Browse Exhibits (21 total)
Uncle Wonder's Workshop
1958, 26 episodes, WCET (Cincinnati)
From WNET:
"Uncle Wonder makes the principles of the sciences simple for the pre-school child. Glenn Ryle, as Uncle Wonder, participates with children in their own world to help them discover some of the “truths” of the world. The series emphasizes power and includes simple demonstrates of natural phenomena such as gravity, sound, light, etc. Uncle Wonder operates in a three-part workshop: workbench for woodworking and demonstrating; nursery section for planting and plant demonstrations; and a laboratory setting for work with water, chemicals, and other liquids. Uncle Wonder makes the principles of the sciences simple for the pre-school child. He uses domestic objects, such as a milk bottle or a bar of soap, to illustrate how rain is formed or how surface tension works. Many of his TV experiments can be duplicated in the home with materials normally at hand. Uncle Wonder in each program invites his viewers into his workshop where he answers many of the questions of wonderment that fill the minds of little folk."
The Secret of Flight
1959, 13 episodes, State University of Iowa
From WNET:
"'The Secret of Flight' is a lecture series about the basic problems of flight, explained by visual presentation of flow experiments. As the material of the lectures should be understood by every interested listener, no mathematical or other theoretical knowledge is used for explanation. Every problem is demonstrated by a true-life experiment and purely scientific language is avoided. Each of the lectures deals with a basic problem of flight. The experiments are mostly shown as flow picture but at certain points scale models and flying models are used to ensure easier understanding. As an average there are about eight different experiments in a half hour lecture at the end of each presentation. The lecture series is divided into two main divisions. Lectures one through seven explain the basic problems which lead to the invention of the airplanes. Lectures eight through 13 point out the more modern problems of aerodynamics and explain some subjects of general interest which ae connected with flight and fluid motion. The series was produced by the State University of Iowa and directed by Sam Becker, head of SUI’s television department."
Scientific methods
13 episodes, 1958, KQED (San Francisco)
From WNET:
"In “Scientific Methods” Dr. Joel Hildebrand, of the University of California, reveals to the adult layman and the high school student the excitement and the discipline involved in the scientific investigation of any problem concerning man. He demonstrates that science is neither book learning nor technical manipulation and shows what scientists actually do and how they do it. The series will explain the scientific approach as an antidote to prejudice, superstition and emotional thinking. It will demonstrate the influence of scientific findings upon social and ethical evaluations."
Science and human responsibility
23 episodes, 1957-1958, KETC (St. Louis)
From WNET:
"This series of program features distinguished persons in several fields of knowledge who will apply their powers of constructive thought to the problems of adjustment to the changing pattern of man’s life caused by the advances in scientific knowledge. The program grew out of conferences telecast by KETC, St. Louis form the Washington University campus. The conferences were arranged by Dr. Arthur H. Compton, Nobel Prize winning scientists. About half the programs are interviews-in-depth by Dr. Huston Smith of Washington University with individual participants regarding their thoughts on certain major issues considered at the conference. The remaining programs include group discussions by the conference participants."
Discovery
39 episodes, 1957, WGBH (Boston)
From WNET:
"'Discovery' produced by WGBH-TV aims to make learning about the world in which we live an adventure for young people -- an advantage that opens the doors to many fields of scientific knowledge. Living animals and plants and other visuals become the illustrations for what the producers of “Discovery” call “how learning” -- how something causes something else, how change in one situation is related to another, how animals are adapted to live in their specific environments, and how plants, animals and man are related to one another. Airing not only to stimulate intellectual curiosity about the world around us, but hoping also to encourage creative activity on the part of young viewers, emphasis is placed on what the child can do at home. Guest on the programs include scientific experts as well as boys and girls with science hobbies. The presentations are straightforward and the demonstrations interesting and unusual enough to command the attention of upper elementary grade students, junior high, and even high school biology classes.
Featured Personality: Mary Lela Grimes
The producer, writer and narrator of the “Discovery” series is a young woman from North Carolina: Mary Lela Grimes. All of her life she has had nature hobbies such as collecting butterflies, keeping wild pets, naming plants, studying minerals, and watching birds. After her graduation as a Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, she became director of the Durham Children’s Museum and wrote a daily column on nature for the Durham Herald Sun. When she and her husband moved to Boston, she joined the staff of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, working in the elementary science teaching program. She also did newspaper, radio and TV work for the Society and helped organize and direct the Society’s Wildwood Nature Camp at Camp Barre, North Carolina. In 1954, Mrs. Grimes was awarded a fellowship to study communications by the National Wildlife Federation. she spent a year at Boston University (where she received her MS) and there began working with WGBH-TV in planning science programs for children. It was here that the idea of “Discovery” was born."
Discovery at the Brookfield Zoo
13 episodes, 1959, WTTW (Chicago)
From WNET:
"Mary Lela Grimes returns with program which are essentially a continuation of the original “Discovery” series. Moved to a new locale, Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, the series will introduce its viewers to the strange and wonderful inhabitants of a zoo. Through visits to various cages, viewers learn about the families who live in them."
Focus on behavior
10 episodes, 1963, Mayer-Skylar Productions
Frm WNET:
"This series presents current research in experimental psychology which reveals significant concepts, methods and new advances in the scientific study of behavior. Each program is a filmed visit to the laboratories of distinguished men and women, experimental psychologists involved in this study. These films provide the viewer with a deeper understanding of the nature of basic research. They were designed to develop public appreciation of psychology as the scientific study of behavior, to stimulate interest among high-school students who might wish to pursue the study of psychology on a college level, to create an instructional resource that will contribute to the improved teaching of psychology in college, and to stimulate interest among students in psychology as a career.
Focus on Behavior affords audiences an opportunity to look over the shoulder of the scientists at work. Produced under the auspices of the American Psychological Association, the series was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. While the series as a whole presents a broad view of the role of experimental psychology, each program is compete in itself. The series was filmed on location at leading U.S. universities, two hospitals, and an Air Force Base. The actors were the psychologists and other actual participants in the experiments. The “sets” were the actual laboratories or other places where the experiments were in progress."
The face of the earth
10 episodes, 1959, KQED (San Francisco)
From WNET:
"This series investigates that thin “skin on the apple,” the crust of the Earth of which the mountains, the valleys, and the seas are made. Each program investigates one of the processes that go to shape these features on the Earth’s surface. These investigations lead the viewer from the plain dirt of his own back yard to the snowcapped heights of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. Such processes as erosion, weathering, folding, uplift, and faulting are discussed along with the part each plays in a specific and important role in a great cycle that has been at work for more than a billion years in shaping the face of the earth. The series was produced by KQED, San Francisco and Stanford University with Stanley T. Donner (Stanford) and Herbert D. Seiter (KQED) as the producers; Gerald G. Marans, director; Ken Winslaw, technical director; Matt Lehmann, film and special effects; and Jonathan Rice, executive producer."
Survival in the sea
12 episodes, 1959, WTHS (Miami)
From WNET:
"Life underwater is captured by television cameras in this 12-week series filmed by the University of Miami Office of Broadcasting and Film Services. Sea animals never before filmed in their natural habitat are seen and explained by Dr. John F. Storr a specialist in underwater camera work. The series theme is ecology, understanding how various forms of life fit into the area in which they live."
Tempest in a test tube
26 episodes, 1957, KQED (San Francisco)
From WNET:
"'Tempest in a Test Tube' is a series of experiments in elementary chemistry. One hundred years ago, Michael Faraday, a famous British scientist, delivered a series of talks known as “Juvenile Lectures” to the teenagers of his day. A brilliant experimentalist, Faraday loved science and studied it all his life. He felt that the future science lay in the youth and he sought to share his interest with them. His talks were tremendously popular and were attended by even the children of the British Royal Family.
“Tempest in a Test Tube” is planned to carry on the tradition of Michael Faraday. The first 13 programs show that, in general, what Faraday illustrated a hundred years ago still holds true. Although this is a complex technical age with television, jet planes, atomic submarines and hydrogen bombs, the laws of science remain basic. The underlying aim of the series is to awaken an interest in chemistry and the allied sciences on the part of today’s teenager – particularly the junior high school student. The format of the programs is simple and direct: lively and colorful experiments (as many as seven per half hour) with an informal explanation of the principles involved. Continuity and the experiments were developed by a committee from the American Chemical Society."