Assignment Discovery was a children’s educational, documentary format program produced by Tapestry International for the Discovery Channel. It combined field segments, existing Discovery footage, and licensed media to cover academic subjects for middle and high school students.
I was the Segment Producer for several dozen Assessment Discovery episodes, where I was particularly skilled at conveying scientific and mathematical concepts.
Writing on the show required considerable research and thorough documentation when submitting scripts for review, making sure the facts of the segments were properly annotated. I developed a deep familiarity with Discovery and vendor footage libraries, helping both my segments and my co-workers to track down essential media to enhance their episodes. Having a background in editing and camera operation, I was able to assist on field shoots and in edits as needed. I also checked all outgoing Tapestry shows for technical quality control before shipping to Discovery, greatly reducing the number of QC issues with the broadcaster.
Covering science, history, social studies, language arts, mathematics and more, we were tasked with conveying the necessary information while also making the shows engaging and memorable. Most episodes included narrative documentary segments, which provided additional context and storytelling around the subject matter. This made the subjects more personally meaningful and grounded for the students by relating them to people and historical figures.