History Films and Balcony Releasing Present Sputnik Mania A Film By David Hoffman
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The Educational Team

The Sputnik Mania Educational Program was developed by a team of teachers, a curriculum integration specialist, and filmmaker David Hoffman. Together they created 6 stimulating Explorations that will make it easy for History, Social Studies and Science teachers to connect The Fever of '57 to classroom learning.

David Hoffman - is a 40-year veteran of documentary and educational programs with more than 100 prime-time and award-winning films to his credit including the 6-part "Making Sense of the Sixties" for PBS and 4 feature-length docs. Hoffman's 4-part Turner series, Moon Shot won the Peabody Award. Hoffman created The Fever of '57 with a youth audience in mind. While making the film he was inspired by this pivotal and little-known chapter in American history. Hoffman felt this generation of students would see the story's parallels to the world today and would greatly benefit from an in-depth knowledge of the Sputnik year events. That's when he decided to create this special educational program for schools that combines film (DVD), with web, print, and classroom experiences. The Fever of '57 is based on the book Sputnik: The Shock on the Century by Paul Dickson. Dickson wrote the script for The Fever of '57 and has authored more than 45 nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles, Dickson is a consummate historian and investigative journalist.

Andree Duggan - is a curriculum integration specialist who, since 1993, has helped independent film producers, PBS producers and PBS stations increase the impact and reach of their public affairs projects. Duggan was on the team that helped launch Discovery Channel School; she headed the "You Can Soar" education team that brought the re-creation of Amelia Earhart's World Flight to 13 million students; she ran station outreach for PBS affiliate WTIU to bring Howard and Matthew Greene's Ten Steps to College into American livingrooms; and is currently on a select team exploring the classroom learning potentials of Massive Multiplayer Online Games under a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Duggan and Filmmaker David Hoffman have a 15-year history, and she is thrilled to support Hoffman's goal of bringing the lessons of The Fever of '57 into the classroom.

Stephen Armstrong - is Department Supervisor of Social Studies for West Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut. Armstrong is also an instructor at Central Connecticut State University, past-president of Connecticut Council for the Social Studies, as presently sits on the Board of Directors of the National Council for the Social Studies. He is also the President of the New England History Teacher's Association and Co-director of the Yale University PIER Summer Institutes in European History. Armstrong authored a nationally-published study guide for students of Advanced Placement United States history.

Dr. Richard Fritz - is currently a science teacher at Conard High School in West Hartford, Connecticut. He has taught AP Biology, Earth Science, AP Environmental Science, and Chemistry in his 28 years as a public school teacher. Moreover, he presently teaches Educational Statistics at the University of Hartford and Medical Physics at Goodwin College. Earlier in his career he was a U.S. Navy Human Resources Management Instructor in San Diego, CA for 3 years and a Nuclear Trainer for Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation for 5 years.