ART

Art's Place
Grades K-3
13 Programs/15 Minutes Each

A small-town gallery is the meeting place for Kim, Luke, Emma and Lionel, young friends of Art, the proprietor, and Jessie, an artist who lives upstairs. Art and Jessie explain and demonstrate basic art techniques to children, who undertake imaginative projects for display in the gallery. Adding to the fun is Leonardo da Beaver, a cheerful gallery denizen, and Doodles, a playful paintbrush. Their animated adventures explore the realms of color, line, shape, and perspective. The Magical Mirror tells stories, and adds humorous, grumpy commentary to the proceedings.

Each of the 13 programs combines songs, stories, animation, puppets, and live actors to convey the pleasure of artistic expression. The series encourages children to apply their new insights into art to both personal creativity and appreciation of other artist's works.

Programs:

1. Color
Art is having a bad day, so Jessie, Luke and Leo paint pictures to cheer him up. Mirror tells a story about the color blue; and viewers learn about primary colors, value of cold and hot colors, and the spectrum. The featured work is Lady in Blue by Henri Matisse.

2. Taking Shape
Leo and Emma explore shapes when they use odds and ends to make sculptures; Jessie visits a potter; and Mirror tells a tale about a sculptor. Art examines Seated Woman by Pablo Picasso and works by Kevin Lockow and Henry Moore.

3. Line
Everyone experiments with lines in different ways. Art draws to music; Doodles show how lines reveal feelings; and Jessie, Leo, and Lionel go sketching in the neighborhood. Mirror tells a story about a bored line. The featured artist is Joan Miro.

4. Feeling Better
Leo is sick of staying in bed with a cold so Jessie suggests he start a texture project. Luke works on some rubbings; Doodles plays with words that describe textures; and Art talks to collage artist. The work of Vincent van Gogh is featured.

5. Making Space
Art is making space in the gallery for some new pictures and doesn't know what to do with the old ones. Jessie shows how to recognize and draw space and distance. Art studies the paintings of Paul Klee and Tom Thomson and in a story, little Stella travels to outer space.

6. All Together
The local kids have been working on a mural about their neighborhood and Jessie, Emma and Leo discuss how they have used art to show what is important to them. Art uses a painting by Paul Ce`zanne to explain still life to Leo.

7. Made for Art
It is Art's birthday, so his friends use a variety of media to create are for him. Leo is determined to make something particularly unique. Mirror tells Art a special story and Jessie brings him a surprise from the bakery.

8. Show Time
Everyone pools artistic talent to put on a show about a lonely witch. Emma and Leo create masks, Jessie and Emma paint a backdrop, and everyone acts as Mirror narrates.

9. Pattern Patrol
Kim and Leo play a pattern-spotting game and then learn to design their own patterns. Mirror tells a story about a hunter who tries to capture a beautiful patterned creature to please his maharajah.

10. Let's See
While Jessie and Mrs. Hooter, Leo's old art teacher, go sightseeing, Leo plays some looking games with Doodles and Art. Mirror tells the story of Little Tommy Tum and the art of Marc Chagall is featured.

11. What an Idea!
Leo is having trouble coming up with an idea for the Art and Science Fair so Mirror conjures up his old friend, Leonardo da Vinci, who offers some advice. Art explores computer-generated images and Mirror tells a story that reveals why Mona Lisa smiles the way she does.

12. Join the Club
Art and Doodles are both running for president of a new art club so their supporters use artistic know-how to help their campaigns. Emma makes election posters and Leo makes models of a future clubhouse. Mirror tells a story about a poor woman who becomes the ruler of the world.

13. Moving On
Leo has decided to leave Art's place to become a great artist so his friends sadly prepare a going-away party for him. Everyone makes presents involving motion (an action picture, a flip book, a puppet and a mobile) and Leo has second thoughts about his move.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Amigos
Grades K-2
30 Programs/15-Minutes Each

Amigos is a series of thirty 15 minute video programs to introduce the Spanish language and culture to kindergarten, first and second grade students.

Amigos will expose the students to basic Spanish vocabulary and introduce them to Hispanic culture. Amigos will create an interest in the geography of countries where Spanish is the primary language and reinforce the skills and concepts taught in the regular elementary school curricula.

Also included, is a vocabulary cassette and a children's song cassette.

Programs:

1. Perro Pepe encuentra su casa (Perro Pepe Finds a Home)
Students will learn the word for an unmarried woman in Spanish-speaking countries, a common Hispanic last name, and common Hispanic first names. Students will begin to understand that Spanish is the national language in many countries. Students will learn to say hello and goodbye in Spanish as well as begin to recognize numbers from 1-10.

2. Perro Pepe tiene seis años (Perro Pepe is Six Years Old)
Students will learn that Spanish was first spoken in Spain which is called España in Spanish. Students will learn to match some numerals to Spanish oral numbers 1-10, and will begin recognizing Spanish words for the head, arm and the leg.

3. Perro Pepe es un perro (Perro Pepe is a Dog)
Students will learn about different foods and that foods vary from one Spanish-speaking country to another. They will be able to give words for at least 5 numbers from 1-10 and recognize words for at least one body part.

4. La gran inauguración de la Fonda Alegre de Fernández (Fernandez's Funky Fonda: The Grand Opening)
Students will learn more about Spanish food origins and Latin American Countries adaptation and popularity. Student will begin to learn words for family members.

5. El gran secreto de Perro Pepe (Perro Pepe's Big Secret)
Students will begin to understand the geographical relationship of the United States to some Hispanic countries. They will also begin to recognize some Spanish vowel sounds.

6. El cumpleaños de Perro Pepe (Perro Pepe's Birthday)
Students will learn how Hispanic Countries celebrate birthdays. They will learn what a Pinata is as well as begin to recognize common birthday related words are.

7. Caperucita Roja (Little Red Riding Hood)
Students will learn about two Latin American snacks, taco and empanada and how they vary from one country to another.

8. El sueño de Perro Pepe (Perro Pepe's Dream)
Students will learn the Spanish song "La rueda de San Miguel" is played. (It is a ring-around-the-rosy type song). Students should also begin recognizing the Spanish vocabulary of certain animals.

9. El regalo de Lu (Lu's Gifts)
Students will learn about that llama, a cousin of the camel is a native to the Andes mountains and is an important animal to the people of the mountains. The students will begin to recognize Spanish words for the numbers 16-20.

10. La escuela de Perro Pepe (Perro Pepe's School)
Students will learn that not everyone in Latin America speaks Spanish. Many native peoples, such as the Incas lived in the Western Hemisphere long before the Spanish came. Students will understand the words to the "dos y dos son cuatro" which is an old school song in Latin America which teaches students to add numbers by using rhyme.

11. ¿Va Mark a la escuela? (Is Mark Going to School?)
Students will learn about both private and public schools in Latin America.

12. La dama y su perro (The Lady and Her Dog)
Students will learn the song "Las horas del reloj" (The Hours of the Clock) is from Spain as a way to learn to tell time in Spanish.

13. Vamos al cine (Let's Go to the Movies)
Students will learn the difference between a North American calendar and a Hispanic calendar and recognize formal vs. familiar address in Hispanic countries.

14. Las flores (The Flowers)
Students will learn about that Spanish explorers arrived in Florida more than 400 years ago and the influence of Spanish culture in Florida today.

15. Lines tormentoso (Stormy Monday)
Students will learn the song "De Colores" is a traditional Hispanic folk song while learning Spanish words for the basic colors.

16. Los colores de Miriam (Miriam's Colors)
Students will learn that each Latin American country has a national flag. Five flags are presented in this program and their countries are identified and located on a globe. Students will begin to recognize Spanish words for some popular sports.

17. Ir o no ir (To Go or Not to Go)
Students will learn the flamenco dance, which is an old traditional dance from Spain. The flamenco is marked by forceful and often improvised rhythms.

18. Buen viaje, señorita Fernández (Good Trip, Senorita Fernandez)
Students will learn that temperatures in Spain vary by geographical region. Students will learn about the seasons and begin recognizing some Spanish weather expressions.

19. ¿En cuál dirección doblar? (Which Way to Turn?)
Students will learn that Spanish-speaking nations are located in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and the climate differences associated with each side of the equator.

20. Es magia (It's Magic)
Students will learn different currencies of the Spanish speaking countries.

21. El problema de Miriam (Miriam's Problem)
Students will learn about shopping in Latin America's el mercados and learn some common phrases for shopping.

22. Ir de compras (Going Shopping)
Students will learn that doll making is a popular craft in Mexico and how dolls tell us about different regions and people of Mexico.

23. Mi casa es su casa (My House is your House)
Students will learn to recognize the Hispanic words for pieces of furniture and some rooms in the house. They will also learn about the goucho in Argentina.

24. ¿Dónde está el perro? (Where is the Dog?)
Students will learn review the Spanish words for rooms in a house and sentences using furniture and rooms together. Students are introduced to the rain forest in Spanish-speaking places.

25. El cocinero (The Chef)
Students will learn about la merienda ,a Hispanic snacking tradition. The will learn several Spanish words used for tableware.

26. Perro Pepe en la televisión (Perro Pepe on Television)
Students will learn Spanish words pertaining to street traffic. Students will recognize words pertaining to different meals of the day, as well as traditional eating habits of the people in Hispanic countries.

27. Al Perro Pepe le duele una muela (Perro Pepe Has a Toothache)
Students will learn some Spanish words associated with doctor's and dentist offices. They will also learn to express hunger and thirst in Spanish. The merengue is introduced to the students as well.

28. Las formas (The Shapes)
Students will learn some Spanish words for various shapes. Students will learn about Pablo Picasso.

29. La reunión (The Reunion)
Students will learn some Spanish words for various types of transportation and how methods of transportation from Spain to America have changed in modern times.

30. Hogar, dulce hogar (Home Sweet Home)
Students learn the diversity of backgrounds of Hispanic persons living in the United States.

World Tour Language Series: French
Grades 4-6
20 Programs/30-Minutes Each

This series provides an introductory course in French for upper elementary students. In 20 half-hour lessons, students will learn about the language and the people who speak it. The lessons will provide enrichment opportunities as well as help students select a language for further study in high school. Workbooks enhance the lessons with vocabulary words, activities, illustrations, maps and puzzles.

World Tour Language Series: German
Grades 4-6
20 Programs/30-Minutes Each

This series provides an introductory course in German for upper elementary students. In 20 half-hour lessons, students will learn about the language and the people who speak it. The lessons will provide enrichment opportunities as well as help students select a language for further study in high school. Workbooks enhance the lessons with vocabulary words, activities, illustrations, maps and puzzles.

World Tour Language Series: Japanese
Grades 4-6
20 Programs/30-Minutes Each

This series provides an introductory course in Japanese for upper elementary students. In 20 half-hour lessons, students will learn about the language and the people who speak it. The lessons will provide enrichment opportunities as well as help students select a language for further study in high school. Workbooks enhance the lessons with vocabulary words, activities, illustrations, maps and puzzles.

World Tour Language Series: Spanish
Grades 4-6
20 Programs/30-Minutes Each

This series provides an introductory course in Spanish for upper elementary students. In 20 half-hour lessons, students will learn about the language and the people who speak it. The lessons will provide enrichment opportunities as well as help students select a language for further study in high school. Workbooks enhance the lessons with vocabulary words, activities, illustrations, maps and puzzles.

Health

Looking from the Inside/Out
Grades 3-5
15 Programs 15-Minutes Each
[Includes 1 Songbook/1Cassette Tape]

Looking from the Inside/Out is an updated version of the original Inside/Out, the highly acclaimed series that first appeared in 1973. Looking from the Inside/Out will enhance the effectiveness of existing health curricula and contribute to health education.

The program also includes a cassette tape and songbook with music and lyrics of all the songs in Looking From the Inside/Out.

The main setting is the classroom where the After School Program takes place. Three different hosts help the children in the videos to understand and work out emotional problems.

Programs:

1. I don't Get It
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of confusion and to show how communication skills can be used to deal with confusion effectively. This lesson focuses on the type of confusion that can result from lack of clear communication.

2. That's Me
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of pride and to show how skills for improving self-esteem can be used to enhance pride.

3. I'll Decide
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of independence and to show how decision-making skills can be used to attain independence.

4. Sticks and Stones
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion embarrassment and to show how communication skills can be used to deal with embarrassment effectively.

5. Oh Yeah?
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of anger and to show how decision-making skills and other anger buster can be used to deal effectively with anger.

6. Now What Do I Do?
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of frustration and to show how goal-setting skills can be used to deal effectively with frustration.

7. Alone in a Crowd
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of loneliness and to show how communication skills can be used to deal with loneliness effectively.

8. A Helping Hand
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of caring and to show how communication skills can be used to practice caring.

9. In Harm's Way
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of fear and to show how decision-making skills can be used to deal with fear effectively.

10. Learning to Say "No"
The purpose of this lesson is to explore how it feels to be pressured and to show how communication skills can be used to deal effectively with feeling pressured.

11. Saying Goodbye
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of grief and to show how communication skills can be used to deal with grief effectively.

12. Will He or Won't He ?
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of distrust and to show how stress-management skills can be used to deal with distrust effectively.

13. Changes
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of sadness and to show how stress-management skills can be used to deal with sadness effectively.

14. Worrywart
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of worry and to show how decision-making skills can be used to deal with worry effectively.

15. I Know I Can
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the emotion of determination and to show how goal-setting skills can be used top enhance determination.

LANGUAGE ARTS-Grammar/Literature/Writing

Cover to Cover
Grades 3-4
16 Programs/ 15 Minutes Each

Cover to Cover is a reading motivation series of sixteen 15-minute programs. Chosen for today's audience, and designed for use with third and fourth grade students, each program gives a "taste" of a book. Featured stories encompass a wide range of genres and reading levels as well as broad multicultural representation. Each program highlights two readings from the selected book with scenes and characters colorfully illustrated by artists and a cliffhanger-ending to peak students' interest and promote reading. Teacher's guide available.

Program Titles:

Ralph S. Mouse - Beverly Cleary

Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying
Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business - Barbara Park

The Year of the Panda - Miriam Schlein
Dolphin Adventure: A True Story - Wayne Grover

A Lion to Guard Us - Clyde Robert Bulla

The Big Wave - Pearl Buck

Pretty Polly - Dick King-Smith

Which Way Freedom? - Joyce Hansen

The Boys Start the War
The Girls Get Even - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear - Lensey Namioka

The Animal, the Vegetable, & John D Jones - Betsy Byars

Shape-Changer - Bill Brittain

A Brown Bird Singing - Frances Wosmek

Goblins in the Castle - Bruce Coville

All About Sam - Lois Lowry
The War with Grandpa - Robert Kimmel Smith

Mayfield Crossing - Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Guests - Michael Dorris

Reading Rainbow
Grades K-3
16 Programs/ 30 Minutes Each

Each episode of this colorful and imaginative series promotes positive self-concept and literacy skills - and includes a television adaptation of a children's picture book, a "field trip" segment and reviews of books by children. The prime objectives of this Emmy Award-winning magazine format series is to encourage primary level, beginning readers to adopt positive reading habits. Teacher's guide available online at http://gpn.unl.edu

Programs:

On the Day You Were Born
Episode 126
The feature book is a sensitive and tender book about the wonder of the birth of a child.
LeVar takes viewers on a delicate journey into a hospital maternity ward filled with newborns. A family preparing for a new member shares how they are getting ready for the baby, and, as the time arrives for the birth, we join the mother and father in the delivery room.

Hip Cat
Episode 127
This is the story of a cat who creates a sound all his own and then experiences how the rhyme and rhythm enchant his audience.
Jazz, America's most original music form, is the topic of this show. Viewers experience examples of improvisation in music, literature, art and dance, and meet Joshua Redman, a jazz saxophonist who talks about how music has influenced his life.

Regina's Big Mistake
Episode 128
The feature book is about a little girl who feels insecure about creating a picture and how she learns to create art in spite of making a mistake.
As LeVar creates a work of art for his mother's birthday, he introduces viewers to several artists who express themselves in different ways - including an artist who creates art from ordinary objects, one who uses wire to create sculptures and a third who creates sidewalk pictures with chalk.

Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message
Episode 129
The feature book is a prayer of the Iroquois Indians celebrating the precious and rare gift of the natural world - and the resources of the earth. On a fall day, LeVar stops to express appreciation for the gifts of the earth.
This show connects to the earth with a visit to a family who grows and harvests cranberries, then on to a pueblo where native artists use clay from the earth to make pottery, and finally to a group of children who are planting trees in their neighborhood. Children sing "Come You Dreamers," a song about taking care of the earth.

The Carousel
Episode 130
A carousel is the backdrop for this sensitive story about sisters who search for memories of their mother's legacy.
LeVar explores the power of tradition as children share legacies that have been passed on to them. A quilt maker explains the process of making a quilt, and tells how she is passing the tradition on to her grandniece. Viewers meet a man who, with the help of Harlem school children, has designed animal shapes for a carousel he is rebuilding in the community.

Math Cure
Episode 131
This episode, Math Cure, based on the book Math Curse by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith and narrated by actor Michelle Trachtenberg (from the movie Harriet The Spy), is a zany and hilarious look at how most everything in our lives is math related. LeVar tracks down, scouts out and sneaks up on math-in action, and he finds out firsthand that a factory - and life - can't run without it.

My Life With the Wave
Episode 132
A sheer magical tale about a boy who brings home a wave is based on a story by Octavio Paz, adapted by Catherine Cowan, illustrated by Mark Buehner and narrated by Broadway actor Scott Irby-Ranniar. LeVar explores the beauty and fascination of water, the rhythm and energy of waves, and visits people who are fulfilling the dream to save endangered sea life.

Saturday Sancocho
Episode 133
It's early in the morning as vendors at the neighborhood "Swap and Flea Market" set up. Hints of "swapping" - trading coffee for strawberries - set the stage for Saturday Sancocho written and illustrated by Leyla Torres. LeVar explores the fun of collecting and trading treasures - and how it's based on the ever-changing nature of value. All the while he is classifying, estimating, bartering, trading, collecting and figuring out trade - and monetary - values.

When Aunt Lena Did the Rhumba
Episode 134
In When Aunt Lena Did the Rhumba by Eileen Kurtis-Kleinman, illustrated by Diane Greenseid and narrated by actor Lucie Arnaz, a little girl hatches a plan to bring Broadway to her matinee-loving aunt who's in bed recovering from a rhumba-related spill. Viewers learn about the joys of performing from members of The Boys Choir of Harlem, comic Peter Petofsky and actors from the Broadway hit, Cats.

Worksong
Episode 135
Worksong by Gary Paulsen and illustrated by Ruth Wright Paulsen is a lyrical presentation of people at work. As another workday begins, LeVar heads off to a busy breakfast spot and speculates on all the jobs there are to do. The episode explores a wide variety of jobs - ordinary and unusual - pieces of the puzzle that fit together to make up our world of work.

The Shaman's Apprentice: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest
Episode 136
In this story of discovery and hope, a fatal disease comes to the Tirio village in the Amazon leaving a few villagers with faith in the shaman's healing. When a foreign woman arrives, she helps the village understand the importance of the shaman's wisdom, and this helps a Tirio boy realize his dream.

Pet Stories You Don't Have To Walk
Episode 137
In this tail-wagging episode, LeVar Burton and his canine companion, Roy, enjoy funny pet stories, hang out at "U-Wash-Doggie" (a pet-wash), and have a birthday celebration for Roy at "The Three Dogs Bakery." In a heart-warming segment, we learn about animal adoption and the most famous cat of all, Scarlett who rescued her five kittens from a fire is living happily in Brooklyn. We also meet Baldo and his parrot, Bubu, who have a very special relationship.

Lemonade For Sale
Episode 138
In this math-based episode, we meet LeVar on the floor of the stock exchange (under the big board). Featuring a book about the "Elm Street Kids' Club's" lemonade stand, the show explores big and small businesses and gives viewers a closer look at the economics of running a business.

The Secret Shortcut
Episode 139
In the book, two friends, Wendell and Floyd, discover a secret shortcut - in an effort to arrive at school on time -- which leads LeVar, in this math-based show, to explore the use of maps, mazes, and other travel problem solving techniques.

My America: A Poetry Atlas Of The United States
Episode 140
LeVar celebrates the geographical beauty of America with wonderful poems that conjure up images of the beautiful, geographical regions in the United States

Badger's Parting Gifts
Episode 141
A "remembrance" show dedicated to keeping loved ones that have passed on, still a part of our lives. In the show's feature book, Badger's friends are overwhelmed when they lose him, but in time they recall memories of him and feel better.

Writing Workshop
Grades: 10 to 12
10 Programs/15-Minutes Each

This 10-part series is designed to help students improve their writing skills and brush up their grammar. Teacher Valerie Lewis presents a step-by-step writing system that includes short-story writing, business writing, poetry, writing scripts for radio and television and more. Programs also include interviews with professional writers who talk about how they write, and offer useful advice on the writing process.

Programs:

1. The Writing Process
Explains each stage of the writing process-prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing-gives students tips for approaching each stage and encourages them to discover their own writing process.

2. A Portrait of Yourself
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis explains autobiographical writing and interviews journalist Susan Pedwell about her use of autobiographical writing and her writing process. In the Word Shop they discuss ways of connecting short sentences.

3. The Stories We Tell
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis introduces Paul Yee, a writer of children's stories base on Chinese-Canadian experiences and interviews him about his writing process. Writing tips cover the use of dialogue to bring characters to life and reveal character traits, and the technique of sowing as opposed to telling about an incident. In the Word Shop they discuss the use of adjectives and adverbs.

4. Explaining Ourselves
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis explains how-to writing and interviews Marcia Kaye about how-to writing techniques and her writing process. In the Writing Tips segment, Valerie shows how to use an organizer in the prewriting phase. In the Word Shop they discuss words that connect paragraphs.

5. Take a Stand
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis explains the form and purpose of argument writing and interviews writer and environmental activist Vanessa Alexander about techniques for argument writing and about her writing process. In the Writing Tips segment, Valerie shows how to use an organizer and in the Word shop they discuss sentence fragments and run-on sentences.

6. Other Lives, Other Stories
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis explains oral history, a particular method of preserving stories of people's past. She interviews Lorraine Hubbard, founding member and previous executive director of the Black History Society, about oral history techniques. Writing Tips are about the difference between oral and written language and the need for unity, coherence, and logical and chronological order in writing. In the Word Shop, they discuss how to punctuate dialogue.

7. Report Writing
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis points out the features of report writing and interviews Sherry Boeck about her report writing process. Writing Tips offer corrections for short choppy sentences, unnecessary repetition, wordiness and flower language. In the Word Shop, they convert sentence from the passive to the active voice.

8. Writing Poetry
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis talks about poetry as a basic form of human communications, and interviews Lucy Brennan about her inspirations and her writing process. Writing Tips focuses on word choice and shapes of poems. In the Word Shop, they discuss the use of similes and metaphors.

9. Resumes and Applications
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis interviews Janis Foord-Kirk, career consultant and columnist for the Toronto Star about the need for well-written resumes and cover letters, and how to apply the writing process to both. Writing Tips emphasize the
points to include in a resume. In the Word Shop, they work on short, choppy sentences.

10. Writing for the Median
Host-teacher Valerie Lewis interviews writer Robin Heisey about the ads he has helped write. Writing Tips include a variety of suggestions for script writing and review of how to set up a page script. In the Word Shop, they work on dialogue for ads.

You Can Write Anything!
Grades: 3-6
10 Programs/15-Minutes Each

The skill of writing well is developed by practice, encouragement, and motivation. You Can Write Anything! supports this writing process,
incorporating the theory that children should be given frequent and varied opportunities to see themselves as authors. The series centers around The Write Stuff, a neighborhood bookstore where Uncle Willard, a benevolent spirit, and J.J. Pemberton, the aspiring writer who operates the store, helps neighborhood children appreciate good writing and improve their writing skills. Each episode introduces and develops a writing technique: getting ideas; using one's imagination; choosing effective vocabulary; holding the reader's attention; planning stories; understanding the power of words; and report and play writing. An ideal complement to writing skills programs in grades 3 to 6, You Can Write Anything! is certain to motivate children to write with competence-and confidence.

Programs:

1. Getting Ideas
Amanda must write a story for school and needs a topic. Freelance writer Kate suggests that the best way to get started is to be observant and to
make clear, concise notes.

2. Unlock Your Imagination
Uncle Willard explains that writers can use their imaginations to make up any person, place, or thing, and remarks that "What If" is a good phrase
to get the imagination going.

3. Using Words
Uncle Willard talks about the importance of careful word usage. Viewers learn about the value of the thesaurus, the use of alliteration, and the
power of descriptive passages.

4. Beginnings
J.J. Pemberton and Uncle Willard illustrate how authors use questions, conversation, and statements that intrigue by reference to their stories'
characters, settings, or plots. They explain that even a single word can grab a reader's interest at the very beginning of a story.

5. Stories 1 - Planning
Uncle Willard tells Amanda that putting yourself into your story and telling it from your own point of view is one way of making it seem more
exciting. Amanda learns the importance of planning her story before she writes it.

6. Stories 2 - Characters
Amanda and Keith discuss the stories they will write and enter in a contest. J.J. Pemberton suggests that Amanda correct the spelling and
punctuation and edit her story before sending it in, and Keith is told to develop his hero's character more fully.

7. Stories 3 - Endings
As a result of an adventure, Amanda and J.J. Pemberton discuss different types of story endings and the elements that make up a good ending.

8. The Power of Words
Through examples, viewers learn how writers can influence our perceptions merely through their choice of words.

9. Reports
Keith has to write a report, and Kate suggests he follow a method: he should write down all the questions that he wants to have answered before
starting his research. He also learns how to set up a title page, illustrations, and subheadings.

10. Writing a Play
Keith and Amanda learn how to write dialogue suitable for a play, how to set precise stage directions, and Amanda learns how to write out the piece
in correct play form.

MATHEMATICS

Interactions: Real Math - Real Careers
Grades: 6-9
12 Programs/Vary in Length Up to 60 Minutes/Each

This video series will take your students beyond the walls of the classroom-all over the country and around the world-to discover how athletes, artists, scientists and engineers use math, science and technology to make their dreams become realities.

Programs:

1. Solar Energy
The sun is the ultimate source of clean, abundant energy. Sunlight warms the land, air, and bodies of water. Differences in air temperature create wind that drives windmills. The temperature difference between the surface of the ocean and the cold ocean depths creates currents that can be used to produce power. Energy from solar radiation can be captured and used to heat water and/or buildings and be converted directly into electricity.

2. Water Resources
Population growth, precipitation, pollution, and other factors are making it necessary to manage our water carefully. This requires knowledge of available resources, facilities to store water an move it where it is needed, and the ability to predict water needs.

3. Endangered Species
Increased efforts to protect endangered plants and animals bring additional career options. Professional opportunities to work on this issue exist in the fields of botany, zoology, veterinary medicine, ecology, wildlife photography, and with national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

4. Recycling
The United States generates more trash per person than does any other country. At present, only about 15% of this waste is recycled. Reducing waste will improve our environment by decreasing the need for landfills or incinerators.

5. Digital Communications
Combinations of zeros and ones can represent written or spoken words, and still or moving pictures. Because digital information can be moved faster and stored much more efficiently, it has the potential to bring vast amounts of information to
individuals. This information can be used in various ways from daily management of a multi-million dollar company to simply communicating from one home to another.

6. Making Music
The language of music relies on an agreed-upon set of numerical values for symbols. New opportunities exist in such emerging fields as electronic engineering and computer programming of electronic instruments; musical video production; and digital music for video games.

7. The Fashion Business
Companies take a risk by designing and making products without knowing how many people will by them and today, the variety of possible styles increases the risk for companies as they decide which clothing to manufacture.

To reduce the risk, many manufacturers invest time and money in market research, design, production, and advertising. This investment provides career opportunities in design, market research, factory production, retailing and advertising.

8. Coaching an Athlete
What motivated Edwin Moses and Florence Griffith Joyner to achieve new world records in 1988 in their respective Olympic track events…? Athletes of this caliber bring a high level of self-determination to the achievement of their goals. However, no serious athlete would deny that the guidance provided by a trainer or coach is essential to the process of achieving a goal. Since each new athlete requires a different set of goals and, therefore, a unique training program, coaches face new challenges year after year.

9. Designing a Product
Consumer products often emerge as a proposed solution to a perceived problem. The development of a consumer product can involve many predictable steps. Product development offers many opportunities in fields such as industrial design, graphic arts, engineering, computer-aided-design (CAD), quality assurance, marketing, technical writing, and manufacturing.

10. Building a Rover
When designing a mobile robot, engineers consider factors such as the environment in which the robot will operate, the available power sources, and the tasks the robot will perform. Robotics has eliminated some traditional manufacturing jobs, but it offers new opportunities for engineers, computer programmers, telecommunication specialists, and machinist.

11. Voyage to Mars
United States astronauts are preparing for an upcoming voyage to Mars based on data received from two Viking probes sent to Mars in 1976. The mission design team planning the voyage must combine many skills and technologies to assure a successful outcome.

12. Deep Sea Missions
For centuries, humans have had a complex relationship with the oceans that cover nearly three-quarters of Earth. For those fascinated by oceans there are careers available in a variety of fields including marine geology, oceanography, marine biology, chemistry, cartography, and robotics. Opportunities are continuing to grow as we increase our efforts to understand ocean ecosystems, harness the ocean's energy, and to halt its pollution.

Mathematics is Elementary
Grades: 2-4
13 Programs/15-Minutes Each

Mathematics is Elementary is a complete curriculum resource program. Each of the 13 classroom lesson combine interactive video segments, hands-o problem solving activities, and take-home student parent exercises to meet NCTM curriculum standards and the content strands of the National Assessment of Educational progress for Mathematics.

1. What's a Thousand? Number Sense and Place Value
Students will learn to understand the numeration system by relating, counting, grouping and using place-value concepts. They will learn to interpret the multiple uses of numbers encounter in the real world and develop number sense.

2. What's Next ? Patterns and Relationships
Students will learn how to identify, recognize, describe, extend and create patterns.

3. What Is It Worth? Operations and Computations
Students will learn to model, explain, and use a variety of computational techniques to solve real-life problems. They will discover how to select and use computation techniques appropriate to specific problems and determine whether the results are reasonable.

4. Is There Action in Fractions? Number Sense and Fractions
Students will learn to develop number sense of fractions; use models to represent fractions; and apply fractions to problem situations.

5. How Long? How Far? Measurement
Students will learn to identify and use tools for measuring length; and identify and use standard and nonstandard units of measure.

6. How Much? How Many? Measurement (Weight)
Students will learn to estimate the weight of simple objects and then use these estimates to determine weight of other objects; make models that approximate weight; apply models to predict weight; and estimate the number of pennies in a given quantity.

7. How Much Does It Hold? Measurement (Volume)
Students will learn to understand the attributes of volume; develop the process of measuring and concepts of related units of volume. Students will learn to make and use estimates of volume; and find things that are clearly bigger/smaller than a given volume.

8. What Shape Is It In? Geometry and Spatial Sense
Students will learn to identify, describe, model, draw and classify 2-D geometric shapes.

9. What Size Do I Need? Geometry and Measurement
Students will learn to identify and use units of measure for area and volume; identify and use estimates of measure; and visualize spatial relationships.

10. What's This When It Comes Together? Geometry-Parts and Shapes
Students will learn to visualize and construct 3-D shapes as well as recognize relationships between 2-D and 3-D shapes.

11. How Can I Find Out? Collecting and Using Data
Students will learn to use various models to collect and represent data as well as formulate and solve problems that involve collecting and analyzing data.

12. Is It Likely? Statistics and Probability
Students will learn to explore the concept of chance/probability; collect, present, and analyze data then make predictions based upon the data.

13. How Many Ways? Algebra and Function
Students will learn to recognize, describe, extend and create a wide variety of patterns; represent and describe mathematical relationships; and explore the use of variables and open sentences to express relationships.

 

Mathmedia
Grades: 7-12
12 Programs/20-Minutes Each

Mathmedia is a new kind of resource to help your students learn mathematics. These 12 programs, the Student Guide, and the Teacher's Guide will provide your classes with an interactive, contextual foundation for the mathematics that you have been teaching. Mathmedia is designed to supplement, reinforce and extend middle school, junior high and high school pre-algebra curricula.

Programs:

1. Graphs
In this module you will see lots of graphs-line graphs, bar graphs, and pie charts. You will learn how to read and interpret them and which kinds of graphs are best for conveying different kinds of information. Students will demonstrate that they can read, interpret, and evaluate data from bar graphs, line graphs, and circle (pie) charts; create bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts from given data; discuss the uses of different kinds of graphs for different kinds of data and purposes.

2. Decimals and Exponents
Whole numbers and decimals are the basis of foreign exchange rates, which tell you about the relationship between the U.S. dollar and the currencies of other nations. Students will demonstrate that they can calculate the cost of goods in foreign currencies, understand how whole numbers and decimals are used in the monetary system; use computational estimation with whole and decimal numbers; use the laws of exponents.

3. Logical Reasoning
In this module you will learn to use inductive and deductive reasoning as well as other kinds of thinking and logic that are necessary not only for solving mathematical problems but also for solving crimes, decoding secret messages, playing strategy games, and working out answers to puzzles.

4. Measurement
In this module you will learn how measurements are used for estimating quantities and costs of a great many products and services. You will see how the circumference of a tire can affect the measurement of a car's speed. You will also see how knowing the perimeter of shapes can help you calculate their area and volume.

5. Fractions
In this module, you will see how fractions are used in most daily activities and in the workplace, especially when it is necessary to measure things. You will see how everyone from cooks to carpenters and from managers to musicians, works with fractions to measure materials, calculate payroll, or perform music.

6. Positive and Negative Numbers
This module is designed to help you understand and work with positive and negative numbers. You will see how negative numbers can express temperatures that are below zero and money that is owed, and you will learn how to add, subtract and multiply negative and positive numbers.

7. Formulas
In this module, you will look at formulas. You'll begin to understand what they are and how they operate, and you will see how they can make a lot of calculation easier and more efficient. You'll get some practice in using formulas when one quantity changes while others remain the same. You'll also see how computers use formulas to "crunch" hundreds of numbers in spreadsheets.

8. Ratios
In this module, you will learn how to identify and form equivalent ratios and ratio tables and how to express ratios both as fractions and as decimals. You will learn that bicycle gears, roof slopes and map scales are among the many applications of ratios.

9. Percentages
This module will show how to figure the percentage of your wages that is deducted from you paycheck for taxes and other purposes. You will also learn how to calculate the percentage of change in sales, earnings, or other situations. You will see how percentages work in calculating interest rates on savings accounts, and certificates of deposit as well as on loans and installment payments.

10. Area and Volume
In this module you will lean about calculating the area of different geometrical shapes, including rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles. You will also learn how to apply and use the formula for volume.

11. Probability
This module deals with the mathematics of probability-the likelihood that something will or won't happen. Students will demonstrate that they can explain the use of statistics to determine risk and probability; determine the probability of two or three independent events; and determine the likely outcomes when two number cubes are rolled.

12. Coordinates
In this module, you will learn about the "coordinate system"-two perpendicular lines that are numbered or lettered and that define a grid, which you can use to identify position or quantities. You will learn how to use this system to perform tasks such as finding places on a map or determining the real-even point for a business. You will even be able to determine how to program a robot to put screws into the right place on a circuit board.

Statistics: Decisions Through Data
Grades: 10-12
14 Programs/15-Minutes Each

Statistics: Decisions Through Data is a series of modules built around video units for the classroom. The programs "take" students from the classroom on electronic on-location field-trips to observe abstract concepts in real-life applications and situations. In addition, animated graphics are also used to illustrate abstract concepts in interesting and unusual ways.

The programs are designed to be used as a series, but because each program is self-contained, individual programs or clusters of programs may be introduced whenever the curriculum calls for materials from statistics.

Programs:

1. What is Statistics?
This video concentrates on what statistics is and emphasizes that statistics can be thought of in terms of three different activities: production, organization and analysis of data.

2. Stemplots
Stemplots require familiarity with place values in the number systems and also reinforce this basic number concept. There are no statistical prerequisites.

3. Histograms and Distributions
Histograms require an understanding of "betweeness" and the ability to group numbers by size. Because this unit also continues the discussion of h9ow to look at a distribution, Unit 2 is helpful as a prerequisite,

4. Measures of Center
Students should recognize a histogram (Unit 3) as well as symmetric and skewed distributions. The only mathematics prerequisite is knowledge of the basic arithmetical operations (ordering, addition, long division) needed to calculate the mean and median. The video uses notation from elementary algebra.

5. Boxplots
Students must be familiar with stemplots, histograms, and the media (Units 2, 3, and 4).

6. The Standard Deviation
Students must be familiar with stemplots, histograms, and the mean (Units 2, 3, and 4). The presentation of the recipe for the standard deviation uses notation from elementary algebra. The five-number summary (Unit 5) is mentioned briefly.

7. Normal Curves
This unit requires the acquaintance with histograms, the mean, and the standard deviation (Units 3, 4, and 6).

8. Normal Calculations
This unit requires familiarity with basic facts about normal distributions (Unit 7) as well about distributions, means, and standard deviation (Units 3,4 and 6).

9. Straight-line Growth
This unit is designed to be used with any text that introduces straight lines and their equations.

10. Exponential Growth
Exponentials and logarithms are standard curriculum material. The statistical content of this unit is the idea of fitting a model to approximately describe a pattern in real data and of examining the residuals to study how good the fit is.

11. Scatterplots
Students should be able to draw axes and plot points in the plane. It is recommended that basic data analysis for a single variable (Units 2 to 5) precede the study of relations between two variables.

12. Fitting Lines to Data
Students must be familiar with scatterplots (Unit 11) and with the notation of elementary algebra.

13. Correlation
A knowledge of scatterplots (Unit 11) is essential. The correlation coefficient makes use of he mean and standard deviation of the x and y values, so students must be familiar with those measures (Units 4 and 6).

14. Save the Bay
The video describes a large statistical study, monitoring the level and effects of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Power of Algebra
Grades: 8-9
10 Programs/15-Minutes Each

The Power of Algebra is ten, 15-minute video programs designed to help eighth and ninth graders master a variety of algebra concepts.

Programs:

1. Inverse Operations
This program will explore the nature of variables; introduce the process of solving algebraic equations through forming equivalent equations; and demonstrate how algebra is used in everyday life to solve problems.

2. The Order of Operations
This program will define the order of operations for multiplication, division, addition and subtraction; within grouping symbols. Students will also define exponents and the order of operations with exponents and grouping symbols, and discuss of how these rules may be used to simplify algebraic problems.

3. Basic Properties
This program will explore the properties of addition and multiplication of numbers and variables and the linkage that occurs with the addition of variables and numbers. The program also will discuss of how these rules may be used to simplify algebraic problems.

4. The Positive and Negative Numbers
This program will explain the real number line and the effect of directions on a set of real numbers; explore the relationship between positive and negative numbers as well as the need and uses. The program will use the real number line to define subtraction of real numbers and subtraction of signed numbers.

5. Using Positive Exponents
This program will define exponents using positive integers and scientific notation; illustrate the usefulness of exponents; discover the rules of using positive exponents; and reinforce the use of exponents in computing square and cubic measurements.

6. Polynomials and Equations
This program will develop an understanding of like terms and unlike terms; develop a definition of polynomials; and present methods for solving two equations in two unknowns.

7. Factoring I
This program will define variables, constant term, polynomial, monomial, binomial, trinomial, factor, multiple, prime factor, divisor, the degree of a polynomial, and quadratic equations.

8. Factoring II
This program will review the vocabulary from Factoring I, and develop techniques for factoring the quadratic ax2 + bx + c = 0.

9. Fractions
This program will show the relationship between arithmetic fractions and algebraic fractions; reduce algebraic fractions by dividing out common factors; add, subtract, multiply, and divide algebraic fractions; and solve equations involving algebraic fractions.

10. Words into Symbols
This program will explain how expressions or sentences in words can be translated into algebraic expressions or sentences. In addition, this program will introduce several problem-solving strategies.

MUSIC

Music to My Ears
Grades 6-12
4 Programs/30 Minutes Each
Produced by Nashville Public Television and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Music to My Ears is a resource for music teachers at the middle and high school level. The series has several goals. The most important is to encourage the viewer to become an active listener who employs careful observation and critical thinking in the art of listening. Secondary goals include 1) helping audiences make connections between concepts in music and other art forms, such as the visual or performing arts; 2) exposing students to a variety of musical styles and genres; and 3) introducing viewers to musical structure and terminology.

The series is hosted by Dr. Cedric Dent of Take 6. Dent holds a Ph.D. in music and is active as a composer and educator as well as performer. The other members of Take 6 join Dent to provide vocal demonstrations of the ideas being presented in each show. Other featured groups include the Nashville Bluegrass Band, the Fairfield Four, the Beegie Adair Trio, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra Trio. Each program explores a musical idea through performances, conversations, and demonstrations. Other art forms are used to create analogies for the musical concepts.

Programs:

Music to My Ears-Foreground and Background
This first program features the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and examines what is happening in the foreground and background in a piece of music. (28:46)

Music to My Ears-Taking Turns
This segment features the Nashville Chamber Orchestra Trio. It explores the question, "How do composers take a musical idea and turn it into a whole piece?" (28:46)

Music to My Ears-Making It Up
Featuring the jazz/blues of the Beegie Adair Trio, the third episode delves into the nature of improvisation. (28:46)

Music to My Ears-Zoom In, Zoom Out
The final program, featuring the legendary a cappella group, Fairfield Four, considers the question, "How can focusing on the details of music help the listener hear more of the big picture?" (27:16)

SCIENCE

3-2-1 Classroom Contact
Grades 4-6
30 Programs/ 15 Minutes Each

For more than a decade kids have watched 3-2-1 Contact after school. Now you can use a special edition of Children's Television Workshop's popular award-winning science series in school with 3-2-1 Classroom Contact, a new classroom version of the award-winning series for 4th- through 6th-graders. For teacher's guides go to http://gpn.unl.edu.

Programs:

Antarctica: Getting to the South Pole
Antarctica: a huge continent covered with a thick layer of ice - 9,000 feet thick at the South Pole. Follow the route taken across this icy desert by early explorers. Learn hands-on why polar regions are colder than places along the Equator.

Crystals: They're Habit Forming
Salts, sugars, and snowflakes are crystals. Every kind of crystal has its own specific shape, or habit. But how do crystals form? Grow some to find out!

Erosion: Earth is Change
Earth's surface is constantly changing. Floods, landslides, hurricanes, erupting volcanos, and soil-shifting earthquakes can cause sudden, dramatic changes. But gradual action by wind and water over millions of years can also alter the Earth's surface and shape breathtaking landscapes like the Grand Canyon!

Fossils: Remains To Be Seen
How do we know what dinosaurs looked like when they lived millions of years ago? The answer is fossils - traces of past life preserved in Earth's crust. Fossils help scientists figure out how the dinosaurs lived, and possibly how they died.

Ocean Environments: 3-D Sea
Oceans may look the same from the surface, but underneath, different ocean environments offer support to spectacularly different, sea dwelling creatures. The animal life in each environment depends on conditions like the depth, temperature, salinity, and oxygen/carbon dioxide content of the water.

Volcanos: Too Hot To Handle
What comes out of volcanos? A lot of stuff! Some eject lava, others hot ash. The materials that come from deep within volcanos raise Earth's surface, make mountains, and create new land masses. The Hawaiian Islands, Japan, and Iceland were all formed by volcanic eruptions. Come along and see Mauna Loa during an eruption and Mount St. Helens after it blew its top.

Water Cycle: Go With the Flow
Did you know that the water you drank today, may have been drunk by a dinosaur 50 million years ago? Well it's true. All the water in the world is constantly being recycled. It is cleaned in a never-ending cycle of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. But there's a limit to the amount of pollution the water cycle can handle. Sometimes water gets polluted even before it hits the ground -rain falling through polluted air can form acid rain that may kill plants and animals.

Animal Vision: Eye of the Beholder
Ever wondered how the world looks through a frog's eyes or a chameleon's eyes? Here's your chance to see things in a whole new light! Animal's eyes help them survive in their specific environments and basic components of the eye vary in different species. Some animals don't see colors at all; some see only a few; and some see parts of the spectrum we can't - those of infrared or ultraviolet light.

Antarctic Animals: Living on the Edge
Only a few animal species live in Antarctica. On the ice-covered land mass, air temperatures dip to below -100 degrees F. Near-freezing water is toasty by comparison. So most animals live in the chilly ocean water surrounding the continent. Animals like penguins and seals are specially adapted to survive in this otherwise inhospitable environment.

Australian Mammals: Life Down Under
Australia is home to many unique animals including some unusual mammals like the kangaroo, the koala, and the platypus. But why do all these strange, unusual creatures live in just one place? It all started a long, long time ago in a place called Gondwanaland.

Bioelectricity: The Shocking Truth
All living things - people, animals, and plants - produce electricity. Each cell in the human body works like a tiny battery. We use the electricity to send messages to and from our brains. Learn how scientists are using the body's own electrical impulses to help amputees utilize artificial myoelectric limbs!

Classification: The Order of Things
Living things can be grouped, or classified, according to common traits. Doing so helps us find out how species are related - the more traits they share, the closer the relationship. Knowing about such common traits even helped a scientist solve the mystery of a plane crash!

Digestion: The Inside Story
Some animals eat plants; some eat meat; and some eat plants and meat. Whatever an animal eats, its teeth get the digestive process underway. But where does food go from there? Find out by watching the on-camera dissection of a pig's digestive system which shows how the process works in him and in you.

Flying Animals: Winging It
How is a clam like a polar bear? Neither has wings, so neither can fly! But lots of other animals do have standard flying equipment - wings. Some are flying birds, some are flying mammals (bats), and some were flying reptiles (pterosaurs) that became extinct more than 60 million years ago. Even though these creatures may look different, their wings have a lot in common.

Food Chains: Eat and Be Eaten
All animals - including humans - depend on plants because there's a plant at the beginning of every food chain. For example, sea urchins thrive on kelp, a water plant, and sea urchins, in turn, are food for sea otters. Find out how marine biologists in California observe the kelp - sea urchin - food chain and sometimes intervene to maintain this delicate balance.

Innate and Learned Behavior: How Do They Know That?
Why does a spider always weave the same kind of web instead of getting creative from time to time? Because the web-spinning behavior is innate - the animal knew how to spin webs when it was hatched. Humans have innate behaviors too, such as crying and swallowing, but there are lots of things animals - including humans - must learn how to do.

Social Behavior: Living in Groups
Although most animals are solitary creatures, some live in groups: herds of bison and schools of fish live in loose assemblies of hundreds; prides of lions and troops of baboons live in small but organized groups; colonies of ants and bees live in highly organized groups of thousands.

Training Animals: Learning New Tricks
What do pigs, dolphins, and monkeys have in common? They're animals that can be trained to do things - sometimes just for fun; sometimes to help humans. And they're mammals - the animals best able to learn. When working with animals, trainers break down tasks into steps that are taught one at a time.

Air Is Matter: Air Is There
Air is matter that really matters. It's everywhere, throwing its weight around by holding things up or knocking them down. But wherever it is and whatever it does, air has volume and mass that make it matter!

Friction: Getting a Grip
What do bobsleds, roller coasters, motorcycles, skis, cars, planes, snakes, and people all have in common? They all need friction to get 'em going and to slow 'em down! Friction is the resistance encountered when one thing moves over the surface of another. Treads on tires and shoes create friction so people can "get a grip!"

Generating Electricity: More Power to You
How can you generate electricity? Simply. Just move a magnet past a wire or a wire past a magnet and you'll get an electric current. Huge power plants use falling water, wind or steam to rotate coils of wire inside giant magnets to create enough electricity for all of us.

Gravity Weightlessness: Measuring G's
Gravity constantly grabs things and pulls them toward Earth's center. In fact, that's why things have weight. But how do you get into a weightless situation? Try riding a rollercoaster...or even an elevator!

Light and Color: Living Color
Why can't we see the colors of objects in the dark? Because light has to hit the object and reflect its color back to our eyes. Hard to visualize? Well watch, as simple animations and colorful experiments take us out of the dark and into the light!

Motion and Forces: Play Ball
An object can't move unless acted upon by some force that sets it in motion. We apply force when we hit a baseball or shoot a basketball through a hoop, but there's another force that's working all the time - gravity. You'd be surprised at what you can do if you know that forces like gravity work in predictable ways. For example, softball pitchers use gravity to throw pitches that trick batters!

Refraction: Facts of Light
A ray of light ordinarily travels in a straight line, but it can be refracted, or bent, when it enters a new medium at an angle. It's important to be able to bend light. Lighthouses, for example, use lenses to bend light from one bulb and send it far out to sea to warn sailors of rocks ahead.

Surface Tension: BUBBLE-ology!
Can anyone blow a soap bubble that's non-spherical? No. Because of surface tension, soap film sticks together and always forms a sphere. Experiments with soap bubbles help kids learn more about what's holding the bubbles all together - surface tension.

How Do You Know? Collect the Data
You can get a lot of information from books, data banks, and even from TV. But sometimes you just have to get up, go out into the field, and observe people and things in order to collect data. Meet some scientists collecting data deep in the woods and deep underwater.

How Do You Know? Dig It Up!
How do archaeologists find out what prehistoric humans ate? The scientists become detectives, excavating ancient trash heaps and hunting for animal bones, shells, and plant pollen that give clues to what people ate. But for direct evidence, scientists analyze fossil faces. Seeds and plant pollen that are trapped and preserved in thousand-year-old dung reveal what was eaten!

How Do You Know? Experiment!
Is every sound a language? Do parrots speak English? And who left that message on the answering machine? You can try to guess the answers to these questions, or you can set up controlled experiments designed to let you know when you've found the right answers!

How Do You Know? Make a Model
Lots of people put together model planes or ships for fun. But models aren't just toys, they're scientific tools! Models can help us test theories, learn about things that are very small, very big, very far away, or that lived very long ago. We can even calculate a dinosaur's weight by using a model of the creature!

 

Eureka!
Grades 6-12
30 Programs/5-Minutes Each

Eureka! Is a series of 30 short, humorous and informative-packed programs that bring "boring" physics concepts to vibrant, vigorous life. Each five-minute program takes a simple and direct approach to the subject matter; while the basic concepts are explained in a voice-over, cartoon characters and a variety of animated objects demonstrate the principles on the screen.

Programs:

Unit 1: Force and Energy

1. Inertia
This program introduces the series and sets forth the concept of inertia, the first law of physics. Things like to keep on doing what they're already doing.

2. Mass
Building on the concept of inertia, Eureka! Adds the factor of mass, tells how it's measured and show how it differs from size. Concept: Inertia increases with mass.
3. Speed
The concept of speed is introduced to the inertia-mass relationship. Concept: Force varies with mass and rate of change of speed.

4. Acceleration 1
With the examples of a bicycle and a baseball player, an important rule of physics becomes apparent. Concept: Force = mass x acceleration.

5. Acceleration 2
An animated locomotive helps explain how acceleration works and is calculated. The importance of reasonable units is stressed. Concept: Acceleration = m/s2.

6. Gravity
Isaac Newton's celebrated falling apple is cited to explain the force of gravity and the unit with which the force of gravity is measured. Concept: Force of Gravity = Mass x 10 m/s2.

7. Weight vs Mass
Eureka! Explains the difference between weight and mass and show how only mass is the same on the moon and on the earth.

8. Work
A circus strongman and a clown help present the physics definition of work. Concept: Work = force x distance.

9. Kinetic Energy
Animated billiard balls help demonstrate kinetic energy-the energy of motion.

10. Potential Energy
A rock teetering on the edge of a cliff is shown to have potential energy-the energy of position.

Unit 2: Simple Machines

11. The Inclined Plane
This program demonstrates how an inclined plane allows you to trade increased distance for decreased force.

12. The Lever
Eureka! Demonstrates the principle of the lever; "The longer the arm of the lever to which force is applied, the less that force need be".

13. Mechanical Advantage and Friction
Professors A and B compare the mechanical advantage of an inclined plane with that of a lever.

14. The Screw and the Wheel
This program provides examples and definitions of a screw and a wheel: a screw is simply a twisted inclined plane, a wheel is simply a circular lever, whose fulcrum has become an axle.

15. The Pulley
Eureka! shows viewers how a pulley works to lift a heavy object. If you double the number of ropes supporting the weight, you double the mechanical advantage.

Unit 3: Heat and Temperature

16. Molecules in Solids
This program defines the three states of matter, and illustrates the latticework pattern of molecules in solids. Viewers learn the origin of the word "molecule".

17. Molecules in Liquids
As molecules in a solid get hotter, they vibrate faster and faster and eventually slip out of their latticework pattern. When this occurs, the substance melts, changing from a solid to a liquid state.

18. Evaporation and condensation
A goldfish bowl filled with water demonstrates the process of evaporation in which speeding molecules escape from a liquid to form a gas.

19. Expansion and Contraction
Using balloons to illustrate the process, Eureka! shows how, when matter gets hot, it's molecules go faster and the solid, liquid or gas expands. Conversely, when matter gets cold, it's molecules go slower and the solid, liquid or gas contracts.

20. Measuring Temperature
Eureka! shows viewers how Swedish scientist Anders Celsius invented the Celsius thermometer using the expansion of mercury as a measure of temperature.

21. Temperature vs Heat
Eureka! explains that heat refers to quantity of hotness, and is determined by the mass and speed of molecules. This program demonstrates that a bucket of water at temperature of 50 degrees Celsius contains more heat than a cup of water at 100 degrees Celsius.

Unit 4: The Conduction of Heat

22. Atoms
This program explains that molecules are made up of atoms. In pure metals, all the atoms are arranged separately in a latticework patter, but in most nonmetals, liquids, and gases the atoms are bunched together into molecules.

23. Electrons
Using an animated model of an atom, Eureka! illustrates how electrons whiz so quickly round the nucleus that they appear to form layers.

24. Conduction
Eureka! looks at the process of conduction, explaining that the application of heat to an object makes the molecules or atoms vibrate faster and cause a short of "domino effect".

Unit 5: The Convection of Heat

25. Volume and Density
This program explains that volume refers to the amount of space an object envelops and that density refers to the amount of mass that is compacted in a given volume.

26. Buoyancy
Showing viewers that objects immersed in a liquid are buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the liquid displaced, this program explains the principle of buoyancy.

27. Convection
This program explains how the principle of buoyancy is responsible for the process of heat transfer called convection.

28. Heat as Energy
Heat is produced whenever there is movement and friction between two objects. Since movement is a form of energy, it follows that heat must also be a form of energy.

29. Radiation Waves
Viewers learn that one of the chief ways in which heat energy moves is in the form of waves. This kind of heat transfer is called radiation.

30. The Radiation Spectrum
Viewers learn that the waves of heat energy radiated by the sun come in many forms which together make a band, or spectrum of energy waves.

Eye of the Cyclops
Grades 4-6
8 Programs/13-15 Minutes Each

Climb aboard the Cyclops, our microscopic research vessel, and investigate an amazing hidden world on which all living things depend. The teaching guide for each program describes follow-up activities and correlates the programs to the
National Science Standards. Teaching guides can be downloaded free at www.eBioMEDIA.com.

Programs:

Plankton Play
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers, and protists, all organisms that show unique adaptations for open water life.

Decomposers Everywhere
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by bacteria, the microbes that break down and recycle organic materials-an unforgettable visual introduction to the concept of organic decomposition.

Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued, and its green secrets are revealed through experiments performed on board the Cyclops. The micronauts discover how algae start the food chains that ultimately sustain the fish, birds, amphibians, and mammals living in and around the pond.

Protozoans and Algae
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming by the observation ports. Through careful observation they discover how these amazing single cells feed, reproduce, and escape.

Predators of the Shallows
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by Planaria, a flatworm, the tentacles of Hydra trap the Cyclops crew where they receive a hands-on lesson in the process of digestion.

White Water Adventure
Trying to return to their pond base, the micronauts are channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing water-even waterfalls.

Discovering a Forest Microcosm
Washed onto a sandbar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by bacteria, fungi, termites, and tiny invertebrate animals-a forest
floor community on which the trees and other plants depend.

Backyard Biodiversity
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including herbivorous and predatory insects, pollinating insects, and giant earthworms. They tour a worm's burrow, where they develop theories on the vital roles earthworms
play in terrestrial ecosystems.

 

Science is Elementary
Grades: K-2
10 Programs/15-Minutes Each

Science is Elementary helps children use their natural curiosity to observe, question, and physically investigate sciences. The videos help foster lifelong enthusiasm for science exploration by featuring non-competitive environments in which children and adults are free to seek knowledge, question and learn cooperatively. Each of the 10 videos programs is a complete lesson in itself; therefore, the programs may be presented in any order.

Programs:

1. Let's Explore Plants
Children will see that plants have countless forms and live everywhere. They will see a variety of seeds and note their differences. "You Try It" segment challenges students to put a plant in a jar and predict what will happen.

2. Let's Explore Animals
People an animals have many of the same needs. The students will learn how the homes, food protective covering, and movement of animals are different and/or similar to their own.

3. Let's Explore Water
Students will learn rain is only one source of water. They will learn the many places where water can be found. The students will explore making ice from water.

4. Let's Explore Light and Shadows
The students will explore making shadow by blocking light. They will discover how to make shadows change in size and move. The children will then explore how shadows feel against different surfaces.

5. Let's Explore Sound
The students will learn that sound is made when something vibrates and they will discover different ways to make objects vibrate. They will investigate how sounds move through solids, air and liquids.

6. Let's Explore Tools and Work
Students will learn how tools can make work easier and how some tools have special purposes.

7. Let's Explore Magnets
Students will learn to classify a variety of objects according to their attraction to magnets. They will also investigate how bar magnets have like poles that repel and opposite poles attract.

8. Let's Explore Air
Students discover that air is inside lots of objects, that we can pump air into things and squeeze it out, and that air also surrounds us. The will learn that all living things need air.

9. Let's Explore Weather and Seasons
The students will learn how weather changes during the four seasons. Discussion on how weather affects people in a variety of ways.

10. Let's Explore Soil and Rocks
Students will discover that the earth contains rocks. They will learn that soil as pieces of rock, water and things are living or were once living as well as how people use soil and rocks.

 

The "Biology of ___" Programs
Grades 10-12
16 Programs

"The Biology of-" series of core curriculum video programs from BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES have set the standards for high-quality visual resources for biological education. Now 14 of these award-winning programs have been completely remade, using new techniques of microscopy, animation and photography to reveal even more about structure, process and behavior in living things. Download free content guides at www.eBioMEDIA.com.

Programs:

The Microlife Unit

The Biology of Viruses
This program treats virus discovery and structures, how viruses are studied, and their various modes of infection and replication, from the T-4 bacteriaphage to complex retroviruses such as HIV. 18min.

The Biology of Bacteria
Compelling microscopy of living bacteria highlights their physiology and the vital roles these microbes play in the biosphere, including oxygen production by cyanobacteria, decomposition and nitrogen fixation. 17 min.

The Biology of Flagellates and Amoebas
This program introduces students to a diverse world of protists with critical video observations on their structure, behavior, feeding methods, and ecological relationships. 24 min.

The Biology of Ciliates
This program shows how these complex cells reproduce, carry out their physiological processes, capture prey, and exploit their ecological resources-a compelling introduction to the study of protozoans. 30 min.

The Light Microscope: Window on the Microcosm
This program demonstrates techniques for using a student microscope to achieve spectacular images. Emphasis is on correct lighting procedures and the techniques required for viewing living cells. 16 min.

The Botanical Organisms Unit

The Biology of Plants
Clear graphic animation is used to describe the molecular level mechanisms of photosynthesis. Major plant groups include mosses, liverworts, ferns, horsetails, and the seed plants (gymnosperms and flowering plants). This is a good general introduction to the members of the green kingdom and their life cycles. 18 min.

The Biology of Algae
The term algae is a catchall for several evolutionary lines of photosynthetic organisms: Red Algae (plastids with chlorophyll A), Brown Algae (chlorophylls A and C), and Green Algae (chlorophylls A and B). These photosynthetic organisms play vital roles in aquatic and marine ecosystems, providing oxygen, food, and shelter for vast communities of living things. 16 min.

The Biology of Fungi
The various groups of fungi are identified by their structures and life-cycle stages. We have included slime molds and water molds, regarded by some as protistan groups, for the insight they provide into the ancestors of fungal organisms. 16 min.

The Animal Unit

The Biology of Cnidarians
This program presents a remarkable series of observations on Hydra, one of the "classical organisms of biology," including habitat, structure, feeding, nematocyst discharge, locomotion (by looping) and its sexual and asexual reproductive strategies.
Obelia illustrates the two-stage life cycle found in many hydrozoans. Examining the biology of jellyfish (class Scyphozoa), sea anemones, and corals (class Anthozoa) rounds out our treatment of phylum Cnidaria. 16 min.

The Biology of Flatworms
This program provides critical observations on the structure, behavior, and life cycles of planarians and their free-living relatives (class Turbellaria). It illustrates the bizarre life cycles of flukes (class Trematoda) and tapeworms (class Cestoda) with detailed animations and revealing images of these parasites at home in the organs of their vertebrate hosts. 16 min.

The Biology of Nematodes, Rotifers, Bryozoans, and Some Minor Phyla
This program describes the structure and life cycles of nematodes (round worms), rotifers (13 species illustrating this diverse group), bryozoans-champion filter feeders, gastrotrichs, tardigrades (water bears), nemerteans, and a recently discovered evolutionary line, the gnathostomulids. 18 min.

The Biology of Molluscs
Here are detailed observations on chitons (class Polyplacophora), snails and nudibranchs (class Gastrapoda); clams, scallops, and mussels (class Bivalvia); tooth shells (class Scaphopoda); and squid and octopus (class Cephalopoda) with emphasis on their structures, behaviors, and adaptations. 15 min.

The Biology of Annelids
Phylum Annelida, the segmented worms include earthworms and aquatic worms such as Tubifex (class Oligochaeta), marine worms including Nereis and thousands of other species that live mostly in muddy ocean habitats (class Polychaeta), and leeches (class Hirudinea). Segmentation, organ systems, and similar larval development unite these diverse worms. 15 min.

The Biology of Arthropods
Arthropods are the most successful phylum in the animal kingdom. The program describes the major groups of arthropods: crustaceans (copepods, ostracods, cladocerans, amphipods, isopods, eubranchiopods, decapods, and barnacles), chelicerates (scorpions, pseudoscorpions, whipscorpions, spiders, ticks, and mites), and the uniramians, the major evolutionary branch that includes centipedes, millipedes, and insects. 25 min.

The Biology of Echinoderms
They have spiny skins, internal skeletons and elaborate hydraulic systems used in locomotion and food gathering. Seastars are predators, brittle stars are detritus feeders, urchins and sand dollars are herbivores, and sea cucumbers feed on detritus and plankton. Examining their larval development suggests that echinoderms are deuterostomes, the same evolutionary branch as our own phylum, the chordates.
15 min.

The Biology of Chordates
Phylum Chordata evolved in ancient seas over 530 million years ago, as fossils discovered in the Burgess Shales show. The unique features of this group are a supporting rod (notochord), a hollow dorsal nerve chord, pharyngeal gills, and a tail that extends behind the anus. Modern animals showing these features are found in three evolutionary lines: urochordates (tunicates), cephalochordates (lancelets) and vertebrates. The structures that allowed the transition from water to terrestrial life are a main theme of this program which emphasizes the key adaptations that led to the diversification and proliferation of the modern vertebrate groups. 18 min.

Life in Marine and Freshwater Environments Unit

The Biology of Lakes, Ponds, and Wetlands
MODULE-THE WEEDY SHALLOWS: Observations include classical organisms studied in biology: hydras, planarians, micro-annelids, byrozoans, aquatic insects,
rotifers, and protists. These organisms that provide food for fish and other vertebrates. MODULE-OPEN WATER ENVIRONMENTS: Adaptations for planktonic life are observed in micro-crustaceans, rotifers, and planktonic algae. MODULE-BOTTOM ENVIRONMENT: Explores bacterial decomposition, recycling of materials, adaptations for bottom life and ecological relationships in the bottom community. MODULE-VERNAL POOLS: Investigates adaptations for life in temporary wetland environments. 30 min.

The Biology of Seashores
MODULE-ABIOTIC AND BIOTIC FACTORS: Tides, wave shock, desiccation, and food sources. MODULEADAPTATIONS FOR WAVESHOCK: Shows the variety of body forms and structures found in an environment ripped by waves. MODULE- DEFENSE: Examines structural, chemical, and behavioral adaptations that protect animals in this crowded environment. MODULE-FEEDING: Looks at adaptations used to harvest the abundant food sources of the shore. MODULE-REPRODUCTION: Examines asexual and sexual strategies. Explores offspring survival and of the importance of larval development in the plankton. MODULE-ROCKY SHORE HABITAT : Explains intertidal zonation on rocky shores with details on key species. MODULE-SANDY BEACHES, MUDFLATS, AND DOCKS: Reveals the complex webs of life largely hidden in these habitats, emphasizing the importance of estuaries as nurseries. 35 min.

The Domains of Life
Grades 10-12
2 Programs/ 13, 19 Minutes

The Domains of Life updates the five kingdoms classification scheme with the latest understanding of life's organization based on DNA, fossil, and biochemical evidence. These programs address the National Science Standards regarding early evolution and the classification of life. Teacher's guide CD-ROM can be ordered by calling 877-661-5355.

Programs:

Life's Three Great Branches: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya
MODULES: Self-Replicating Molecules Evolve ·The Archaeans: Earth's First Inhabitants · The Rise of Bacteria · Photosynthesis and Oxygen · Eucarya, the Domain of Nucleated Cells Gets Its Start · The Evolution of Mitochondria · The Domains of Life.

The Eukaryotic Cell Evolves
MODULES: Motor Proteins Get Cells Moving · Mitosis Assures Genetic Continuity · Plastids Evolve Through Endosymbiosis · The Red, Brown, and Green Lines of the Photosynthetic Life Branch Out · The Invention of Sex · The Origins of Multicellular Organisms · Conclusion

The Science Alliance
Grades: 4-6
10 programs/15-Minutes Each

The Science Alliance introduces intermediate viewers to the basic principles of physics and chemistry, and shows how they can apply this new information to the world around them. Each 15-minute program begins with five clues to the selected topic and follows these with questions designed to teach the subject's essential facts.

Publication: A teacher's guide provides program descriptions, answers to the questions posed in each program, activities, and biographical
information on "Bryant's Giants of Science." 48 pages, illustrated. $5.00

Programs:

1. Magnets
How to make your own magnet and electromagnet. Also, a demonstration of the laws of magnetism.

2. Electricity
A discussion about the people who discovered electricity, and a demonstration of how electricity can pass through certain items.

3. Matter
The states of matter - solid, liquid, and gas - and their various properties, including mass and volume. Also a demonstration of how matter changes from one state to another by melting, freezing, condensing, and evaporating.

4. Energy
The importance of the sun for energy and the production of food. A salute to botanist George Washington Carver and his development of the peanut industry.

5. Machines
A look at simple machines such as the lever and the wheel and axle, and explanations of how they make work easier.

6. Heat
Demonstrations of how friction, chemical reactions, electrical energy, and nuclear energy produce heat. Experiments show how heat expands matter and how heat travels by conduction, convection, and radiation.

7. Air
How air takes up space, what it is made of, and how it can do work. Bryant's Giants of Science features the Montgolfier brothers, inventors of the first hot-air balloon, and scientist Blaise Pascal, who experimented with barometric pressure.

8. Sound
Demonstrations show that sound travels in waves, how gases, liquids, and solids can be effective transmitters, and what an echo is.

9. Light
This examination of the properties of light shows that it travels in straight lines that can be redirected by reflection and refraction. Bryant hails Thomas Edison's invention of the light bulb and Sir Isaac Newton's experiments with the spectrum.

10. Water
Members of the Science Alliance report the results of their experiments to determine the amount of water in different fruits and vegetables. Also, methods in the distillation and filtration of water.

Visualizing Cell Processes
Grades 10-12
5 Programs/ 15 Minutes Each

Visualizing Cell Processes, which first appeared in LaserDisc and video cassette formats, has been updated with new animations and expanded content. Each 15-minute video program is a series of short, narrated, full-motion modules each describing an essential process of cell biology. The content meets the National Science Standards for teaching general and AP biology. Teaching guides and samples can be downloaded at www.eBioMEDIA.com.

Programs:

Cells and Molecules
MODULES: A Variety of Cells, Cell Organization, Overview of Organic Molecules, Prokaryotic Cells, The Evolution of Eukaryotic Cells.

Cell Movement and Transport

MODULES: Structure and Behavior of the Plasma Membrane, Osmosis, Transport Proteins, Phagocytosis, Pinocytosis, Receptor Mediated Endocytosis, Golgi Function, Lysosomes and Hydrolytic Digestion, Microtubules, Cilia, Actin, and Myosin Motor Proteins.

Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
PHOTOSYNTHESIS MODULES: Chloroplast Structure, Light Trapping by Chlorophyll, The Light - Dependent Reactions of Photosynthesis, The Light- Independent Reactions of Photosynthesis. CELLULAR RESPIRATION MODULES: Glycolysis and Fermentation, Mitochondrion Structure, Aerobic Respiration, Krebs Cycle, Electron Transport Chain, ATP Synthesis.

DNA Replication, Mitosis and Cell Reproduction
MODULES: Chromosome Condensation, Mitosis Stages, Cytokinesis, Meiosis, Nucleotide Structure and Bonding, Replication Enzymes, Replicating the Strands, Topoisomerase and the Twisting Problem, Proofreading and Repair, Replication Review.

The Genetic Code and Its Translation
MODULES: The Protein Nature of Life, Protein Structure, Transcription, Translation and Protein Synthesis, Gene Regulation in Prokaryotes, Exons and Introns, Mutations, Renegade DNA-The Viruses.

 

 

SOCIAL STUDIES

Geography in U.S .History
Grades: 9-12
10 Programs/20-Minutes Each

The ten programs in Geography in U.S. History focus on events and developments of great significance in U.S. history, developments that transcend the particular regions or localities in which they occurred. Major topics covered are the foundation of the federal government, territorial expansion, consequences of the Civil War, frontier settlement and the displacement of native Americans, industrial development, the United States in world affairs, immigration policies, urbanization and the migration of African Americans within the United States, and agricultural problems and government policies. Each program's content is presented to three segments as guided by three overriding purposes.

Programs:

1. North vs. South in the Founding of the USA
This video program focuses on differences between the northern and southern regions of the United States that raised critical issues of national unity and stability before, during and after the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

2. Jefferson Decides to Purchase Louisiana
This video program focuses on President Jefferson's decision to acquire the port of New Orleans and the vast inland territory of Louisiana.

3. Civil War and Social Change in Georgia
This video program shows in-depth the impact of a cataclysmic event, the Civil War, on the characteristics of one place, Savannah, Georgia.

4. Clash of Cultures on the Great Plains
This video program provides an in-dept perspective on the movement of outsiders to the Great Plains during the latter half of the 19th century and the subsequent conflicts between these new settlers and indigenous peoples, including the Pawnee, Cheyenne, Crow and Sioux.

5. An Industrial Revolution in Pittsburgh
This video program emphasizes the influence the geography of industrial development in the United States during the latter part of the 19th century.

6. Americans Build the Panama Canal
This video program provides an in-depth study with geographic perspectives on the acquisition of the Canal Zone and the construction of the canal.

7. A Nation of Immigrants: The Chinese-American Experience
This video program treats the theme of immigration to the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular emphasis on movement to the western region by immigrants from China.

8. Moving North to Chicago
This video program emphasizes the themes of urban development, migration from rural to urban areas, and the struggles of African Americans to overcome segregation and other forms of racial discrimination during the first half of the 20th century.

9. New Deal for the Dust Bowl
This video program focuses on the Great Depression and New Deal policies of the federal government as well as the depression-era problems of Dust Bowl farmers.

10. The Origin and Development of NATO
This video program describes the Cold War atmosphere following World War II and the foreign policy responses of the United States and its allies to the Soviet Union and its allies.

Tracks: Impressions of America
Grades4-8
12 Programs/ 15 Minutes Each

This series is a standards-based upper elementary/middle school social studies resource that takes students on a journey of discovery through American history. The videos feature a pair of young adults who, through their summer travels, discover pieces of their country's history from the time of its earliest pre-Columbian settlers through the technological revolution of the twentieth century. The videos are designed as an interactive experience: questions, challenges, and revelations encountered by the two main characters are used as prompts to stop the tape and discuss, explore, speculate, or investigate.

The Tracks web site is a free resource for both students and teachers. There are suggested activities and extensive Web resources for each video program, as well as general U.S. history links. Teachers have access to a discussion area, printable worksheets, and standards correlations. For a quick preview of Tracks, take a look at the sample video clips on the site.

Programs:

Tracks: Impressions of America-Trekking across Our Land
Describes the early migration of people from Asia to North America. Students play two interactive games from the CD-ROM. In the first, Survival Challenge, students discover how the first Americans may have reached North America, how they survived, and how they spread across North America. (14:45)

Tracks: Impressions of America-Spain Comes to America
Introduces some of the first European explorers in the Americas and describes their influence on colonization. Using the interactive CD-ROM, students visit a Spanish village, a Timucuan village, and a Spanish fort. (14:12)

Tracks: Impressions of America-Early European Settlements
Describes the motivation and goals of early English settlers at Jamestown and their interaction with Native Americans. Using the interactive CD-ROM, students explore Jamestown and a Powhatan Indian village. (13:58)

Tracks: Impressions of America-Seeds of Revolution
Examines how diverse beliefs and independent thinking laid the groundwork for the American Revolution. Using the interactive CD-ROM, students discover Plymouth Plantation and a Wampanoag Indian village. (13:45)

Tracks: Impressions of America-Independence!
Explains the causes of the Revolution and examines the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Using the interactive CD-ROM, students explore different sites in Elfreth's Alley. (14:30)

Tracks: Impressions of America-The New Nation
Focuses on the creation of the U.S. Constitution and sketches the three branches of the federal government. Using the interactive CD-ROM, students develop their own "bill of rights."

Tracks: Impressions of America-Westward Ho!
Studies territorial expansion and examines how westward movement of the pioneers affected the American Indians. Using the interactive CD-ROM, students explore various locations in the Cumberland Gap. (13:45)

Tracks: Impressions of America-Divided and United
Investigates the causes of the Civil War and its effects on the American people. (14:42)

Tracks: Impressions of America-The Urbanization of America
Describes the waves of immigration that changed social patterns and labor relations in the late nineteenth century. (14:45)

Tracks: Impressions of America-The Road to Mt. Rushmore
Explores the movement of people into the Far West and the development of mining, ranching, and agriculture. Using the interactive CD-ROM, students visit the Badlands and Custer State Park. (14:31)

Tracks: Impressions of America-America at War
Discusses America's reluctance to enter World War I and World War II and explains why the U.S. eventually did. (13:54)

Tracks: Impressions of America-Changing Times and Modern Industries
Examines the Cold War and the dangers and promises of the Atomic Age. (14:45)

 

The Voyageur Experience in Global Geography
Grades 7-12
10 Programs/ 25 Minutes Each

This series is a comprehensive survey of important standards-based social studies concepts within a compelling case-study style format. Students will explore complex economic, social, and cultural issues while they watch diverse examples of social studies in action.

The programs model an investigative approach to physical and social geography, following North American students on tour to foreign lands. Each program features a case study of a specific geographic area with queries posed to the audience and several opportunities for extensions of learning in the classroom.

Special prices are available to customers in Missouri, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Quebec. Please call AIT Customer Service at 800-457-4509 for more information.

Voyageur Experience - Canada: A Diverse Culture
Experience different Canadian cultures. (24:39)

Voyageur Experience - Costa Rica: Ecotourism and Economic Development
Raft through a rain forest and participate in a preservation activity. (24:45)

Voyageur Experience - Greece: Urbanization and the Environment
Explore ancient cities and see how they have been affected by the environment. (24:05)

Voyageur Experience - Italy: Natural Hazards and Disasters
Explore the affects of flooding and repel into the crater of Mt. Vesuvius. (24:45)

Voyageur Experience - Russia: Rebuilding a Nation
Explore the impact of Western civilization on today's Russia. (24:13)

Voyageur Experience - Kenya: National Identity and Unity
Experience contrasting cultures and study the impact of colonialism in Maasai. (24:30)

Voyageur Experience - United Arab Emirates: Oil and Water Resources
Visit oil drilling sites and survey other natural resources and how they are used. (24:10)

Voyageur Experience - India: Population and Resources
Learn how India's large population and economic development interact. (24:20)

Voyageur Experience - China: Food for a Billion Plus
Tour a mechanized and non-mechanized farm. (24:45)

Voyageur Experience - Singapore: Industrialization and Migration
Discover how Singapore became an industrial center. (24:15)

Voyageur Experience - Teacher's Guide
This 96-page teacher's guide accompanies The Voyageur Experience in Global Geography.

 

 

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