EDUCATORS OVERVIEW

The "100% VIDEO + 100% HANDS-ON + 100% ONLINE" P2K model

FREE 2 primetime quality, hour-long videos-- via public television and NASA-TV
FREE 20+ hands-on Activities published online-- (also available in low-cost printed format)
FREE website rich with information and dynamic images, and teacher-reviewed links to the best weather sites on the web

LIVE FROM THE STORM--priceless!

But how can three FREE components add up to something PRICELESS? We think the 3 different media each contribute some unique learning experiences: combine them all and you'll have the most exciting and intellectually-engaging experience possible.

VIDEO

   The 2 hour long videos provide the real-world CONTEXT for the project. The programs are offered free to all public television stations, and are also accessible directly by schools, educational networks and sustaining cable services from an analog Ku-band transponder. Subject to agency events and last-minute pre-emptions, NASA-TV will also carry the programs on its C-band satellite. This revolution in science education will also be televised, on the web, via streaming video. See our list of Public Television Stations for one that will be broadcasting in your area.

   Within one week of premiere broadcast the videos will also be available on videotape direct from P2K.

program 1

LIVE FROM THE STORM
Program 1
"The Who, What, Where, When and Why" of Weather

Program Transcript

Program Content:
Fly through a turbulent eye wall with NOAA researchers in "Hurricane Dennis--Blow by Blow". "Operation Mountain Storm" documents a field campaign in search of the secrets of winter snowstorms that can pack as much energy or more as summer hurricanes. See how some of the most important principles in physical and geoscience come to life in "What Makes Earth's Weather?" explained by NASA researcher Marshall Shepherd. Learn about El Niņo and La Niņa and see how NOAA is trying to "wire" both the Pacific and the Atlantic to provide more accurate long-range forecasts in "The Boy, The Girl and Global Climate." Find out how NASA satellites are helping us actually measure rainfall everywhere on Earth, over the unpopulated oceans as well as over land. All this, plus portraits of enthusiastic weather and climate researchers, plus "Wild Weather" (30 second "inform-ercials" of fast-paced video and graphics) documenting some of the most amazing facts and fictions about the weather.

See ORDER for full details, pricing and shipping information.

program 2

RESEARCH TO THE RESCUE!
   Why America has some of the wildest weather anywhere on Earth and how we can live with it. Real time interaction with NOAA researchers on location at the National Severe Storms Laboratory and in the Storm Prediction Center, in Norman, OK and elsewhere around the nation and the planet. How cutting-edge research and new technologies such as Doppler radar, satellites and computers can make our lives safer.

Tuesday April 11, 2000,
13:00 hours Eastern, 59:29 minutes,
Closed Captioned, with P2KLINKs™


   In addition to explaining the principles of weather through graphic animation and documentary sequences, the videos also introduce the enthusiastic men and women who study weather and climate, and who build the tools (the planes, computers and other instruments) we use to understand the world around us. We expect you'll find some inspirational role models in these adventurous and committed characters, demonstrating just how exciting it can be to put the math and science learned at school to work as a PASSPORT to a career in cutting-edge research.

 

 

Please send e-mail to: ptkinfo@passporttoknowledge.com to indicate if your school or district intends to view or record the programs DIRECT from satellite (i.e. rather than via re-broadcast by your local PBS station or NASA-TV.) By return e-mail you'll receive a confirmation of the technical details.

HANDS-ON
   The hands-on Activities bring the essential science concepts embodied in the National Science Education Standards, AAAS's Benchmarks and state frameworks to life in easy-to-implement but memorable learning experiences, using inexpensive materials and teacher-tested procedures. Build a "Doppler Radar" in a shoebox, and experiment with "reflectivity" and "velocity modes" to detect severe or milder weather. Use a leafblower to test the design of your "Hurricane House", and understand the destructive potential of tropical storms. Model the greenhouse effect, or El Niņo, make a twister or clouds, get literary with "Writing Up a Storm" , or work with numbers to compare the size of hurricanes and tornadoes.
ONLINE
   Not every school can participate in the live and taped videos, but "anytime, anywhere" students and teachers can send e-mail via RESEARCHER Q&A and get back individual answers from the leading scientists you'll see on camera or read about online. There'll be WEBCHATS for teachers and for students, putting the interactive potential of the Net to work. And--for the first time in any PTK project--there'll be "LIVE FROM... TV" on the web, streaming video reports from NOAA's National Severe Storm's labs, making that day's tornado chase accessible to all within hours, thanks in part to project partners at IBM and Avid.

   We also hope you'll use the Net to interact with PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE, providing us with input as to what you and your students would like to know and experience. Unlike primetime TV, we're "all ears", as a former presidential candidate once said.

GETTING RESULTS WITH PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE
   So those are the 3 media components of LIVE FROM THE STORM. But as our "100% + 100% + 100%" slogan suggests, we're sure the whole project is much more than the sum of its parts. How do we know that? As part of our previous NSF grant, an extensive evaluation found that PTK quantitatively boosted student mastery of content, improved attitudes to science and technology, as well as allowing students to practise the research skills of the Information Age. You can read more under ASSESSMENT in the TEACHERS section of the LIVE FROM THE SUN website.