Revised+Group+Proposal+for+3-13

 Cheryl Forman, Francie Furlong, Kathryn Hurley, and Cathy Tran HT-123: Informal Learning Project Proposal Draft 03/13/09

Our proposed program will address several environmentally-themed issues relevant to kids' lives in an entertaining and empowering multimedia format. This format will not only inform the audience and their families about relevant eco-friendly issues, but our media intervention/outreach project will also encourage and inspire viewers to take action as well. Environmental change that impacts the earth is receiving much needed attention and research, especially in the areas of global warming, sustainability, renewable energy, conservation, and restorative ecology. As a result, children's relationship to environmental change deserves to be appropriately addressed. Our pilot program will include content focused on promoting awareness and utilization of renewable energy sources. We will address the need for environmental stewardship in children by scaffolding their burgeoning relationships with the natural world through the use of interactive activities that take them beyond the screen. Our overall structure will follow a "first you view, then you do!" format. **Problem Areas** 1) Kids' lack of understanding and applications of renewable energy sources 2) Kids' lack of understanding about other environmental issues 3) Kids' lack of awareness of how they can make a difference and be "green" 4) Kids' lack of outdoor/nature experience and personal motivation for environmental stewardship
 * Introduction**

Our target age group is 6-9 year olds. Growing up in a media-saturated environment, children haven't collectively developed a deep understanding and appreciation for nature, wildlife, and the interconnectedness with which they shape their everyday lives. Research has suggested that there is a growing trend in children spending less time outdoors, which Richard Louv coined as the "nature deficit disorder" in the book //Last Child in the Woods//. Louv argues that the cause of this trend includes the lure of the electronic media, parental fears, and restricted access to natural areas.
 * Target Audience and Their Needs**

We are at a time in our world when it is increasingly important to understand the effects of climate change and the vulnerability of a sustainable environment. However, we are also at a point where children are spending more and more time with media, and less and less time exploring the natural world. As they become more independent thinkers and doers, potentially developing their own ideas about their surroundings and recognizing their impact on the world around them, children often hear and see conflicting messages such as recycling campaigns in a land of excess consumer waste. The show aims to address these environmental inconsistencies and present an age-appropriate concrete plan for stewardship and "citizen -science" education.

The multimedia program will incorporate a TV series and an interactive website, that allows for viewers to email in and post to discussion boards, share photos and other media, and receive email newsletters from our show's star environmental fantasy hero, a magical animal character named "Uche," the character in the show who embodies environmental activism.
 * Medium and Format**

//TV Series// __Genre__: The show's bookends are sitcom-like with real humans as characters. Sandwiched between the bookends is an animation segment. __Characters__: The main characters are five real kids, who become cartoon characters in the animation segment, and a to-be-determined animal with to-be-determined superpowers in the animation segment. The show's main animated/puppet star, who unifies the kids, grants them entrance into the fantasyland portion of the show, and embodies environmental activism, will be named "Uche," which means "considerate." __Format__: Live action/animated TV show where live actors segue to an animated, limitless fantasy world during part of every episode. Our "edu-tainment" and action goals are extended by an accompanying interactive website option at home and through the "bring the screen into the green" transition to multimedia mobile devices that can be used to complete games and challenges outdoors.

//Website and Handheld Devices// A [|report by the Sesame Group] (Kotler, 2008) shows that among children 6-to-9 years-old, 55 percent use the Internet, 52 percent uses a Game Boy, 17 percent uses an iPod, and 16 percent uses a cell phone. This market is likely to grow, as "children are more likely to overstate ownership and use of newer media than they are their use of television which suggests the 'cool' factor of new media, the report states. We can envision a few ways those new media could work well as a way to transfer from the on-the-couch world to the outdoor world we're trying to get kids interested in. First, the website would function as an intermediary between what they view on the TV show and their own outdoor and environmental activities. For example, the children could respond to a TV episode that focuses on a playground restoration by learning more about how they could get their own playground projects started on the website, and then sharing their own experiences, including posting stories, photos, video, and tips for other kids, online once they've returned from their adventure in the real world. Secondly, we would develop applications for handheld devices that would provide some structure for their initial outdoor explorations, such as a scavenger hunt in nature to identify things in need of help.


 * Objectives**
 * Promote the awareness of uses with renewable energy on a large scale, and effect the children's behavioral changes by providing suggestions for transferring the large-scale practices to their community and home.
 * Promote awareness of the outside world
 * Promote changes in beliefs for children who think that there is nothing fun to do outside
 * Promote the understanding how kids are personally and intimately linked to their environment
 * Promote skills of communication, collaboration, problem solving, and creativity
 * Encourage children to give back to their environment/surroundings with the use of our Educational Outreach program, building natural playgrounds, or playscapes in different towns across our states and around our nation... (Taken from wikipedia: "Natural playgrounds" are play environments that blend natural materials, features, and indigenous vegetation with creative landforms to create purposely complex interplays of natural, environmental objects in ways that challenge and fascinate children and teach them about the wonders and intricacies of the natural world while they play within it...Play components may include earth shapes (sculptures), environmental art, indigenous vegetation (trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, lichens, mosses), boulders or other rock structures, dirt and sand, natural fences (stone, willow, wooden), textured pathways, and natural water features.")

Five kids who are part of the Playscapers Club are living in different U.S. cities. The start of each episode focuses on one kid's life. During this short sitcom, the kid faces an environment-related dilemma, and uses technology (e-mail, text message, Facebook, on a handheld electronic) to notify his friends for a meeting. Each character has to drum up some magical way of transporting him/herself (same way each show) to the Playscapers Clubhouse (or playground or woodland meadow...something outdoors), where they are transformed into cartoon characters, and where they find an animated animal pal named Uche who provides humor, encouragement, and superpowers. For example, the animal can transform into different colors and patterns, each version designating a different power such as ultimate strength, extreme foot speed, and the power to fastforward through time. The kids try out many ideas to solve the dilemma in animation land (in trial-and-error fashion) and do so quickly, as one of the superpowers can expedite a process (for example, how will this plant's growth affect the playground's landscape... use power to speed it up, realize that the ground in that area isn't as supportive, and tree could uproot in a storm etc, so they decide not to plant the tree there). Once they nail down a solution, the kids are transported back to their "real" lives to apply what they learned in animation land.
 * Verbal Sketch**

The way the characters reunite at the playground is identical each time. The first "real life" segment is kept short in the writing of the script so that there is ample time to introduce the characters through a catchy theme song. The use of creative storytelling, music, attention- grabbing "go green challenges" that engage these characters in fun adventures are tantamount to this project proposal.

//Possible Names: The Playscapers//

//Possible theme songs//
 * Land Down Under by Men at Work
 * Move Along by the All-American Rejects
 * Such Great Heights by Postal Service
 * W agon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show
 * Trouble by Pink