Ball State's Electronic Field Trips (EFT) program has won two gold awards at the 2006 World Media Festival — improving on last year's honors, which included winning gold and silver awards. This year's honors were earned for "The Holocaust Museum Experience: Exploring Our Daily Decision Making," which aired Feb. 15, 2005. Mark Kornmann, director of Teachers College outreach services, traveled to Hamburg, Germany, May 10 with EFT staff members Jeff Mohl and Scott Allen to receive the awards.

"It was rewarding to see my staff earn the recognition they rightfully deserve for the hard work they put in throughout the year on the field trips," Kornmann said. "We're particularly proud of 'Exploring Our Daily Decision Making,' as it has already won a silver Telly Award, which is the top honor in one of the most prestigious awards competitions honoring video production."

The field trips, which are created by Teachers College and supported by Best Buy Children's Foundation, received six Telly Awards for last year's programming. The EFT Web site has also been honored by the Center for Digital Education with a Best of the Web award.

Virtually speaking, the field trips allow millions of students, teachers and community members to visit museums, protected natural ecosystems and national parks. During the interactive broadcasts, viewers can have their questions answered by scientists, artists, astronauts or Hall of Fame baseball players. Viewers can register to receive the broadcasts at www.bsu.edu/eft.

EFT partners include the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; Space Center Houston/NASA; the National Park Foundation; Garfield and PAWS, Inc.; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and five Smithsonian entities ? The Environmental Research Center, National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of American History, National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of Natural History.

The EFT lineup for 2006-07

• "Freedom in America: Some Assembly Required," Oct. 17, National Historic Park, Philadelphia
• "Eruption! An Island Rising from the Sea," Dec. 5, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii
• "Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire," Feb. 19, 2007, Manzanar War Relocation Center, California
• "Going, Going, Faster: The Science of Speed!" April 17, 2007, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis
• "Listening to our Ancestors,"  May 8, 2007, Juneau, Alaska

(Note to editors: For more information, contact Kornmann at (765) 285-8106 or mkornmann@bsu.edu.)