ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses more systematic research on the educational impact of several science-based television series. The impact of educational television programs on children's knowledge regarding science and technology, their exploration and experimentation, and their attitudes toward science and technology. Science learning from television has been documented among audiences ranging from preschool viewers of Sesame Street to older adults viewing the science documentary series Nova or news inserts featuring Mr. Wizard. In addition to measuring children's recall and understanding of science content, research on Scholastic's The Magic School Bus also asked children to describe how the characters in the series learn. The consistent pattern of significant effects across science-based television series replicates the effects that were reviewed in the domains of school-age literacy and mathematics. Research has found evidence of children's learning science content from various television series, it is also the case that not all treatments of science on television are equally effective.
