The North Carolina State University will produce a one-hour film documentary on language diversity in North Carolina for public television and for distribution to public agencies throughout the state. The documentary and associated activities will illustrate the socio-cultural and socio-linguistic heritage of language variation; exemplify the systematic language patterns associated with different regional and ethnic groups and demonstrate the role of language in the construction of cultural identity. In addition to the documentary for public broadcast, footage for particular regional varieties and socio-cultural groups will be compiled into pedagogically useful 20-30 minute vignettes. A workbook for using the materials will also be prepared. In terms of its larger significance and broader impacts, this project addresses a need for informal education about language variation to counter public misunderstandings and stereotypes leading to discrimination based on language differences.
WGBH's Science Unit is requesting funds to produce for NOVA a two-hour television special based on David Bodanis' book "E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation." Combining dramatic and documentary techniques, the program uses Einstein's iconic equation to explore the physics behind the equation and the nature of the scientific process. A media initiative, an interactive Web site, and an outreach campaign broaden the program's impact beyond the television broadcast. "E=mc2" is intended for prime-time broadcast on PBS in the fall of 2005, to coincide with the centennial of Einstein's "Miracle Year," and should reach an initial audience of seven million viewers. Outreach kits will be made available for free to 16,000 public libraries and 1,000 after-school programs. Notification of educational resources will be sent to all 14,000 high school physics teachers around the country. A formative evaluation of the program and a summative evaluation of the program and outreach materials will ensure that "E=mc2" achieves its ultimate purpose: to enhance public understanding of science and promote scientific careers. Key Project Personnel: Director of the WGBH Science Unit and Senior Executive Producer of NOVA: Paula S. Apsell Writer/Director: Kevin Macdonald Producer: John Smithson Formative Evaluation: Multimedia Research Summative Evaluation: Goodman Research Group
Twin Cities Public Television is producing the second and third seasons of Dragonfly TV, the science television series targeted at children ages 9 - 12. The series presents children showing their own scientific investigations and sharing the excitement that comes from making their own discoveries. Adult scientists are interspersed among the several groups of children who present research. They present their own research, their discoveries and their love of science. These adult reports are laced with home movies and snapshots of the adults when they were kids, linking childhood experiences to successful careers in science. Outreach for Dragonfly TV consists of a Dragonfly insert in the magazine Explorations, an interactive website where children can share their science investigations and programs at selected Boys and Girls Clubs of America and 4H Clubs. Teacher's Guides will be developed by Miami University of Ohio and distributed through the journals of the National Science Teachers Association.
The World Media Foundation is producing and distributing "Emerging Science of Environmental Change." This radio-based project presents new and cutting edge research to the public through National Public Radio broadcasts, Internet radio broadcasts, multi-media web presentations, Internet-based discussion, formal school curricula and public lectures. The goal of the project is to provide the public with a longitudinal view of how those engaged in cutting-edge science formulate theories, structure their inquiries and monitor the ongoing processes, pitfalls, unexpected results and successes of their research. The production team will closely follow the work and processes of one or more research teams over major portions of the 36-month project in order to provide an in-depth understanding of the research process. The project will deliver nine one-hour radio specials and nine additional hours of shorter program segments that will be included in the NPR "Living on Earth" series. The online component of the project will present expanded versions of the audio through its daily web radio service, as well as multi-media web pages with references and discussions linked to the core subjects of the specials. School outreach will be directed primarily at largely urban, under-served middle and high schools. It will use the audio and multi-media web presentations of current research as frames of reference for student instruction in environmental science.
Ways of Knowing, Inc. is producing two one-hour film documentarties for public television on the origin, nature and history of writing. "The Writing Project" (working title) is about the study of writing as a technology. The goal of the films is to explain how writing systems work and to make people aware of the importance of writing in societies. The programs will address what reading and writing is, how writing was invented and how it is used in dozens of different systems around the world. The focus is on the diversity, yet sameness, of writing systems and on the grand variety of its uses. The target audience is the PBS television audience, with follow-up educational viedocassette distribution to schools and colleges to be used as an introduction to linguistics "basic text." The program's outreach will be enhanced by a companion website and book.
The Wildlands Project is producing a four-hour television series for PBS and the CBC. The television series, "The Sacred Balance," will feature geneticist and environmental scientist David Suzuki as he examines a new vision of the human place in nature. The series aims to enrich and expand the scientific world view by looking at traditional knowledge, myth, literature and art, and by incorporating aspects of human spirituality into the insights presented by science. The aim of the project is to show that the world-view human beings have celebrated since ancient times is reemerging, transformed, from the laboratories of modern science. Moving away from reductionist techniques, researchers from many different disciplines are studying diversity, whole organisms, systems and relationships that begin in the individual cell and extend to the entire planet. The television series is designed to change the way the public acts in the world by demonstrating that what we do to the Earth we do to ourselves. Dr. Suzuki will work closely with an advisory committee in shaping the series. The members of this committee include: Lane Lubchenco: Professor of Marine Biology and Zoology, Oregon State University David Schindler: Environmental Ecologist, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta E. O. Wilson: Biologist, Harvard University Sylvia Earl: Marine Ecologist and "Explorer in Residence" at the National Geographic Society, Washington, DC James Parks Morton: Former Dean, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, currently at the Interfaith Center of New York The television series will be supplemented by a new, interactive Sacred Balance website and a teachers guide. Ancillary material also will include Dr. Suzuki's trade book, "The Sacred Balance."
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David SuzukiRobert LangAmanda McConnell
Freedom Machines is a one-hour special for public television which will highlight the information about the newest technological advances which support over 54 million Americans with disabilities. Through personal narratives, high-impact storytelling, and a comprehensive public education and outreach campaign, the show will inform viewers about assistive technology (AT) being used, and how it is adapted and designed by people with disabilities. The individuals to be profiled, many of them leaders in science and technological fields, will encourage young people with disabilities to pursue careers in the sciences. Many of the devices and approaches to be featured will also show how valuable these technologies are for the able bodied, general public. The sixty-minute documentary is structured around the themes of Pioneers, Partners and Prophets in order to examine the evolving relationship between technology and the disabled, profile emerging technologies and explore the larger societal implications of this growing phenomenon. A companion website and extensive outreach program will continue the informative material, support and create networks, and promote linkages between viewers, either abled or disabled, and the technology that might benefit them. Technological changes have always been influenced by people with needs beyond the ordinary. This dynamic is even more relevant in today's information age. Freedom Machines will dramatically demonstrate that designing a world of inclusion benefits everyone.
WGBH is producing a three-hour television series about the scientific quest for a unified set of laws governing the universe. The programs, to be broadcast as part of the on-going NOVA series, will place special emphasis on the new development in physics known as string theory. Inspired by Columbia University physicist Brian Greene's best-selling book of the same name, "The Elegant Universe" will explore the ways in which our understanding of matter and forces, space and time have shifted over the years, most recently with the emergence of string theory in the 1980s and its resurgence in the last five years. Greene will play a prominent role in the series, both on camera and as a consultant helping the producers shape the programs. The series, planned for broadcast in the fall of 2002, will communicate critical scientific concepts through filmed experiments, carefully crafted explanations, and the latest in computer animation. Interviews with scientists and historians, re-creations of key breakthroughs in the history of science, and sequences featuring physicists working on today's most pressing problems will allow viewers to share in the excitement of scientific discovery. Outreach material will be developed for the public and for teachers. NOVA Online will produce a rich companion Web site to allow viewers whose interest is piqued by the series to enhance their learning in a number of ways, including interactive animations of famous experiments and essays that go deeper into subjects than the programs could.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Margaret DrainPaula ApsellBarbara Flagg
WGBH is conducting preliminary work on an untested and novel idea for a new multimedia project, EGames. The target audience for the project is children ages 9-12. The project envisions a 13-part television series which combines the appeal of a game show with the drama of real-world challenges to engender enthusiasm and promote understanding of engineering in kids nationwide. The television programs will be complemented with materials and training for engineers to mount EGames events in public venues and run workshops in schools, afterschool programs and libraries, and an extensive companion website. During the research phase, WGBH will convene a Content Advisory Board which would include professional engineers, curriculum developers, classroom teachers, professors of engineering and informal educators, and a Funding Advisory Board. They will also write the series curriculum, design the game, develop outreach, Web, and evaluation plans, and develop and test a sample engineering challenge with a group of contestants to work out logistic and production questions. This will inform the next stage of project development. Note: This project led to the series "FETCH! With Ruff Ruffman."
The Colorado State University will create and produce "Riverwebs," a one-hour documentary video exploring the hidden mysteries of streams, their intricate food webs and the linkages between streams and forest ecosystems. This project will communicate a body of international and interdisciplinary research on streams in the United States and Japan, and also explore the human experience of doing science. Major film themes are an introduction to stream life, the exploration of stream food webs, and the motivations, friendships and collaborative achievements of stream scientists. By interweaving natural history, scientific and human themes, a holistic story emerges. At the heart of this story is humankind's inherent close relationship with nature, our desire to understand its complexity and our responsibility for its well-being.
WGBH is producing twelve quarterly television magazine-format programs devoted to the public understanding of current scientific research. The programs will consider the significant areas of on-going research, present the scientists who are conducting the research, portray research as an on-going endeavor and discuss the social impact and ethical implications of major areas of research. Each program will include segments such as the following: Research news update - (5 to 7 mins.) Feature stories about on-going research - 3 (8 to 12 min. each) In-studio discussions following many of the feature stories - ethical, policy and social implications Point/Counterpoint - 2 commentators presenting social, ethical, political and economic aspects of research "Then and Now" segments showing changing nature of scientific research In-studio demonstrations Interstitial moments -- Showcases of interesting and surprising aspects of research Close -- update stories from previous programs, read viewers' input or answer viewers' questions, preview upcoming story. In addition, WGBH will produce three one-hour "Year in Review" programs that report what major research has occurred over the past year and puts it in a context that will help viewers understand the role of current research in all aspects of life. Other major components of the project include on-going collaborations with other Public Understanding of Research Projects, an interactive web site, communication training for scientists to help them explain their work to the public, "Science Cafes" with on-going public programs about cutting-edge research in informal settings, a resource guide for teachers, "Leading Edge" articles in magazines targeted to teens, a "Leading Edge" science contest for students conducted through PBS stations and a station resource kit with information about how to establish local collaborations with researchers, science museums, schools and others.
Twin Cities Public Television, in association with Red Hill Studios, is producing and disseminating an Exploring Time television special and associated outreach material. The project will augment and leverage the Exploring Time traveling exhibit now being developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota (NSF grant #99-01919). The goal of both the exhibit and the television special is to increase the public's understanding of our world by revealing the unseen world of natural change -- the multitude of changes that are occurring in the present but at rates too slow or too fast to be seen. The television special will provide visual explorations of changes that take place over a vast range of timescales -- from billionths of seconds to billions of years. The television series and exhibit will be supplemented by a range of materials. Both low- and high-bandwidth, web-based material will be available and a teacher's guide will be developed for middle school classrooms. A "Time Explorers Toolkit" will be available to both formal and informal learners. This CD-ROM includes detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to create time-lapse movies. The project also will coordinate outreach with the Community Technology Centers Network, the organization that supports technology centers that serve individuals from underrepresented and low-income groups.