Media Menu, January 8, 2011

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,, January 8, 2011,
3-5- p.m. E/P
Planet Green Channel
World History
Middle and High School

“Egypt's Ten Greatest Discoveries ”

In this documentary Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s top archaeologist and a team of leading archaeologists have selected the ten most important discoveries in Egypt. From major battles, to mega-construction, the discoveries uncover the amazing stories of the lives of kings, queens and ordinary people.TV-PG
Log on http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/egypts-greatest-discoveries-egypt-10-great-tomb.html

Sunday, January 9, 2011,
9-9:30 p.m. E/P
Nickelodeon Channel
World History
Middle and High School

“Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: “Haiti Rising? Life in the Ruins”

This documentary shows the lives of several kids who have struggled to overcome the January 2010 Haiti earthquake’s destruction, kids like Ruben and Pierre, brothers living in Port-au-Prince in a shanty structure they built right next door to the wreckage of their old home. Their parents lost their jobs after the earthquake, and they can’t afford to go to school. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, they play in the rubble. To them, it seems like things are just getting harder. Stephanie, also from Port-au-Prince, thought she had found refuge when she first came to a “tent city.” But as time goes on, she’s no longer so sure. Food and water don’t get brought in as often anymore, and the camp is dirty and dangerous. She doesn’t know how long she’ll have to call this place home. While she’s very grateful for aid she has received, she wants to be able to help herself and the Haitian people to help themselves. Outside of Port-au-Prince there is a relocation camp, Camp Corail-Cesselesse, which is barren, without shade and removed from civilization. But for many families who lost their homes in the earthquake, it’s better than anywhere else they have to go. But as Steven points out: life here is not like a life at ‘home.’ Besides the oppressive heat in the tents and the swarming mosquitoes at night, there is simply not enough room. He lost everything in the earthquake, much from the destruction and the rest from looters. He has not gone to school since the earthquake, even though he does his best to study on his own because the only thing he thinks about now is moving forward for his own future. People of Haiti struggle to find safe locations for kids to study. One solution has come from a cell phone company that worked with engineers and designers to repurpose some of the shipping containers, turning them into schools. For Wenlee and Rafael, two boys who live in Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake, it gives them hope that things will be better. In a place where so much does not work and is broken, any start is encouraging.
Log on http://news.nick.com/01/2011/03/one-year-after-the-earthquake

Monday, January 10, 2011,
9-10:30 p.m. E/P
PBS
U.S. History
Middle and High School

“AMERICAN EXPERIENCE - U.S. Grant: Warrior”

This documentary paints a revealing portrait of one of America's most paradoxical leaders, from his first days on the Ohio frontier to the darkest days of the Civil War. Few public figures have ever held such a firm grip on the American popular imagination as Ulysses S. Grant. The greatest hero of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant was a brilliant military strategist who rose from obscurity to a rank held previously only by George Washington, then became a leader for whom thousands of Northern soldiers were willing to fight and die, and for whom thousands did. His hard-nosed fighting style won him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant and the admiration of the Northern public. However, the strength of the Confederate resistance forced Grant into a hard war that destroyed the South and led to his being labeled a butcher. As the author of the great Union victory at Vicksburg, which etched his name in military history, he irrevocably altered the course of the war. Perhaps most memorably, he was the general who took Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the author of its generous terms. TV-PG
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience

Tuesday, January 11, 2011,
8-9 p.m. E/P
PBS
Science and Geography
Middle and High School

“NOVA: Deadliest Earthquakes”

In 2010, epic earthquakes all over the planet delivered one of the worst annual death tolls ever recorded. This documentary follows teams of scientists in Haiti and Chile after the deadly quakes in those countries as they try to gather data to aid in preventing future disasters. In 2010, epic earthquakes all over the planet delivered one of the worst annual death tolls ever recorded. The deadliest strike was in Haiti, where a quake just southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince, killed more than 200,000, reducing homes, hospitals, schools and the presidential palace to rubble. In exclusive coverage, a PBS camera crew follows a team of U.S. geologists as they first enter Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. It is a race against time as they hunt for crucial evidence that will help them determine exactly what happened deep underground and what the risks are of a new killer quake. Barely a month after the Haiti quake, Chile was struck by a quake 100 times more powerful, unleashing a tsunami that put the entire Pacific coast on high alert. In a coastal town devastated by the rushing wave, the programs follows a team of geologists as they battle aftershocks to measure Earthquake. Could their work, and the work of geologists at earthquake hot-spots around the U.S., lead to a breakthrough in predicting quakes before they happen? The program investigates intriguing new leads in its gripping investigation of a deadly scientific conundrum. TV-PG
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/deadliest-earthquakes.html

Wednesday, January 12, 2011,
8-9 p.m. E/P
Planet Green
Science and Geography
Middle and High School

“Life in the African Bush: The Akie”

The host of this documentary, Bruce Parry. Goes to live with the Akie people of Tanzania. The Akie are hunter-gatherers who live on the African plains. They hunt with small bows and poisoned arrows, forage for food and raid bees nests in huge baobab trees for highly prized honey. The Akie are one of the few Savannah-based hunter-gather groups left in Africa. Unlike their neighbors, the Masai, they own no cattle and so rely completely on their landscape for food and shelter. They are a secretive people, feared for their magic and their mystical relationship with their environment. Their story is one of survival -- their traditional hunting grounds are being taken by big game hunters and it is becoming increasingly difficult to kill enough meat for their families. Parry joins the increasingly hungry Akie as they seek to live off the land and kill a kudu. Bruce is forced to face his biggest fear and put his hand into a bees nest to gather wild honey. TV-PG
Log on http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/akie/index.shtml

Thursday, January 13. 2011,
8-9 p.m. E/P
National Geographic Channel
World History
Middle and High School

“Unearthing Ancient Secrets: The Sphinx Unmasked"

French archaeologist Dr Vassil Dobrev sets out to discover the truth about the Sphinx. Does it really represent the pharaoh Khafre? Using scientific techniques, Vassil finds a different explanation. That the Sphinx was created by a by a pharaoh that history forgot: Djedefre TV-PG
Log on http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/egypt-unwrapped/3917/Overview

Thursday, January 13. 2011,
8-9 p.m. E/P
National Geographic Channel
World History
Middle and High School

“Naked Science: Solar-Powered Flight ”

It started as a crazy dream: Could a jetliner really fly using nothing more than solar energy? This documentary goes inside the nearly 10-year journey of the engineers who created Solar Impulse HB-SIA, from the first brainstorming session until it took flight. Witness the success of the 26-hour flight — a nonstop day-night-day sequence — of the Solar Impulse plane that turned a dream into a clean energy icon.10 years ago, Bertrand Piccard had a dream: to prove to skeptics everywhere that perpetual flight in an airplane that functions uniquely with solar energy was not a utopian idea... In July 2010, with the success of the 26 hour flight - a non-stop day-night-day sequence - of the SOLAR IMPULSE plane, he made that dream come true. After years of cutting-edge research, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA, an airplane designed to fly day and night without fuel, finally made its first night flight on July 7th, 2010. The dream of famous explorers and engineers Bertrand Piccard and Andr Borschberg has become reality. Now, flying clean is possible thanks to skin-like solar panels and powerful light batteries!
Log on http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/naked-science/5034/Overview

Friday, January 14. 2011,
10-11 p.m. E/P
Discovery Channel
U.S. History and Geography
Middle and High School

“Gold Rush Alaska – Gold, Guns And Bears”

This is an episode in a documentary miniseries which follows six men who, in the face of an economic meltdown, risk everything - their families, their dignity, and in some cases, their lives - to strike it rich mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska. Inspired by his father Jack, Todd Hoffman of Sandy, Oregon, leads a group of greenhorn miners to forge a new frontier and save their families from dire straits. Gold fever is back, and the rush is on, but they have just five months to set up a gold mine and strike it rich before winter closes them down. While leasing a gold claim in Alaska, Todd and company must ward off bears, build homes for their families, and keep the operation running as they take fate into their own hands with a make or break venture that will change their lives forever. In this episode, the stakes get higher at the Porcupine Creek prospect as reality sets in about just how little time they have to get to their gold. The miners start to rebuild the mining ghost town but the bears aren't so keen on their new neighbors — and they let them know it.
Log on http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/gold-rush-alaska

Saturday,, January 15, 2011,
8-9 p.m. ET, 5-6- p.m. PT
CNBC Channel
U.S. History and Economy
Middle and High School

“Target: Inside the Bullseye"

In this documentary Target store CEO Gregg Steinhafel, reveals how his stores became both tastemaker and discount retailer extraordinaire while continually reminding its customers to "Expect More, Pay Less." A $65 billion-dollar discount icon that changed the face of shopping, the chain rose humble beginnings as a family-owned Minneapolis department store to retail giant. Founder Draper Dayton and his sons took a small Minneapolis department store and changed the face of retail forever, consistently donating 5% of its revenue to charitable causes. Target mimics the prices of a big box discounter while retaining the cache of an urban boutique. Because of this unique dichotomy the company has managed to avoid many of the problems of its competitors.
Log on http://www.cnbc.com/id/40588422