In winter 2000, I worked on three children's dramas for the Galaxy Classroom initiative of TVOntario, the province's educational broadcasting service. Galaxy Classroom is an interactive learning system of non-broadcast videos, websites, and lesson plans, all designed to support the province's elementary level science and language arts curricula. Through the late 1990s, students in 165 Ontario classrooms were part of Galaxy.

The characters of Galaxy dramas don't teach specifics. Rather, they model enthusiasm for learning, the free flow of investigative inquiry, and collaborative engagement. The characters (usually children and 'talking' animals) serve as examples for their young viewers, demonstrating attitudes and behaviour appropriate to the accompanying classroom experiments and exercises (the more didactic components of the initiative).

I wrote a two-episode (each episode is about 15 minutes) story for Sci-Squad Cadet (grade 4 and 5 science) featuring teen investigator Samantha, her helper, Charles, and his sidekick, Darwin, a smart aleck border collie who 'thinks' in a Scottish burr. Through the course of eight episodes, Sam aims to use her scientific skills to earn a place on the Sci-Squad, a mysterious group of teens who solve cases assigned by their commander, 'Mother'. In the final two-parter of the series, which I wrote, Sam uses scientific principles to improve her discus throwing and so -- finally! -- earns that coveted spot on the Sci-Squad team.

I wrote five 5-minute scripts for My Pet Alien (grade 1 science), in which 8-year-old Joey helps Marie Curious, a talking purple poodle from Planet Pet, to discover basics about earth and so win the intergalactic "My Favourite Planet" contest. For instance, in Episode 3, Joey and Marie are surprised to find that they prefer very different kinds of peanut butter sandwiches. Episode 6 finds them categorizing some of Marie's favourite earth experiences according to the senses they stimulate. In Episode 14, the two friends discover what happens when Marie follows instructions to make a paper maché mask -- and Joey improvises!

Writer and comic Carolyn Bennett and I developed the concept and treatment for The House (grade 6 language arts), a series to explore the delights of reading and writing for urban tween-aged boys -- specifically those at risk of turning away from their schooling. We created four scenarios that brought a group of kids adventure, music, magic, and community, all enhanced by language competence. Our concepts were video- and web-integrated, including suggestions for interactivity and viewer/user investment.

The challenge with the Galaxy Classroom scripts was to walk a razor's edge: to ground the characters' legitimate enthusiasms in curriculum-appropriate content without getting mired in step-by-step teaching. Oh, and to throw in some humour while I was at it. Research helped; so did rewrites; so did re-hashing the work with my colleagues.

Working on The House was pure pleasure. Carolyn and I had enormous fun devising means to engage reluctant tween-aged males -- essentially, speak to them in their own language; allow characters to be edgy, even difficult at times. Our joke was 'think Ashley MacIsaac (Canada's talented, cantankerous Celtic musician bad boy) meets Harry Potter (immensely popular benign child wizard)!' And I believe that we rose to the challenge. Disappointingly, TVOntario did not have the funds to develop our treatment. Swallowing that was another challenge, but then, that's television.

By the way, I fully subscribe to the educational strategy of the Galaxy Classroom: to enhance kids' in-class experience and skills acquisition by using drama to model wide-open, heart-felt learning. This approach is close to my own way of teaching visual arts. In the classroom, I aim to be an artist-teacher rather than a teacher. That means that I model an artist's behaviour, enabling students to absorb my orientation and use it in approaching their own work. I've seen that such an approach can enrich kids' learning and their lives.

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