Draft+chapters

=**Introduction**= = = Our program aims to foster young children's love for the environment by teaching them about their world and modeling how they can connect with nature. Our ultimate goal is to plant the seeds of love for nature and knowledge about their own ability to protect it, that we hope will bloom into a passion for environmental stewardship and a sense of responsibility for the care of our planet which they will carry with them as they grow into adult decision makers. = =  Our overall structure is "first you view, then you do!" The children will first "view" a live action and animated TV show in which kid actors segue to an animated world and are given limitless power and resources to do multiple trial-and-error activities to solve an environment-related problem, or explore an activity or place that they might have difficulty accessing in the real world. The solution or experience is scaled down and used to inspire action once the kids return to reality in another live action segment at the end of each episode. The focus here is to show our viewers what they can do in their own surroundings. The show is accompanied by a website and mobile applications, which serve to help kids move from "view" to "do." 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, in line with our slogan: "Bring the screen to the green!" Our outreach project will also encourage and inspire viewers to take action as well. =Target Audience Needs Assessment=

The development of our program hinges on several key convictions:
 * That the current state of our planet's health means there is a great need for increased environmental responsibility worldwide
 * That feeling a connection with the natural world can lead to intrinsic motivation for protecting it
 * That knowledge is a first step for action
 * That teaching young children that they have the power to illicit change now will increase the likelihood that they will continue to do their part to make a difference in the future

Need for Environmental Education
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. Since the 1960s, there has been an environmental activists' outcry spreading globally due to a growing sense by environmental scientists that a disconnection to nature has potentially damaging consequences to the planet on a world-wide scale (Carson, R.,1962). Environmental destruction was a formidable threat to the lives of our children over forty years ago and it continues to be one today. Much of this threat is for similar reasons: climate change, deforestation, pollution, pesticides, the overuse and abuse of natural resources and greenhouse gases. As a result, children's relationship to environmental change deserves to be appropriately addressed. If something isn't done to protect and preserve the natural habitats and delicate ecosystems on Earth, then the threat of planetary extinction of certain species in both plants and animals is not just possible but probable (Carson, 1962 & Louv, 2005). To these and other environmental activists, the environmental future of the planet is dependent on future generations of people to have a respect for and sense of stewardship for the global world in which they live.

Hindu philosopher Baba Dioum once said, "In the end, we will only conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; we will understand only what we are taught." Our hope is to teach children from a young age to understand and love nature so that they have intrinsic motivation to want to conserve it.

//Need for a greater physical connection with nature//
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. To Louv, children and young adults are growing up and experiencing the world in which they live disconnected to plants, wildlife, and the outdoors.

"Green" issues are being tabled in discussions small and large across our country, from Capitol Hill to community centers. While many policy-makers and community organizers agree that action must be taken, there is little, if any, responsibility given to the next generation of our country's leaders. According to recent data, "83% of the U.S. population lives in metropolitan areas (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2006 as quoted by Blair, 2009, p.17). In cities spanning the country, there is some variation in the access to the "natural" environment. As a result, they "search out dirt, water, trees, and natural elements and explore and play in the same manner in which rural children do (Mergen), but urban sprawl and environmental degradation reduce the frequency of these city children’s positive experiences with natural elements in their environment (Finch, 2004; Kellert, 2002; Orr, 2002 as quoted by Blair, 2009, p. 17). **Where does this previous quote end?** While we understand the importance of appealing to a wide audience, we certainly see a need on affecting change for the aforementioned "city" kid, who is limited in his/her scope of a natural landscape. While landscapers and architects in metropolitan areas have been working to accommodate this apparent lack of space and nature, "typical asphalt-covered or flat green school yards... are today, monocultures that minimize environmental complexity"(Blair, 2009, p.17).

Despite the limited access to natural environs that many kids are faced with, there are still many successful interventions that we plan to incorporate throughout our outreach initiatives, in order to provide more access to the natural world. In order to successfully implement our intended curricula, we must involve not only the children, but also their care-givers and educators. As gatekeepers and potential role models, parents and community members will serve as an integral ingredient to the development of our program.

As we began to outline the sketch for our first episode, dealing specifically with plant life on Earth, we conducted a front-end formative evaluation with several children in our target audience. Through common threads in the answers to our questions about plant growth, we concluded that there are gaps in knowledge surrounding environmental awareness and renewable energy sources. While, from a very young age, children have a general understanding of where plants are grown and how they come to flourish, each child interviewed made no mention of the source of energy for plant life: they completely disregarded the power of the sun. Without a basic understanding that the sun is a source of energy, they may not be able to deduce what else the sun can power (houses, cars, calculators, etc). Our formative evaluation suggested that the typical developing child in our target age range lacks both the depth and breadth of knowledge needed to utilize such energy sources effectively.

Survey interviews with fourth grade students also suggest that they do not recognize alternative energy possibilities of plants (Yamashita, 2008). When asked to name two ways in which corn is used, the vast majority of students came up with edible options, such as corn bread and corn starch. None of the students mentioned corn as a potential use of energy, such as a fuel alternative.

Teachers in the field of science and education are concurrently dealing with the topic of renewable energy source. In a rapidly changing market with evolving technologies, it is difficult to fully adapt and establish a curriculum to a classroom of young students. However, while some concepts may change, and theories might remain unproven, we recognize the power of channeling our efforts on teaching the fundamental ideas. Environmental education, in broad terms,"aims at providing people with the appropriate knowledge and capabilities so that environmental issues and their complicate parameters (social, political, economic) can be understood" (Liarakou et al, 2008, p.121).

We have begun to isolate a few powerful messages of environmental education, some delivered by teachers and others, by communities or corporations. When Sharp(r) piloted a solar powered calculator on a group of fifth grade students this past February, they were able to present simple pictures and illustrative diagrams about the importance of the sun's energy. **I don't get what this previous sentence means. :)** This type of environmental education, coordinated with technology to engage and immerse the children, could unlock the mystery of the natural world, and help them bring the screen to green.

//Media Habits of Target Audience//
The primary vehicle of our program will be a television show, because TV is still the medium that reaches the most children in our target audience. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation report, "Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds," 81% of 8-18 year olds watch TV daily, the most of any media, and spend more time watching it than they do participating in any other medium (Rideout, 2005). However, we can see the tide changing in the not so distant future, and so our program will also include a comprehensive website and applications specifically developed for handheld devices.

A recent Sesame Group study, which conducted telephone surveys of 1,249 mothers of 6-to-9-year-olds and held 300 interviews and group surveys of 6-to-9-year-olds, showed that among children 6-to-9 years-old, 55 percent use the Internet, 52 percent use a Game Boy, 17 percent use an iPod, and 16 percent use a cell phone (Kotler, 2008). According to the report, 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.

That "cool" factor, combined with the marketing of cell phones to younger and younger children, lead us to believe that planning ahead in the creation of educational game applications for cell phones for our target audience would pay off. Within the past five years, LeapFrog Enterprises released a plastic oval cell phone for children ages 6 and up, Mattel released a prepaid phone for 8-to-14-year-old girls that has won the nickname "Barbie phone," and Verizon released the bright green Migo for 5-to-9-year-olds (Weisbaum, 2006). We spoke with Christine Zanchi, senior producer for the Kids' Interactive group at WGBH, about the appropriateness of developing handheld device content for children in our age group and she told us that "it doesn't matter" that the percentage of kids' currently using mobile devices is low compared to that of TV and web use, because mobile content, "is the future."

The majority of the children who spend time on the internet reportedly do so to primarily play games (55 percent do this at least a few times a week), research (45 percent do this at least once a week), and download from websites (55 percent do this at least once a week), according to the Sesame Group report. The children rarely visit chatrooms, instant message, or watch TV shows on the internet. The most popular websites were Cartoon Disney, Disney, and Nickelodeon; about half of the children surveyed reportedly visited each of them.

Rather than compete with traditionally indoor multimedia, we have chosen to take advantage of those outlets that children are already using to persuade them to try something outdoor. Our "bring the screen to the green" campaign accepts that young children will continue to be consumers of television and the web, but gives them options to bring their media use outside through educational applications and games delivered on handhelds. According to the Generation M study, children are master multitaskers, using more than one type of media at at time 25% of the time they are using media. We think this adeptness at multitasking can be extended to participating in the media use of which today's generation of children is so fond, while also engaging in more traditional outdoor and active recreation. Instead of criticizing something our audience enjoys, and offering our suggested activities up as the interventive "broccoli" to counteract the "junk food" of media, we will embrace kids' attraction to media and technology and use it to help propel our message.

Prior Efforts: A Look at the Competition
The need to educate kids in an informal setting is a serious undertaking. Our project reflects our collective concern that the current environmental educational need is so timely and important, that we decided to present a show about kids teaching other kids how to be environmental stewards themselves. When we investigated what else has been done in terms of new media and environmental education for children aged 6-9, we found very little.

The program currently available today that best serves the needs of our audience is the WGBH's //Meet the Greens// (www.meetthegreens.org). However, the only part of Meet the Greens that is currently being updated is its twice weekly blog, and its narrative content is limited to seven extremely short (under 3 minutes) "webisodes." It also falls short on games, the web content that our audience is most interested in at this time. Not only will we have a regularly broadcasted television show, but our website will offer a much more robust experience to our fans than the Greens provides.

=**Objectives**= Our objectives are closely linked with the environmental education needs of our target audience of children between the ages of 6 and 9, as well as with their natural interests and inclinations.


 * Promote the awareness of uses with renewable energy on a large scale, and effect children's behavioral changes by providing suggestions for transferring the large-scale practices to their community and home
 * Promote appreciation of the outside world and support children's natural love of exploration
 * 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
 * 

Pilot Episode Objectives
For the initial episode that would illustrate our overall program concept, our project team decided to focus on gardening as a way to connect children with nature. Learning about plants and the growing cycle through gardening is a captivating way for children to make meaningful learning connections while experiencing the outdoors. Here, we thought gardening was a good place to show the interdependence of various biological processes. Specifically, we thought that a show dealing with soil, water, and sun as they relate to planting tomatoes due to a tomato shortage scare, was a way to teach the connections between harnessing the Sun's energy. Plants as "solar connectors" to the life cycle of what plants, specifically tomatoes, need to grow was our first concern. We wanted to not only show what makes tomatoes grow but to introduce kids to the concept of the Sun being a key, energy source in making that happen. Furthermore, we wanted to make connections between the Sun and the environmental movement's moniker "REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE" for our project by finding a way to deal with the Sun as a renewable energy source.

Young children are naturally curious about their environment and are attracted to the Earth, complete with its dirt, weeds, plants, and bugs. Brynjegard (2001) created a school garden with an elementary school in northern California and commented, "For the first two weeks the students did nothing but pull the enormous weeds and remove hidden rocks from the ground. It was a brutal assignment, and I expected much whining and goofing around. I was wrnog. The kids enjoyed being outside so much, there were debates over whose turn it was to go out there." The students collected bugs and talked about them in class before releasing them back into the garden.

Creating a playground "mini-garden" was an idea for our show that would be presented in multi-media format. According to Francisca Garcia-Ruiz in the Science and Children Magazine, "the creation of schoolyard gardens is a growing movement in the United States and the world. It brings together all of the features of authentic hands-on science: students can collect data on plant growth, observe plant and animal interaction in the garden, and acquire a sense of nature and environmental issues." (Garcia-Ruiz, F. 2009). Here, the idea that a garden connects kids to nature is documented as a way to engage students. As Garcia-Ruiz concludes in her article, "Through this project, students acquired an appreciation for nature and living organisms that they did not have before. In order to maintain this level of enthusiasm, the project must continue to grow, and this will require an ongoing commitment on the part of teachers, students, staff, and the school administration." (Garcia-Ruiz, F., 2009).

Our group wants our television show to pick up where Garcia-Ruiz's schoolyard mini-garden ends. Our thinking was that we could extend this real life type of garden experience on television by presenting an animated "Magical Playground" with a mini-garden episode as one of our series' segments. Here, the clever characters are able to grow tomatoes and are empowered to then take what they've learned back to the real world sequence. This way, our hope is that viewers will go from "screen to green" in that they will try to grow their own gardens at home.

=References= Ansberry, K. and Morgan, E. (2009). Sunrise, Sunset. Where Is the Sun? Journal of Science and Children, April/May 2009, Volume 46:8 (14-16).

Blair, D. (2009) The child in the garden:an evaluative review of the benefits of school gardening. The Journal of Environmental Education. 40(2).pp.15-38.

Brynjegard, S. (2001). School Gardens: Raising Environmental Awareness in Children. Thesis: San Raphael, CA: School Education, Dominican University of California.

Byrne, S. (2008). When Things Go Wrong, the Results Can Turn Out Right: Failed Germination leads a Fifth Grade Classroom Into Inquiry. Journal of Science and Children, October 2008, Volume 46: 2, (22-25).

Carson, R. (1962). Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Co.

Flescher, J. (2009). Marketing Solar Panels to Fifth Graders. The New York Times. February 2, 2009 related to above article: http://www.sharpusa.com/files/sol_dow_Solar_Academy_101408.pdf

Garcia-Ruiz, F. (2009). Creating a Schoolyard Mini-garden:Third Graders Take Their Plant Unit from Classroom Greenhouse to Garden. Journal of Science and Children, Feb. 2009, Volume 46: 6, (34-37).

Hammerman, E. (2009). Formative Assessment Strategies for Enhanced Learning in Science, K-8. Corwin Press.

Kotler, J. (2008). Media Use Among 6-to-9-year-olds [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://s3.amazonaws.com/thearf-org-aux-assets/downloads/cnc/youth/2008-04-15_ARF_Youth_Kotler.pdf

Liarakou, G. Gavrilakis, C. Flouri, E. Secondary school teachers' knowledge and attitudes towards renewable energy sources. The Journal of Science Education and Technology. 18 pp. 120-129

Louv, R. (2005). Last Child in the Woods. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Press.

Rideout, V., Roberts, D. F., & Foehr, U. G. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8-18 year-olds. Executive Summary. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Silverman, F. (2008). Schools find green is paying off. The New York Times. October 10, 2008

Weisbaum, H. (2006). "Stay connected: Best cell phones for children." Retrived April 12, 2008, from MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16044093

Yamashita, L. (2008). Unpublished surveys on children's understanding of food and concepts of sustainability.