Scientific Living

Thank you in advance for your willingness to evaluate a new program to provide online access to short videos as classroom multimedia. It’s called Scientific Living, and consists of a series of short videos (each less than two minutes long) that can be downloaded from our Web site as digital movies along with corresponding pages from a companion discussion guide that can also be downloaded as PDF files.

The project involves the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency, local PBS affiliate WQPT-TV as the media partner, and underwriting support from Modern Woodmen of America. In addition to online access through the AEA network, each segment will also be broadcast on WQPT-TV as part of a campaign to promote science education in the larger community.

Scientific Living is produced in conjunction with leading scientists and aligned with National Science Education Standards. The first series of 20 episodes on space science/ astronomy was produced in conjunction with NASA. The program will continue with another 20 episodes on weather/meteorology. Both subjects have been selected for greater emphasis in the classroom by science educators. If successful, the project is designed to continue with subsequent installments on earth science, life sciences, the plant and animal kingdoms, science in technology, and a host of other science topics, helping to form a database of digitized media for science education on our own network.

The program also has the potential to fill a basic need in the classroom as a new application of video as short-form multimedia. The idea is to use short science stories as a hook to capture interest, while leaving the teacher’s regular lesson plan intact. (See the "Teacher’s Guide.") This makes them ideal as lesson-opening activities or discussion-starters, and highly flexible as a supplement to elementary and secondary science curricula.

Again, thank you for your evaluation of this new concept for science outreach and education.

Links:
Solar System
Outer Space
Space Technology
Space, Time & Big Ideas
Components
Teacher's Guide
Terms of Use
Related Links
NASA
WQPT
Modern Woodmen of America


Contact:
Nancy McIntire
Program Leader: Media Resources
Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency
729 21st Street
Bettendorf, IA 52722
Phone: 563-344-6455