FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 09.29.08

Contacts:
Stephen Wakefield, Discovery Education
240-662-2893
stephen_wakefield@discovery.com

Sandy Fash, C. Blohm & Associates
608-839-9800
sandy@cblohm.com

Districts Nationwide Work to Improve Science Achievement Using Digital Media Service

Educators begin school year with Discovery Education Science to engage middle school students

Silver Spring, MD (September 29, 2008) – Educators and administrators in districts nationwide, including Montgomery County Public Schools (Md.), Aurora Public Schools (Colo.), and the Keystone Area Education Agency in Northeast Iowa, are continuing their efforts to improve student achievement in the sciences this school year by partnering with Discovery Education. Educators and students in each of these areas have begun the new school year using Discovery Education Science, a digital service from Discovery Education that engages students in scientific inquiry through high-quality digital resource s.

Linked to state standards, Discovery Education Science empowers educators to quickly locate and use videos, animations, images, eBooks, and virtual labs to reach students through a medium that they are already familiar with and are eager to use in the classroom. Each middle school student in these three areas can access the service with a unique username and password, enabling their teachers to create individual learning plans for each student. In addition, an online assessment component quickly identifies student understanding of science concepts throughout the learning process via a pre-test, mid-point check, and/or post test. This feature helps teachers assess student learning to ensure lesson goals are achieved.

“Building a curriculum that’s completely digital is a key objective of Montgomery County Public Schools,” said Anita O’Neill, Supervisor of Science. “Providing our educators with a comprehensive digital service, such as Discovery Education Scien ce, is an important part of the effort to move to a digital curriculum. The service is easy for educators to implement and presents content in ways that speak to differing modes of learning.” The Montgomery County Public Schools are implementing Discovery Education Science in all 38 county middle schools.

Preparing students to comprehend existing and emerging science issues, manage new information, utilize new technologies, and solve increasingly complex problems is key to their success in the 21st century. The combination of science literacy and efficient access to digital media enables today’s students to improve critical thinking and problem-solving skills, to acquire an understanding of science that surpasses previous generations, and to be prepared for the opportunities and challenges of living and working in a global community.

“One of our goals is to help students become scientifically literate adults,” said Jason Martin-Hiner, Science Consultant for the Keystone Area Education Agency (AEA), which has purchased Discovery Education Science for all elementary and middle schools within its service region. “Discovery Education Science helps accomplish this by providing teachers with a flexible and diverse content source that can involve learners at all levels in meaningful inquiry of fundamental science concepts.”

Administrators in these areas recognize the importance of science education for students and support both scientific literacy and student achievement by offering students and educators seamless access to online science content correlated to state educational standards. Organized around an inquiry framework, and covering Physical, Earth and Space, and Life Sciences, Discovery Education Science is designed to encourage exploration, stimulate critical thinking, and deepen understanding of science. In addition, an online assessment tool built into Discovery Education Science makes classroom instruction more efficient by providing timely recommendations for what remedial exercises individual students need to progress.

“Discovery Education Science is a powerful tool to engage students in science because it is able to illustrate and reinforce concepts and vocabulary that are otherwise very difficult to demonstrate,” said Ryann Patrick-Stuart, Science Instructional Coordinator for the Aurora Public Schools Division of Instruction, whose 41 elementary and middle schools are integrating Discovery Education Science into instruction this year. “For example, I was in a 4th grade classroom where the students were studying electricity and only when the teacher showed the animation of a circuit, did the students fully grasp how energy flows through a simple circuit.”

For more information on Discovery Education Science, or any other products and services from Discovery Education, please visit www.discoveryeducation.com or call 80 0-323-9084.

About Discovery Education
Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB and DISCK) revolutionized television with Discovery Channel and is now transforming classrooms through Discovery Education. Powered by the number one nonfiction media company in the world, Discovery Education combines scientifically proven, standards-based digital media and a dynamic user community in order to empower teachers to improve student achievement. Already, more than half of all U.S. schools access Discovery Education digital services. Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com.