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The Education Resource Center

WQED is committed to projects that enhance pre-college education, family involvement and professional development for teachers. As such, WQED Multimedia has established an Educational Resource Center that will be a repository for educators and students in the community. One of the first projects of the Educational Resource Center will be a school-based curriculum of WQED Multimedia's Pittsburgh History Series.

WQED Multimedia, in cooperation with our local YWCA, provides "Extending Mister Rogers' Neighborhood to Child Care," a project which provides training and support to family day care providers in the use of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" programs in the child care setting.

WQED was one of 26 national sites to train teachers to incorporate television and emerging technologies into math and science lessons, in the National Teacher Training Institute (NTTI). Using the principle of "teachers training teachers," WQED recruited and trained 10 Master Teachers, who then trained 100 teachers chosen from throughout the Western Pennsylvania region in spring 1995 and 1996.

In addition, NTTI held an annual two-day professional development workshop for 100 teachers on using video and other technology in the K-12 classroom. Master teachers develop video-based lessons and become the trainers for the NTTI event. In April 1996, the program was held at the Carnegie Science Center where master teachers prepared and presented lessons based on WQED's Instructional Television services, Children's Programming and National Programming services.

Recent WQED productions to support and improve public education --all of which began locally, but many of which have enjoyed national distribution -- include:

Critical Thinking in the Arts, a two-part video series (with facilitator guides) filmed in visual arts, music, and dance classrooms, documents teachers using inquiry-based instruction to build thinking skills in their students.

Project Prism, a project to create awareness about and enhance science education nationwide. Included among its components are Alliance For Science, a community-wide science education project to involve young girls and minority students in science. Included in this project were a Teacher's Video Kitand a Student's Career Video Kit.

Teaching Science as Inquiry, an award-winning six-part video training series to improve the skills of elementary school science teachers. Shot in schools and science centers, this project gives elementary science teachers the tools they need to conduct effective inquiry-based, "hands-on, minds-on" science classes.

Sing Out Strong, a WQED production effort to improve the ability of elementary and secondary music teachers to teach choral music through dramatically successful new methods. Filming documented the innovative techniques of master teachers in real school situations.

Reading Aloud, another WQED parent and professional development effort, created both video and print materials to help parents, caregivers, and other interested adults learn the benefits of reading aloud to the children they care for.

Project Beacon was a video training project to help day-care providers read to their preschool charges so that they develop a love for reading and books.

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