Media Menu, May 29, 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, May 29, 2010, 7-8 p.m. E/P	Planet Green Channel	Science Economics	Middle and High School
" Planet Mechanics: Water War "
In this episode of one of Planet Green’s environmental science series, eco-engineers Dick Strawbridge and Jem Stansfield must make England's most remote youth hostel energy self-sufficient, using only natural resources. Dick looks to generate energy from a stream while Jem aims to create a wind turbine. TV-PG
Log on http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/planet-mechanics/episode-water-wars.html

Sunday, May 30, 2010, 8-9 p.m. E/P	Planet Green Channel	Science Economics	Middle and High School
" 60 MINUTES - SPECIAL EDITION ”
This is a special edition of CBS’ Sunday newsmagazine and its airing one hour later than the program’s usual time slot. In the first report CBS cameras spend two days on the road with a bomb-hunting unit in Afghanistan as they encounter one deadly bomb after another. As shown in the second report scientists believe they can sustain endangered species – maybe even one day resurrect some that have died out – using DNA technology. Lesley Stahl reports. The final story is about Anna Wintour. The sunglasses come off the high-queen of haute couture in this rare and unprecedented interview, in which the Vogue editor reveals why she always wears them and much more to Morley Safer in her first long-length interview for U.S. television.
Log on http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

Sunday, May 30, 2010, 9:30-11p.m. E/P	PBS	U.S. History and Arts	Elementary, Middle and High School
"National Memorial Day Concert”
This is a broadcast of The annual Memorial Day Concert, featuring Lionel Richie, Brad Paisley, Katherine Jenkins, Kelli O’Hara and Yolanda Adams, honors the service and sacrifice of the men and women in uniform, their families and all those who have given their lives for this country. The multi-award-winning concert event featuring the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Jack Everly, offers viewers a time to remember, to heal and bring the country together, the event has become the nation’s memorial service. The show will be broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, to millions more at home and, on the American Forces Network, to troops serving around the world. Once again, Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise co-host the broadcast.
Info http://pressroom.pbs.org/programs/national_memorial_day_concert_2010

Monday, May 31, 2010, 9-11 p.m. E/P	PBS	U.S. History	Middle and High School
"America The Story of Us: Superpower/Millennium”
”America The Story of Us” is a documentary miniseries that focuses on the ways everyday Americans harnessed technology to advance human progress, from the early colonies through today. This is is a broadcast of the final two episodes. They look at defining moments in U.S history from 1945 through the present and trace them back to their antecedents in earlier American history. Some of the nation’s most prominent personalities and leaders share their ideas on the definitive moments in American history. The story of post-war America is retold though multiple voices—events explored include the building of the interstate highways and suburbia, the tensions of the Cold War, the euphoria of the Civil Rights movement, the role of hippies and counter culture, the dark hours of Vietnam and Watergate, the Reagan era, the rise of Silicon Valley and the groundbreaking election of Barack Obama. Following the theme of technological innovation throughout the series, these episodes explore the stories behind how the U.S. landed humans on the moon and contributed to technological inventions such as the internet. Through the reflections of historians and notable Americans, we’ll look at what has endured through 400 years of U.S. history, and ponder the stories that have yet to be told. TV-PG
Info http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us

Monday, May 31, 2010, 9-10 p.m. E/P	PBS	Science and Arts	Middle and High School
" AMERICAN EXPERIENCE : Civilian Conservation Corps”
This documentary tells the story of one of the boldest and most popular New Deal experiments to fight unemployment with training programs organized by the U.S. Army. In March 1933, within weeks of his inauguration, President Franklin Roosevelt sent legislation to Congress aimed at providing relief for unemployed American workers. He proposed the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide jobs in natural resource conservation. Over the next decade, the CCC put more than three million young men to work in the nation’s forests and parks, planting trees, building flood barriers, fighting fires, and maintaining roads and trails, conserving both private and federal land. After a decade of national prosperity in the Roaring Twenties, Americans faced a national crisis after the Crash of 1929. The Great Depression saw an unemployment rate of more than twenty-five percent in the early 1930s. Inner-city crime rates soared, and the government did not have any specific plans to intervene. At the same time in the Midwest, the nine-year drought that would come to be known as the Dust Bowl was just beginning. Farmers struggled to hold on to their crops and their livestock as more precious topsoil blew away in windstorms every day. . Enlisting 250,000 workers in just two months, the CCC was an ambitious undertaking that brought several government agencies together in the effort. The Department of Labor recruited men from the ages of 18 to 25; the War Department clothed and trained them for two weeks, and the Department of Agriculture designed and managed the specific work assignments. With projects in every U.S. state and territory, “Roosevelt’s Tree Army” lived in camps under quasi-military discipline, and received a wage of $30 per month, $25 of which they were required to send home to their families. Typically, boys rose early for breakfast in the canteen before heading off for eight hours of manual labor. Lunch was often brought out to the work site. In the evenings ninety percent of enrollees took advantage of classes offered in subjects from literature to welding — courses which, over nine years, taught 40,000 illiterate men to read and write. After planting 3 billion trees in nine years of service, the CCC dissolved in July of 1942. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and subsequent U.S. involvement in World War II, the CCC’s funding and assets were diverted as the nation’s focus shifted toward the war effort. The legacy of the CCC continues to live on in the hundreds of campgrounds, hiking trails and swimming holes still enjoyed by Americans today. In The Civilian Conservation Corps, four alumni Corpsmen share their experiences of poverty, racism, hard work and brotherhood from their time in the CCC. From Producer Robert Stone (Earth Days, Oswald’s Ghost), the film tells the tale of one of the boldest and most popular New Deal experiments.
Info http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/ccc

Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 8-9 p. m. E/P	PBS	Science and Arts	Middle and High School
" NOVA: Musical Minds”
Through case studies drawn from neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks’ latest book, “ Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain”, this documentary investigates the extraordinary impact music can have on the human brain. According to Sacks anatomists cannot identify the brain of a visual artist, writer, or mathematician—but they can recognize the brain of a professional musician. Music affects more parts of our brains than language does—clearly humans are musical animals. What can music tell us about our minds? And what can our minds tell us about music? Finally, can music aid people battling severe neurological disorders? To find out, this program follows the BBC's Alan Yentob on an intercontinental quest—from New York to England and Ireland—to meet individuals like those chronicled in Musicophilia, bringing Sacks's latest work to life through their intimate and phenomenal stories.
Info http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/musicminds

Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 9-11 p.m. E/P	PBS	World History	Middle and High School
"Cities Of Light: The Rise And Fall Of Islamic Spain ”
This documentary journeys back into one of the most captivating and important periods of world history — a centuries-long period when Muslims, Christians and Jews inhabited the same far corner of Western Europe and thrived. From the days of Charlemagne to Christopher Columbus, Islamic Spain represents one of the most productive intercultural relationships in Western history down to the present day. The lemon tree, the water wheel, the astrolabe and Aristotle’s lost philosophy all arrived in Europe through Islamic Spain. Churches and temples that strongly resemble Muslim mosques, the pinnacle of Hebrew literature’s Golden Age, the roots of modern medicine and mathematics, and the transmission of Greek philosophy into Western Europe are just a few of the collaborative achievements that form the legacy of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim cultures interacting on the Iberian Peninsula over seven centuries. The film also consistently sticks to an even-handed presentation of the triumphs and shortcomings, achievements and failures of a centuries-long period when Muslims, Christians, and Jews built a lasting society that was both part of Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East. It demonstrates how these very different groups found the means to co-exist and thrive together—and yet how fragile that symbiosis could be. The pluralistic centuries of Medieval Spain ended in the Spanish Inquisition and the formation of an exclusively Catholic Spain.TV-PG
Info at http://www.islamicspain.tv/Islamic-Spain/index.html

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8- 10 p.m. E/P	Science Channel	Science	Middle and High School
"Creating Synthetic Life ”
For the first time in history, scientists report that synthetic life has been created. This broadcast contains exclusive behind the scenes footage reveals the story behind Dr Craig Venter’s seven year journey to success, and the incredible implications for the future The second hour of the program on this topic is a discussion of this breakthrough and its profound implications for our future TV-PG
Info at http://science.discovery.com/search/results.html?query=creating+synthetic+life&search.x=24&search.y=11

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 10-11 p.m. E/P	PBS	Arts and U.S. History	Middle and High School
" Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East Los Angeles "
This documentary tells the story of generations of Mexican Americans who proudly expressed their identity through music. Narrated by Edward James Olmos, it was produced, written, directed and edited by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jon Wilkman, it follows young people in America's largest Mexican American community — caught between two cultures and not fully accepted in either — as they created a unique musical voice. The program combines intimate interviews, rare archival film and photographs with t music. The story begins with Lalo Guerrero, a National Medal of the Arts honoree known as the Father of Chicano Rock. Arriving in Los Angeles in the late 1930s, Lalo found a city bursting with ambition, even in the last days of the Great Depression. During the war years that followed, many young Mexican Americans defied prejudice and stereotypes, adopting zoot suit fashions and a Spanglish slang called calo. Lalo Guerrero and his friend bandleader Don Tosti captured their spirit in music, mixing swing and boogie woogie in a cross-cultural dialog between African American, Anglo and Mexican American influences. TV-PG
Log on http://www.pbs.org/chicanorock

Friday, June 4, 2010, 9-10 p.m. E/P	Animal Planet Channel	Science and Economics	Middle and High School
" WHALE WARS: As A Species, We’re Doomed "
This is the new season premiere of the documentary series, “Whale Wars”, Captain Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society return to their battle to find and stop Japanese ships from hunting whales in the name of research. A modern-day Ahab, Watson and his eclectic group of international staff and volunteers - labeled activists and heroes by some or eco-pirates by others - take a hard-line approach to eradicate whaling and alleged ocean-law violations. Highlighting the controversial whaling trade and the tactics that the Sea Shepherds deploys to attempt to cripple it, the series documents the group's three month expedition across icy Antarctic waters. Both Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whalers engage in an environmental showdown with millions of dollars at stake - all while drawing global attention to the practice of whaling. As this season begins in the Antarctic, the Sea Shepherds embark on a new campaign. With each boat launching from a different port, Captain Paul Watson now faces the daunting task of being the admiral of a fleet. As the Steve Irwin reaches open water, new first mate, Lockhart “Locky” Maclean discovers that a Japanese reconnaissance vessel is following them. Soon enough the Steve Irwin’s crew is quickly plunged into their first clash of the campaign. Meanwhile, a major donation from game-show host Bob Barker allowed the Sea Shepherds to purchase a former Norwegian whaling ship. In a race against time, the crew has struggled against all odds to perform a year’s worth of repairs on the Bob Barker in just 90 days, led by Captain Chuck Swift. The final ship in Paul Watson’s fleet is a stealth speedboat, the Ady Gil, helmed by Captain Pete Bethune. Looking like the vehicle of a superhero, it’s the fastest boat ever to circle the globe as it pierces through waves at twice the speed of the whaling ships. As Watson and Irwin venture deeper into Antarctic waters, a mysterious spy ship gives chase. Soon the Sea Shepherds are embroiled in their first battle of the season. In a reversal, the whalers turn the tables on their nemesis and launch an attack on the helicopter, and pilot Chris Aultman is in a race against time to save one of the Sea Shepherds’ most valuable weapons. TV-PG
Series info at http://animal.discovery.com/tv/whale-wars

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 6-7:30 p.m. E/P	Planet Green Channel	Natural Science	Middle and High School
"Stranger Among Bears”
For some people bears appear in their dreams. For tv host Charlie Vandergaw they appear in his yard. This is a broadcast of three episodes of his “Stranger Among Bears” natural science miniseries. Episode 1, “The Grizzlies Are Coming” - Several weeks into bear season, Vandergaw still hasn't seen any grizzly bears around Bear Haven. Their eventual arrival changes the atmosphere, increasing the danger as the bears stake their claim to the territory surrounding Charlie's cabin. Episode 2, “Feeding Controversy “ - A recent change in the law has made feeding bears a serious offense, and if Charlie continues to defy the authorities he could end up in jail. A loophole may allow him to avoid prosecution, but it also raises the ire of those who seek to shut him down. Episode 3 , “Man vs Bear “ - Living side by side with black and grizzly bears is becoming more and more difficult for 70 year-old Vandergaw. As the bears start tearing apart his cabin, Charlie faces the unthinkable - is he getting too old for life among the bears? TV-PG