Local Teens "star" in Dragonfly
	April 22 event celebrates upcoming PBS TV show featuring Fort Worth Museum and local teens DRAGONFLY TV DAY AT THE MUSEUM REAL KIDS DOING REAL SCIENCE The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History will host Dragonfly TV Day on Saturday, April 22 by offering kids of all ages hands-on science fun like owl pellet investigations, fossil sorting and more.             Guests can also meet the local TV “stars” of the upcoming Dragonfly TV episode featuring the museum and numerous local middle schoolers. The episode will be broadcast on a big screen at 11:15 a.m., 12:15 p.m. and 1:15 p.m. that day in the Rotunda.  Teens from the museum’s DesignIT Studios program, also featured in the TV show, will be on hand to lead a giant “Chain Reaction” activity in ExploraZone and “Spin Art” in the Rotunda.             There will also be some free give-aways: Dragonfly TV T-shirts, high-tech Frisbees, magnifying glasses and posters.             The Fort Worth Museum was one of 15 science centers around the U.S. selected to participate in this PBS science series geared to a middle-school audience.  The local episode, which includes shots from Billy Bob’s and the Stockyards, airs on KERA April 30 at 9:30 a.m. and May 5 at 5:30 p.m.             In the national TV series, pre-teens use the cool science stuff in museums to answer their science questions. Following Dragonfly TV’s real kids doing real science formula, the young scientists investigate everything from mysterious bog people to raging roller coasters.             In the Fort Worth show, two seventh graders at Fort Worth’s Applied Learning Academy, Ashley Jones and Brandy Harrison, measure, gather data, and dance around in the museum’s Lone Star Dinosaurs exhibit. The girls are also filmed at the museum’s dinosaur dig near Granbury at Jones Ranch, where they combed the earth for microfossils with help from Jim Diffily, the Museum’s curator and vice president of collections.             The episode also features DesignIT Studios, the Museum’s after-school program for diverse teens that promotes information technology fluency.    Filmed on location, Dragonfly TV: GPS episodes feature (in order of appearance):            Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh             Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific; California Science Center, Los Angeles             Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul             Bakken Museum, Minneapolis; Minnesota Zoo, Apple Valley             Fort Worth Museum of Science and History; Science Place, Dallas             Arizona Science Center, Phoenix; Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson             Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley; Exploratorium, San Francisco             New York Hall of Science, Queens; Bronx Zoo  DragonflyTV is also an interactive, multi-media, 24/7 science experience. Visit pbskidsgo.org/dragonflytv to stream science segments, surf online investigations, play games and riddles, share experiments and download podcasts. Twin Cities Public Television, based in St. Paul, MN, is a producer of award-winning PBS science programs for kids, including Newton’s Apple and Dragonfly TV. The Museum features traveling exhibits and four core exhibit galleries, including DinoDig® and KIDSPACE®; the Noble Planetarium, Museum School®; and the Omni Theater, an IMAX dome seven stories high. Since the mid-1980s, the Museum annually welcomes more than 800,000 visitors, making it one of the most popular cultural attractions in North Texas. For additional information, call 817-255-9300 or go to www.fortworthmuseum.org. ROVING MARS The mysterious Red PlanetMars, has inspired countless science fiction dreams and nightmares. Now, for the first time, experience the reality of the Mars surface as seen through the eyes of two intrepid, death-defying explorers --- Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Rovers – in the spectacular new giant-screen adventure Roving Mars, exclusively in IMAX® theaters. The phenomenal size and clarity of the IMAX screen draws the viewer    into a spectacular landscape that is at once awe-inspiring and amazing. And the suspenseful drama of the Rovers’ dogged quest over the rugged terrain may even answer that persistently haunting question – Is there life on Mars?  Produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Frank Marshall (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Sixth Sense, Seabiscuit) and produced and directed by George Butler (Pumping Iron,  Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure), the film opens at the Omni Theater at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History Jan. 27, 2006.  Roving Mars will be shown at the Omni Theater through July 27, 2006. The theater is located at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, 1501 Montgomery Street in Fort Worth’s Cultural District. Ticket prices are $7 for adults and $6 for children 3-12 and seniors (60+).  For show times and information, call 817-255-9300 or go to www.fortworthmuseum.org. For additional information on Roving Mars, go to www.rovingmars.com.