As we continue to learn at home, check out this week’s Learning at Home highlights below! Watch these great programs and explore the PBS LearningMedia and web resources with your family to learn more.
Monday, May 11, 11 AM
SciGirls: High Tech Tide
Florida SciGirls Laila, Claire and Byrne make a splash, uniting with marine biologists to digitally track spotted eagle rays in the Gulf of Mexico. They share their data in a livestream presentation, and explore the incredible Mote Marine Laboratory!
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- SciGirls | Signal Senders – Ever wonder how scientists track animals to study? To study marine wildlife like spotted eagle rays, researchers attach acoustic tags to the animals. In this activity, students will create audio signatures that will identify them to their classmates.
- Exploring the Ocean with Robots | NOAA – How do robots and flying drones help scientists study the ocean? From observing and surveying marine life on rugged coastlines to mapping remote seafloor habitats, unmanned robots safely perform tasks that would be too challenging, if not impossible, for humans to do. In this video, explore some of the innovative technologies that are being used to help study and protect our marine ecosystems.
- Lady Elliot Island Mantas | Life on the Reef – Learn about citizen science from Dr. Kathy Townsend and her team who studied manta rays on Lady Elliot Island. In this clip from Life on the Reef, Dr. Kathy Townsend and her team tracked the travels of the manta rays using acoustic tags and kept a photographic file that helped identify all of the manta rays they encountered.
Tuesday, May 12, 3 PM
Erie: The Canal That Made America
This documentary marks the bicentennial of the start of construction of the The Erie Canal, the United States’ first great technical innovation and a gateway to prominence.
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- Building the Erie Canal – In this blended lesson supporting literacy skills, students learn how the Erie Canal changed the U.S. economy and influenced settlement patterns in the west.
- The Impact of the Erie Canal on America – Students explore the story of the Erie Canal in this interactive lesson. They will learn how the creation of the Erie Canal represented a large-scale effort by people to change their environment to be more advantageous to them.
- The Transportation Revolution: Roads, Canals and Railroads – Use this interactive map from A Biography of America to explore the rapid expansion of roads, canals, and railroads from 1830-1860.
Thursday, May 14, 4 PM
Civilizations | Renaissances
In many European minds, the word Renaissance evokes ideas about the radical transformation in thought and art that took place in Italy starting in the 1400s. But in the 15th and 16th centuries, the great Islamic empires experienced their own extraordinary cultural flowering and the two did not unfold in separate artistic universes. This episode goes to both east and west: to Papal Rome, Mughal India and to Ottoman Istanbul exploring these connections and rivalries.
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- Art in the Muslim World – Through the materials presented in this lesson, students will explore basic elements of Islamic art, learn about the origin and styles of the specific art of Islamic calligraphy and create their own piece of artistic calligraphy.
- Ruthless Ambition | Empires: The Medici – The Medici didn’t start out as the most powerful family in Italy. Other families were just as rich, and just as ambitious. But no one knew more about getting ahead–and staying ahead–than the Medici.
- Color – View this video clip and image gallery of Islamic art objects related to the theme of color and consider how they are reflective of Islamic culture.
Friday, May 15, 1 PM
Food: Delicious Science | We Are What We Eat
Michael and James explore how the chemicals in our food feed and build our bodies. The world is full of different cuisines and thousands of different meals. Yet when they’re reduced to their essence, there are actually just a handful of ingredients that our bodies absolutely need from our food to survive. These essential molecules come in a series of familiar sounding groups – carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals – but Michael and James discover plenty of surprises as they seek to understand exactly why each class of molecule is so important for the way our bodies work.
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- In Defense of Food – The In Defense of Food curriculum is designed to help adolescents develop something valuable: practical tools for healthier eating.
- PBS Food – Satisfy your appetite for learning with these resources from PBS Food! The impact of healthy, organic, and sustainable food spans from industrial agriculture science to your home kitchen table, and now into the classroom with these videos and recipes aimed at making Food an accessibly teaching platform.
- Food is Fuel – In this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about the potential energy contained in food. Correspondent and technology columnist David Pogue explores how a rat is digested by a snake and how food fuels the body.