Science Media Group

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Science Media Group (SMG)

In Production:

The Habitable Planet (2007): A multimedia course for high school science teachers and adult learners looks at the systems that make Earth a planet that sustains life. The course was designed to help educators deepen and extend their understanding of environmental science.
Impact! The Making of a Meteorite (2007): Interactive video loop shows how meteorites are created through Asteroid Belt collisions and propelled to Earth. Users get to create their own collision by changing parameters. Accompanied by a stand-alone video and a more comprehensive interactive game for classroom use. Originally produced for a permanent exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, will be distributed on DVD.
Dyslexia and Science (2007): We are investigating under a grant from NSF a hypothesis that people with dyslexia, because of differences in neurology, may be predisposed to certain forms of visual processing that are useful in science, specifically looking at how dyslexia affects abilities of astronomers to analyze image-processed data.
Annenberg Channel www.learner.org (2007): The Annenberg Channel, a free satellite channel broadcasting award-winning educational programming, is operated by the Science Media Group. Many Science Media Group productions are aired on the Annenberg Channel.
MOSART Web Site (2006): Project MOSART intends to enhance the quality of K-12 science teaching and aid in generating evidence-based outcomes of learning through the development of comprehensive subject matter assessment tools. The Web site was created to enhance communication and collaboration between partners within the MOSART project as well as to inform the public of the efforts of the Math and Science Partnership Program.
Arthropods (2006): Three video loops showing the diversity of Arthropods installed in a permanent exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Climate Change (2006): Harvard professor Dan Schrag leads viewers to vote on what they would do to mitigate climate change on an interactive Web based game for visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Two video loops (Milankovitch Cycles and Dissappearing Ice) are included in this permanent exhibition.
Lighthouse of the Skies (2006): Promotional DVD for major Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomical activities
FICSS Web Site (2005): Relationships between the decisions that high school science teachers and their students make affect the success of students in their introductory college science courses. FICSS developed surveys that characterize students' choices of high school science courses taken and teachers' choices about pedagogy and curricula in these courses. This interactive, video-based Web site communicates the results of the survey given to 18,000 students.
Coalition of Essential Schools (2005): CES EssentialVisions DVD series captures how the CES common principles have been implemented, illustrating how students engage in their own education and how teachers develop as professionals.
Understandings of Consequence (2005): Web site and DVD providing professional development for educators using the Understandings of Consequence curricula in their classrooms
Beyond the Solar System DVD (2005): The Beyond the Solar System Professional Development Project offers opportunities for deepening content knowledge and exploring strategies for teaching and learning about current scientific models and evidence for the origin and evolution of our universe of galaxies.
POVme (2005): A program showing that science is something top athletes — people tweens admire and respect — care about, know about, and use. POVme provides tweens with new role models for science — something those who are underserved and at-risk sorely lack — and give them a new mental image about what doing science can be all about.
Origins (2005): Video loop with paleontologist Andrew Knoll on early life for traveling exhibition produced by the Harvard Museum of Natural History
MicroObservatory (2004): A promotional DVD for teachers using the MicroObservatory curriculum in their classroom
Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science (2004): Exploring topics that range from soil to the solar system, Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science provides participants the opportunity to increase their science content knowledge and develop new understandings of how this content connects to K-6 classrooms.
Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science (2004): Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science is a content course designed to help K-6 teachers enhance their understandings of "big ideas" in the life sciences. The main goal of this course is to provide teachers with learning opportunities that will directly inform their own classroom practice.
Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science (2004): Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science is a content course designed to help K-6 teachers enhance their understandings of matter as one of the "big ideas" in the physical sciences. The main goal of this course is to provide teachers with learning opportunities that will directly inform their own classroom practice.
Harvard-Smithsonian Digital Video Library (2003): This collection of video clips provides more than 350 hours of digital video material, archived in digital form and indexed through a searchable database; the collection is linked to local, state, and national STEM standards.
Science in Focus: Energy (2002): The video programs, print guide, and Web site of this workshop provide K-6 teachers with a solid foundation that distinguishes between the way "energy" is commonly understood and its meaning in science. The workshop examines energy's role in motion, machines, food, the human body, and the universe as a whole.
Science in Focus: Force and Motion (2001): With science and education experts as your guides, this workshop for elementary teachers explores science concepts of force, motion, size, mass, and speed to gain deeper understandings that will help teachers engage their students in their own explorations.
Science in Focus: Shedding Light on Science (2001): This workshop uses light as a theme to explore topics in physics, chemistry, biology, space science, and Earth science. Light is a common thread through many areas of science and a natural topic for interdisciplinary science study. Teachers make connections to real world phenomena and explore the behavior of light, the transformation of energy, and the role of light in the weather, the seasons, and the production of food by plants.
Surprises in Mind (2001): A remarkable 12-year study following students from first grade through high school demonstrates the brain's surprising natural abilities for learning math. The study, led by Professor Carolyn Maher of Rutgers University, brought results that are corroborated by new research from leading cognitive psychologists. Discover ways to unlock this natural human gift for mathematics in classrooms, workplaces, and homes.
TEAMS-BC Video Series (2000): A "bookshelf" of videos about preservice teacher education in math and science: Four Courses: One Goal, Mathematics with a Human Face, Site Based Courses for Preservice Teachers, and The Student Teaching Experience
Cosmic Questions (2000): Interviews segments, exhibit walk through, and other video pieces for the museum exhibit titled: Cosmic Questions: Our place in Space and Time
Looking at Learning...Again, Part 1 (2000): Understanding how children learn best is an important step toward improving mathematics and science teaching. This workshop series features seven leading educators--Eleanor Duckworth, Joseph Novak, Hubert Dyasi, Constance Kamii, Howard Gardner, Mitchel Resnick, and William Schmidt--who share their ideas on how children really learn. K-12 teachers explore how technology affects learning, learn to elicit and build on students' ideas, and develop strategies for inquiry-based teaching.
Looking at Learning...Again, Part 2 (2000): Through personal interviews, teacher discussions, and classroom video footage, this workshop encourages K-12 teachers to analyze existing theories about how children learn, as well as their own beliefs, and then to examine how those beliefs might influence their teaching. Each workshop features a different educator's learning theory and provides the opportunity to discuss, critique, and apply the ideas presented.
Private Universe Project in Mathematics (2000): Research shows that children formulate extraordinarily interesting and complex mathematical ideas, even at a very young age. The Private Universe Project in Mathematics demonstrates and honors the power and sophistication of these ideas, and explores how mathematics teaching can be structured to resonate with children's sophisticated thinking.
SportSmarts (2000): An educational campaign designed to increase people's understanding of science as well as the role of science in sports. This initiative sought to improve the understanding of science through efforts in schools and via public outreach. SportSmarts built on research in science education and teacher education conducted at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Annenberg Institute of School Reform Series (1999): A series of programs that explore school reform: Balancing caring and expectations in the science classroom (1998), Balancing routines and repertoire in the math classroom (1998), Principals in the line of fire (2001), and Investigation: A water study (1999).
Principles for Principals (1999): Designed by and for principals working to improve student achievement in mathematics and science, this workshop addresses the specific issues faced by administrators. Filmed in schools from Maine to California, this workshop helps principals understand and use recent research on math and science education practices.
ARIES (1998): A promotional DVD for teachers using the ARIES curriculum in their classrooms
The Next Move (1998): This workshop explores issues in classroom change with the goal of helping teachers move toward more student-centered classrooms. The programs feature K-5 teachers at decision-making points in actual classroom situations, allowing viewers to discuss with colleagues how they might approach their "next moves" given similar circumstances.
Assessment in Math and Science (1998): This workshop examines assessment issues and strategies in K-12 math and science classrooms. Through video segments of real classrooms interspersed with lively discussions of practicing teachers and content experts, participants see how teachers deal with common issues and discover ways to use assessment to improve teaching and learning.
Case Studies in Science Education (1997): These case studies take science education reform to a personal level, where individuals struggle to make changes that matter. These videos follow science teachers as they work to improve one aspect of their teaching. Each case follows a single teacher over the course of a year to show: the teacher's background and the problem he or she chose to address, the chosen approach and implementation, and the outcome with assessment.
Technical Difficulties (1997): It is a pilot half-hour show for a proposed 39-part, three-year broadcast television series. The full series proposed to use current research in how children learn science to help viewers (ages 9-12) learn fundamental concepts in science.
Mathematics: What's the Big Idea? (1997): K-8 teachers of mathematics contemplate provocative questions in order to explore new ways of teaching math. Using a variety of models, activities, tools, and video clips, this workshop encourages participants to reflect upon their own practice and discuss ideas for innovation in teaching.
Minds of Our Own (1996): These three one-hour programs are designed to make science teachers aware of students' preconceptions. An extension of the award-winning video, A Private Universe, Minds of Our Own shows that many of the things we assume about how children learn are simply not true, and that the education system we have built is based largely on a series of myths.
The Science of Teaching Science (1995): The Science of Teaching Science encourages K-8 teachers to explore ways to improve their teaching practices. Each program takes an in-depth look at a real classroom, so that teachers can focus on the issues involved in teaching science. Observing other teachers in unrehearsed situations provides new and veteran teachers with the confidence to try new approaches to teaching.
The Private Universe Project in Science (1994): This workshop explores the reasons why teaching science is so difficult and offers practical advice to help teachers teach more effectively. Each program focuses on one theme and one content area and uses specific examples to show how students' preconceived ideas can create critical barriers to learning.
Project STAR (1994): These two videos accompany the Project STAR textbook: Light Games is a homework video to investigate inverse square law with experiments using lights and distances and Sun, Moon, Stars is an interactive time-lapse classroom resource exploring the day and night time sky. Students use simple tools to take astronomical measurements from the time-lapse images on the TV screen.
Annie and the Stars of Many Colors (1993): A video documentary in which fifth-grade students explore the childhood and career of Annie Jump Cannon through hands-on activities at the Harvard University Archives and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
A Light Dose of Murder (1991): This funny court room trial explains the properties of light. A Light Dose of Murder was the pilot for a children's TV series.
A Private Universe (1987): A video documentary on education research for grade K-12 educators. From its famous opening scene at a Harvard graduation, this classic of education research brings into sharp focus the dilemma facing all educators: why even the brightest students fail to grasp basic science concepts.
Einstein USA 15 cents (1986): Montage of Einstein's life and discoveries to celebrate the design of the Einstein 15 cent US stamp.

The Science Media Group recently completed "The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science," a 13-unit professional development course for high school science teachers and adult learners. Video case studies feature preeminent environmental scientists, and a Web site will provide in-depth content and interactive simulations.