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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Compelling Classroom Film Modules & More from Independent Lens

The Emmy-winning Independent Lens series on PBS features independent documentary films from around the country and the world.  Here are several examples of powerful classroom modules from recent films that you can integrate into your own lessons:

• Human Dignity – Waste Land (9.32 mins.) portrays the lives of two women working in the world’s largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• First Day of School (5.45 mins.) – Pushing the Elephant follows Congolese refuge Nanzabire as she attends her first day of school in the U. S.
• First Woman Leader of a Muslim Nation  (6.59 mins.) focuses on Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan.

As well as film modules such as these, the Independent Lens educator site also offers lesson plans with standards-based curricula to accompany documentaries on a broad range of topics: immigration, civil rights, women’s rights, religion, the environment 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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Lesson Plan Feature: Women on the Rise in Afghanistan

For International Peace Month here’s a powerful lesson for grades 9-12 using videos from the PBS documentary series Women, War & Peace. Students learn about the life of women in Afghanistan, including progress they have made and obstacles and dangers they face. The lesson highlights Afghan women’s efforts to play an active role in Afghanistan’s peace process and to empower other women in their country.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Explain what the Taliban is and how the lives of women were restricted under its rule;
• Describe progress women have made since Taliban rule;
• Describe dangers women currently face in Afghanistan;
• Discuss steps individual Afghan women are taking to empower other women in their country;
• Describe why Afghan women felt it was critical to be involved in Afghanistan’s peace process and steps they took to make sure they would be part of the process;
• Explain ways in which the United States has supported the efforts of the women of Afghanistan;
• Describe efforts by women in other countries to advocate for human rights.

This comprehensive lesson includes media resources and websites for each detailed section of activities as well as related resources.

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Lesson Plan Feature: Cycling Water Through the Environment

With the spring thaw, here’s a lesson  for grades 3-5 from PBS LearningMedia to teach students that water is a crucial ingredient for life on Earth.  They’ll also come to see that the water cycle is Earth’s natural mechanism for transporting, cleansing, and recycling water between the surface and the atmosphere. In this lesson, students recognize the different forms that water takes and learn about where it exists in the environment. Through class discussion and experiments, students model the water cycle and explore how it can be used to create fresh water.

Objectives

• Understand that water exists in the environment in different forms
• Identify the ways that water moves through the environment
• Recognize that most of Earth’s surface is covered by water but that only a small amount is fresh water
• Produce fresh water from salty water by distilling it

Resources include great images of Water Phases (for grades K-5) and an interactive on Global Water Distribution (for grades 3-12) as well as  many short, engaging videos.

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National Robotics Week: Lesson Plans and Other Resources

Celebrate National Robotics Week (April 6-14) by bringing the incredible world of robots, rovers, and bots into your classroom! Let PBS LearningMedia support your efforts with this collection of featured resources:

What is a Robot? (Lesson Plan, Grades 3–5) Customize this 3-part lesson plan to deepen students’ depth of knowledge as it relates to the world of robots.

Wearable Robots  (Video, Grades 5-13+)Although the idea of wearable robots is not new, students will be fascinated to see how far this technology has advanced.

 Newton’s Third Law:  Action-Reaction (Blended Lesson, Grades 7-8)  Astronauts constantly use robots and robotic tools to assist with tasks.  Find out how they use them in this online lesson for blended learning from the Walmart Middle School Literacy Initiative.

 Robot Race (Video, Grades 3-12) Follow 2 teams of engineers as they put their robots to the test in a 132- mile race through the Mohave Desert.

 The Intelligent Robot (Video, Grades 6-12)  Invite students to hear from NASA researchers as they discuss the Mars Rover and demonstrate its ability to learn.

RoboSnail (Video, Grades 6-12)  See how this MIT students used a snail’s movement as inspiration for a new machine.

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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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Lesson Plan Feature: PBS Teachers Activity Packs

Explore educational resources and activities from PBS with their library of Activity Packs. Each one focuses on a curricular theme and includes links to great PBS resources and supplemental activities.  Packs are available for The Arts, Health & Fitness, Reading & Language Arts, Science & Technology, and Social Studies.

Check out this list of packs in the Science & Technology unit:

• Breakthroughs in Medical Research
• Development & the Environment
• Earth Day
• Forensic Science
• How’s the weather?
• Innovation & Invention
• Oceans
• Technology & Ethics

Check them out today!

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