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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

PBS children’s series DESIGN SQUAD honored with George Foster Peabody Award

BOSTON, MA, April 2, 2008 – The prestigious award to Design Squad was presented today at the 67th Annual George Foster Peabody Awards ceremony at the University of Georgia. In announcing the award, the Peabody Board noted that “competition is the key to this superb program modeled on versions of reality television…female and male contestants work in teams to design, test, and redesign specifi c projects and they do so with all the rowdy exuberance we would expect.”

Design Squad premiered on PBS in April 2007. The series was created in response to a national imperative to attract more young people to engineering studies and careers. Using a lively reality show/ competition format, the series combines energy, enthusiasm, teamwork, and especially humor—to excite kids ages nine and up about engineering.

Executive producer for Design Squad, Marisa Wolsky, commented: “This award is tremendously gratifying for all of us involved in producing the series. Today’s news validates our goal to provide content that is entertaining to young audiences—while introducing them to real engineering.” Senior executive producer Kate Taylor adds, “We want to show kids what engineering is really about—how creative and exciting it is—before they decide that math and science are ‘boring’.”

Brenda Musilli, President of the Intel Foundation, a major funder of the series, said “We couldn’t be more pleased about this prestigious award to Design Squad. We were excited about our relationship with the series from the start, and recognized its potential to bring the possibilities of engineering to life for young people and inspire them to innovate and solve challenging problems that could change the world.”

The prestigious Peabody Awards—considered to be one of the highest honors in electronic media—will be presented on Monday, June 16 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Brian Williams, the award-winning anchor of NBC Nightly News, will host the ceremony.

Major funding for Season One of Design Squad was provided by the National Science Foundation and the Intel Foundation. Additional funding for Design Squad is provided by Tyco Electronics, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, Noyce Foundation, Intel Corporation, American Society of Civil Engineers, and the IEEE.

Design Squad is produced by WGBH Boston. Senior executive producer is Kate Taylor; executive producer is Marisa Wolsky. Senior producer is Dorothy Dickie. Content director is Dr. David Wallace, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Major funding for Design Squad is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting © 2008 WGBH Educational Foundation. Design Squad and logo are trademarks and the Intel Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the National Council of of WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. All third party trademarks are Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, United Engineering Foundation, Noyce the property of their respective owners. Used with permission. Foundation, Northrop Grumman, the IEEE and the Intel Corporation. WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcasting station, producing one-third of PBS’s prime- time lineup-more than any other single production house. WGBH is the creator of the award-winning PBS children’s series Arthur, Between the Lions, Postcards from Buster, and ZOOM, as well as the critically acclaimed new favorites Curious George and FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman. WGBH also produces the award- winning Peep and the Big Wide World (seen on TLC’s Ready Set Learn! and the Discovery Kids Channel), and Time Warp Trio (seen on the Discovery Kids Channel).

Under the leadership of Vice President Brigid Sullivan, the WGBH children’s lineup leads the fi eld in educational multimedia (including the Web, broadband, and interactive television) and in technologies and services that make media accessible to people with disabilities. WGBH’s current children’s series have been recognized with some of the world’s most prestigious awards, including 14 Emmys, the George Foster Peabody award, three Prix Jeunesse awards, a BAFTA, and more than a dozen Parents’ Choice Awards. For more information, visit www.wgbh.org.

PBS is a media enterprise that serves 354 public noncommercial television stations and reaches over 75 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment, and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. PBS is a leading provider of educational materials for K-12 teachers, and offers a broad array of other educational services. PBS’ premier kids’ TV programming and Web site, PBS KIDS Online (www.pbskids.org), continue to be parents’ and teachers’ most trusted learning environments for children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.

Press Contacts

Kate Hathaway Hayley Russman WGBH Boston WGBH Boston [email protected] [email protected] 617.300.5305 617.300.5342

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