2009 Ralph Lowell Medal

David Fanning, executive producer, Frontline (WGBH Boston)
Created in 1970 to commemorate the late Boston philanthropist who founded WGBH Boston and was instrumental in the formation of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, which led to the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 and the establishment of CPB, CPB’s Ralph Lowell Medal honors an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to public television.

Filmmaker David Fanning (photographed with CPB Board member Chris Boskin) came to WGBH Boston in 1977 to start the international documentary series WORLD, now Frontline/World. As executive producer, he produced and presented more than 50 films for PBS in five years. With director Antony Thomas, Fanning produced and co-wrote Death of a Princess(1980). In 1982, again with Thomas, he produced Frank Terpil: Confessions of a Dangerous Man, which won the Emmy Award for best investigative documentary. With Fanning as its executive producer since its first season in 1983, Frontline’s approximately 600 films have earned the investigative documentary series 45 Emmys; 23 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, including an unprecedented three Gold Batons; 13 Peabody Awards; and a 2003 Pulitzer Prize for a Frontline/New York Times joint investigation of the cast-iron pipe-making industry. Fanning also received the Columbia Journalism Award in 2004 for “singular journalistic performance in the public interest” and the 2010 Goldsmith Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center “for outstanding contributions to the field of journalism, and for work that has enriched our political discourse and our society.”

2010 Edward R. Murrow Award

Nina Totenberg, legal affairs correspondent, NPR
Named for the legendary reporter who championed responsible, courageous, and imaginative uses of electronic media during his distinguished 30-year career, the Murrow Award is presented by CPB to individuals who foster public radio’s quality and service as well as shape its direction.

Legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg (photographed holding the award with CPB Board member Patricia Cahill) has worked with NPR for 35 years, focusing primarily on the activities and politics of the U.S. Supreme Court. Honored seven times by the American Bar Association for excellence in legal reporting, her reports air regularly on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition. Among her scoops was her groundbreaking report of sexual harassment allegations made against Clarence Thomas, leading the Senate Judiciary Committee to re-open his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In 1991, her reporting on the confirmation hearings earned NPR the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. In 1986, she broke the story that Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg had smoked marijuana while a student in the 1960s and while an assistant professor in the 1970s, leading Ginsburg to withdraw his name. Totenberg and NPR were awarded a 1989Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton award for the story. And in 1977, she reported on secret Supreme Court deliberations relating to the Watergate scandal. Totenberg is also a panelist on Inside Washington, a weekly syndicated public affairs television program, and she has served as the legal affairs correspondent on PBS’s MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (now PBS NewsHour) and as a commentator for ABC’s Nightline.

My Source Education Innovation Awards

CPB created the My Source Education Innovation Awards to acknowledge public television stations for their commitment to education through outstanding services to students, teachers, parents, caregivers, and lifelong learners in their communities.

Alabama Public Television (Birmingham)
APT bolstered its STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) offerings by participating in a national study of whooping cranes. Partnering with Journey North and Operation Migration, APT and Title I students tracked the birds’ migration to create new content online, which more than 292,000 elementary students in 924 public elementary schools have accessed.

Eight/Arizona PBS (Phoenix)
Eight experimented with ways to bring virtual reality into professional development for K-12 teachers. Eight’s ASSET program collaborates with the International Society for Technology in Education and Virtual Pioneers to provide virtual field trips, “real-time” workshops, and other online resources, dramatically expanding how Arizona’s educators incorporate technology into the classroom.

KOCE/PBS SoCal (Huntington Beach, California)
KOCE is the only television station dedicated to providing news, cultural information, and educational resources to the 3 million residents of Orange County (OC). Partnering with Chapman University and the OC Department of Education, KOCE’s two-year-old digital OC Channel is a “one-stop shop” for teachers on local issues that also provides media training.

KLCS (Los Angeles, California)
KLCS’s Video in the Classroom Competition has proven to be a great motivator for students. Teachers report that video projects improve students’ understanding of course content and increase their participation in classroom work, resulting in higher achievement.

WHUT (Washington, D.C.)
WHUT created a Media and Learning Lab and SuperWhy Summer Literacy Camps to introduce children in low-income families to public broadcasting’s interactive games, online content, and television programming. Both projects also help assure producers that their content is effective in diverse, low-income communities. PBS Kids Island was tested extensively using the lab.

WPBT (Miami, Florida)
WPBT launched a free professional development Web site for voluntary pre-kindergarten educators. The learning modules cover four curriculum standards, each of which includes a virtual field trip to different places in the community, with short introductory videos to help teachers understand the standards presented during the trips.

WSRE (Pensacola, Florida)
Through its Digital School Initiative, WSRE, in partnership with its local school district, offers professional development to K-12 educators focused on the innovative use of technology to enhance curriculum. Experts and classroom teachers provide hands-on-training, and a companion documentary produced by WSRE was featured statewide on the Florida Knowledge Network.

WFSU (Tallahassee, Florida)
WFSU partners with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to sponsor a two-week summer science camp called SciGirls, offering hands-on science experiences for middle school girls with local scientists and engineers.

Georgia Public Broadcasting (Atlanta)
In 2009 the Georgia Department of Education launched a remediation program, Project ExPreSS (Exam Preparation for Science and Social Studies), for students who fail their high school graduation test. This program incorporated GPB’s digital media to illustrate each learning object. The success of the program—a pass rate double the previous year’s—led to the development of a free online program available statewide.

Iowa Public Television (Johnston)
IPTV discovered that 75 percent of Iowa middle school students identified STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers as an area of interest. In response, IPTV joined Future City, Iowa Science Fair 2009, and IT Olympics to produce and deliver a series of 113 STEM-related interactive videoconferences. In 2009, 9,259 teachers and students at 655 Iowa schools participated in the IPTV project.

WSIU (Carbondale, Illinois)
WSIU offers rural educators online professional development courses to inspire peer interaction, achievement, and recognition. The station combines scholarship opportunities, face-to-face orientation, and ongoing local support with the PBS TeacherLine series to introduce teachers to digital learning experiences. WSIU also collaborates with faculty in higher education institutions to forge new opportunities for online course development and academic credit.

WNIN/Tri-State Public Media (Evansville, Indiana)
As part of its two-year economic initiative, WNIN promoted workforce development strategies with a series of public service announcements (PSAs). Topics included first steps for the unemployed, writing resumes and interviewing, 21st-century skills, and avoiding the depression of unemployment. DVDS were provided to human resources departments and social service agencies, and these PSAs continue to run on air and online.

WFYI (Indianapolis, Indiana)
WFYI’s Indiana Expeditions is a multiplatform series designed to promote informal science education and inquiry-based learning. As part of its STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) initiative, the station created six television shows, a Web site, and an online teachers’ toolkit with more than 20 lessons. It conducted trainings for schools reaching 16,800 students, local museums reaching 12,000 people, and at professional conferences.

KET/Kentucky Educational TV (Lexington)
KET collaborated with the Kentucky Department of Education to expand its professional development resources. The Literacy Leadership project took cameras into nine schools in which changes in literacy instruction resulted in dramatic improvements among all student demographic groups. These videos, available on DVD and at literacyleadership.org, assist teachers in professional development.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting (Baton Rouge)
LPB partnered with Carencro High School’s Academy of Information Technology and the Bay Area Video Coalition to conduct a youth-generated public media experiment over a high-speed fiber optic network. The Fiber Kids project to enhance the school’s technology and instruction provided more bandwidth to the school for a high-speed fiber optic network, expanded instruction to include creation of 3-D models, and trained students for careers in Web design management, GIS mapping, 3-D modeling and animation, and video production.

WBUR-FM and WGBH-TV (Boston, Massachusetts)
WBUR-FM and WGBH-TV collaborated on Project Dropout, a multimedia series examining the Massachusetts high school dropout rate through more than 20 radio reports, a live television special, and an extensive Web site featuring student video diaries. The series helped raise the profile of the problem just as the Massachusetts Dropout Prevention Commission was drawing up its recommendations on the issue.

WUMB-FM (Boston, Massachusetts)
Through its series The Big Read: Getting Boston Excited About Reading Literature, WUMB has stimulated interest in literature on its airwaves, Web site, and podcasts by providing information on books, interviews with authors, call-in talk shows, public service announcements, and a radio play. In two years, the station has distributed more than 20,000 reader guides, 650 audio guides, and 385 teacher guides.

WGBY (Springfield, Massachusetts)
In 2009, WGBY piloted the Martha Speaks Read-Aloud Book Club, a summer initiative to inspire young elementary school children to read. The station partnered with local libraries in eight Western Massachusetts communities to start a weekly book club, engaging children in story readings surrounding the topics and characters of Martha Speaks.

Detroit Public Television (Michigan)
Detroit Public Television has developed Think Squad, a weekly half-hour television series to make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics exciting and fun for middle school students. Think Squad provides viewers and the show’s young cast and crew with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum and exposure to a variety of science projects, professionals, and careers.

Maryland Public Television (Owings Mills)
Partnering with Education Arcade at MIT, animation company FableVision, and an advisory board of state and national mathematics education experts, Maryland Public Television designed, developed, and delivered Lure of the Labyrinth. In a study of 3,000 pre-algebra students, teachers noted students’ increased achievement, engagement, and interest in playing the mathematical game at home.

KCPT (Kansas City, Missouri)
KCPT created 32 video vignettes featuring examples of inquiry-based teaching methods for third- through fifth-grade science and mathematics teachers. These videos are available online with accompanying lesson plans and resources for classrooms across the Kansas City area.

KIOS-FM (Omaha, Nebraska)
KIOS-FM serves as the learning lab for the broadcasting program at the Omaha public schools’ Career Center, which offers technical programs for high school students. The project helps improve students’ reading and writing skills, teaches the basics of newsgathering and reporting using the Marantz PMD-620 recorder, a relatively new digital technology, and offers students the opportunity to air their work on air and online.

KVNO-FM (Omaha, Nebraska)
KVNO-FM helped form the Omaha Kids Coalition, an award-winning public service project dedicated to integrating the efforts of nonprofit agencies serving at-risk youth. In using digital media to promote content, University of Nebraska−Omaha broadcasting students learn how to increase civic engagement and foster a climate where citizen journalism flourishes.

KNME (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
In a state where physics laboratories and high-tech companies are some of the largest employers, KNME joined forces with Albuquerque public schools and science museums to create Science Central and Science Crawl, twin projects that encourage middle school students to investigate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. KNME also set up a special e-mail account for more than 200 high school science teachers to consult one another on technical questions.

Vegas PBS (Las Vegas, Nevada)
With Keeping Kids Fit, Vegas PBS teaches children and their families how to make their lifestyles healthier. More than 300 workshops have been conducted at the early-childhood level, and 4,000 exercise and nutrition kits have been developed and distributed to elementary and middle school students and their families.

WSKG (Binghamton, New York)
WSKG’s WoW: Working on Wellness promotes health and wellness issues, namely preventing childhood obesity, in its community. A children’s television show, Move It!, and a related outreach program, Stride with Pride, encourage third- to fifth-graders to get moving. Eight school districts and 870 students participated.

WNED (Buffalo, New York)
As part of WNED’s Your Life, Your Money financial literacy initiative, the station used online and social media to raise awareness among young adults of rising credit card debt and the need for retirement planning. Its Web site was nominated for Best Education Site in the 14th Annual Webby Awards. Community outreach was built into the project with events in Buffalo, New York City, and across the country.

Mountain Lake PBS/WCFE (Plattsburgh, New York)
WCFE celebrated the quadricentennial of Samuel de Champlain’s explorations by producing an animated historical documentary and multimedia project for a younger PBS audience. Nearly 1,000 viewers attended the areawide premieres of Dead Reckoning: Champlain in America, which was complemented by a newspaper article−writing contest and a comprehensive educational Web site.

WXXI (Rochester, New York)
Homework Hotline is WXXI’s live statewide call-in show that helps elementary and middle school students with homework problems. The show and Web site also present daily thematic segments on student book reviews, arts, history, science, and other subjects.

ThinkTV/WPTD (Dayton, Ohio)
Two years ago, ThinkTV began working with the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Center to raise awareness of the regional STEM initiative. The partners now work to create Web content for students, videos for broadcast, and online professional development resources to increase the engagement of students and teachers in STEM education throughout the region.

OETA (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
OETA is bolstering Oklahoma’s adult literacy through two new programs. Emmy Award−winning TV411 offers practical lessons on mathematics, writing, and reading comprehension and includes motivational interviews. GED Connection teaches skills and knowledge tested on the new GED exam while offering test-taking strategies and demonstrations of people applying these skills in real life.

Penn State Public Broadcasting (University Park, Pennsylvania)
WPSU’s Blue Ribbon Readers project employs seven online, interactive literacy games to improve word recognition and encourage reading comprehension in kindergarteners through fifth-grade students. Assessment of pre- and post-test scores revealed that students in classes using these games gained, on average, an oral reading fluency of 17 words per minute and increased their reading comprehension scores by 28 points.

SCETV (Columbia, South Carolina)
SCETV’s environmental educational project Web of Water and its companion Web site trace a kayaking expedition from South Carolina’s mountains to the ocean. Provided to Title 1 schools and groups at risk or with special needs, Web of Water helps students appreciate and understand the challenges facing local natural, cultural, and historical landscapes.

Texas Public Radio (San Antonio)
TPR’s Teaching Tools Web site connects educators to downloadable curriculum and teaching components made available by NPR, American Public Media, Minnesota Public Radio, and public radio program producers. The site provides extensive educational materials regarding language arts, social studies, science, and music.

KUEN (Wasatch, Utah)
To combat prospective dangers of the Internet, KUEN created NetSafe Utah. Its online and in-person workshops provide in-depth instruction for educators, caregivers, and kids. In 2009, the program served 24,413 children and 2,462 adults, an eightfold increase over the previous year.

WHRO (Norfolk, Virginia)
Owned by 18 local public school divisions, WHRO created the Hampton Roads Virtual Learning Center, through which the station offers modular, instructor-led, core-curriculum online student courses as well as nearly 40 AP and world language courses with more than 3,500 statewide registrations annually.

Vermont Public Television (Colchester)
VPT celebrated the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s discovery of Lake Champlain with an hourlong documentary, Champlain: The Lake Between. The project encompassed an extensive educational initiative focused on native history, incorporating public screenings, producer Q&A sessions, teacher training workshops, and a companion CD-ROM with teaching materials.

KPLU (Tacoma, Washington)
KPLU started its School of Jazz project to connect local student musicians with mentors to learn the nuances of jazz performance. More than 1,000 of those students have produced professional-quality CDs that KPLU has broadcast on air and streamed online. The station also helped raise more than $50,000 for local schools’ music programs.

Wyoming PBS (Riverton)
To engage students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, Wyoming PBS produced a field trip to one of the state’s many wind farms. A video of the trip, available online with lesson plans, includes presentations from power engineers, construction design experts, and teachers.