Learn & PlayStation BlogWatch
·

Learning At Home | Week of 10/26 – 10/30

Take advantage of this week’s Learning at Home broadcast schedule – great for students engaged in hybrid or distance instruction, and families looking to spend some extra, quality time together!

After watching these fascinating programs, explore the PBS LearningMedia and web resources to learn more.

Highlight of the Week

Spotlight Special: Creating an Adirondack Folk Opera
Friday, October 30, 2 PM

Explore the creation of Promised Land: an Adirondack Folk Opera and learn about the creative process, and people, behind the making of the production. The opera relates the story of the 1840’s Adirondack settlement, named Timbuctoo, with themes including civil rights, voters’ rights, and racial issues in the era before the Civil War in America – topics that remain poignant in modern times.

Learning at Home
Week of 10/26 – 10/30

Monday, October 26

1 PM: NATURE: Pandas: Born to be Wild

Unlock the mysteries of wild pandas whose counterparts in captivity are known for their gentle image. Journey through the steep Qinling Mountains with filmmakers, scientists and rangers to witness pandas’ startling courtship and aggressive behaviors.

2 PM: Norman Mineta and His Legacy: An American Story

Meet the statesman who served as cabinet secretary for Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. Imprisoned by the U.S. during World War II for his Japanese ancestry, Mineta rose to become the first Asian American to serve in a presidential cabinet.

Tuesday, October 27

1 PM: America’s Socialist Experiment

America’s Socialist Experiment recounts both the victories and failures of a unique brand of socialism in the historically conservative city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Between 1910 and 1960, elected socialists in Milwaukee — including a U.S. Congressman and three mayors — reduced corruption, improved conditions for working people, and cleaned up the environment, leaving a mixed legacy to which both Democrats and Republicans lay claim today.

2 PM: Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP

Civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall’s triumph in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate America’s public schools completed the final leg of an heroic journey to end legal segregation. For 20 years, during wartime and the Depression, Marshall traveled hundreds of thousands of miles through the Jim Crow South of the United States, fighting segregation case by case, establishing precedent after precedent, all leading up to one of the most important legal decisions in American history. Winning more Supreme Court cases than any lawyer in American history, and setting the stage for the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Marshall went on to become the first black Supreme Court justice in 1967.

Wednesday, October 28

1 PM: NOVA: Touching the Asteroid

If spacecraft OSIRIS-REx can grab a piece of an asteroid and bring it back to Earth, scientists could gain great insight into our planet’s origins — and even how to defend against rogue asteroids. But NASA only gets three shots at collecting a sample. Can they pull it off? NOVA takes you inside the mission.

2 PM: The Age of Nature | Understanding

Explore how a new understanding of nature is helping us find surprising ways to fix it. From the Pacific Northwest to Yellowstone to Scotland, scientists, citizens and activists are restoring the environment, benefiting humans and animals alike.

Thursday, October 29

1 PM: Fake: Searching for the Truth in the Age of Misinformation

Given the sheer volume of news available, how can the average person separate fact from fiction? This series draws from common sense, critical thinking skills, and universal standards of journalism to give viewers the tools to discern fact from fiction in news reports, identify fake news, and evaluate the biases of real news.

2 PM: Bombs Away: LBJ, Goldwater & the 1964 Campaign That Changed It All

Three-year-old Monique Corzilius counts to 10, pulling petals from a daisy. A voice from mission control then counts down as the camera zooms into Monique’s dark pupil. An atomic blast and ensuing mushroom cloud consumes the TV screen as President Lyndon Johnson’s voice proclaims “We must either love each other, or we must die.” This political ad, “Peace Little Girl,” aired only once or twice during the 1964 presidential campaign between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, but it ushered in a new era of the television attack ad.

Friday, October 30

1 PM: Spotlight Special: Fulton Fryar’s Closet

Spotlight Special: Fulton Fryar’s Closet tells a relatively unknown story of racial inequality in 1950’s Adirondack culture, and how memories of it resurfaced recently when a building at Seagle Music Colony faced demolition. The building housed a young singer named Fulton Fryar, the first African American singer to study at the colony, and whose sleeping quarters in 1957 were kept separate from those of the other singers on the campus. Learn what role architectural experts, museum curators and concerned citizens are playing to make sure Fryar’s story will be remembered.

1:30 PM: Spotlight Special: Native American Artistry

Native American artists discuss their work, including pottery and painting, the historical relevance of the pieces, and the updating of traditional motifs for modern viewers.

2 PM: Spotlight Special: Creating an Adirondack Folk Opera

Explore the creation of Promised Land: an Adirondack Folk Opera and learn about the creative process, and people, behind the making of the production. The opera relates the story of the 1840’s Adirondack settlement, named Timbuctoo, with themes including civil rights, voters’ rights, and racial issues in the era before the Civil War in America – topics that remain poignant in modern times.

2:30 PM: Figaro! Figaro!

A group of university actors, musicians, directors and producers travel to four rural communities in Nebraska to perform Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” Through community concerts and school presentations, many people are seeing opera for the first time and they love it!