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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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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“After Newtown” Special Programming on WGBY

“After Newtown” is a series of special programming set to air February 18-22, 2013.   On Wednesday, February 20,  correspondent Miles O’Brien investigates how much science can tell us about a brain at risk for violence on NOVA “Mind of a Rampage Killer.”  Check out a preview here:

Then, learn how schools can detect problem behavior and prevent violent attacks on The Path to Violence.  We hope this special series of programs will be helpful and informative to those in decision making positions for school policy and safety.

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Viewing Earth from Space with NOVA

With our predictably unpredictable climate in recent years, NOVA’s amazing, new documentary “Earth from Space,” offers engaging and relevant material to adapt for the classroom with photos, computer models, video and other data on subjects such as how a weather or geological event on one side of our globe might affect life on the other side.

WGBY airs the film on February 13 from 9:00pm -11:00pm, after which you can also view it at NOVA’s website where you’ll find related links.  At the NOVA beta site there are literally hundreds of resources on subjects like Planet Earth and Space and Flight, some of which are designed specifically for teachers.  Or just follow the link to NOVA Education to search your own topics.  For example, on the subject of weather, you’ll find Climate Change and Sandy, What Does the Earth Sound Like? and Fastest Glacier.

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Volcanoes: Life on Fire

PBS adds the volcano-centric series Life on Fire to “Exploration Wednesdays,” its science- and nature-based programming block on Wednesday evenings. Narrated by actor Jeremy Irons, Life on Fire paints a detailed picture of the struggles and amazing adaptations required to survive around volcanoes — some of the most spectacular and powerful forces on our planet. The six-part series airs following the NATURE and NOVA series, Wednesdays through February 6, 2013, 10:00p.m.on WGBY.

Like humans, volcanoes have a natural life cycle: they are born, live for a period then die. Surrounding these giants of fire and ash, natural selection has only retained those capable of adapting to the three phases of an eruption: before, during and after.  For additional resources to teach volcano’s valuable lessons, PBS Learning Media offers scores of resources, such as Magic Dogs of the Volcanoes (Interactive, PreK-4), Vibrant Volcanoes (Lesson Plan, Grades 2-6) , The World of Volcanoes  (Video, 6-12).

Additional teacher resources can be found on NOVA Education and include Mass Extinction, (Video and Discussion, Grades 6-12), Build an Island(Interactive, Grades 6-12) and Mount Pinatubo:  Predicting a Volcano (Video, Grades 6-12).

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Decoding Neanderthals: NOVA Resources on Evolution

Tonight at 9pm, WGBY will broadcast NOVA:  Decoding Neanderthals, a program that will allow viewers to find out what happened when the first modern humans encountered Neanderthals 60,000 years ago.  You can also find seemingly inexhaustible resources at NOVA’s beta site.  Here are just a few, all of which have related links:

Homo Sapiens Versus Neanderthals  (Teacher Video) Fossil evidence from Middle East caves and elsewhere has revealed some competitive advantages modern humans, known as Homo sapiens, are believed to have held over the more archaic human species, Neanderthals. This video segment explores the origins of modern humans.

Are Neanderthals Human?  (Article and Related Content) Bones discovered in a cave in the German valley of Neander — Neanderthal in German — that looked vaguely human, eventually made their way to an anatomist in Bonn named Hermann Schaafhausen.

Ten Great Advances in Evolution  (Text and Photographs) To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Origin of Species in 2009, NOVA prepared this list, by no means exhaustive, to reveal some of the biggest advances in evolutionary biology over the past decade as well as insights into the evolutionary process itself. In some cases those insights would have given Darwin himself a pleasant jolt of surprise!

You can also explore other NOVA’s educator sites such as NOVA science NOW and NOVA education.

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Video Lending Library Feature: Can I Eat That?

Here is a timely video for the holiday season. This video ventures into three areas to explore the scientific secrets behind our favorite foods. The topics include: Thanksgiving Cooking Chemistry – looks at the physics, chemistry and biology that go into making the perfect Thanksgiving dinner; Why Do We Cook? – Why are humans the only animals who cook?; What is Taste? – explores the secrets of flavor and taste. The video also includes a profile of Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer at Microsoft. Borrow this DVD from the WGBY Video Lending Library for a month by clicking here.

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Video Lending Library Freature: Building the Great Cathedrals

Medieval cathedrals hold a fascination: how did builders armed only with hand tools and human muscle build such magnificent edifices? NOVA explores that question and reveals the hidden formulas, drawn from the pages of the Bible itself, that drove medieval builders ever upward. Borrow the video, Building the Great Cathedrals, (I.D. 2066) for a month from the WGBY Video Lending Library by clicking here.

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Exciting new Lending Library video presents new theory of space, time, universe

Host Brian Greene takes viewers on an exciting and in-depth exploration of a groundbreaking new theory: one of the most ambitious and exciting scientific theories ever posed — one that may be the long sought “Theory of Everything”. The presentation is offered in two segments:

• The Elegant Universe discusses the string theory, one of the most revolutionary theories in physics today.
• The second segment, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is a mind-blowing exploration of space, time, and the very nature of reality.

Borrow Space, Time and the Universe (I.D. 2328), an album of 4 DVD’s for a month– with option to extend the loan period — by clicking here.

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“How Smart Can We Get?” on this week’s NOVA scienceNOW

How do you get a genius brain? Is it possible that everyone’s brain has untapped genius — just waiting for the right circumstances so it can be unleashed? On this week’s NOVA scienceNOW, David Pogue meets people stretching the boundaries of what the human mind can do.

“How Smart Can We Get?” premieres Wednesday, October 24th at 10PM/9c on WGBY.  Check out a preview of the episode here:

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