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02.08
The
NUMB3RS are In: Science, Engineering
and Math Well-Represented on TV
By Chris McManes
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Some IEEE members believe that
all we need to improve public appreciation of
engineering is a prime-time TV series featuring
engineers. That could very well be true, but
quicker than you can calculate pi to 39 decimal
places, mathematicians are already in prime
time.
NUMB3RS, a CBS Paramount
drama, features an FBI agent who enlists the
help of his mathematical-genius younger brother
to help solve some of the agency’s
more-challenging crimes. The younger sibling, a
math professor at the fictional California
Institute of Science, is able to discern
mathematical patterns in criminal activity and
use calculations that assist FBI investigators.
Or as CBS describes it,
“Inspired by actual events, the series depicts
how the confluence of police work and
mathematics provides unexpected revelations and
answers to the most perplexing criminal
questions.”
In so doing,
NUMB3RS helps make math look fun and
exciting.
Dr. Keith Devlin, a consulting
professor of mathematics and executive director
of the Center for the Study of Language and
Information at Stanford University,
discussed the show on NPR just prior to its
January 2005 debut.
“The one thing they’re trying to
do is make mathematics look cool,” Devlin said.
“I know it’s cool; all my friends know it’s
cool. We do have an image problem, and I
think a TV series like this can help get over
it.”
NUMB3RS
is one of many broadcast, cable and online TV
shows that showcase science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM). Designed for
everyone from preschoolers to adults, most
STEM-promoting programs are entertaining and
educational.
“With the advent of cable TV,
the number of channels has expanded and provided
many more opportunities for new programs,” said
Paul Kostek, IEEE-USA’s first vice president for
communications and public awareness. “I think
this demonstrates that kids are interested in
math and science, but they lose interest because
they don’t see how those subjects are used in
real life. Shows like NUMB3RS, CSI
and even The Big Bang Theory show how
math and science can be applied, while also
presenting a human side to scientists and
engineers.
“Programs like Future File
and Build It Bigger
show there are still future breakthroughs
coming, as well as opportunities to contribute
and make a difference.”
NUMB3RS
was the most-watched program on Friday nights
(10 p.m. ET and PT) its first three seasons and
began season four on 28 September 2007. The
show’s creators, husband and wife Nicolas
Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, won the
2006 Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding
of Science and the National Science Board’s
2007 Public Service Award.
Unlike TV shows that are purely
fictional and take dramatic license over the
edge, NUMB3RS
is careful to ensure that its math principles
and equations are sound. CBS partners with
Wolfram Research, a leading producer of software
for mathematical and scientific computation, to
provide the series with genuine math to support
each episode.
In addition, the
NUMB3RS Web site features links to a
host of math resources.
“It’s great to see that the
producers are willing to work with educators and
industry to provide resources about the math
used on the show,” said Kostek, who works as a
systems engineer with the Boeing Co. in Seattle.
“And from the number of resources listed, it’s
obvious there’s an interest from viewers.”
So until a crime-fighting
engineer is featured in prime time, we’ll have
to be content with NUMB3RS, which isn’t
so bad considering math is a major building
block of engineering. Nonetheless, the
profession is still positively portrayed on TV.
Design Squad
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Design Squad
Offers Resources for Teachers and
Engineers to Reach Students
One of Design Squad’s
key features is a
resource site for engineers showing
how they can use the challenges featured
on the program to teach engineering to
children: “Design Squad is more
than a television show – it’s engineers,
families, and youth-serving
organizations working together to use
the show, the educational materials and
the Web site to connect kids to
engineering.”
George McClure, an
IEEE-USA Career & Workforce Policy
Committee member who lives in Winter
Park, Fla., said Design Squad fits
well with IEEE-USA’s precollege
initiatives.
“It grabs the attention
of middle school students in interesting
projects involving math and science that
can be performed in organized
workshops,” said McClure, a retired
communications systems engineer at
Lockheed Martin. “Programs such as
Design Squad can motivate students
to continue their studies of math and
science so they can perhaps later choose
engineering or science careers.
“If the prerequisites
are not acquired, then such careers are
foreclosed to those students.”
Design Squad’s
2008 season activity guide offers five
new hands-on challenges, bringing to 17
the challenges available to anyone
looking to help children think like
engineers. The new guide will be
available in late January.
To order your copy,
e-mail
designsquad_feedback@wgbh.org with
your name, company, mailing address and
phone number. Please indicate if it’s
work or home.
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WGBH in Boston produces
Design
Squad, a reality show about two groups
of high school students who compete each episode
to solve a new engineering challenge. The first
episode of the show’s second season will be
streamed on Design Squad’s Web site during
Engineers Week (17-23 February 2008) and will
premiere on TV in April.
John Meredith, who served as
IEEE-USA president in 2007 and is a product
development engineer with Agilent Technologies
in Colorado Springs, Colo., is pleased that the
IEEE is a major financial supporter of Design
Squad.
“I think
Design Squad is a great way for youth to
become familiar with the basic engineering
principles engineers use in designing products,
systems and processes that benefit all of us,”
Meredith said. “Hopefully this will spark an
interest in some of the youngsters to consider
engineering as a career. For those not so
inclined, improved technical literacy is another
plus.”
“Programs such as Design
Squad are valuable because it’s all about
the results,” Kostek said. “It’s not about math
and science but how they are applied to solve a
problem. I think at times people lose sight of
this aspect of learning.”
Nate Ball, the host of Design
Squad, is a positive ambassador for
engineering. A mechanical engineer, inventor and
entrepreneur, he is a also former captain of his
college track and field team.
At the 15th-annual
Discover Engineering Family Day festival, 16
February 2008 at the
National Building
Museum in Washington, Ball will demonstrate
the “Powered
Rope Ascender” that he helped create. The
device allows people such as rescuers to
“reverse rappel” up buildings, cliffs and other
vertical surfaces.
More Shows
Each episode of the Discovery
Channel’s
Extreme Engineering highlights a major,
large-scale engineering project
— some completed, some under construction
and some futuristic. Boston’s Big Dig, the
widening of the Panama Canal and the concept of
building a tunnel across the Atlantic Ocean have
all been featured.
Cool Fuel, from the Science Channel,
showcases a crew’s trek across American roads
without using gasoline. Instead, they use
custom-built machines that run on “fuels such as
corn whiskey ethanol, garbage and wind.”
Peep and the Big Wide World is an
animated PBS series that teaches science to
preschoolers. Each 30-minute episode features
two stories that illuminate scientific
principals.
STEM-related shows aren’t
limited to TV.
Engineering TV,
NASA TV and
The
Science Network are online.
The IEEE produces IEEE.tv (www.ieee.tv),
an Internet-based network that features
technology and engineering. Some content is
publicly available and some is an exclusive
benefit for IEEE members. IEEE-USA contributed
Art of the Start: Entrepreneurship for
high-tech entrepreneurs in May 2007.
Although CBS’ new comedy,
The Big Bang Theory, is meant more to
elicit laughs than impart scientific knowledge,
the two lead male characters are
physicists whose discussions often revolve
around observable, physical phenomenon.
Ever since
L.A. Law ran from 1986 to 1994, some IEEE
members have clamored for L.A. Engineer.
“It’s rather ironic that, after
years of listening to fellow engineers calling
for programs along the lines of L.A. Engineer,
we have so many programs on TV now,” said Kostek,
who also chairs the IEEE-USA Communications
Committee. “In many cases engineers may not be
aware of them, but teachers obviously are and
are bringing them into the classroom.
“What makes them work? They show
how STEM can be used to solve problems, is not
done in isolation and, most importantly, can be
fun.”
Here's a list of many
— but certainly not all — STEM-promoting TV and
video programs. Although series focusing on
health often have a scientific or biomedical
engineering base, they are not included. And
remember, new shows and documentaries air all
the time.
Television (Prime-Time Broadcast):
Television (Broadcast and Cable; times vary):
Beyond Tomorrow
http://science.discovery.com/fansites/beyondtomorrow/
beyondtomorrow.html
Cool Fuel
http://science.discovery.com/fansites/coolfuel/coolfuel.html
Future File
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/future-file/future-file.html
Gazing Into Space
http://science.discovery.com/convergence/cassini/cassini.html
Greatest Discoveries
http://science.discovery.com/convergence/100discoveries/
100discoveries.html
Invention Nation
http://science.discovery.com/fansites/invention-nation/invention-nation.html
It's All Geek to Me
http://science.discovery.com/fansites/geek/geek.html
Online:
Chris McManes is IEEE-USA's
public relations manager.
Comments may be submitted to
todaysengineer@ieee.org. Opinions expressed
are the author's.
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