Executive Summary: Impact of Television Presentation Formats on Understanding DragonflyTV Nano Content

Produced by Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul, MN, DragonflyTV (DFTV) is a weekly television series of half-hour live action shows for 8-12 year olds, distributed by PBS Plus. DFTV features real children engaged in real inquiry-based investigations in and around science centers across America. Six 2009 episodes of DFTV focus on the world of nanoscale science and technology. DFTV Nano highlights science centers and university research labs while applying the DFTV Real Kids Real Science model to communicate basic concepts and the scientific process in nanoscience. The programs were very successful in communicating their main messages of nanoscience. Viewers identified the television presentation formats of onscreen kids doing hands-on activities and the use of models to support content as most effective in helping them learn nanoscience content. Viewers described four production characteristics as helping them learn the best: clear demonstration of relationships, comparisons, procedures and results, showing critical information visually, connection to the content and clear age-appropriate explanations. All viewers concluded that nanotechnology will be very or somewhat important in the future.