Week of June 22-26 Learning Materials

Animal Adaptations: Intelligence and Social Behavior
Dr. Natalia Borrego, a biologist who researches African mammal behavior, discovers that lions are the smartest cats in this video from Super Cats: A NATURE Miniseries.

Whale Songs NOVA Wonders: What are Animals Saying?
Learn how humpback whales use songs to attract mates, and how the songs change over time, in this video from NOVA Wonders: What Are Animals Saying?

Guess How Whales Hear
What does the ocean sound like to a whale? How do whales hear? Dr. Darlene Ketten of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution really wanted to know. This video segment reveals how one marine biologist used the scientific process to learn more about what and how whales hear.

NOVA scienceNOW: What Are Animals Thinking? Decision Maker Bees and the Human Brain
In this video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how decision making in a bee swarm resembles what occurs in the human brain.

Your Body is an Ecosystem NOVA Wonders: What’s Living in You?
Examine some of the science underlying a new framework for understanding how the body works, in these videos from NOVA Wonders: What’s Living in You?

The Human Body Science Trek Collection
The human body is an amazing thing. It is made up of various systems that work together to keep us breathing, eating, thinking, growing and playing. Find out more about everything from the brain in your head to the bones in your feet.

The Cephalopod Brain
Learn about the neuroprocessing abilities of cephalopods such as octopus and cuttlefish in this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW: "How Smart Are Animals?"

The Teenage Brain
Explore some of the more striking differences between the brains of kids and the brains of their parents and teachers in this video from FRONTLINE: "Inside the Teenage Brain."

Magic and the Brain
In this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW: “How Does the Brain Work?” scientists team up with magician Apollo Robbins to research how our brains decide what to pay attention to.

Brain Waves Reveal Deception
In this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how a person’s brain activity can reveal when he or she is lying.

DNA and the Science of Genetic Engineering Collection from KQED
What makes an individual have curly hair, green eyes or be six feet tall? DNA! Our DNA contains genes, which are the physical and functional units of heredity that gives us our unique characteristics. Use this collection to teach students about the structure and function of DNA, how DNA replicates, the science of genetic engineering and the ethics of gene editing.

UNC-TV Science The Mother of Genetic Engineering: Mary Dell Chilton
In 1977, Mary Dell Chilton documented how a bacterium transferred some of its DNA into a tobacco leaf, triggering the growth of a crown gall. By discovering the mechanism Chilton gave that power to humans and launched genetically modified organisms.

The Spy Penguin
In this video from SciTech Now, learn how filmmakers for the PBS series, NATURE, have brought robotics into their work, designing animatronic cameras and other specially-engineered creations in disguise to get up close and personal with animals in the Antarctic.

A Variety of Hummingbirds
The featherweights of the bird world, hummingbirds are native to South America, where flowers are abundant and in bloom year round. There are over 300 species of hummingbirds with varying tails, beaks, head plumes, and colorations. This video segment from Nature introduces viewers to several species of hummingbirds.

Lens of Time: How Hummingbirds Hover
Armed with the latest technology, scientists are beginning to unlock the secrets of one of nature’s most acrobatic flyers.
Produced by Spine Films, this video appears in bioGraphic, a magazine powered by the California Academy of Sciences.

Bats and Moths: Sound Battles
Learn how bats and moths have shaped each other’s evolution in this video from NATURE: “Sex, Lies and Butterflies.”

NOVA The Mysteries of Optic Flow
Watch how birds navigate in a series of experiments in this video from NOVA. They use a technique known as optic flow to determine distance and speed.

Night Vision
If you have ever stumbled through the woods on a moonless night, you may have wondered how nocturnal creatures move about with such apparent ease. Explore some of the most important adaptations of the nocturnal eye and highlight the nighttime habits of a range of creatures that rely on these adaptations, in this interactive from NOVA.

Exploring Energy Flipside Science Collection
Brought to you by the California Academy of Sciences, Flipside Science is a youth-powered series that tackles environmental topics and empowers viewers to make a difference. In this Flipside Science unit, Exploring Energy: Designing a Brighter Future, we'll explore environmental issues related to energy use and conservation.

Evolution of Transportation
Did you know that, at one time, New York State was considered by many to be the "hub" for the transportation revolution in the United States? Learn more in this video from Regents Review 2.0.

Energy Production
Students examine the role of energy in our daily lives and how we produce energy to power our cities, homes, and schools. The advantages and disadvantages of each energy source are also addressed.

What Are Our Energy Choices?
Electricity generation is faced with a growing number of challenges. Energy sources used to generate electricity need to be available, plentiful and energy-dense while not polluting the air, water or land, and minimizing habitat disruptions.

Snapshot of U.S. Energy Use
There are times when humans' role as energy consumers is clear. For instance, when we fill our cars' fuel tanks, the amount of money we spend makes it obvious how much gas we are using. But what we seldom think about is the energy we consume by simply living our lives in a developed society.

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.

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.

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.

Reconstruction: The 15th Amendment and African American Men in Congress
After the war was over and slavery abolished, Reconstruction was underway. Although there were challenges ahead, African Americans were filled with unprecedented hope.

Reconstruction: The Black Codes
The end of the Civil War brought about the freedom of four million slaves. The era of Reconstruction that followed the war sought to remedy the inequities of slavery while readmitting the Southern states back into a reunified nation.

Reconstruction: Ida B. Wells- Pioneer of Civil Rights
Ida B. Wells, a journalist and owner of the Memphis newspaper Free Speech and Headlight spent a lifetime working for civil rights and women’s suffrage. She helped to launch the National Association of Colored Women and was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Natural Resources of West Africa
Students will explore a physical map of West Africa that includes the location of natural resources, main transportation routes, and most populous cities.

Effective Use of Resources: Crossword Puzzle Activity
Review the activity on economic resources, and then try to complete this crossword puzzle.

Global Trends Quiz
This interactive quiz from NOVA tests users' knowledge of humanity's present-day consumption behavior and living conditions.

Women in Islam
Multiple part lesson plan and materials
Explore basic beliefs and practices of Islam and examine the different views of women's roles in Islam and modern American society in this lesson.

The Five Pillars of Islam
In this lesson, students explore and understand the basic beliefs of Islam as well as the Five Pillars that guide Muslims in their daily life: belief, worship, fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimage.

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885
NO CC
Lessons plans to be used in tandem with hour six of Africa's Great Civilizations.

The Three Questions of Economics
Students will read and take notes on the three main questions of economics. These are what to produce, how to produce it, and who to produce it for. Students will then apply what they've learned to three scenarios.

Africa: Teacher Tools: Exploring African Culture
Students will explore the role of oral tradition in African cultures. They will read articles about the daily lives of people in several African countries, and create a mock interview based on the information.

Wonders of the African World
Every culture has its own special identity, demonstrated through its music, clothing, religion, food and social customs. Throughout our African journey, take a closer look at the rich and unique traditions of the people.

Religion: Three Religions, One God
Three of the world's major religions -- the monotheist traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- were all born in the Middle East and are all inextricably linked to one another.

African Masks
Artist Maude Alexander shows some of the African masks in her collection and talks about how African masks are more than aesthetic artifacts.

Manjani: West African Dance
The Imani Dance and Drum Company perform the Manjani, a West African dance that celebrates an important event such as the harvest (as in this performance), a wedding, or a naming ceremony.