Week of August 10-14 Learning Materials

Stained Glass: Canterbury Cathedral

Discover the magnificent stained glass windows of the Canterbury Cathedral. Rebuilt in 1070, the Canterbury Cathedral has been one of the most revered Christian structures in England from an art-historical perspective

Stained Glass: Chartres Cathedral

Enrich your knowledge about the Chartres Cathedral by looking at images of the stained glass windows housed in this Gothic structure. Built between 1194 and 1250, the cathedral has been exceptionally well preserved.

Keeping the Light: Monastic Life in Medieval France

Read a description of the role monasteries played in Medieval Europe; use a graphic organizer to take notes and finally write a short essay that explains the role of the monastic system in the European Medieval world.

A Knight of Santiago and His Lady

Examine an oil painting of a knight and his lady by an unknown artist, c. 1610. (Spain.) Support activities encourage you to analyze the picture, answer some thought provoking questions and create your own family portrait.

Medieval Music: Gregorian Chant

Learn the characteristics of Gregorian chant. Members of the UK Men’s Chorus demonstrate three performance methods—direct, antiphonal, and responsorial—and perform the Gregorian chant “Alma redemptoris mater.”

Areas of Irregular Shapes: Building Sailboats

Learn how wooden boat builders use a variety of mathematical concepts when custom designing their vessels. This video focuses on how area, volume, and measurements of irregular shapes are used in the engineering process, taking math out of the classroom and into real world problem solving.

Paddle Power

Build a boat that paddles itself using a rubber band as its power source. In this challenge, from Design Squad Nation: Aquatic Robotics, kids follow the design process to make a boat out of cups

What’s in the Great Pyramid?

Cosmic particles reveal a previously hidden void within the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt.

Explore Ancient Egypt

Visit the magnificent tombs and temples of ancient Thebes? In this multi-layered, highly visual interactive, view 360° panoramas, "walkaround" photos, and other breathtaking imagery shot throughout the Giza Plateau and ancient Thebes (modern-day Luxor), often with special permission.

Cosmic-Ray Muons Reveal Hidden Void in the Great Pyramid

A void as tall as the Statue of Liberty has been detected in Khufu’s pyramid, otherwise known as the Great Pyramid, using a technique of modern particle physics. While it is presently unclear what function the large void played back in Ancient Egyptian times, experts are hoping that this gaping hole in Giza’s most imposing pyramid could help answer some persistent questions archaeologists and historians have about its construction.

Spy in the Wild Nature

In the most innovative production Nature has ever presented, this five-part series employs more than 30 animatronic spy cameras disguised as animals to secretly record behavior in the wild. These “spycams” reveal animals as having emotions and behavior similar to humans: specifically, a capacity to love, grieve, deceive, and invent.

Engineering Robotic Cameras to Observe Animals in Nature

Learn how filmmakers use the engineering design process to make animatronic spy cameras in this video from the NATURE mini-series Spy in the Wild. The cameras are disguised as animals to secretly record behavior in the wild.

Animals with Cameras

Friendship in the Animal Kingdom

Until recently, scientists were not comfortable describing bonds between animals as "friendships." However, scientists have now determined that humans are not the only animals who form them.

Unlikely Friends

This video segment from Nature: Animal Odd Couples showcases the relationship between Kasi, a cheetah, and Mtani, a dog. Kasi and Mtani live at Busch Gardens – both were "orphaned" when they were young and the keepers at Busch Gardens developed a pilot project to observe the relationship between them.

Mates for Life

This video segment from Nature: Animal Odd Couples introduces a male brant goose that has selected his lifelong mate: a female tortoise. Brant geese mate for life and the male goose's selection is a very unlikely companion, yet they have "been together" for years.

Unlikely Partners: Warthog and Mongoose

Learn about the unusual animal partnership between warthogs and mongooses in this video from the NATURE mini-series Spy in the Wild. Part of the episode “Friendship,” this video shows how two very different animals help one another in the African savannah.

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.

Explore numerous lesson plans and activities around various episodes of Latino Americans. Explore this timeline of important dates, become a part of the LATINO AMERICANS project, Mi Historia.

George H. W. Bush- Biography

Learn about the life of George H.W. Bush with this biography from American Experience: "George H.W. Bush."

Many more supporting resources and content can be found when viewing this resource, on the right-hand side of the webpage.

Global Warming: The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect

Earth's relatively stable and hospitable average temperature is the result of a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect. The presence in the atmosphere of naturally occurring compounds, known as greenhouse gases, maintains Earth's temperature. This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE describes how human activities are increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and explains what effect this might have on global temperatures.

FRONTLINE: Heat Global Warming Threatens World Water Supply

This video segment adapted from FRONTLINE: Heat explains the important role glaciers play in storing and distributing fresh water in many parts of the world. Because of global warming, glaciers are melting more rapidly than normal. This is especially significant for Himalayan and Tibetan glaciers, which feed several major rivers that flow through China and the Indian subcontinent and sustain agriculture, livestock, and the human population. As glaciers disappear, consequences of water scarcity will likely include drought and political instability between nations.

Climate Literacy

Find resources from a range of public media producers and curators that will help you learn and teach climate science literacy. The structure of this collection is based upon the Essential Principles of Climate Literacy.

Adapting to Change Life from Above

In these activities, students will analyze the role of satellites in making informed conservation decisions. Examining the success story of a collaboration between geospatial scientists and local village leadership, students will have the opportunity to analyze, evaluate, and reflect on their own community’s land use decisions.

Satellite Imagery and Biodiversity Life from Above

Satellite imagery allows us to expand our perspective on planet Earth. Satellite technology allows scientists to make critical decisions about conservation, track patterns of species movement, and better understand how species interact with each other. Students will watch two short video segments from Life From Above. In these clips, we see satellite imagery showing two elephant populations struggling to survive for different reasons.

Earth System; Satellites

While the Moon is Earth's only natural satellite, there are thousands of artificial satellites circling our planet for navigation, communications, entertainment, and science. These satellites are an integral part of our everyday life, and they provide a source for scientific data unavailable from Earth's surface. This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center describes some of the different kinds of satellites that orbit Earth.

Satellites Orbiting the Earth

In recent years, there has been a push to better understand how Earth works as a system — how land, oceans, air, and life all interact. Satellites in orbit around Earth are a fast and efficient way of gathering remotely sensed data about the planet as a whole. This animation adapted from NASA shows the orbital paths of the satellites in the Earth Observing System.

Art and the Environment

Art and the Environment: This KQED Arts collection focuses on artists whose environmental concerns are apparent in their work. Integrate the arts into eco-literacy, and discover different ways that artists address environmental issues through their art practice.

Oman- Desert Canyon

Digital Extra Episode

Majlis al Jinn - the "Meeting Place of the Spirits" - is the largest cave in the Arabian Peninsula. Formed by water this cave drops almost 400 feet into a cathedral like chamber. Steve Backshall explains the forces that created the cave - and its probable future.

Impact of 1928 Hurricane on Everglades Migrant Workers

Learn how a dike built to manage water levels in Everglades swamplands for farming failed to prevent catastrophic flooding during the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, resulting in thousands of deaths of mostly black migrant workers, in these clips adapted from The Swamp.

Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and the Florida Everglades The National Parks: America’s Best Idea

Marjorie Stoneman Douglas was a well-to-do woman from New England who moved to Florida, seeking a change after a bad divorce. After meeting Ernest Coe, called "the Father of the Everglades," Douglas turned her attention protecting the Everglades from being drained and sold for real estate. Her efforts contributed to the creation of Everglades National Park in 1947.

Reagan Biography: Ronald Reagan

In 1980, the Reagan Revolution began. President Reagan promised to fight Communism and restore the nation's confidence in itself. Learn more about his life and presidency with this biography from American Experience: "Reagan."

Many more supporting resources and content can be found when viewing this resource, on the right hand side of the webpage.

The Power of Personal Narrative The Great American Read

Explore how stories can be cathartic for both storytellers and readers, and how personal narratives can drive a story in this listening and reading comprehension activity. Analyze the dramatic structure of a story by translating it from the first-person POV to a third-person POV.

Teaching Guide:Exploring Beloved

This teaching guide helps instructors use a specific primary source set, Belovedby Toni Morrison, in the classroom. It offers discussion questions, classroom activities, and primary source analysis tools.

Toni Morrison on Paradise

Toni Morrison, winner of both the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes, discusses her writing process and her novel Paradise.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Home of Franklin D Roosevelt National Historic Site

Discover the Roosevelts, the family home, the Presidential library, Val-Kill, once a family picnic site it became Eleanor Roosevelt’s cottage and then primary residence.

The Roosevelts Ken Burns in the Classroom

Ken Burns in the Classroom- The Roosevelts

NO CC

Support Materials to use in tandem with view the on air programming of The Roosevelts

Theodore Roosevelt and the Western Experience

Support Materials

Theodore Roosevelt and the Western Experience examines the 26th president of the United States. TR or Teddy as he has come to be known, balanced his identity of an intellectual from the East with the frontiersman of the West. His love of nature as a boy carried on throughout his life, influencing policy decisions as president that we still see today. “