Learn & Play
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Learning at Home | Week of 2/07 – 2/11

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

NATURE: Pumas | Legends of the Ice Mountains
Monday, February 7, 1 PM

Travel to the mountains of Chile to discover the secrets of the puma, the area’s biggest and most elusive predator. Discover how this mountain lion survives and follow the dramatic fate of a puma mother and her cubs.

Learning at Home
Week of 2/07 – 2/11

Monday, February 7

1 PM: NATURE: Pumas | Legends of the Ice Mountains

Travel to the mountains of Chile to discover the secrets of the puma, the area’s biggest and most elusive predator. Discover how this mountain lion survives and follow the dramatic fate of a puma mother and her cubs.

2 PM: NOVA: Arctic Sinkholes

Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate future.

Tuesday, February 8

1 PM: Magical Land of Oz: Land

“Magical Land of Oz” offers a look into the land’s highest snow peaks and the depths of its frigid and wild southern seas; its last populations of wild numbats to its largest diorama of giant cuttlefish. It’s a land of diverse beauty that delights and surprises. In this first episode, go on an exploration of one of the most magical lands on the planet. Its unique wildlife includes a tree-dwelling kangaroo, a spider that survives underwater and a bird that spreads fire.

2 PM: Ancient Skies⎪Gods and Monsters

With breathtaking CGI, beautiful landscape footage and some of the world’s most important astronomical artifacts, Ancient Skies looks at the cosmos through the eyes of our ancestors, charting our changing views of the cosmos throughout history. In this episode, we explore the origins of our relationship with the skies. From our earliest ancestors we discover how we used the skies to navigate and tell time, and how we gave religious significance to the things we saw in it. We finish on the cusp of a revolution that gave birth to modern science.

Wednesday, February 9

1 PM: The Story of China with Michael Wood: Golden Age, The Ming

In the alleys of Kaifeng, the world’s greatest city before the 19th century, Michael Wood hears legends, samples the cuisine and explores printing. We see a huge working replica of an astronomical clock made by ‘China’s Leonardo da Vinci’, one of the inventions that made the Song a great era of science. And at a crunch Chinese Premier League match, we learn that the Chinese even invented soccer! Then, in Nanjing, Michael sees the building of a huge replica of a Ming ocean-going junk. In Suzhou, the ‘Venice of China’, he explores the silk industry, ceramics and lacquer-making, and visits one of China’s most beautiful gardens. And finally in Macao, we learn about the arrival of Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci beginning China’s fateful modern exchanges with the West.

Thursday, February 10

1 PM: The Story of China with Michael Wood: The Last Empire, The Age of Revolution

In the 18th century China was the biggest economy in the world, and with that prosperity came a fabulously rich culture. From China’s favourite novel, to opera and storytelling houses, and all-women’s mosques, it’s an age full of surprises. But then came the fateful clash with the British in the First Opium War, the beginning of the end of the empire. Then we follow as Michael Wood visits Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel, jewel of the Jazz age, and follows Mao on the Long March to Yan’an, the base of the communist revolution. He meets a survivor of the Japanese massacre of Nanjing, describes the communist victory, and ends with Mao’s death and the boom time of the last thirty years. The series ends as it began at home with the warmth of the Chinese family.

Friday, February 11

1 PM: Soundscapes: Marie-Elaine Gagnon

Local musicians and stunning scenics take centerstage on Soundscapes. Canadian cellist and Crane School of Music professor Marie-Elaine Gagnon performs a collection of covers from classical composers at the Strand Center Theatre in Plattsburgh, NY.

1:30 PM: Articulate | Taking Time

A fatal accident in his teens would come to define life for Darin Strauss. Also, from champion skier to acclaimed composer, Steven Mackey has never lost his rhythm.

2 PM: Culture Quest: East Timor

We travel to East Timor with writer Naldo Rei, who was instrumental in the 15-year bloody struggle for independence from Indonesia. Naldo and his fellow East Timorese are now looking towards an uncertain but hopeful future for a country with a lot of potential, including what Conservation International calls the most biodiverse swath of ocean right off the shore of their capital city.

2:30 PM: Culture Quest: The Northern Coast of Australia

We travel to The Northern Coast of Australia to Arnhem Land, spending time with the Yolngu tribe – a group of people that some anthropologists date back to well over 30,000 years and who were instrumental in advancing the struggle for land rights for Aboriginals across Australia.

Learning at Home on Mountain Lake PBS is supported by:
Adirondack Foundation