Mr Wizard revisited

DON HERBERT, who spent 14 years trying as television’s “Mr Wizard” to explain science to children, now thinks he can reach his 9–13‐year‐old audience better in the classroom with instructional films. Before turning to these films, Herbert also used the television medium for an adult‐science series. However, he discovered that an adult’s attitude to science is already molded in a fixed and often hostile form. So instead he determined to catch the child in school, where his interest in science usually begins. To this end, Herbert’s classroom films draw upon the student’s natural curiosity and maintain it with written responses during die presentation. The child’s involvement, therefore, is personal rather than vicarious, as with ‘Mr Wizard.”

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