WGBH is requesting funds to produce a four-hour NOVA television special with accompanying Web and outreach activities about the pervasive role of materials in our lives. The overarching goals of the project are to: 1) enhance public engagement in and understanding of materials science, including appreciation of its effects on society; 2) promote collaboration among educators, scientists and community-based organizations to reach a broad audience; and 3) create effective methods of expanding informal science learning that can be evaluated for their lasting impact on the field. The mini-series, "STUFF: The Materials that Shape our World," will offer an appreciation of the human and scientific factors that drive innovation in materials science, from ancient breakthroughs to today's explosion of biological and nanomaterials. The four episodes, themed around "Stronger," "Smaller," "Smarter" and "Cleaner" will provide a clear focus on the interdisciplinary nature of materials science and showcase dramatic stories of past inventions and exciting new discoveries. The NOVA team in association with the Materials Research Society (MRS) will produce the series. The "STUFF" series is anticipated to be broadcast on PBS in the fall of 2008. WGBH and MRS will work with local PBS stations to train local scientists in public outreach. Multimedia Research will conduct formative evaluation of the project components, and Goodman Research Group will conduct summative evaluation of both the series and the outreach efforts.
Making Stuff Brings Materials Science To Millions Spider silk stronger than steel. Microbes that make gasoline. Artificial organs and tissues that deliver life-saving drugs. Mind-boggling advances are transforming the materials we use every day and leading to vital breakthroughs in the innovation economy. NOVA’s four-hour series Making Stuff takes this crucial new science and turns it into imaginative popular entertainment. While materials science may not sound glamorous, its advances underpin the technological revolutions that define the modern age: Miniaturization, which packs increasing computing power into devices that fit in our pockets; green tech, which promises to replace fossil fuels with clean, sustainable energy; and ever-stronger and lighter materials that will make transportation safer and cheaper. Our economic future relies on such breakthroughs, yet with one foot in chemistry and the other in physics, materials science is highly technical. The challenge of Making Stuff was to capture the excitement of discoveries at the frontiers of research while making the underlying science accessible to a wide audience. Originally broadcast in January 2011, the four-part series took the field of materials science — a topic that most people rarely think about even though it impacts them every day — and turned it into a highly visible public television event with broad appeal. Over 14 and a half million people watched the series, hosted by New York Times technology correspondent and best-selling author, David Pogue; and an extensive network of 20 outreach coalitions across the country hosted 135 community events attended by 87,000 individuals, families and educators. The multimedia project provided a behind the scenes look at the innovations that are ushering in a new generation of materials that are Stronger, Smarter, Smaller and Cleaner than anything we have ever seen before. It engaged audiences of all ages, increased their understanding of materials science, and motivated them to seek out more information and stay up to date about advances in the field. The project also promoted collaboration among educators, scientists, and community-based organizations.
