KLRN strives to provide valuable educational content to every family in our viewing area, from great drama, world-class music, in-depth news, fascinating "how-to" programs and, best of all — non-violent educational programs for your children.
During these uncertain times, KLRN is adapting and creating educational resources in an easy-to-follow format. We aim to provide educational content and resources that support every family in our community.
We have added a new 4 PM time slot that aims at providing educational content for older school age students. You will find resources tied to each of these programs aired daily with lessons from our PBS LearningMedia site. With this weekly blog we hope that getting a sneak peak of what is airing the following week will help you as you plan lessons. We are also including Lesson plan ideas for you to use!!
We hope that this will help you as you plan your lessons for your students to Learn at Home.
All the best,
KLRN’s Education Team
Life From Above: Moving Planet
Monday, June 15 at 4 PM
See new footage of the greatest, most beautiful and powerful movements on our planet. Cameras in space capture events like an elephant family's struggle through drought, and thousands of Shaolin Kung-Fu students performing in perfect synchronicity.
Grades 1-5
Join the Kratt brothers and learn about the characteristics of elephant feet that make it possible to support the very large animal! Viewers learn that the large, soft, and cushioned undersides of an elephant's feet make it possible to spread out the weight of the animal. The video also explains that the soles of elephant feet expand when the elephant steps down and contract when pulled up, making it possible to get out of materials like thick mud.
Grades 6-12
Award-winning filmmaker Martyn Colbeck has traveled to Africa to learn about and photograph elephants, in this video segment from Nature. From the first day Colbeck was introduced to Echo, the matriarch of the elephant family, he was fascinated by these giant creatures and their relationships with each other. He observes the gentleness of the elephant family when a newborn elephant, Ely, was having trouble walking. The elephants had to decide whether to stay with the disabled calf or to perhaps let it die from the heat and dehydration. Miraculously, the calf adapted to his disability and with the support of his family, survived.
Magical Land of Oz: Human
Tuesday, June 16 at 4 PM
An exploration of Australia's mesmerizing wildlife and how they've adapted to survive in the human environment, including a flamboyant dancing peacock spider in a suburban garden.
Grades 1-5
Wild Kratts: The Platypus Revealed
Join the Kratt brothers and learn about the duck-billed platypus. Viewers learn that the platypus was first described by British explorers in Australia in the year 1798.
Grades 6-12
NOVA: Australia's First Four Billion Years
Find out about some of the giant prehistoric animals that existed during the last ice age in Australia in this video excerpt from NOVA. Host and scientist Richard Smith visits Victoria Fossil Cave to learn about the large collection of Australian megafauna fossils that were discovered there. Computer-generated imagery shows what creatures, such as Diprotodon (the largest marsupial ever to have lived), Procoptodon goliah (the giant short-faced kangaroo), and Thylacoleo (a large carnivorous marsupial) may have looked like. Early humans likely arrived in Australia 50 to 60 thousand years ago and coexisted with the giant animals.
H2O: The Molecule That Made Us
Wednesday, June 17 at 4 PM
CRISIS: Earth's changing water cycle -- and a globalized movement towards water for profit -- is forcing changes in humans' reliance on water. Can a geopolitical crisis be averted?
Grades K-2
Learn about different water bodies and the various characteristics that make them distinct from one another in this multimedia gallery from WGBH. Water bodies are natural accumulations of water that make up about three-quarters of Earth’s surface. Each one looks different when viewed from the ground (ground view) and from above (aerial view). Students can use the media in this gallery to explore, identify, and describe characteristics of various water bodies and to compare near-ground-level and aerial views of water bodies.
Grades 1-8
Use string to transport water from one cup to another, in this activity from Zoom.
Grades 6-12
Water Planet: How the Water Cycle Works
In this lesson, students examine all the stages in the water cycle to gain a deeper understanding of how this process works. Animations about climate change are from Clue into Climate, produced by KQED, and are designed to illustrate changes to the water cycle that may occur over many years.
Education of Harry Gantt
Thursday, June 18 at 4 PM
On January 28, 1963, a young black man from Charleston named Harvey Gantt enrolled at Clemson College, making him the first African American accepted to a white school in South Carolina. The absence of drama or violence surrounding Gantt's enrollment - the result of nearly two years of detailed preparation and planning on the part of college administrators, state politicians and business leaders - made headlines at the time, but soon it faded from the public consciousness. Narrated by Tony-winning actor Phylicia Rashad, THE EDUCATION OF HARVEY GANTT tells this pivotal, yet largely forgotten, story of desegregation. Interviews with Gantt, distinguished scholars and civil rights veterans, and archival footage and reenactment illuminate the events leading up to Gantt's enrollment, the unfolding of entrance day and the impact of Clemson's integration on the state and the nation.
Grooming A Generation
Thursday, June 18 at 4:30 PM
A reading program run by a small group of African-American barbers near Detroit in Ypsilanti, Michigan encourages their young customers to read to them during a haircut. For their efforts the boys get a two dollar refund, and the barbers get the satisfaction of improving their clients' reading skills.
Grades 3-12
Mendez vs. Westminster: Desegregating California's Schools
In 1946, eight years before the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Mexican Americans in Orange County, California won a class action lawsuit to dismantle the segregated school system that existed there. In this video segment, Sylvia Mendez recalls the conditions that triggered the lawsuit and her parents' involvement in the case.
Grades 5-12
Alexander Clark and the First Successful Desegregation Case in the U.S.
In 1867, an African-American businessman named Alexander Clark filed a lawsuit against the Muscatine, Iowa, school district for denying his daughter admission to a public school because she was black. Clark won his lawsuit but it was appealed by the school board and went to the Iowa Supreme Court. Again he prevailed and in the fall of 1868 his daughter attended the local school. In this clip from the Lost in History: Alexander Clark documentary, historians explain the importance of this first successful school desegregation case in the history of the United States.
Juneteenth Jamboree- 2019
Friday, June 19 at 4 Pm
Our show illuminates the significance of the Juneteenth holiday and shares stories about black culture and history. Join us for a look back at some of our highlights from past episodes.
Grades K-3
Learn about Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery. Try this interactive Juneteenth Word Search.
Masters of Rhythm: The Afro-Peruvian Way
Friday, June 19 at 4:30 PM
We took three of the world's finest percussionists - Afro-Peruvian masters Lalo Izquierdo, Cotito and Huevito - and put them together to jam and shoot the breeze. The result is magic. Shot in Peru, supplemented by shots of community celebrations and a short narrative,this half-hour documentary will acquaint you with an aspect of the African diaspora you'd never even dreamed existed.
Grades 4-12
MN Original: Performer Timotha Lanae
Learn how music has been a part of Timotha Lanae’s life for as long as she can remember. She wrote her first song at 7 years old and stepped into her first stage role during high school. Since then, Lanae has appeared in theatrical productions both locally and internationally, and released a solo album that hit number one on the 2013 U.K. Soul Chart. She is currently working on her original musical, REDdington. Despite her overseas success, Lanae calls Minnesota home and continues to find creative inspiration in her home state.
Grades 9-12
Beyoncé, Santana, and Rhythm as a Representation of People and Place
Students can explore the beat of popular music and what it means to call music Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, or more broadly, African-American. Students will use Soundbreaking clips of Santana and Beyoncé and the Soundbreaking Rhythmic Layers TechTools to locate in American popular music influences stemming from the African-American church, Latin America and West Africa. Students will also explore the ways the beat of this music has, to some, been perceived as “dangerous” while, for others, it may have challenged racism and segregation, bringing people from varied ethnic groups and lifestyles together in ways that words and laws could not.
Life From Above: Colorful Planet
Monday, June 22 at 4 PM
View Earth's kaleidoscope of colors as seen from space. Swirls of turquoise phytoplankton trigger an oceanic feeding frenzy, China turns yellow as millions of flowers bloom, and at night the waters near Argentina are spotted with green lights.
Grades K-12
Jim Denevan: Visual Arts (Earth Works)
Jim Denevan makes land art, temporary sculptures on the sandy beaches. Using only a stick and a rake, the drawings exist for a few hours before they are erased by the incoming tides. One has to view the drawings from 150 feet up or more in order to see them in their entirety. In this Spark video produced by KQED, Denevan composes two sand works and talks about his meditations and his process.
Grades 4-8
Astronaut Talks About the Role of Photography in Science
Did you know that some of the coolest photos of Earth from space were not actually taken by satellites? Many were taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). In fact, part of the astronaut training program focuses on how to take photos in space. Join NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and the STEM in 30 team to learn more about snapping photos from space and how photography is developed.
Nile Rivers of Life: The Nile
Tuesday, June 23 at 4 PM
The Nile is the world's longest river. From elephants and leopards to extreme kayakers and ancient wonders, its great length provides a lifeline for Africa's wildest beasts and for some of the world's most incredible cultures.
Grades 2-3
Students join Buster Baxter, a character from the ARTHUR television show, on a trip to Egypt, in this interactive geography lesson. Students learn about Cairo, ancient Egypt, the pyramids, the Nile River, and relevant vocabulary terms as they travel with Buster and meet new friends. Afterward, students write about what they’ve learned in the form of a postcard to one of the Egyptian children they encountered in the videos.
Grades 3-12
How the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids Were Built
Explore how and why the pyramids were built in ancient Egypt and analyze the architectural breakthroughs necessary to build ever-larger pyramids and the religious purpose for building them in these two video segments from NOVA: This Old Pyramid. Pyramids were more than monuments for the people who built them; they were doorways to the afterlife for the pharaoh.
Grades 6-12
Wonders of the African World: Black Kingdoms of the Nile: Nubian Wedding
In his travel diary, Professor Gates shares personal feelings and observations of his journeys through Africa. Gates attends a Nubian wedding and observes the traditions involved in the ceremony.
NOVA: Bigger Than T-Rex
Wednesday, June 24 at 4 PM
Almost a century ago, paleontologists found the first tantalizing hints of a monster even bigger than Tyrannosaurus Rex, perhaps the largest predator ever to walk the Earth: spectacular fossil bones from a dinosaur dubbed Spinosaurus. But the fossils were completely destroyed during a World War II Allied bombing raid, leaving only drawings, lots of questions, and a mystery: What was Spinosaurus?
Now,the discovery of new bones in a Moroccan cliff face is reopening the investigation into this epic beast. What did it feed on and how? Why did it grow so big? We follow the paleontologists who are reconstructing this terrifying carnivore piece by piece, revealing a 53-foot-long behemoth with a huge dorsal sail, enormous, scimitar-like claws, and massive superjaws, tapered toward the front like a crocodile, hosting an army of teeth. It is a painstaking puzzle, and it is missing many of its pieces.
NOVA follows researchers on the hunt for more fossils, tracing ancient history along with the very modern drama of how the bones of the Spinosaurus were discovered, seized, bombed, stolen and smuggled across international borders. Bringing together experts in paleontology, geology, climatology and paleobotany, this NOVA/National Geographic special brings to life the lost world over which Spinosaurus reigned more than 65 million years ago.
Grades K-8
Dinosaurs captivate the imagination of children and adults alike. The more we learn about them — their appearance, their habits, their habitats, and suspected reasons for their demise — the more fascinating they become. But how do we know they really existed? And how do we know so precisely when they lived? The fossilized dinosaur bones and tracks depicted in this still collage produced for Teachers' Domain offer physical evidence — the foundation on which all of scientific theory is built — of the dinosaurs' existence.
Grades 6-12
Learn how scientists used a digital model to reconstruct Spinosaurus in this video from NOVA: Bigger Than T. rex. The first Spinosaurus fossils were found in Egypt in 1912 and described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1915. However, those fossils were destroyed overnight in 1944 during a World War II bombing. To preserve images of a newer Spinosaurus skeleton, researchers at the University of Chicago used a CT scanner. They then used Stromer’s Spinosaurus drawings and scans from Suchomimus (a close relative) and bones from other specimens to form a more complete model. The complete digital model revealed Spinosaurus to be about 50 feet long.
Grades 9-12
The Weird, Watery Tale of Spinosaurus: Eons
In 1912, a fossil collector discovered some strange bone fragments in the eerie, beautiful Cretaceous Bahariya rock formation of Egypt. Eventually, that handful of fossil fragments would reveal to scientists one of the strangest dinosaurs that ever existed — the world’s only known semi-aquatic dinosaur.
History Detectives Episode 1008
Thursday, June 25 at 4 PM
The History Detectives investigate four stories from the American West. Did a biography of legendary frontiersman Kit Carson once belong to members of his family? Then, from the rodeo to Hollywood, a saddle tells the story of Yakima Canutt, who made life safer for movie stunt artists. What is the meaning behind the mysterious inscription on sheet music of the popular western song "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"? Finally, did a pivotal character in the Modoc Indian wars weave this basket?
Grades 3-5
Profiles of the American West: Sacagawea
With her baby boy on her back, Sacagawea aided Lewis and Clark through the rough terrain of what is now the northwest US.
Grades 5-12
C.M. Russell and The American West
C.M. Russell and the American West explores the life of Charlie Russell including his art, writings, and legacy. Videos are accompanied by lessons and projects that teachers can use to help educate students about C.M. Russell's life, work, and legacy.
Great American Read: Who Am I?
Friday, June 26 at 4 Pm
Explore the ways that America's best-loved novels answer the age-old question, "Who am I?" From life lessons to spiritual journeys, these books help us understand our own identities and find our place in the world.
Grades PreK-4
Help your children create self-portraits and autobiographies, in this activity from Arthur.
Grades 7-12
Nine Stories Made by and About Young People Making a Difference
Discover how young people are giving back to their communities with a video showcasing one student's work, produced through the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs program.