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The Show
You don’t have to visit the Amazon or Borneo to see cool animals – there is an amazing world to discover here in the United States! We will be traveling across the country to film bizarre and familiar arthropods (arthropods = animals with an exoskeleton). Using a vintage sofa as our setpiece in wild ecosystems, we will inspire you to “get off the couch” and explore America's backyard wilderness.
We are entomologists who specialize in fun, quirky educational videos. Nature programming has been leaning toward fear and myth lately, which we find alarmingly sad. The natural world is mind-blowing; we don't really need to embellish it. Join us as we film tiger beetles, luna moths, solifuges, scorpions, tarantulas, centipedes and more!
All episodes will be linked with the new National Science Framework Standards and will feature kid correspondents that cyber-travel with us thanks to our partner, Project Noah.
We are The Bug Chicks and we need your help. Please contribute, and support positive programming, science, female role models, and fun, educational content.
Why this and why us?
Where are all the women on television/web who are smart, funny and kind to each other? We have been told that we are great role models for young girls and boys (we're best friends and real people who are in turns funny, smart, capable, silly and passionate about our work). Think Kratt's Creatures, but with girls and bugs!
We both have our Masters degrees in Entomology. For six months, we lived in a two-person tent in Kenya studying and collecting arachnids. Our workshops have reached over 20,000 students all over the world in English, Spanish and Swahili. Additionally, we have made over 50
educational videos through the small education business we own. This makes us uniquely qualified for a project of this scale.
Our passion is teaching about these amazing animals as we promote public access to science. Will you help us?
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Funds - What do we need and what will we use it for?
Our Budget
Our total budget is $45,000. This will cover costs for four people (Kristie, Jess, our videographer, and our producer) for five weeks on the road. We will spend it on food, gasoline, a trailer for the couch, a vehicle (we are working on sponsorship for this as well), camping fees, filming permits, and post-production. Two friends are coming with us as our "crew" (the videographer and producer) and we've budgeted a small stipend for them. They are taking five weeks out of their busy lives to help us and we'd like to help them in return. We also need some serious computer storage for our footage and a steady cam rig. The budget includes allowances for other incremental costs (toll roads, blown tires, emergencies, chocolate, etc).
If we're overfunded, the extra funds will be used for the development of our matching science curricula that will enhance the videos and the development of season two!
Don't worry - if we can't meet our funding goal (we REALLY hope we do...) we have a backup plan. Even if we're underfunded, we will still create a show - we will focus on the western states and cut the trip to 3 weeks instead. We're doing this!
Interaction & Public Access to Science
For the past few years, we've created video content for some awesome organizations, including the U.S. Forest Service, the National Ag Science Center and Texas A&M University. Now, we're excited to create our own show with the help of some great partner organizations.
For this show, we're partnering with Project Noah, an app supported by National Geographic. It makes this expedition truly interactive; people can upload pictures of insects and other arthropods found along the route. We will live-blog and tweet related behind-the-scenes clips, how-to videos, and additional content through Project Noah and NPR’s Science Friday website during the five week expedition.
This show will be primarily internet-based, which will allow us to reach an incredibly broad audience. We'll have the episodes on our YouTube and Vimeo pages, as well as our website. Post production will begin when we return to Portland, and the episodes will be released one at a time, starting mid-November.
Even if bugs aren't your thing, your contribution will help support science education for students all across America!
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How You Can Help
Please contribute to this project and help us provide positive science and nature programming for people all over the world. Please consider donating through PayPal (No need for an account-- you can use credit cards there). This way we can receive the funds immediately and start our trip on time - August 26th!
Each donation level has its own fun perk! We want to thank you for helping us make this show a reality. Anyone who donates $20.00 or more will receive an awesome "Bugdork" bumper sticker. Let your dork flag fly!
Are you a business interested in sponsorship? We have corporate sponsorship packet for companies interested in sponsoring the show. Donation levels for $1,000 and up! Please contact us directly at contactus@thebugchicks.com for more information and to receive your packet. Thank you!
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If you're not able to donate, please, please, please spread the word about our campaign. Any and all promotion is helpful. Thank you!
--Kristie and Jess, The Bug Chicks
