KU’s Quarked! program has helped middle school children learn about physics just by playing online and attending interactive shows. Students learned about the states of matter, the elements of subatomic particles and the electromagnetic process.
KU department of physics professor Alice Bean successfully used funding from a grant to produce the Quarked! program in 2006, but she is now facing new challenges in order to further the program with a television show.
“We have chicken-egg problem,” Bean said. “We have the TV stations saying that the product is great, but they don’t know how to fund it, and the funding companies saying they will put money into it if it is televised.”
Due to a limited number of channels, a variety of children’s programs are competing for airtime. High costs for a show’s production are another hurdle in getting Quarked! on air.
Storyboards are used to create the videos.Source: Quarked!
“Each year the type of programs that are being sought by networks changes, so there's a lot of perseverance, timing, luck and keeping up with the trends involved with pitching a series,” said Deb Haller, the executive producer of Three Chicks Media who is working on the Quarked! project. “Getting an animated series developed, produced, tested, marketed and ready for air with a Web site and a year’s worth of episodes in the can, can cost more than 10 million dollars, so it often requires multiple funding partners.”
The Three Parts to the Program
The program uses cartoon kids who are also quarks, particles that make-up protons and neutrons. The cartoon characters go on subatomic adventures of the universe to explain complex physics concepts in an understandable way. The program uses an interactive Web site, hands-on shows as well as TV “webeisodes.”
One webisode story line involves a quarked kid injuring his knee and getting an x-ray, leading the team to discover how magnetic forces work.
The six main types of quarks that are used in show.
Source: Quarked!
“Informal learning experiences provide a great opportunity for youth to explore science outside of school,” said Teresa MacDonald, director of education at the KU Natural History Museum, which hosts the interactive Quarked! performances. “It supports the material they are learning in school, and also introduces them to new topics and ideas in an exciting way.”
Both teachers and students who attended a Quarked! interactive show had a positive experience.
“They were engaged and excited and were able to follow the new, fairly complex information in part because of the easy hands-on experiments and simple explanations the scientist gave us,” said Debby Francisco, second grade teacher at Deerfield Elementary School.
Creation of Quarked!
Bean began brainstorming the program after receiving a lot of negative feedback from educators when asking why children could not be taught physics.
“It is viewed as such an abstract idea, but I think that kids can get excited about science,” Bean said. “There is research that says if kids do not have a positive science experience by the time they are eight, they are not going to be scientists. We need more scientists and science teachers.”
Each of the characters was
developed from a sketch to a 3D image.
Source: Quarked!
The project began to come together after receiving a $200,000 grant from the Epscore division of the National Science Foundation at the start of the year and a $75,000 Web development grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., at the end of the year.
“We did a lot of research about how kids learn,” Bean said.
The program was a collaboration of the physics department and several other KU departments including English, computer science and visual arts. Outside help also came from National Institute of Child Health, 3-D animation studio Bazillion Pictures and Three Chicks Media Production Company.
Bean asked KU design professor, Dick Varney, to join the project in order to create the cartoon.
“I had never written an animation script, produced working storyboards, or art directed an animated film before,” Varney said. “It was learning the process under fire that was amazing. The students and I were thrilled to see the way the characters we had developed from a simple idea come alive and talk as animated characters within the movies.”
After the design team created the cartoons, the Web team began development of the interactive Web page with games, webisodes, coloring pages and parent/teacher lesson plans.
“The Web site has been an integral part of the plans for Quarked! from the beginning,” said Kyle Batson, KU graduate and web designer. “The Web site makes good use of fun colors, interesting characters and compelling animations. It's easy to navigate, and there are many fun things for kids to do.”
The Product in Action
Since the completion of the Web site, which used all of the grant money, the site reached the top of search engine hit lists and the interactive program has also flourished.
The KU Natural History Museum has hosted interactive shows which included games, demonstrations, and projects like building atoms from pong balls. More than 2,300 elementary and middle school students from Lawrence, Kansas City and Topeka attended the shows during the 2006-2007 school year.
“I think this would be a wonderful program for everyone to use, especially those who have little or no background in physics but an interest in how things in the universe work,” Francisco said. “It would be a great asset for small or remote schools who have few resources with which to purchase expensive science texts, kits or curriculum.”
"Eat Your Peas" was one of the first videos that the
team created.
Source: quarked.com
The Quarked! team created an 11-minute pilot for half-hour shows as well as several two-minute segments to run between other shows and is working with KTWU-TV and KCPT-TV on possible airing of the show.
“There's no easy answer to when the program will air, or if it will,” Haller said. “It's a long shot but we have the materials in the hands of children's TV execs and will keep the dialogue going.”
Future Endeavors
If the Quarked! television show does air, the team will continue to use its Web site and interactive shows to teach physics to kids.
Meanwhile Bean is submitting proposals and applying for more grants.
Quarked! also created a sister site sponsored by the National Science Foundation called quarkednet. The Web page links particle physicists to high teachers in order to help older students with physics as well.