Dear Educators,
Welcome Back! We hope that you had the opportunity to rest and relax this summer. We invite you to join KLRN for a special 3-hour session which offers professional development continuing education credit. We will hear from experts in the fields of mental health and will feature breakout sessions focused on mental health resources for early childhood to high school age students including nutrition, fitness, and self-care strategies! You can register here.
As we navigate a new school year, please know that you have us at KLRN PBS to lean on for educational support, resources, and training opportunities. Reach out to us anytime at education@klrn.org. We appreciate you and we are here for you.
With Appreciation,
KLRN Education Team
Antiques Roadshow: Vintage Portland
Air Date: Monday, August 2 at 7pm on channel 9.1 Watch Online Here
- Amelia Earhart Letter Archive, ca. 1930: Antiques Roadshow (Grades 6-12) Analyze and interpret the letters of Amelia Earhart to understand her role in shaping her own image, and the image of 20th-century aviation, in this video from ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. As this collection of eight letters and telegrams show, Earhart had an “incredible entrepreneurial spirit” that extended into many areas of her life, which helped make her an important figure in both women’s and aviation history.
NOVA: The Planets: Inner Worlds
Air Date: Tuesday, August 3 at 1pm on channel 9.2 Watch Online Here
- NOVA: Finding Life Beyond Earth | How the Inner Solar System Formed (Grades 6-12) In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn how our solar system formed from a cloud of gas and dust more than 4.5 billion years ago. Watch video that features real satellite imagery as well as simulations to illustrate how small bodies in the early solar system collided with each other to form larger objects and early planets (protoplanets). See how computer simulations have shown that over tens of millions of years, collisions between hundreds of protoplanets formed the rocky inner planets we see today. This video is available in both English and Spanish audio, along with corresponding closed captions.
Nature: Super Cats: Episode 3: Science and Secrets
Air Date: Wednesday, August 11 at 7pm on channel 9.1 Watch Online Here
- Cat Adaptations: Super Senses (Grades K-5) Rusty spotted cats are the smallest felines in the world, but these little cats have some extremely powerful senses! In this video from Super Cats: A NATURE Miniseries, students will learn how one tiny cat uses his senses to navigate the world around him. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, and a hands-on activity where students use their sense of touch to help a rusty spotted cat find its way home.
- Cats - Yesterday and Today (Grades 6-12) This video segment from Nature provides a background of the history of cats. Cats became welcome household pets when rats became a problem. We also learn about wild cats on the Galapagos Islands and how cats came to America from Europe as rat catchers on commercial vessels.
The Story of China: The Golden Age: The Ming
Air Date: Thursday, August 12 at 12pm on channel 9.2 Watch Clips Here
- Zheng He: The Story of China (Grades 3-12) Learn about Zheng He, the admiral of seven voyages from China to the Indian Ocean and a symbol of Ming Dynasty Chinese expansionism in this clip from The Story of China. The aim of the voyages was to display China's power and wealth, to extend the tributary system, and satisfy Emperor Yongle's desire for glory. The expeditions sailed as far as East Africa and brought back many gifts from other kingdoms, including exotic plants, spices and animals. The voyages were cancelled and the fleet sunk after the voyages and Zheng He fell out of political favor in the capital.
NOVA: The Planets: Jupiter
Air Date: Tuesday, August 17 at 1pm on channel 9.2 Watch Online Here
- Jupiter's Hot Spots: NASA Planetary Sciences (Grades 3-12) Discover dark features in Jupiter's atmosphere called "hot spots," and their connection to large-scale atmospheric waves. David Choi describes his research on hot spots clearings in Jupiter's atmosphere that appear bright in infrared light. Analysis of data from the Cassini mission in 2000 revealed how Rossby waves that move vertically in the atmosphere may be responsible for producing hot spots. In 1995, the Galileo probe descended into Jupiter's atmosphere and took measurements of a hot spot. The recent identification of the role of Rossby waves will help researchers reexamine Galileo data in the context of Jupiter's global climate.
- Jupiter: The Largest Planet (Grades 6-12) Explore our solar system's largest planet, Jupiter, including its role in the evolution of the solar system in this video from NASA. Dramatic visualizations and satellite images show Jupiter's size compared with Earth, its fast rotation, and its dynamic cloud systems (including the famous Great Red Spot). In 1994, Jupiter's gravity pulled apart comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and cometary fragments collided with the planet, illustrating the role that Jupiter may play in helping to protect Earth from dangerous impacts. The video also looks at Jupiter's numerous moons and explores the diverse characteristics of its four largest: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. This video is available in both English and Spanish audio, along with corresponding closed captions.
Nature: Pandas: Born to Be Wild
Air Date: Wednesday, August 18 at 7pm on channel 9.1 Explore Video Clips
- Wolong's Pandas (Grades 3-8) In this video segment from Nature, learn about the endangered pandas of the Wolong Conservation Center in China. When the bamboo plant, the panda's main source of food, began to die off in the 1980s, the center responded by rescuing starving pandas from the wild. This resource includes an activity where students learn to compare and contrast information from multiple sources and a fun game that explores how changes in an animal’s food source can impact survival. Discussion questions challenge students to think about how climate change affects animal and plant life. To learn about China's panda population, see the "Bamboo Mountain" video segment of this two-part series.
- Saving Giant Pandas: Operation Wild (Grades 6-12) Learn how veterinarians in China try to save pandas from extinction. When giant pandas have twins, the mother only has enough milk for one of the babies. In the wild, she will choose one to look after and leave the other to die. Veterinarians at the Ya'an Bifengxia Giant Panda Base can keep the rejected cub alive with advanced neonatal care. But the babies also need antibodies found in their mother's milk, so the team attempts to swap the twins. Although pandas have a very keen sense of smell, the mother accepts the rejected twin and feeds it. The twins are swapped between their mother and the nursery every week until they're six months old.
Ken Burns: The National Parks
Air Date: Tuesday, August 24 at 8pm on channel 9.1 Watch Online Here
- The National Parks: Ken Burns in the Classroom Collection (Grades 6-12) Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature’s most spectacular locales—from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska—this twelve-hour documentary series is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.
- Tourism and the National Parks (Grades 3-8) Take a trip to the National Parks of Texas, and you will travel through time. Some call the Texas parks a microcosm of the national parks across the nation.
Earth’s Natural Wonders: Extreme Wonders
Air Date: Wednesday, August 25 at 12pm on channel 9.2 Explore Video Clips Here
- The Earth: Science Trek (Grades K-5) There is no place like home. Starting with the protective layers of our atmosphere and going all the way down to the deepest core of the planet, each part of the Earth plays a role in creating the planet on which we live.
- EPIC Earth (Grades 3-5) Observe seven views of Earth as captured by NASA’s EPIC camera aboard a satellite that is one million miles from our planet. This annotated video shows spectacular sights, including the moon crossing over Earth, storms in an ocean, and smoke from a wildfire. Water in its three phases is represented in the oceans, the North and South Poles, and in the clouds.
- Dynamic Earth (Grades 3-12) In this interactive from Annenberg Learner, delve into the structure of the Earth to learn what causes earthquakes, volcanoes, and more. Students will explore the layers that make up the earth's structure, understand how the movements of tectonic plates cause natural phenomena, and learn how scientists know where they may occur.
Breakthrough: The Ideas that Changed the World: The Smartphone
Air Date: Monday, August 30 at 2pm on channel 9.2
- Inside Science: Turn your Smartphone into a Science Lab (Grades 6-12) In this video from Inside Science, see how researchers at the University of Washington turn your smartphone into a microscope.
Native America: Nature to Nations
Tuesday, August 31 at 7pm on channel 9.1 Explore Video Clips Here
- The Relationship between Humans and Nature: Native America: Nature to Nations (Grades 6-12) Learn about the relationship Native Americans have with the environment and what lessons people of the U.S. government could still learn. Students will examine the close relationship Native American have with the environment and how the framers of the Constitution learned some, but not all, of the principles of living at peace with the land.
- Native Voices: Wampum (Grades 3-12) Wampum jewelry sculptor and artist Allen Hazard, of The Purple Shell in Charlestown, Rhode Island describes the importance of the beautiful quahog shell in the tradition and culture of the Narragansett people.