The Fred Rogers Company Awarded $3 Million Grant for Peg + Cat

PITTSBURGH: The Fred Rogers Company has received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the production of the Emmy Award-winning animated math series Peg + Cat.

The grant renews NSF’s support for the series and related outreach programs intended to get young children excited about math and help them develop problem-solving skills. Such outreach programs also aim to encourage teachers and parents to embrace math and approach it in a way that makes learning fun. Peg + Cat airs on PBS Kids and follows Peg and her sidekick, Cat, as they solve problems using math.

“We are grateful to NSF and to our partners for this wonderful opportunity,” said William H. Isler, the president of The Fred Rogers Company. “We are proud to be engaging millions of children and helping them get excited about learning math with a little help from Peg + Cat.”

“The Fred Rogers Company’s efforts will make an important contribution, not only to informal learning, but also to interdisciplinary research,” said Sandra Welch, program director at NSF. “Supporting this type of programming, which yields valuable insights about how to engage young children and their teachers, furthers NSF’s goal of encouraging STEM learning at an early age.”

NSF first supported The Fred Rogers Company in 2013 with a $3 million grant toward the production of the first season of Peg + Cat and related outreach with parents and teachers. This project will be led by a team of experts in children’s media and early learning, including Mallary Swartz and Paul Siefken, who direct research and media production, respectively, at The Fred Rogers Company; Junlei Li, who co-directs The Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at St. Vincent; and Shannon Wanless, who studies children’s social-emotional and self-regulatory development at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education. 9 Story Media Group, which distributes the series and manages licensing for the brand internationally, has secured distribution in more than 30 countries.