{"id":62491,"date":"2011-11-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/move-over-grover-uri-science-educator-stars-on-sesame-street\/"},"modified":"2011-11-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T00:00:00","slug":"move-over-grover-uri-science-educator-stars-on-sesame-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2011\/11\/move-over-grover-uri-science-educator-stars-on-sesame-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Move over Grover, 溏心vlog免费B站 science educator stars on Sesame Street"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t<\/object>KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 9, 2011 \u2013Sara Sweetman knows how to get teachers excited about science and how to inspire young students to seek answers through the scientific method, even those in kindergarten. <\/p>\n


\n\tThe director of a nationally renowned science education network at the 溏心vlog免费B站, Sweetman has even been at home in New York, working with the cast and crew of Sesame Street to help guide 12 of the show\u2019s science, technology, engineering and math segments.<\/p>\n


\n\tBut she was never prepared to star in four Sesame Street episodes and the 6- to 12-hour filming sessions needed to get those segments just right.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI never aspired to be an actor,\u201d said Sweetman, a resident of Bristol and former Jamestown teacher who spoke while taking a break from another teacher training session at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Narragansett Bay Campus. \u201cIt\u2019s not my forte. My forte is teaching youngsters and teaching teachers how to build their science lessons on an inquiry-based model.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI was on hand for the filming to ensure that the science was covered accurately when the education content producer and a writer asked me to jump into a scene.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tSoon, Sweetman was having on-camera conversations with Murray the Muppet and a bunch of youngsters from New York public schools. They shot in June in the New York Hall of Science, the Liberty Science Museum, Public School 138 and Central Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in Central Park when we filmed in 90-degree heat in direct sunlight,\u201d Sweetman said. \u201cWhen we were between takes, we had to pat the sweat off our faces. We ate lots of ice cream during those days. I was amazed at the kids\u2019 ability to stay focused on one topic for up to 6 hours. Sometimes, we did two segments in one day, which required an amazing amount of discipline by the students.\u201d <\/p>\n


\n\tSweetman, who is director of education for 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Guiding Education in Math and Science Network (known as GEMS-NET), has been working behind the scenes with Sesame Workshop since February 2010, first in a series of seminars in New York and then continuing with regular conversations with the group that produces Sesame Street and The Electric Company. <\/p>\n


\nActors, producers, set designers, directors, game developers and those from the book divisions of Sesame Workshop, formerly the Children\u2019s Television Workshop, learned about best practices in science education from Sweetman. Two members of the Sesame Workshop team joined the 溏心vlog免费B站 educator, her staff and a group of Rhode Island public school teachers last June during a workshop on improving the science network. <\/p>\n


\nThat behind-the-scenes work led to Sweetman becoming an on-camera talent for Sesame Street.<\/p>\n


\nOne segment on bubble science has already aired. With Murray the Muppet, played engagingly by actor Joey Mazzarino, Sweetman and her student team came up with an experiment to test what kind of a surface would be best for catching bubbles. Dirt, aluminum foil and soapy water were among the surfaces tested. The students with soapy water on their hands were the most successful at catching bubbles.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cOne of the things Murray taught the students was how to set up an experiment that would test the variables,\u201d Sweetman said.<\/p>\n


\nThe schedule for each of the segments featuring Sweetman on Channel 36, Rhode Island PBS is: “”The Bubble Fest,” Jan. 18, 2012, 7 a.m.; “Elmo and the Monarch Butterfly,” Oct. 31, Dec. 7 and Feb. 9, 2012, 7 a.m.; and Falling Leaves, Jan. 2, 2012 and Feb. 21, 7 a.m. The schedule for each of the segments featuring Sweetman on Channel 36.2, WSBE Learn is: “The Bubble Fest,” Jan. 17, 2012; “Elmo and the Monarch Butterfly,” Oct. 28, Dec. 6, 2012 and Feb. 8; and “Falling Leaves,” Dec. 30 and Feb. 20, 2012. The overall Rhode Island schedule for Sesame Street is Rhode Island PBS, Channel 36, weekdays at 7 a.m. and on Channel 36.2, WSBE Learn weekdays at 10 a.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

Sweetman and her student actors did not have scripts. \u201cBecause these were actual experiments the crew wanted the children, Murray and me to be in a real setting,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was hard for the production crew because they couldn\u2019t anticipate certain elements.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cEverybody was fascinating and a pleasure to work with,\u201d Sweetman said. \u201cThey all have such passion. They brought out the best in the kids.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs the Sesame Workshop\u2019s science, technology, engineering and math advisor, Sweetman said she has a deep respect for the science needed to put together a show.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI told the crew and the kids while we were filming that STEM is all around them, even in such areas as simple machines, which is one of our lessons in GEMS-Net,\u201d she said. \u201cDuring one shoot, a camera mounted on a track kept squeaking. One of the crew came out and squirted baby powder on the track and it worked. It was a great lesson about how to counteract friction.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSo what\u2019s the biggest lesson she learned and she wants to impart to teachers and young students? \u201cKeep yourself open to opportunities and crazy, wonderful things can happen.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nPictured above: <\/p>\n

\n

溏心vlog免费B站 Educator to star on Sesame Street: wpri.com<\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\nHER PAL MURRAY: Sara Sweetman, director of a nationally renowned science education network at the 溏心vlog免费B站, talks science with Murray the Muppet during a shoot for a Sesame Street segment. Sweetman worked with the cast and crew of Sesame Street to help guide 12 of the show\u2019s science, technology, engineering and math segments and she appeared on four episodes that will run this season.<\/p>\n


\nSHE\u2019S NO GROUCH: Sara Sweetman, director of education for 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Guiding Education in Math and Science Network (known as GEMS-NET), who has been working behind the scenes with Sesame Workshop since February 2010, hangs out in Oscar the Grouch\u2019s trash can on the set.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 9, 2011 \u2013Sara Sweetman knows how to get teachers excited about science and how to inspire young students to seek answers through the scientific method, even those in kindergarten. The director of a nationally renowned science education network at the 溏心vlog免费B站, Sweetman has even been at home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}