Media Menu, November 13, 2010

Here are home viewing suggestions for the week, selected from online advanced TV program listings and aligned with the state and national K-12 academic standards available online. Please consult local listings also, since actual broadcast times may vary. The Websites cited in the “Log on“ box below the tv listing provide further details about the show’s topic and may contain links to video clips from the show or a complete streaming video version of the show.

Saturday, November 13, 2010,
8-10 p.m. E/P
History Channel
Science and U.S. History
Middle and High School

"Black Blizzard”

This documentary takes a front row seat on a period of U.S. environmental history from 1930-1940 when America's heartland was ravaged by a weather phenomenon that became known as a "black blizzard." Watch as scientists and special effects experts recreate the black blizzards in amazing detail and reveal that this was a man-made disaster. Discover how these phenomena form, what they're made of, and how they affect people's health and the environment. Learn how a black blizzard emerged so ferociously that it seemed like a moving mountain range creating enough static electricity to power New York City. Hear the story of the people who refused to leave their land and learn the history of the Great Plains and how it came to be settled. TV-PG

Log on http://www.drought.unl.edu/whatis/dustbowl.htm

Sunday, November 14, 2010,
8-10 p.m. E/P
National Geographic Channel
Science and Geography
Middle and High School

"Great Migrations: Feast Or Famine/Race To Survive”

This is a broadcast of two new episodes of a documentary miniseries about animal migrations. The first hour, entitled “Feast Or Famine”, follows Mali elephants as they undertake the longest elephant migration on earth – a vast, 300-mile circle around the heart of landlocked Mali in West Africa. Traversing the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, the only way they can survive is to keep moving across the scorched earth – from water to water, food to food – both in desperately short supply. Great white sharks cover thousands of miles of open ocean each year from Hawaii to northern Mexico to reach an abundant feast 150 miles off the coast of Guadalupe, Mexico, where the waters are teeming with marine life: mola mola, dolphins, rare beaked whales, fur seals and elephant seals. Witness close up the rarely filmed attack on a seal by a great white, shown in incredible detail from above and below the water’s surface. In the Mississippi River Valley, we find a great winged highway humming with traffic as bald eagles, peregrine falcons, ducks, songbirds, geese and pelicans search for food in this avian crossroads between the Gulf of Mexico and Canada or even the Arctic. And witness the incredible, beautiful sight of golden jellyfish of Palau on a race to follow the sun in their daily migration. The second hour, entitled ” Race To Survive”, show every spring in Botswana, hundreds of zebras leave the largest inland delta in the world to make a desperate 150-mile slog into hell – a desert of salt and sand – so their bodies can take in much-needed minerals. Off the coast of Alaska, we see the heartbreaking struggle of Pacific walrus who have become victims of earth’s changing climate. Traveling hundreds of miles along ice floes to reach their summer foraging ground, they find fewer and smaller floating ice chunks, unable to hold the walrus population that struggles to occupy these insufficient life rafts. In the untamed early days of the American West, the pronghorn antelope were plentiful and moved freely, proud and unconstrained. We watch one small herd of 200 that follows its ancient migration, traveling north in early spring from southern Wyoming, moving to lower elevations to follow the retreating snow line – a tough journey made even more difficult by human encroachment. Forty feet long and weighing up to 20 tons, the mysterious whale shark is the largest fish in the world. We join them as they have migrated to feast on the eggs of spawning fish. And in Borneo, a single, fragrant fig tree provides the impetus for a chaotic chorus of orangutans, red leaf monkeys, macaques and grey gibbons who travel from throughout the jungle to feast before the figs rot and drop to the forest floor.
Log on http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/great-migrations-episode-guide

Monday, November 15, 2010,
6-7 p.m. E/P
History Channel
Economics and U.S. History
Middle and High School

"Fort Knox: Secrets Revealed ”

The rise in gold proves is in the news currently, and this documentary and the link below explain part of its role in our economic life. The U.S. Bullion Depository, better known as Fort Knox, is home of the United States Army and one of the world's most top secret fortresses. Hidden deep inside the vault is an estimated $73 billion dollars in gold. Almost all information about it is classified. Through interviews with eyewitnesses, rare photos and rarely seen films, we will construct a picture of what the building might look like. Hear testimony of those journalists and congressmen who were among the select few invited inside in 1974. Discover the history and secrets behind the Army's tank warfare and the classified military technologies it will use to fight the wars of the future. TV-PG

Log on http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/index.cfm?action=fun_facts13

Tuesday, November 16, 2010,
8-9 p.m. E/P
PBS
Word History and Science
Elementary, Middle and High School

" NOVA: Secrets of Stonehenge”

Granted exclusive access to the dig site at Bluestonehenge, England a prehistoric stone circle monument recently discovered about a mile from Stonehenge, this documentary’s cameras follow a new generation of researchers finding important clues to the enduring mystery of Stonehenge. Dated to the late Stone Age, Stonehenge may be the best-known and most mysterious relic of prehistory. Every year, a million visitors are drawn to England to gaze upon the famous circle of stones, but the monument’s meaning has continued to elude us. Now investigations inside and around Stonehenge have kicked off a dramatic new era of discovery and debate over who built Stonehenge and for what purpose. How did prehistoric people quarry, transport, sculpt and erect these giant stones?

Log on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-stonehenge.html

Wednesday, November 17, 2010,
9-10 p.m. E/P
Science Channel
World History and Science
Elementary, Middle and High School

"Saturn: Lord of the Rings“

This is an astronomy documentary. July 1st, 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn to start its four year journey around the planet. It traveled closer to Saturn than any previous mission, passing between its rings, bringing us the most spectacular pictures to date. TV-G

Log on http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=47

Thursday, November 18, 2010,
10-11 p.m. E/P
PBS
World History and Government
Middle and High School

"Athens: The Dawn Of Democracy “

In this initial hour of a two-part documentary, historian Bettany Hughes explores the contradictions of the "Golden Age" of ancient Athens, where democracy emerged nearly 2,500 years ago. Far from an environment of peace and tranquility, democratic Athens was a bloody, tumultuous place of both brilliant ideas and a repressive regime. While the period saw the rise of philosophy, the flourishing of the arts and the creation of a great political ideal, Athens also became a warlike state that carved out an empire to enrich itself, an empire that couldn't tolerate criticism. At the same time Athenians reached new intellectual heights, they practiced "black magic" and created a society where one in three Athenians was a slave. Women were denied the vote and rhetoricians practiced modern "spin control" as an integral part of democracy. No two years went by that Athenians didn't vote to go to war. Eventually the empire withered, to be crushed finally by Alexander the Great. It would be another 2,000 years before society was once again able to tolerate the idea of democracy — rule by the people. The second part of the miniseries airs in this timeslot on November 25.

Log on http://www.pbs.org/previews/athens

Friday, November 19, 2010,
7:30-8:30 p.m. E/P
Science Channel
Science and Technology
Elementary, Middle and High School

"How It’s Made”

This is a broadcast of two episodes of a documentary series about manufacturing techniques and jobs. Covered in the programs are: surfboards, stickers, sandwich cookies, concrete roofing tiles, motorcycle engines, glass, enamel sculptures, hand-made paper and vaulting poles. TV-G
Log on http://science.discovery.com/tv/how-its-made

Saturday, November 20, 2010,
8-10 p.m. E/P
Planet Green Channel
Health and Science
Middle and High School

"Supersize Me”

While examining the influence of the fast food industry, documentarian Morgan Spurlock personally explores the consequences on his health of a diet of solely McDonald's food for one month. TV-14

For news about the recent study "Evaluating Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing to Youth" log on http://adage.com/article?article_id=146960 For information about this documentary log on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521