| ISMagazine.com | Education Opportunities |
June, 1999 |
May 11, 1999 -- Let your imagination soar with "Flight," the newest issue of WayBack, US History for Kids http://www.pbs.org/amex/kids on THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ONLINE. "Flight" examines the early days of aviation and the ingenious inventors, fearless flyers, and brave barnstormers who daily defied the laws of gravity and proved that men and women could rule the vast blue skies.
The site took off Friday, May 7, 1999.
WayBack and THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ONLINE appear on PBS ONLINE.
Three high-flying feature essays focus on the joys and challenges of flight:
o "Wright Flight" visits the dawn of the Age of Flight as brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright struggle to master the mechanics of building a flying machine. Drawing inspiration for wing design from their observation of pigeons, they combined this innovation with an engine to win the race for controlled flight on December 17, 1903;
o "Scare Mail" portrays the perils and pitfalls experienced by early US Air Mail service pilots and documents the expansion of air mail routes and the development of safety standards; and
o "Barnstormers" introduces some of the daredevils who thrilled audiences from coast-to-coast with their airborne antics, beginning in 1910 at the first American Air Show in Los Angeles. Barnstormers provided the public with hours of excitement and a new breed of hero who risked everything to put on a show.
"Flight" also offers the following features:
o In "Buzz," meet Susan Darcy, who -- when she's not flying a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 passenger jet for American Airlines -- thrills crowds with her airborne stunts in Big Red, her Stearman biplane. In her interview, Darcy
o "Joke Space" sees the return of children's author, educator, and jokesmith Eric Arnold with a batch of new jokes about flight. If your funny bone is tickled, why not submit jokes of your own using joke tips from Eric, or read jokes submitted by kids?
o "People to Know" profiles pilots, inventors, and other aviation pioneers, including Willa Brown, the first African American woman to receive a commercial pilot's license; Edward Rickenbacker, a World War I fighter pilot; and Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
o Also, access past issues, check to see what's coming up next, and talk back to us with "BackYak."
First launched in November 1998, WayBack: US History for Kids http://www.pbs.org/amex/kids is produced by THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ONLINE. Past issues have received kudos from Netscape Netcenter, Yahooligans!, and Netsurfer Digest. The final issue this season will launch in June 1999. WayBack is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ONLINE also produces a companion Web site for every new television broadcast of THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, with information beyond the broadcast including program schedules, teacher's guides, audience feedback, and links to related sites. A recent AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ONLINE site, "MacArthur," was chosen as a Hot Site by "USA Today," both online and in print.
THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ONLINE is produced by THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE in association with WGBH Interactive, Boston, which produces Web sites supporting WGBH national series such as NOVA, THE ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, and ARTHUR. WGBH Interactive also produces WGBH ONLINE
<http://www.wgbh.org>, updated weekly for WGBH viewers, members, and listeners throughout the Northeast. The WGBH Educational Foundation is the single largest producer of primetime television programs and Web sites seen nationally on PBS and PBS ONLINE.