Futures 2 With Jaime Escalante: Environmental Science & Technology; Math...Who Needs It?

Math teacher Jaime Escalante (subject of the 1988 feature film Stand and Deliver) makes math "cool" in these programs on the joy, variety, and necessity of mathematics. Futures 2 is a second season follow-up to the critically acclaimed series Futures. The basic format has Escalante teaching to his class, being visited by a celebrity, and then discovering the ways in which mathematics are important to a particular profession or general group. In the Environmental Science & Technology episode, Escalante is joined by Olivia Newton-John, the first ambassador to the United Nations on the environment. Cutting away to on-location interviews, the program visits a garbage archaeologist (a new profession); emphasizes the importance of the three R's (recycle, reuse, reduce), and looks at the destruction of the tropical rainforest--all within the context of mathematics. While mathematics alone won't save the planet from environmental evils, the planet won't survive without mathematics. Math...Who Needs It? is an earlier program that uses the Futures format while offering a more generalized "push" for math. Beginning in his East Los Angeles classroom with a new group of students, Escalante is seen teaching math and, at the same time, exuberantly transferring his love for the subject to his students. The many celebrities who talk about their "fear" of math as kids and subsequent realization that math is both tremendously important to personal success and fun to boot include: Bill Cosby, the late Dizzy Gillespie, Teri Garr, and Joe Piscopo. In addition, kids see the practical use of mathematics in a wide variety of professions: robotics, making skateboards, mixing sound for a Billy Joel concert, designing rollercoasters, bringing water from north to south in California, and making new Nike's. While the Futures programs focus on a particular area, and Math...Who Needs It? deals with mathematics on a broader scale, both are essentially inspirational programs. That's okay. Math needs an image facelift, and these tapes provide that. After watching them, I looked at my K-Mart calculator with a newfound respect. Highly recommended. (Futures 2 With Jaime Escalante: Environmental Science & Technology is available from: PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698; (800) 344-3337.) (Math...Who Needs It? is available from: Instructional Video Inc., 727 "O" St., Lincoln NE 68508; (800) 228-0164.)