So President Obama has urged the United States to make Science Fair as cool as the Superbowl. Sure, some of us know that it already is. But how to convince those who don’t? The answer, according to a group of teachers, scientists and entertainment industry types meeting today in Beverly Hills, might be to get Hollywood involved. And just to sweeten the pot, two foundations today are announcing cash incentives to try to meld science, entertainment and education.

The Science and Entertainment Exchange was set up at the US National Academies of Science in 2008, and is best known for signing scientists up to consult on movies such as Tron. Today, the exchange convenes a meeting of nearly 200 invitees from the education, science and entertainment fields in a Science, Entertainment and Education Summit to try to seed ideas about how Hollywood might use its storytelling magic in the classroom.

At the summit, Sean B. Carroll, vice president for science education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, announced that the organization has set up a $60 million program to fund television documentaries about science. “HHMI is entering the storytelling community with this initiative. We want to work with the best storytellers and the best scientists to bring great stories about science and scientists to large audiences,” Carroll said in a press release before the meeting.

And the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of San Francisco, Calif., said it will offer up $225,000 for one or two pilot projects that involve partnerships between entertainers and educators aimed at improving science education in the classroom.

Ann Merchant of the National Academies points out that teachers often use clips from television shows and movies to get their classes excited about science. The idea of the summit is to come up with ways that Hollywood can get involved in projects that are purpose-made for the classroom. “We want to ask Hollywood not to do this out of the goodness of their hearts, but to use this as a marketing opportunity,” Merchant says.

That’s obviously a winning proposition for Hollywood, which, after all, stands to gain a new revenue stream that would be much more reliable than box-office receipts. Carroll said it would be a boon for science, too: “We want the public to understand the process of science and gain an appreciation for it so they can trust its results and use them in their daily lives,” he said.