Frontline: The Holocaust’s Last Living Survivors

In the most recent of his critically-lauded autobiographical films, Never Forget to Lie,  Marian Marzynski explores for the first time his own wartime childhood and the experiences of other child survivors.  The filmmaker teases out their feelings about Poland, the Catholic Church, and the ramifications of identities forged under circumstances where survival began with the directive “never forget to lie.”

Airing on WGBY on Tuesday, May 14 at 10:00pm, Never Forget to Lie chronicles the poignant, painful recollections of other child survivors. The film rescues haunting pieces of the past while exploring the conflicting feelings about national, cultural, and religious identity that mark many survivors.

Watch a preview, where you can also learn the latest about Marzynski’s documentary.  At the Frontline Teacher Center you’ll find new classroom activities with streaming video, downloadable lesson plans, and web-exclusive resources to accompany FRONTLINE programs in the classroom.

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Venom: Nature’s Killer from NOVA

From Emily Dickinson’s poem “Narrow fellow in the grass” to the story of Adam and Eve, snakes are likely to get our attention as they will this Wednesday, May 8, at 9:00pm when WGBY airs NOVA’s Venom:  Nature’s Killer. 

Over the millennia, thousands of creatures have developed that most sophisticated of biological and chemical weapons: venom. These complex chemicals can scramble our brain signals, paralyze muscles, puncture blood cells, even begin digesting us from within. But nature’s most potent toxins might also contain the keys to a new generation of advanced drugs to help doctors treat serious illnesses such as heart attacks, cancer and diabetes.

Follow NOVA crews as they join scientists on a dangerous quest to track down and capture the world’s most venomous animals—to find out both how they can kill us, and how they can save us. Watch a preview.

You can find classroom resources on venom and snakes at NOVA’s Beta site for teachers and at PBS LearningMedia.

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Constitution USA

On Tuesdays on WGBY at 9:00pm, starting May 7,  you can breathe new life into the traditional civics lesson with Constitution USA with Peter Segal.  Traveling across the country on a Harley Davidson to find out where the U.S. Constitution lives, Peter Segal looks at how it works and doesn’t work, how it unites us as a nation, and how it has nearly torn us apart.  Watch a preview.

A vast digital library of classroom resources, PBS LearningMedia is continuing to add new content from Constitution USA.  Here are just a few highlights for grades 9-12:

Separation of Powers The framers of the Constitution feared too much centralized power, adopting the philosophy of divide and conquer.

Federalism Federalism is one of the most important and innovative concepts in the U.S. Constitution, although the word never appears there. Federalism is the sharing of power between national and state governments

Rights What is a right, and where does it come from? A right is a power or privilege that is recognized by tradition or law.

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TED Talks Education – The High School Dropout Crisis

TED Talks Education, hosted by John Legend, premieres May 7, 2013 at 10:00pm on WGBY.  PBS and TED, the non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, share a deep commitment to addressing the high school dropout crisis. The TED Talks Education one-hour program brings together a diverse group of teachers and education advocates delivering short, high-impact talks on the theme of teaching and learning.

These original TED Talks are given by educational leaders including Geoffrey Canada, Bill Gates, Rita F. Pierson and Sir Ken Robinson. TED Talks Education is part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate initiative. See all speakers and performers.

For more TED talks on a wide range of ideas worth spreading from innovative, influence thinkers around the world, you’ll want to explore the TED site for yourself http://www.ted.com/talks. You can search by subject and speakers as well as look for those talks with descriptions such as “inspiring,” “jaw-dropping” and courageous.

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Real-World Political and Environmental Drama From Independent Lens

On Monday, April 22, at 10:00pm Independent Lens:  The Island President airs on WGBY.  Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives, confronts a problem greater than any world leader has ever faced — the literal survival of his country and everyone in it due to global warming.  As one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives to make them uninhabitable.

The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009 when he makes a stirring speech that salvages agreement on a written accord.  Then in February 2012, military and police oust him as leader.  After his efforts to lead protests and campaign for an upcoming election, a Maldives court bans him from travel abroad and he is later imprisoned.  Watch a preview.

In addition to exposing students to this real-world political and environmental drama, you’ll find pages of resources on global warming and political dissent at PBS LearningMedia, where you can search by content, grade level, standards and more.

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Program Feature: Australia’s First 4 Billion Years

Epic in scope, intimate in nature, this 4-part NOVA miniseries reveals the untold story of the Land Down Under. With high-energy host and geologist Richard Smith, meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans, disappearing mountains and deadly asteroids.  Though it started last week, you still have a chance to catch up.  The series continues on Wednesday nights through May 1 from 9-10pm on WGBY.  Learn more.

Check out the preview below:

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Upcoming Program Feature: CONSTITUTION USA

Does the Constitution have what it takes to keep up with modern America? Join Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! as he hits the road to find out. Traveling across the country by motorcycle, Sagal is in search of where the U.S. Constitution lives, how it works and how it doesn’t… how it unites us as a nation and how it has nearly torn us apart.

Check out a preview below.  In this clip, Yale professor Akhil Amar talks about why our Constitution has endured as long as it has. He believes this is because of its ability to be amended.

Constitution USA with Peter Sagal will air Tuesdays, May 7-28, 2013, at 9 pm on WGBY.

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Program Feature: NATURE’s “What Plants Talk About”

To protect against herbivores the wild tobacco plant deposits trichomes, sweet treats irresistible to but also potentially fatal for leaf-eating caterpillars. Shortly after ingesting the trichomes, the insect releases a particular odor that attracts ground-foraging predators. NATURE’s “What Plants Talk About” premieres Wednesday, April 3 at 8pm on WGBY.  Check out a preview below:

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WGBY Feature: “Divided We Stand: A Street in Our School”

WGBY announces the launch of “Divided We Stand: A Street in Our School,” a special Connecting Point series that will present various sides of one of the area’s longtime community issues: the tunnel beneath I-91 that runs through the Germán Gerena Community School in Springfield’s North End.

Built in 1973, the school currently serves 700 children.  Because of the building’s close proximity to I-91, a tunnel was built on the lower level of the school so that students and members of the larger community, divided once the interstate was constructed, could safely walk from one side of their neighborhood to the other. Over time, “the tunnel,” as residents refer to it, became more than a passageway linking Plainfield and Main Streets. It became a pathway providing access to varied community services. A generation came to depend on the organizations that filled space within the tunnel itself.

Yet, due largely to extensive flooding and structural damage, time has changed this once vibrant space. Community spaces now stand empty.As residents and city leaders discuss their vision for the Gerena School and tunnel, WGBY explores its past and present. Viewers will learn just how much happens in this place they don’t see.

For the first time, WGBY will provide Spanish subtitles for the series of segments, airing periodically between March and May. The series’ first segment, available online, included a discussion about the school and the status of repairs to the tunnel with Springfield Mayor Dominic Sarno and School Superintendent Daniel Warwick.

Future air dates are as follows: March 27, April 24, April 30 & May 20-22.

WGBY invites viewer feedback and especially encourages people who live near Gerena, largely members of the city’s Latino community, to contribute memories, stories or opinions throughout the series’ run.

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Program Feature: 180 Days: A Year Inside an American High School

180 Days:  A Year Inside an American High School

WGBY airs 180 Days:  A Year Inside an American High School tonight, March 25,  at 9pm.  Following the day-to-day stories of students, parents, teachers and staff at the Washington Metropolitan High School (also known as DC Met), this documentary is an intimate portrait of a public school that attempts to make a difference in the lives of students each and every day.

Whether they are preparing for college or becoming teen moms, the students at DC Met face many challenges with spirit and resilience and welcome us to challenge many of our own assumptions as we travel with the first graduating class to commencement. Led by a charismatic and outspoken young principal, DC Met invites us in for an unprecedented first-hand account of life inside of the school reform movement. Watch a preview.

As an educator, you may identify with what you see in this story of a principal who remains optimistic that her students can succeed despite the personal and academic obstacles they face.   We’d appreciate hearing what you think about this film or about your own obstacles or triumphs during the 180 days you spend inside an American school.

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