Ball State University's Electronic Field Trips program is growing, thanks in part to nearly $1 million in funding from the Best Buy Children's Foundation.

The award-winning program offered by Teachers College is now called E3 (Explore, Experience, Expand) Electronic Field Trips. With Best Buy's funding of $968,000, Ball State will be able to offer six field trips in 2004-05.

This year's field trips are:

• "Into the Canyon," Nov. 9, from the Grand Canyon
• "Where Are the Little Green Men?" Dec. 7, from Space Center Houston
• "The Holocaust Museum Experience: Exploring Our Daily Decision Making," Feb. 15, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
• "Sharing Perspectives at the National Museum of the American Indian," March 22, from the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
• "Discovering Our American Spirit: Finding Common Ground in the National Pastime," April 26, from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y.
• "Biological Invasion: The Introduction of Nonnative Species," May 10, San Francisco Bay

Complete details on each field trip can be found at www.bsu.edu/eft.

The funding boost also allowed E3 to add seven new staff members. The staff will produce and market the live, interactive broadcasts and online curriculum, which meets national teaching standards and is developed by teachers and content experts.

Additional changes for the field trips include a new logo and tagline: Explore the mysteries, experience the struggles and expand your world. E3 is also launching an entrepreneurial endeavor to develop and market a DVD of each broadcast with bonus features and continued Web site access.

"We've come a long way since 1999 when we launched the program," said Mark Kornmann, director of Teachers College Outreach Services. "We started with $67,000 from Best Buy and developed three field trips, the first one being with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C."

Since that inaugural broadcast, the program has added many prominent partners, which are the key to the continued success of the program, Kornmann added. They 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 four Smithsonian entities: The Environmental Research Center, National Museum of the American Indian, National American History Museum and the National Air and Space Museum.

"These partnerships have bolstered E3's commitment of developing quality learning experiences that allow millions of students, parents, teachers and community members around the country to explore mysteries, experience struggles and expand their world," Kornmann said.

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