Barrington Second-Graders Help to Shape PBS TV Series

Second-graders in Barrington could be the inspiration behind upcoming episodes of the popular “Wild Kratts” TV series that airs on most PBS stations.

The creators of the animated series and its website gather the insights of children ages 6-11 in focus groups. On Wednesday, March 23, a group of second-graders gathered after school at a Highland Avenue home with three students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

“The brothers want to know what kids think of the show,” said Mitchell Miller, who led the trio of grad students in the Technology, Innovation, and Education Program. 

Miller was referring to brothers Chris and Martin Kratt, the creators and main characters in the series. The brothers circle the world in the show to introduce animals to children while using their “creature powers” to foil several villains who want to use animals as slaves.

“The project is for a class on formative evaluation,” Miller said. “Some children watched the ‘Flight of the Draco’ episode … while others explored the Wild Kratts website.” 

The children were rounded up by Dayna Safran-Muller of Barrington, a former Harvard graduate student.

“They sent an email out to the Harvard listserve,” she said.

Safran-Muller quickly gathered friends of her second-grader for the focus group. The kids spread out across her home in small groups for several hours with the grad students to watch the show, answer questions and play games on the PBS website, pbskids.org.

Miller and his colleagues, Linda Qian and Rachell Arteaga, will prepare a report for the Kratt brothers by the end of April. It also will include information they gathered from kids in Watertown, Mass., and New York City.