Episode

The Number Cruncher / Faces of the New Texas /
Exploring New Worlds

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If you don't find numbers fascinating, you've never listened to state demographer Steve Murdock. He talks about population growth and shifts, people's movements into and out of the state, and Texas' most profound changes. Digit by digit, figure by figure, The Number Cruncher tells us the stories of our lives and our future.

With a great increase in its Hispanic population, Texas presages changes in the rest of the United States. In Faces of the New Texas, higher education experts discuss the need to offer college access to new generations in our state so we can compete with the rest of the country and world — particularly in math, science and engineering. A family encourages a first-generation college student, while a UT El Paso alumnus speaks of his desire to extend the economic and educational opportunities he's found in his own professional life.

In Exploring New Worlds, underprivileged middle-school students take advantage of an innovative summer program sponsored by UT Medical Branch in Galveston that exposes them to architecture, science, literature and the natural world. Come along with them as they learn to see their neighborhood environment through different eyes.

Length: 27 min.

Rating: TV-G