Superhero School: Harnessing the Power of Science, Literacy, and Media Twin Cities Public Television's Proposed Ready to Learn
Superhero School: Harnessing the Power of Science, Literacy, and Media Twin Cities Public Television’s proposed Ready to Learn project, Superhero School: Harnessing the Power of Science, Literacy, and Media, focuses on building the science and literacy skills of children ages 5 to 8. The project will deliver, in English and Spanish, 40 half-hour animated television shows; a suite of interactive games with embedded assessments and analytics, built on an innovative platform that serves as the project hub; an array of digital media including apps, ebooks, blogging and sketching tools, and a children’s website; and outreach activities and materials that equip educators and parents to support the academic success of children at risk for academic failure. Superhero School addresses Invitational Priorities 1 and 2. The project design integrates the development of all components and is built on a solid foundation of research about best practices for science and literacy education as well as using media most effectively for learning. It features new approaches to developing educational media, with an emphasis on reaching Latino communities and supporting the needs of children with disabilities. Formative and summative research, conducted by an independent evaluator, will inform the development of all project components and assess their effectiveness in improving children’s academic achievement. A. SIGNIFICANCE In recent decades, science learning in U.S. early elementary schools has been marginalized as schools have turned their focus to reading and math. In 2012, a Noyce Foundation report noted: 1) Instructional time for science in the elementary grades (grades 1–4) has dropped to an average of 2.3 hours per week, the lowest since 1988; and 2) Aggregated national and state data indicate that less time for science is correlated with lower scores, accounting for approximately 12 points of the National Assessment of Superhero School © 2015 Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) Page 1 Educational Progress (NAEP) Science Scale at grade 4 (Blank, 2012, p.
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