This planning grant supports the development of a new half-hour television series with related vodcasts, blogs and outreach designed to inspire young people to consider careers in taxonomy and zoology. Teams of scientists with expertise in every taxonomic category and environmental niche will descend on a typical backyard with the goal of describing and identifying every living organism living there. The project will bring together scientists working in various supported ecology and biodiversity research to act as experts both on camera and behind the scenes. Other collaborators include the Tree of Life project, The Wildlife Society Urban Wildlife Working Group, National 4H, the Verizon Foundation, Thinkfinity Partnership, and the AAAS Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs. Deliverables for the planning grant will be six short (two to three-minute) show segments for evaluation purposes; a website with four sample podcasts and organism fact cards; a marketing kit; and an evaluation from Multimedia Research.
