WGBH Educational Foundation is producing a four-hour documentary special, "Fire," to be broadcast as a NOVA special. The series will present the story of fire as an important but often overlooked key to understanding the natural world and our shared environmental history. Humans have used fire in virtually every aspect of our existence: for heat and light, as a tool and a source of power, for the private rituals of spiritual life and the monumental reshaping of entire landscapes. Fire acts as a significant agent of change in our world today, and the interaction of fire and humans is now acknowledged as a significant part of global climate change research and of biodiversity and ecosystem health studies. Fire will examine these and other powerful and fundamental scientific questions related to fire being explored today. The project will integrate fire history with an understanding of the scientific principles of fire chemistry and behavior, and it will link that knowledge with ecology, agriculture, forestry and resource management. An integrated outreach campaign will accompany the television series. It will be built around a resource kit, offered in both print and CD-ROM formats, with activities and other resources for families and youth organizations at the late elementary and early middle school level. There also will be special web pages within NOVA's award-winning web site that will include the "Fire" resource kit materials. The PI and Series Producer will be Judith Vecchione whose credits include the NSF-supported series on women scientists today, "Discovering Women." Paula Apsell, Executive Producer for NOVA, will be Executive-in-Charge. The Film Director will be Kirk Wolfinger whose prior NOVA productions include "Submarine!," "Titanic's Lost Sister," "Daredevils of the Sky," and "To the Moon." The Series Senior Advisor is Stephen J. Pyne, Professor of History at Arizona State University. Dr. Pyne is an environmental historian and author of the five-book "Cycle of Fire" suite. Other advisors include: Norman L. Christensen, Dean of the Nicholas School of Environment at Duke University; Johann Georg Goldammer, Senior Scientist and leader of the Fire Ecology and Biomass Burning Research Groups of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry; Robert Huggins, Servicewide Education Coordinator for the National Park Service; Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago; Marcella Russell, Regional Liaison for the Massachusetts Parent Involvement Project; and Brian Stocks, Senior Fire Research Scientist at the Canadian Forest Service.
This project will produce an educational 30-minute DVD/TV film and interactive website with classroom materials about climate change and its effects on biota by presenting past and current research on the Adelie penguin, Antarctica's most accessible indicator species. The project will target students in grades 5-8. Each component of "Penguin Science" will present an engaging case study to teach students about ecology, the complex science of climate change and its impacts, both positive and negative. It will not only feature the work of David Ainley and co-PI's Grant Ballard and Katie Dugger, but also William Sladen who began the first NSF-sponsored penguin studies 48 years ago during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Archival film clips of Sladen and his work from the 1970 documentary, "Penguin City" (CBS), will convey the value of long-term research and show biotic changes during just one professional lifetime. The project will be completed in 2007 to coincide with the International Polar Year.
Earth Game is a five-day simulation, modeled on the war games the military have staged for a hundred years. An international group of scientists, diplomats and political experts will react to a simulated environmental crisis caused by global climate change. The period of play is 1995 to 2010. The proceedings will be videotaped and edited into four hours of television programming for international broadcast to a general audience in the spring of 1992. Earth Game is a project of WQED with the Smithsonian Institution, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Adrian Malone Productions, and the U.S. Naval War College. The objectives are: 1.) to stimulate greater public and governmental interest in the subject of climate change; 2.) to foster greater understanding of what we do and don't know about the causes of climate change, and 3.) to develop a greater appreciation of the dilemmas posed by the need for political action in the fact of the threats and uncertainties surrounding climate change. Senior Smithsonian scientists, Naval War College game design experts, the distinguished television producer Adrian Malone, and a small group of advisers are planning the event, which is scheduled to take place in Newport, Rhode Island in November 1991 at the historic facilities of the Naval War College.
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.
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.
The Mount Washington Observatory is expanding the daily, nationally broadcast radio program, "The Weather Notebook." The two-minute programs inform an estimated 2.5 million weekly listeners about the science underlying weather. During this three-year phase of the project, the project will broaden the range of science content by deepening the connections of weather and climate with other scientific disciplines, especially earth systems science. The project also hopes to double the size of the listening audience by increasing the number of stations carrying the series. In addition, they will produce Spanish-language versions of the programs and distribute them through the Hispanic Radio Network. In response to listeners' requests for longer programs, the project will produce 20 to 30 approximately five-minute modules that will be broadcast in existing radio series such as "Marketplace" and "The Cultivated Gardener." Ancillary educational materials will be provided for students, teachers, families and others interested in further learning about topics included in the broadcast programs.
Over three years, Science Central is producing 624 television segments that will present current, ongoing research through local newscasts on ABC and NBC stations nationwide. In addition to the regular research segments, ScienCentral will produce six "sweeps" series per year focusing on important new fields of research including: nanotechnology, genetics/genomics, ocean science, global climate change and brain sciences. An advisory board of scientists, teachers, science journalists and public information officers help inform the producers about individual stories and evolving fields of research, and they provide access to scientists and field research. They also provide scientific input and check the stories for accuracy. To facilitate production and to assure that research is covered on an international basis, ScienCentral will establish a footage consortium to exchange science news video with major Canadian and European newscasters. They also will provide the news stories to science centers for use in their interactive exhibits and web sites.
The Chedd-Angier Production Company is requesting support for the long-standing, highly acclaimed PBS series, "Scientific American Frontiers," now in its 13th season. Alan Alda hosts the program. NSF funds will leverage existing PBS support and expand the series from five to six programs and increase the scope and depth of the science covered in each program. Topics in the new season cover a broad range of disciplines including cutting edge scientific efforts in cosmology, anthropology, global warming, brain research, obesity and weight loss, and hydrogen fuel cell research. The funds will also be used to expand the "Frontiers" web site and raise the visibility of the program by enhancing the promotional campaign. These efforts will aim to improve the value of the series to science teachers as well as to the general audience. Formative evaluation will be undertaken by Multimedia Research; summative evaluation, by Knight-Williams Research Communications.
Sea Studios Foundation is developing a five-hour television-based project that will examine "Earth System Science," which will be produced in association with the National Geographic Society (NGS). Geologists, biologists, oceanographers, climatologists, social scientists and others are joining forces to understand the planet's rapidly changing environment. The series will follow the on-going research of these scientists as they investigate the links between Earth's geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. These programs are planned as the first season of an annual series on the topic. Educational outreach will include a hands-on traveling exhibit to be developed and tested by the Maryland Science Center; an Educator's Guide for print and electronic distribution to informal science centers and community organizations; a "resource toolkit" to augment the Educator's Guide and an Internet site hosted by NGS that provides links to existing and new environmental resources. The series content also will be integrated into several NGS venues including: National Geographic Today, the daily news program on the National Geographic Channel; National Geographic Magazine, which will create a "global report card" as an annual feature; and National Geographic for Kids magazine, which is distributed to children in grades three through six. The project advisory board includes: Richard Barber, Professor of Biological Oceanography, Duke University Robert Costanza, Professor of Zoology, University of Maryland Gretchen Daily, Interdisciplinary Research Scientist, Stanford University Robert Dunbar, Specialist in Global Environmental Change, Stanford University Habiba Gitay, Senior Lecturer, National Centre for Development Studies, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, Canberra, Australia Michael Glantz, Senior Scientist, the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, National Center for Atmospheric Research John Katzenberger, Executive Director of Aspen Global change Institute Jane Lubchenco, Professor of Marine Biology, Oregon State University J. R. McNeill, Professor of History, Georgetown University Harold Mooney, Professor of Environmental Biology, Stanford University Steven Schneider, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change, Stanford University Brian Walker, Coordinator of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's Biodiversity Sector, Adelaide, South Australia
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark ShelleyTierney ThysDavid Ellisco
This project will create a series of half hour radio programs that will educate audiences about the environment and traditions of the northern Polar Region. Each radio program will be recorded in the wilds of Alaska and northern Canada during close contact with nature providing a direct authentic experience. Cultural anthropologist and author, Dr. Richard Nelson will host the programs on topics such as wildlife, ecosystems, weather and climate, glaciology, communities and land, and indigenous traditions. Distributors of the programs include the Alaska Public Radio Network, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and inserts in NPR's Living on Earth.
The ETV Endowment of South Carolina, in an international co-production with Channel Four, London, will produce, promote and distribute a PBS television series "Spaceship Earth", consisting of ten 30 minute programs and an accompanying book on world geography, presented from the perspective of a global understanding of planet Earth. Geography will be viewed as an integrating science, treating physical, biological, and cultural components as interrelated parts of a whole. The series will present a satellite's eye view of the earth, utilizing the best available imagery from satellite, photographic coverage, maps, animation, and computer generated imagery. Program topics will include global systems and remote sensing, patterns of settlement, geologic processes, local impacts of global markets, climatic zones and climatic changes, oceans of the world, rivers and lakes, forests of the world, feast or famine, and ethnicity and technology. The Producers, Nigel Calder and Nicholas Barton, are experienced writers and producers of science book and films. They will be supported by an internationally recognized team of senior consultants and advisors. SPACESHIP EARTH will be complemented by educational materials packages for wide use in formal and informal settings, and U.S. precollege teachers will have unlimited three year off air tape and reuse rights to the series. This series promises to be an engaging and fresh approach to science through global views of geography, with substantial appeal to educators and schools as well as at home viewers. NSF's contribution will be 13% of the total.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ruth SproatNigel CalderNicholas Barton