CM Magazine: Taming the Tube

Taming the Tube

Greetings!

It's time again for the annual Taming the Tube project run through Canada's SchoolNet. Last year we had over 250 schools worldwide participate in this Internet research happening! Join us in this internationally acclaimed project and become part of the global village! We now have WWW access and will be publishing our findings on the Web. Please feel free to pass on this "Call to Participate."
There is a registration deadline, so don't delay.

Cheers!

Dalia Naujokaitis
Coordinator of Taming the Tube
St. Elizabeth Catholic School
893 Admiral Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
E-mail: an229@freenet.carleton.ca

CALL TO PARTICIPATE

TAMING THE TUBE PROJECT 1996:

TV-Watching Habits of 10-to-12 year olds

Have your students ever wondered how much TV they watch in a week? Have they ever compared their TV watching habits and attitudes with other students their age? In the Taming the Tube Project your students will have ample opportunities to make such comparisons with students from different parts of the world. The Grade 6 class at St. Elizabeth Catholic School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is presently studying the effects of mass media -- especially TV -- on kids. As part of this study the students are monitoring their weekly TV-watching habits. They want to find out the following :

How much TV is watched per week by 10-to-12 year olds?
Who watches more TV, the girls or the boys?
Are there any geographical differences?
What are the favourite TV shows of this age group?
How does TV influence the attitudes and lifestyles of 10-to-12 year olds?

BE A PART OF OUR RESEARCH.

MAKE YOUR PREDICTIONS . . . COMPARE YOUR FINDINGS.

PROJECT: TAMING THE TUBE 1996

by Dalia Naujokaitis

DATE: Feb. 12, 1996 - May 6, 1996

(Registration: Jan. 12 - Feb 9)

PURPOSE: This research activity allows students to measure a behaviour in which they have all participated, TV-WATCHING.

They will learn:

to collect data
to organize information
to make predictions and formulate hypotheses as well as to analyze their data by determining the mean, mode, median, and range
to locate their research team schools on maps
to use telecommunications:terminal software commands, uploading and downloading, e-mail, WWW
to use databases and spreadsheets

SUBJECTS: Mathematics, Research Skills, Science, Geography, Media Literacy, Computer literacy

GRADE LEVELS: 4, 5, 6, 7 (ages 10-12)

PROJECT COORDINATOR: Dalia Naujokaitis St. Elizabeth School 893 Admiral Avenue Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1Z 6L6 Telephone: (613) 728-4744 E-mail: an229@freenet.carleton.ca

TAMING THE TUBE REGISTRATION:

In order to participate you must agree to do the following:

register by completing the information requested below including the latitude and longitude
keep to the timeline in sending Hello letter and raw data (other classes are counting on you) upload the raw data in requested form
evaluate this project by filling out an evaluation form provided by the coordinator along with any comments or suggestion for improvement

NB: When you register you will be added to Tametube list. Further files will be sent to you to help with the HELLO letter and DATA collection.

HOW TO REGISTER: Send a separate registration for each class participating

E-mail address - an229@freenet.carleton.ca

with Subject: Register-Tame Tube

Name of contact:____________________________ e-mail address: ____________________________ School: ____________________________________ School address: ____________________________ School phone: ______________________________ Latitude: __________________________________ Longitude: _________________________________ Grade(s): __________________________________ Subject(s): ________________________________ Number of students in class:________________ Access to WWW: YES___ NO___ Home page URL (if any)______________________

Description of school/community:

(5 lines or less):

TIMELINE:

FEB. 9: Last day to register for participation in the project. On registration you will be added to the Tametube listserver.
FEB. 19: Project Coordinator sends global addresses and complete list of participants to participating schools
FEB. 26: Send Hello Letter to tametube list
FEB. 19- MARCH 22: Participating classes gather data (any 7-day cycle)
APRIL 12: Last day for sending raw data to coordinator
APRIL 22: Return Survey Questionnaire (optional but recommended) to Coordinator (not the list)
MAY 6: Data compiled & returned to research teams for further use

PROJECT OUTLINE AND PROCEDURES:

Upon registration participating classes are added to Tametube listserver.
Participant list sent to all schools for locating research team members using latitude and longitude.
Each class composes a Hello letter to be sent to all participants. Format will be sent after registration is confirmed.
Participating classes prepare a log book for keeping track of individual TV-watching times for the chosen 7-day cycle. Each student predicts how much time he/she spends watching TV in a week.
Each student keeps a log of TV watched during the agreed 7-day cycle. The TOTAL TIME WATCHED A WEEK is recorded by each child by adding up daily times watched over the 7-day cycle ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST 5 MINUTES each day. At the end of the week the minutes for the whole week FOR EACH STUDENT are totalled (THE RAW SCORE) and recorded for sending to Coordinator (not to the list).
TV watching does NOT include video games nor rented movies. Movie specials or TV programs that have been taped directly and watched later are included for this survey
At the end of the monitored week, the teacher and students summarize the results for the ENTIRE CLASS by noting the RANGE (from the lowest to the highest of total times watched) and by calculating 3 different types of "average"

MEAN:
add up all the children's total times watched divided by the number of children

MEDIAN:
list the data of total times watched by the children in ascending or descending order and select the value that falls in the middle (for even numbers take 2 middle values and average them)

MODE:
from the same list of data select the total time watched (to the nearest 5 minutes) that occurs most frequently

(This is an excellent time to use databases and spreadsheets for keeping track of results and for doing statistical analysis, graphing).
Calculate the RANGE, MEAN, MEDIAN, and MODE for the girls.
Calculate the RANGE, MEAN, MEDIAN, and MODE for the boys.
List the favourite TV programs for girls and boys separately, indicating # of times chosen.
Students fill out TV WATCHERS ANONYMOUS SURVEY. This survey has been devised by the Grade 6 students. The survey looks at student attitudes towards violence on TV, role models, influence of TV on clothing, etc. This is OPTIONAL, but highly requested.
All NUMERICAL, SURVEY, and FAVOURITE TV PROGRAMS data are forwarded to the coordinator for analysis and compilation of global results.
Format for sending collected DATA will be sent to participants when project begins.
DATA of individual classes and global results of survey are shared with all participants and published in hard copy and online. The hypotheses are tested out with real data.

Dalia Naujokaitis St. Elizabeth School, 893 Admiral Ave.
E-mail: an229@freenet.carleton.ca

Ottawa, Ontario, K1Z 6L6, CANADA

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

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