ENC FOCUS
A Magazine for Classroom Innovators

Technology and Science for a Safer Tomorrow
Series: Science Screen Report! Millennium Series
Grades 5-9
1999

Author: writer, producer, Deborah Greenspan

Middle-grade classrooms can use this video and accompanying teacher's guide to explore current technologies that preserve our safety and security, from surveillance cameras to new rescue and disaster prevention tools. This issue is part of a seven-program series that introduces students to the future of medicine, fitness and recreation, transportation, security issues, and robots. Each program offers narratives and visions of science, engineering, and medicine at work using live-action videos and computer graphics.  This program discusses new ways to keep safe from criminals, terrorists, and earthly disasters. Segments show how microphones may be used to quickly locate the source of gunshots and how a footprint can be used to make a positive identification by analyzing the pressure exerted by the human foot. Students also see how fires are studied in large building test facilities, and how people are studied in simulated panic situations that mimic human response and movement. The accompanying teacher's guide provides a program overview, vocabulary words, and career opportunities. After viewing this video program, students are encouraged to write an essay in which they describe the future as they imagine it to be.