Thirteen/WNET New York requests funds to develop and produce five new Cyberchase episodes, a multi-media Summer Challenge math initiative, plus serialized Web games and an online Cartoon Maker to involve kids in active, creative mathematical thinking. Now in its seventh production season and sixth year of daily PBS broadcast, Cyberchase has helped millions of children acquire a stronger foundation in mathematics. Cyberchase's content spans the 3rd-5th grade standards of the National Council of Mathematics, and targets children aged 8-11. The series goals include: 1) reinforce mathematical knowledge especially during the summer months; 2) expand opportunities for kids' involvement with Cyberchase math activities; 3) and inspire all children to approach math with enthusiasm and confidence. Ancillary materials, outreach, and a highly popular Web site extend the learning and help make Cyberchase the sole mathematics media project available for the target age group. The new season will build on the successful format to model effective problem-solving processes, expand the math-rich Web site and bring Cyberchase to today's new-media platforms to prompt children to do math. Season 8 will especially target the summer, when children's TV viewing goes up, informal educators provide special offerings, and children, especially the under-served, are at risk of losing math growth made during the school year. The Summer Challenge will create a first-ever math summer campaign for PBS Kids. Cyberchase is watched by four million viewers each week. The audience is 40% minority and includes equal numbers of girls and boys. Cyberchase Online receives 1.9 visits a month. The project summative evaluation will study the outcomes and impact on (a) the target-age children (conducted by Multimedia Research) as well as (b) 8 PBS stations and local partners, culminating in a white paper on best practices for presenting informal STEM education in the summer (conducted by RMC Research). Season 8 initiatives will strengthen existing partnerships and forge new collaborations. Existing partnerships include museums, 50 chapters of Girls Inc., National Engineers Week Foundation, PBS stations, Sally Ride Science, Ernst & Young, and new partners MANA (a national Latina organization) and the Girl Scouts.
Cyberchase is the public television series and multi-media project that engages millions of girls and boys in the fun and challenge of mathematics. In its eighth season, Cyberchase produced its first Summer Challenge – eight weeks of TV episodes, online and offline games, and outreach to fight the "summer slump" in math. Five new episodes (followed by three encore episodes) aired once a week from June 25 to August 13, 2010. At the same time, children could visit a special section of the Cyberchase Web site to view the episodes, create online math games for other kids to play, and print out related hands-on activities. An outreach campaign provided materials and training to enable informal educators to incorporate math into their summer programs. These efforts served long-standing Cyberchase partners Girls Inc., National Engineers Week Foundation, museums, and PBS stations. During the grant period, we also worked with two new partners – MANA, which serves Latina girls, and the Girl Scouts of America. Activities also included a publicity campaign and two independent evaluations. The Summer Challenge reached a large audience. Several major markets saw a bump in viewership; the Web section had 860,000 visits; and children created 42,400 online games. A study found that presenting this sequenced set of math opportunities engaged random and recruited Cyberchase Web visitors and inspired them to try different math activities over time. In addition, eight PBS stations nationwide were selected to develop local Challenge initiatives. Working with existing and new partners including libraries, community centers, a planetarium, even a farmers’ market, the stations’ varied programs reached an estimated 7,000 children and their families. Stations had very positive experiences bringing the unlikely topic of math to summer camps and programs. One noted "the high level of children’s motivation, enthusiasm and engagement," while another noted that volunteers "expressed amazement at the children’s attention span." A case study that evaluated the stations’ experiences and identified best practices for summertime outreach has been disseminated to the informal education community. Cyberchase also reached children year-round on television, online, and through new digital media. The PBS broadcasts averaged two million viewers a week, of whom 45% are African-American or Hispanic. The Web site averaged 1.7 million visits a month. Other key grant activities were an upgrade of an online storytelling tool, the Cyberchase Playspace, and the launch of an interactive whiteboard application for classrooms, the first such app from a PBS children’s series. In all these ways, Cyberchase continued to build the "math power" of American children.
