Our project is aimed at increasing the impact of the previous Templeton-funded project: “SEARCHING: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science.” Activities will include development of 12 high school lesson plans based on SEARCHING; an updated Educator segment of the project website, including the lesson plans; an aggressive outreach campaign for teacher networks, conferences, and workshops to announce the lesson plans; and editing of a feature length documentary film, based on SEARCHING, to be shown at colleges and universities.
Enthusiastic responses to the initial public television broadcasts demonstrates that SEARCHING has great potential educational impact in schools and colleges, not yet fully utilized. We think that students who experience the SEARCHING lessons and discussion topics will have a greater appreciation of science, a rekindled sense of awe at viewing the natural world, and, perhaps most importantly, a greater understanding and appreciation of the connections between science and the humanities, particularly the philosophical and ethical implications and questions raised by science, all of which were an integral part of the public television series. Concrete deliverables will be high school lesson plans, posted on our website (with links to short clips from the TV series), plus a fully finished 95-minute feature documentary film edited from the TV series.
