in the United States. It has had previous support from the Informal Science Education Program for initial series production and to help expand the series from a half hour formation to an hour-long show. This grant will enable the World Media Foundation to deepen and strengthen the reporting of the science and technology of environmental change by employing a staff science reporter and a staff researcher with a Ph.D. in biology. The science reporter will enable the project to respond more quickly to emerging issues, as well as providing more consistent and better prepared science coverage. The research will help the producers better interpret new developments and studies, help identify new topics, and improve accuracy and balance. The series also will add the topic of marine environments to their major areas of concern. There currently is little media coverage of the rapid loss of healthy coral reefs, the collapse of commercial fisheries, and the changing ocean chemistry. The project will continue to covers such major topics as biological diversity, climate change, environmental toxicology, and agricultural science. Steve Curwood, the Executive producer and host of Living on Earth, will continue as the PI for the project. The science producer/editor will be Dan Grossman. He has a B.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in political science and has taught science journalism at Boston University. The project advisory committee consists of Arjun Makhijani, Greg Watson, Theo Colborn, Catherine Vandermoer, William Moomaw, George Woodwell, Michael McElroy, Jane Lubechenco, Carl Safina, Sylvia Earle, and Jerry Schubel. The series is produced by the World Media Foundation in cooperation with WBUR, National Public Radio, and Harvard University.
The Mount Washington Observatory will produce a nationally syndicated, short-format radio series on the weather over a three year period. The request is for a declining amount in each of the three years with the project becoming self-sustaining at the end of that period. The daily, two-minute programs present facts about and explanations of the physical processes in all levels of the atmosphere, the nature of meteorological systems, weather observation and forecasting, and first- and second-hand accounts relating the effect weather and climate have on people. During a fifteen month pilot stage, Weatherwise (Title to be changed to The Weather Notebook) has been carried on 115 public and commercial stations. The NSF grant will provide the producers with the resources needed to expand carriage with a goal of carriage on at least 225 stations, to implement formative and summative evaluation, to upgrade production, to increase promotion, and to make ancillary material available to the public. The ancillary materials will include a printed weather notebook which serves as a field guide for listeners in which they can make their own weather observations and draw conclusions, an educational weather poster, The Weather Notebook transcripts and study suggestions, and a weather observation exhibit at the Mount Washington Observatory Museum. The PI for the project will be David Thurlow of the Mount Washington Observatory who will serve as writer, host, and program coordinator. The producer will be Douglas Mayer whose previous experience includes with NPR on Car Talk. Evaluation will be conducted by RMC Research Corporation.
Kansas State University is producing a two-hour television documentary on the Tallgrass Prairie of the Flint Hills of Kansas, the last remnant of what was once the largest biome in North America. This area has survived only because its rocky soil was too much of a match for the farmer's plow. New scientific research is now beginning to ascertain just how valuable grasslands are to humankind: their salutary role in global climatology and how they provide laboratories for study of soils, species interactions, biodiversity, and ecological processes. A significant amount of this research as been conducted for more than twenty years at the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area, the longest continuous Long-Term Ecological Research site of the National Science Foundation. The scientific data that have been compiled at Konza will form the backbone of the film's content as it examines: the geological and human history of the Tallgrass Prairie, especially the displacement of the bison and the introduction of European cattle and row crop farming; the contemporary culture and economy of the Flint Hills regions which the prairie has formed; and the ecological impact of various approaches to range management, as well as various scientific and social aspects of the debate over how to glean as much value as possible from the grasslands while preserving them for future generations. The PI for the project will be David Hartnett, Professor of Biology and Director of Konza Prairie Research Natural Area. The film will be co-produced by Aimee Larrabee, an independent filmmaker who has co-produced several award-winning documentaries with the BBC, and John Altman, an independent filmmaker who has produced for PBS, A&E, Bravo, and the Discovery Channel. The 19 member advisory committee will be lead by Dr. Hartnett and by Alan Knapp, Project Director of the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area LTER program and Professor Biology at Kansas State University, and John Blair, Associate Professor of Biology at Kansas State University and nationally recognized leader in the field of soil ecology and grassland nutrient dynamics.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David HartnettAlan KnappJohn AltmanJohn BlairAimee Larrabee
Soundprint Media Center is producing a series of 13 public radio documentaries entitled Exploring Space Science. The series will target a range of audiences: public radio listeners; listeners to radio reading services; visitors to planetariums, public libraries, and museums; teachers seeking additional information for core science subjects; and the parents and students who visit space science education centers. The programs will survey scientific inquiry into and from space. The series will include the architectures of the universe, the origins of the planets, global climate and atmospheric changes, and microgravity's effect on the human biomedical systems. A range of science will be covered including astrophysics, astronomy, planetary science, space policy, climatology and earth science, biomedical science, and the history of science.
Jim Metzner Productions is producing a national radio designed to reach a diverse audience with compelling, current information about our environment, the science which underlies it, and the people who explore and explain it. The short-format series consists of 780 daily, 2-minute programs designed for commercial and public radio stations and delivers timely information on a full spectrum of seasonal natural phenomena, drawing supportive scientific background from biology, earth science, astronomy, and cultural anthropology. The series will make extensive use of ambient sound and interviews with scientists and knowledgeable spokespersons to present a "daily almanac" of events taking place on the day of broadcast. The series will be developed and produced by Jim with additional production support from the American Museum of Natural History. The Science content Director will be Michael Templeton and an advisory committee of eleven scientists and educators will assist in selecting specific topics for the daily programs and assure the scientific accuracy of program content.