FACULTY PROFILE

Radio Free Science

On Dec. 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, N.C., Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first people to ever fly an airplane. Orville flew first, then Wilbur, then Orville, then Wilbur. Then they were done. There was no big celebration. There wasn’t even an audience.

On Dec. 17, 2002, in eastern Nebraska, listeners to KIOS, Omaha’s public radio station, heard the story of the Wright brothers. The reader of the story was an Omaha public school student learning the ins and outs of radio firsthand. The script was written by Dana’s Dr. Mark Sand, associate professor of mathematics. There was quite an audience.

It was just another “Today in Science,” a segment written by Sand in the style of the popular “Writer’s Almanac,” also broadcast on public radio. The segments have been running every workday since their debut on Sept. 9, during breaks in “Fresh Air,” a morning interview show.

The project has been something Sand has been working on for more than five years. He originally started compiling the information used for the segments to be put into a book. Unfortunately, someone beat him to the punch, and Sand was left with a lot of information going to waste.

“I just wanted to do something with it,” Sand said. So he contacted KIOS, and pitched the idea of doing the daily science tidbits using high school students as readers. The segments would be informative and about things the public could easily relate to.

Radio Broadcasting Instructor Carol Tschampl-Diesing of the Omaha Public Schools’ Career Center was involved in the development process of the show, and currently works with the students who produce it. She said the segments were perfect for KIOS, which is run by the Omaha Public Schools and often serves as a laboratory for students interested in communication.

The students who read “Today in Science” are members of advanced radio classes at OPS’s Career Center. Tschampl-Diesing said they run the gamut from students seriously interested in pursuing a career in radio to students who heard it was a fun class.

“They were all really excited about actual on-air experience,” she said. Students put a lot of effort into getting the segments just right, sometimes spending up to a week working on a 1-minute piece.

Beyond the experience gained in reading for the radio, Tschampl-Diesing said she could tell students were learning quite a bit about science from the activity as well. “Today in Science” has also received a great response from Omaha-area science teachers, she said.

The decision to continue the project for a second year has not been made, but Tschampl-Diesing said she would love to keep her students working on it. Sand said he would also like to see the segments continue and would only need to make a few alterations and additions to have a second season ready.

“They pretty much write themselves, he said.

Which leaves Sand with some free time on his hands. His plans?

“I’d like to do something like a half-hour radio talk show about the history of science,” he said. “It still has to be explored.”

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