The mission of Project Oceanography is to broadcast affordable, age-appropriate educational programming to middle school students, incorporating current topics in marine science to teach basic concepts and promote active learning, thereby enhancing the traditional classroom experience. Since 1996, this university-based program has been distributing TV broadcasts to classrooms across the nation via satellite and cable television broadcast networks. The number of registered sites, comprised of schools, school districts, and instructional TV stations now totals more than 420 in 40 states and 9 foreign countries.

Program hosts are research scientists, so the challenge of Project Oceanography has been to match the teaching style of the university professor to the attention span of the middle school student. We have been perfecting our format for instructional television for five years to meet this delicate balance in effective communication between generations while maintaining cost-effectiveness and instructional quality of the program. The format adopted moves beyond the "candid classroom" distance learning style commonly used in the university setting towards that of a fully pre-produced commercial video. Assessments of successful program elements and program effectiveness, based on teacher and student evaluations, will be discussed. Details available at: http://www.marine.usf.edu/pjocean