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Greetings, TV viewers!
Some broadcast and cable programs
contain material included in the public school curriculum and on standardized
exams. Here are home-viewing suggestions for April 25-May 1, 2005.
The topic for this week's Media Hour is predators. Check out Wednesday's show on PBS to learn more on this topic.
Should wolf populations be encouraged in the American West? What about lions, tigers and bears? They can be dangerous to people and pets, cattle and other critters... but without a balanced ecosystem, most scientists warn of dangerous repercussions.
There's always more to discuss where that came from, so crack open your questions and do some investigating. Science teachers, schoolbooks, libraries and your local university scientists are all great places to find answers, and more questions.
If you've got the smarts to answer a few trivia-type questions, make sure you watch the shows and read the websites. I really want to give out clams to folks who saw the show and who help others in the room learn!
It's all about an open discussion, with everybody pitching in on a good topic -- remember to talk amongst yourselves! Explore what everyone thinks and remind us all to think about what was in the shows and on the websites. The more you help others discuss things (and the more you know about the shows), the better your chances of getting on stage, or even earning clams.
What's the Media Hour? Watch the show(s)-of-the-week, jot down some ideas, then
come and talk about them with me and other citizens (including other City Workers,
if they're available). We get together at the Greek Theater (next to
City Hall), every Saturday morning at 9 a.m., Whyville Time. You'll find that
discussions are easier in the Theater, since everyone's chat bubbles overlap
a little less than in other rooms, and City Workers are able to direct people's
movement and behavior, when we need to.
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Monday, April 25
6-8 p.m. ET, 3-5 p.m. PT
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TCM -- Turner Classic Movie Channel
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Classic Literature
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Elementary, Middle and High School
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"The Prince and the Pauper"
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This is a black & white
adventure movie based on Mark Twain's classic novel. It's about two look-alike
boys, one a poor street kid and the other a prince, exchange places to
see what the other's life is like.
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| Log on
to http://www.mtwain.com/The_Prince_and_the_Pauper/ |
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Monday, April 25
9-10 p.m. E/P
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PBS
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Ancient History
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Middle and High School
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"American Experience: The
Fall Of Saigon"
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Airing on the 30th anniversary
of the end of the Vietnam war, this program begins with U.S. President
Nixon's January 1973 announcement of the cease-fire agreement all American
POWs and troops would soon be sent home. Nixon made a promise to respond
with force if North Vietnam broke the cease-fire, but when Nixon resigned
the presidency, his promise went with him. This re-broadcast of the final
episode of the classic PBS series "Vietnam: A Television History"
recounts the North Vietnamese attack that quickly brought an end to the
war and led to victory for them -- 30 years after they launched their struggle.
Rated TV-PG, V.
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| Log on
to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/index.html |
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Tuesday, April 26
8-9 p.m. E/P
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PBS
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American and World History
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Middle and High School
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"NOVA: Ancient Refuge in
the Holy Land"
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This program begins in a cave
near the Dead Sea where archaeologists made a startling discovery in 1960:
letters on papyrus nearly 2,000 years ago -- written by one of the great
figures of Jewish history, the rebel Bar-Kokhba, who led a heroic guerilla
uprising against the Romans. Biblical scholar Richard Freund returns to
the cave with the latest archaeological techniques, hoping to find more
traces of Bar-Kokhba's epic struggle. Instead, Freund comes up with tantalizing
new finds that lead him to a radical and controversial theory. Could the
treasure concealed in the cave be a long-lost relic of the great temple
in Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans?
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| Log on
to http://www.pbs.org/nova |
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Tuesday, April 26
9-10 p.m. E/P
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PBS
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Economics and Social Studies
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High School
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"Frontline: Is Wal-Mart Good
for America?"
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This newsmagazine shows empty
storefronts in Circleville, Ohio, where the local TV manufacturing plant
has closed down, and compares it to high rises in the south China factory
boomtown of Shenzhen. The connection between American job losses and soaring
Chinese exports? Wal-Mart. China has become the source of up to $25 billion
in annual imports that help that company deliver low prices to 100 million
customers a week. But while some economists credit Wal-Mart's single-minded
focus on low costs with helping contain U.S. inflation, others charge
that the company is the main force driving the shift to China in the production
of American consumer goods, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lost
jobs and a lower standard of living here at home.
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| Log on
to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ |
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Wednesday, April 27
9-11 p.m. E/P
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PBS
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Natural Science |
Middle and High School
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"National Geographic's Strange
Days On Planet Earth"
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This is the second episode of
PBS' Earth Day-themed special. It's entitled "Predators/Troubled
Waters" -- In Venezuela, the forest has given way to scrawny, isolated
groves, some of them overrun by bands of voracious howler monkeys, a glut
of iguanas and hordes of ravenous ants. Scientists believe that life here
is running amok because top predators are gone. Yellowstone Park is showing
signs of change from the depletion of natural predators. Researchers have
recently linked these forest losses to the expulsion of the gray wolf
some 70 years ago. Predators play a crucial role in the structure and
proper function of entire ecosystems. If they are so vital, should they
be brought back? Can they be? In the U.S., there have been strange disappearances.
Frogs are vanishing without a trace. Further north, in the green waters
of Canada's St. Lawrence River, beluga whales are mysteriously dying --
their white corpses found washed up on the stony shores. On the Pacific
Great Barrier Reef, swarms of monstrous sea stars are overrunning this
marine paradise. Scientists suspect this may be part of a worldwide transformation
brought on by toxins in the water. Have Earth's waterways become massive
delivery systems for invisible poisons? Are some of these poisons reaching
our faucets? As scientists verify that our problem with toxins is mounting,
cutting-edge research with plants and bacteria draws on the building blocks
of life itself as a solution to problems vexing the planet.
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Thursday, April 28
7-8 p.m. E/P
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Animal Planet Channel
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Natural Science |
Middle and High School
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"Most Extreme: Gluttons"
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As animal documentaries go,
this is a little unflattering. But we need to know both sides of an issue
-- and some animals are not nice. Some popular animals are so greedy that
they put pigs to shame. Tiger sharks swim around with just about anything
in their stomachs and the Tasmanian Devil can swallow 40% of its body
weight in a half-hour. That's like eating 216 hamburgers for lunch!
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Thursday, April 28
8-9 p.m. ET, 5-6 p.m. PT
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Ovation Channel
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Art |
Middle and High School
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"Private Life Of A masterpiece:
Sunflowers by Van Gogh"
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This program explores how Vincent
Van Gogh's famous painting, "The Sunflowers", of which he made
10 versions of the original, only received the acclaim it deserved after
his death. Rated TV-PG.
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Friday, April 29
8:30-9 p.m. E/P
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Travel Channel
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American History
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Middle and High School
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"John Ratzenberger's Made
In America"
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This episode of a program
that shows how business works visits the Crayola Factory in Pennsylvania
is where new colors are made. And at Campbell's Soup factory in Ohio,
it shows how they get various tastes into a can.
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Saturday, April 30
8-10 p.m. E/P
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HBO
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Social Science and Economics
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Middle and High School
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"Warm Springs???
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This movie biography covers
a period in the life of Franklin Roosevelt that many people don't know
about. As the only U.S. president re-elected three times, he brilliantly
led America through the Great Depression and World War II. But the toughest
challenge he ever faced was one the country never saw. Kenneth Branagh
stars in this true story of Roosevelt's battle after being left a paraplegic
by polio in 1921. Cynthia Nixon plays his wife Eleanor, who took up the
task of facing the public on his behalf while he sought out a "miracle"
cure in a rural Georgia health spa. Rated TV-PG.
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Sunday, May 1
8-9 p.m. E/P
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PBS
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Natural Science
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Middle and High School
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"Nature: Deep Jungle -- The
Beast Within"
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This final episode of the
miniseries special about the jungles of the world asks the question, "What
role did the jungle play in humanity's distant past and what can it tell
us about our future?" It looks for clues among the primates of the
rainforests, as well as among the traces of ancient civilizations that
once thrived there, only to vanish mysteriously. Included are expeditions
to the Central African Republic, Guatemala and Cambodia. Rated TV-PG.
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Log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/index.html.
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The majority of the text in these descriptions come from the television
stations and production groups that produced the shows; the MediaWiz and Numedeon,
Inc. claim no copyright over the text itself.
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