Week of June 15-19 Learning Materials

Tracking Franklin and Amundsen
Trace the routes of Sir John Franklin and Roald Amundsen in their epic quests to find a passage through the Arctic Sea.

Quest for the South Pole
Follow the tracks of Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, and Mawson as they attempted to reach the heart of Antarctica.

Franklin’s Arctic Expedition
See how the great mystery of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition was solved with the discovery of traces and artifacts.

The Uncertain Future of Self-Driving Cars
Learn how autonomous vehicles may impact society in this NOVA Next article. Although self-driving cars may sound like something from the future, technology and car companies have already logged millions of miles on working prototypes.

Driverless Vehicles Yield to Complex Issues
Examine the benefits, risks, and unintended consequences of driverless vehicles, which promise to solve some growing problems in society but may create new ones in their place, in this video from NOVA Wonders: Can We Build a Brain?

Generating the Force to Propel Rockets
Learn about the forces involved in launching rockets and the fuel used to generate them in this media gallery from NOVA: Rise of the Rockets.

The Challenge of Making Reusable Rockets
Use this resource to illustrate how engineers define problems, evaluate design solutions, and consider why failure is an important and useful outcome in engineering.

Rocket Activity
Students build virtual rockets to explore the physics concepts of forces (thrust, drag, lift, weight) and Newton's Three Laws of Motion: Inertia, Acceleration and Interaction.

Early Rocket Ventures
The Redstone Rocket was NASA's early venture into long-range rocketry and would later be used to put the first U.S. man in space.

NOVA scienceNOW: Franklin Chang-Diaz
In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, meet Franklin Chang-Díaz, an astronaut and scientist. Learn how he has been interested in rockets and space travel since he was a child in Costa Rica, and how he immigrated to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut.

Speeding Up Space Travel
Learn about innovations in rocket technology that could change the way humans explore space in this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW: "Can We Make It to Mars?"

Blasting Off to Space!
Did you know the rocket that took us to the moon was designed in Alabama? Student Reporter Luke Partridge went to the US Space & Rocket Center to learn about rocket technology with head archivist Ed Stewart.

The Dead Sea Scrolls
In this video from The Story of the Jews, Simon Schama takes us to the caves of Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Schama explains that the Scrolls were comprised of 850 separate manuscripts, and included not only biblical texts but also other texts that reveal the religious diversity of the time.

Using X-Ray Technology to Read the Unreadable Dead Sea Scroll Detectives
Use this resource to examine how electromagnetic waves—specifically, X-rays—can be used in new ways to visualize and interpret information contained in different materials.

Becoming a Fossil
The conditions under which fossils can successfully form are unusual, and the odds that a fossil will then be exposed at the surface again, and discovered, are smaller still.

Types of Fossils
The word fossil, derived from a Latin word meaning "something dug up," refers to the preserved remains or traces of ancient life. Careful study of both body and trace fossils can answer questions about life and evolution.

Fossils: Rocking the Earth
Learn how fossils provide information about the history of today’s organisms with this video from NOVA’s Evolution Lab.

Hampton Court Palace- Historic Royal Palaces
Experience the public dramas and private lives of Henry VIII, his wives and children in the world of the Tudor court. Admire Henry’s Great Hall, the infamous Haunted Gallery and the Tudor kitchens. Discover the spectacular baroque palace built for William III and Mary II and explore the magnificent gardens.

Inside the Court of Henry VIII
Take an in-depth look into the reign of King Henry VIII, King of England from 1509 to 1547—the second King in the Tudor dynasty.

Henry the VIII’s Early Years in Power Inside the Court of Henry VIII
In this clip from Inside the Court of Henry VIII learn about the role of social class at King Henry's court, and understand his early years on the throne.

The Origins of Government Surveillance
Using video from The Good Stuff: Time Capsule students learn about government surveillance techniques used today, and have their roots in the Civil War. Utilizing video and discussion questions, students examine specific spying strategies used by the North and South, and analyze the rationale for the U.S. government to be spying on its own citizens.

Government Surveillance Mercy Street and The Good Stuff
Using video from Mercy Street and The Good Stuff: Time Capsule students learn about government surveillance techniques used today that have their roots in the Civil War era.

Many Rivers to Cross Collection
Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. recounts the full trajectory of African-American history in his groundbreaking series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. The series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed — forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds.
Using video clips from The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, this collection of lesson plans addresses a wide range of themes of the African-American experience from 1500 to the present.

Teaching Many Rivers to Cross
Explore how to introduce Reconstruction using video from “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” with specific pre- and post- viewing techniques.

Earthrise The Global Oneness Project
The Earthrise photograph had an everlasting impact on the astronauts and humanity, offering a powerful perspective that transcended national, political, and religious boundaries. It helped humanity to see our Earth as one ecosystem, kickstarting the environmental movement, and has become one of the most iconic and widely reproduced and distributed images in history.

The Role of the Press in the Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
Examine the role the press played in Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s rise and fall in these videos from McCarthy | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

Communism’s Appeal Grows during the Great Depression
Learn how communism grew in popularity in the United States during the Great Depression in this video from McCarthy | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

The Speech the Launched the 1950s Red Scare
Discover how a speech delivered by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1950 at a Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, sparked anti-communist hysteria nationwide and ushered in the era of “McCarthyism” in this video from McCarthy | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

Red Scare Crackdown The Bombing of Wall Street
Learn how the U.S. government cracked down on terrorism threats and left-wing activism in America during the “Red Scare” of 1919–1920, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, in these videos adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Bombing of Wall Street.

The Future of Energy-Hydropower
Water’s raw power provides the energy to produce enough electricity for 28 million Americans every year and, as of 2011, creates nearly 10 percent of all electricity in the U.S.

Water Quality- Explore More collection
Water is one of our planet’s most important natural resources. There is the same amount of water on earth now as there was when the earth was formed and there will never be any more or any less.

Food is Fuel
In this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about the potential energy contained in food.

Inside Energy Fueling our Feast” How Fossil Fuels Become Our Food
Our modern food production system is based on turning fossil fuels into food. In this fun video, Inside Energy's Dan Boyce explains how fossil fuels are, in fact, our food.

This is America Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students will examine the challenges these individuals faced, their contributions and the personal qualities they each possessed. Then they will consider issues and problems at a national park near them and develop an action plan to address those or other community needs.

Country Music a film by Ken Burns collection
Country Music is a 16-hour series that chronicles the history of a uniquely American art form that rose from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of the United States. Through archival footage, photographs, and intimate interviews with musicians and scholars, the series offers the opportunity to explore key events in 20th century history, including technological changes, the Depression, and tensions around race and Civil Rights, all through the eyes of people who lived through them and the music they created.

NOVA: Australia's First Four Billion Years- The Evolution of Kangaroos
Learn about the evolutionary history of the kangaroo, the only large mammal that hops, in this video excerpt from NOVA.

NOVA: Australia’s First Four Billion Years- Megafauna in Ice Age Australia
Find out about some of the giant prehistoric animals that existed during the last ice age in Australia in this video excerpt from NOVA. Host and scientist Richard Smith visits Victoria Fossil Cave to learn about the large collection of Australian megafauna fossils that were discovered there.

NOVA: Australia’s First Four Billion Years- Ancient Sea Reptiles
Find out about plesiosaurs—giant marine reptiles that lived about 100 million years ago—in this video excerpt from NOVA.

Space Chase USA
Space Chase USA explores the transformative events residents of Cocoa Beach, Florida, found themselves engaged in as the future of space exploration arrived on their sleepy shores.The full Space Chase USA documentary is broken down into 20 chronological segments.

Moon Memories
The Space Coast history is especially rich because of the collective memories of the citizens. During the hectic space race days, the engineers were fueled by passion as they worked to accomplish Kennedy’s goal. Retired NASA employees and contractors share how they didn’t work a day in their lives.

Living and Working in Space Collection
No CC
This collection includes videos and digital media that have been selected to help bring the stories of human space exploration and its early history to you.

Voyager: Humanity’s Farthest Journey
In 1977, The Voyager program sent two spacecraft to explore the solar system and travel to interstellar space. In this video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, learn how Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are now the farthest any spacecraft has traveled from the Sun, and are still making discoveries in the outer reaches of the solar system.

Poppy Northcutt, NASA Pioneer, Chasing the Moon
Learn how Poppy Northcutt overcame sexism and a “boys’ club” atmosphere to become the first female engineer in NASA’s mission control in the 1960s—a situation she describes as a “complete peculiarity” at the time—in this video adapted from Chasing the Moon: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

Ed Dwight, First Black Astronaut Trainee
Hear Ed Dwight’s firsthand account of his experience and the challenges he faced as the nation’s first black astronaut trainee in this video adapted from Chasing the Moon: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

The Road to Apollo: An Interactive Journey
Discover the breathtaking failures and successes and the stakes and costs of the American space program as you take an immersive journey through Project Apollo’s missions 1, 8, and 11 in The Road to Apollo: An Interactive Journey from American Experience.

Exploring Racial Barriers at NASA
Decades after the enrollment of NASA’s first black astronauts, people of color are still a minority in aerospace. Dr. Bernard Harris, Jr., the first African American to perform a spacewalk, discusses challenging stereotypes with a young woman who dreams of planning a mission to Mars.

NOVA Newton’s Third Law of Motion
This video from NOVA illustrates the significance of Newton's law to space-walking astronauts and the engineers who design their spacecrafts.

Earthrise
Earthrise tells the story of the image captured of the Earth from space on Apollo 8 in 1968.

Mooncraters Activity
This DragonflyTV segment demonstrates how to make models of moon craters, and how craters form.

Phases of the Moon
In this interactive resource adapted from the National Air and Space Museum, learn about the relationship between the Moon's orbit and its phases.

Explore the Moon
These interactive images from NOVAprovide panoramic views of each of the six Apollo landing sites and offer a hint of what astronauts faced on the surface of the Moon.

Observing the Moon in the Sky
Observe images of the Moon during the day and night with this slideshow. The images can stimulate students’ thinking and questions about when and how the Moon appears in the sky.

Is There Life in Space?
In this module, you will explore the question, “Is there life in space?

Historic Space Suits
Explore how space suit design has evolved over time in this interactive slideshow from NOVA scienceNOW. This interactive activity requires Adobe Flash Player.

Light Falls: Space, Time and an Obsession of Einstein
Light Falls: Space, Time, and an Obsession of Einstein is an original work that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's discovery of the general theory of relativity.

The Structure and Scale of the Solar System
Students learn about the structure and scale of the solar system, using media from NASA, in this interactive self-paced lesson from WGBH.

Surface Features in the Solar System
Students learn about surface features in the solar system, using media from NASA, in this self-paced interactive lesson from WGBH.

Collection from Touch Tomorrow
One Lesson Plan, 14 Videos, 1 Media Gallery

LEGO Robots
Despite meticulous planning and programming by its designers, an autonomous robot can encounter unexpected challenges. This is true for both LEGO® robots and Martian rovers.

Robotics- Science Trek
This video segment from IdahoPTV's Science Trekdefines a robot, explains the 3 parts of a robot, and informs us of some of the many different ways they are used.

The Impact of Technology: Cars
This video segment, adapted from A Science Odyssey: Bigger, Better, Faster, tells the story of Henry Ford's industrial revolution.

Plastic Race Car Competition
In this video segment adapted from Pennsylvania College of Technology and WVIA, follow a class of high school students participating in a technology competition and learn about how plastic products are made.

Clean Air, Electric Cars, and Alternate Transportation: Ecosense for Living
What can we do about air pollution? As individuals, our transportation choices make a big impact.

Gross Science: See Microbes with this DIY Phone Microphone
Learn how to see microbes with your phone, in this episode of Gross Science from NOVA.

What is a Semiconductor?
Semiconductors are in everything from your cell phone to rockets. But what exactly are they, and what makes them so special?

Computers Science Trek
The computing power in today’s cell phones is much higher than all the processing power of all the computers on the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander that put two men on the moon. Computers can be found in almost everything. But how does this amazing technology work?