The Public Broadcasting Service has launched a new science program as part of a plan to expand its educational services.
“ScienceLine” will bring together classroom teachers, science experts from across the country, and the National Science Teachers Association.
The program will initially provide science lessons for elementary students on television and through on-line computer networks, and will eventually expand to include up to grade 12, PBS officials said.
It will feature classroom teachers who will demonstrate instructional practices with their own students and on-line learning demonstrations in which teachers ask students questions and provide real-life examples.
The program’s creators modeled its design on the successful “Mathline”, which uses a similar format. (See Education Week, May 19, 1993.)
Jinny Goldstein, the vice president for educational-project development for PBS, said talks for “ScienceLine” began at the same time the concept for the mathematics program was being discussed.
“It just seemed that after math, science was the next logical choice,” she said.
To Air in ‘97
Though the science program will be based on the framework of “Mathline,” the design allows the programs to grow and change, Ms. Goldstein added.
“ScienceLine” is scheduled to debut in the fall of 1997, Ms. Goldstein said, providing that PBS has the funding for it.
“Mathline” and “ScienceLine” are the first two programs in a new PBS educational initiative, “Ready to Teach.” PBS’s other initiatives are “Ready to Learn” and “Ready to Earn.”
“Ready to Learn” provides entertainment and educational programming for children, along with learning tools designed to help parents, child-care providers, and others prepare children for school.
“Ready to Earn” is designed to help adult students prepare for the workforce, overcome illiteracy, earn high school diplomas, improve job performance, or obtain college degrees.
