PBS SciGirls Second Season Sizzles
Bringing STEM to Every Screen: Let the Games Begin!
October 2012 on PBS – Check Local Listings or Watch Online
Got a tween? Then you’ve probably got a screen. Or two, or maybe three.
SciGirls gets screens. As the PBS series that’s all about engaging girls 9-13 in science, technology, engineering and math (or STEM), SciGirls understands how today’s “digital native” kids largely live online.
So as the series premieres its second season in October 2012 on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings or watch online at scigirls.org), SciGirls is shaking up screen time as we know it, unleashing inspirational, innovative and flat-out fun STEM videos and games across all of the digital platforms girls love.
First, there are ten new half-hour episodes of the popular television series that the PARENTING Magazine calls “cool stuff” and the New York Times says makes science “downright enjoyable.” Shot in reality TV’s verité-style, SciGirls’ bright,
curious, real girls work with female mentors to engineer a ‘chill’
ice-cream-making bike, design a groundbreaking earthquake app, get the
buzz on urban beekeeping, use real forensic methods to solve a
mysterious “crime,” and more! And of course, animated characters Izzie
and Jake are back, still getting into jams that can only be solved by
the real-life SciGirls – and STEM.
In Season Two, SciGirls really soars
beyond broadcast, into the interactive space where the series snagged a
“New Approaches” Daytime Emmy Award for linking its shows and website
in inventive, fresh ways. The episodes will seamlessly introduce and
“tease” cool new online games, activities, and other content, including:
· Pick ’m Stick ’m: SciGirls is throwing a search party, with a unique online game that starts during the
show! Each episode features onscreen clues that lead girls to a
corresponding “mash-up” game on the website. So while kids are enjoying
the new episodes, they’re already playing the game! With the
clues, girls go to the SciGirls website to solve an “iSpy”-style puzzle
(Pick’m !), unlocking pictures they can use to create a their own
collage about the show (Stick’m!). Pick’m, Stick’m and Share’m,
SciGirls!
· Aqua Bot: In this game, girls take what they learn from the “Sea Perch” episode and engineer an underwater ROV—remote operated vehicle—that doesn’t sink to the bottom or float to the top. Once the ROV is ready to roll (or, um, swim?), deep sea-divas can navigate a multi-level game, helping Izzie and Jake find lost treasure.
· Busy as a Bee:
Got honey? That’s the golden currency of this simulation game, which
extends the adventures of beekeeping SciGirls on the TV show across the
website’s social network. Part Farmville, part Tamagotchi, kids
nationwide will grow their gardens and help their hives by depending on
each other. Sweet!
“Texting,
social networking, smart phones, gaming—digital technologies are more
than just diversions to kids. They are educational tools as common to
our viewers as pencils and notebooks were to their parents,” said SciGirls executive producer Richard Hudson. “SciGirls’
second season marries the onscreen adventures of our remarkable
SciGirls to the power of the web, to ignite girls’ curiosity and change
the way they think about STEM.”
The SciGirls
creative team is headed by Twin Cities Public Television’s Director of
Science Content Richard Hudson, Executive Producer of the long-running
PBS children’s science series Newton's Apple and creator of DragonflyTV and the SciGirls initiative. Co-Executive Producer is Kathleen Shugrue co-creator of Fetch! and producer of ZOOM at WGBH. Animation is created by Soup2Nuts, producers of PBS’ WordGirl. The website is developed by Big Bad Tomato Interactive, and SciGirls is generously funded by The National Science Foundation. Additional funding is provided by L’Oreal USA.
Every girl can be a SciGirl!
***
ABOUT TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION (tpt) NATIONAL PRODUCTIONS
tpt National
Productions’ quality, creativity and innovation have earned both
popular and critical acclaim, garnering more than 300 awards for
artistic and technical achievement, including 25 national and regional
Emmy Awards, the duPont-Columbia Commendation, three Peabody Awards, an
Academy Award nomination and awards at major international film
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been honored with Parents’ Choice and PBS Web awards, and its outreach
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ABOUT THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
The
National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that
supports education and research across all fields of science and
engineering. The NSF supports many science programs on PBS in addition
to SciGirls, including Cyberchase, Fetch!, Design Squad, and NOVA ScienceNow.
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