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September Educator Resources

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by
Ian Cruz
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KLRN Education

Dear Educators, 

This month, KLRN is excited to offer programming related to Science, History, the Arts, and more! Below, you'll find programs, air dates, and lesson plan ideas for your classroom. 

On September 19 at 7PM, join us for the special four-part documentary series "Muhammad Ali" from acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns. Explore the life, struggles, and success of one of history's most iconic boxers. 

KLRN is here for you. Please reach out anytime with questions or concerns at education@klrn.org. 

Yours in appreciation, 

KLRN Education Team
 

To Catch a Comet 
Airs Wednesday, September 1 at 12pm on 9.2

Video: Re-Creating the Comet | To Catch a Comet (Grades 6-12) At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Claudia Alexander, NASA's Rosetta Project Scientist, demonstrates how comets behave as they get closer within their orbits to the Sun. The Sun increases the temperature of a comet, resulting in ice sublimation. Sublimation occurs when a solid heats up and bypasses the liquid phase and becomes a gas. As the ices sublimate, they spew out gasses and dust into space. On a comet, this process accounts for the coma or halo which we observe as it barrels towards the Sun and becomes active.

 

 

Foundation: The Black Church 
Airs Thursday, September 2 at 7:30pm on 9.1

Video: Women in Church Leadership | The Black Church (Grades 9-12) Black women were an essential and vital part of the Black church. In the late 19th century, women represented around 80 - 90% of the congregation, and yet, church leadership was 80 - 90% male. Black women begin to reflect on their role and leadership opportunities in the Black church. At this time, women are starting to make the argument that, according to the Bible, women have the right to preach, as well as participate in separate missionary organizations and raise funding for their church.

The Black Church: Education Guide (Grades 6-12) This guide serves as an educational overview of the PBS series The Black Church, and includes lesson plan excerpts, associated discussion questions, historical background information, and resources on anti-bias curriculum. This is aimed at instructors at the middle and high school levels. The lessons explore key historical events from the series focusing on history, culture, civil rights, gender, race and leadership and are designed to support both in-person classroom and virtual learning.

 

Cyberchase: Composting in the Clutch 
Airs Tuesday, September 7 at 4pm on 9.1

Video: Cyberchase | Trash Dash Game (Grades K-5) and Trash Dash Activity (Grades K-5) Teams compete to score as many points as possible by sorting objects into bins for reuse, recycling, compost, or landfill and completing obstacles along the way.

 

 

Rick Steves: The Best of the Alps 
Airs Thursday, September 9 at 7pm on 9.1

  • Video: The Alpine Ibex and Climate Change | The Alps: The High Life (Grades 3-12) High in the European Alps lives an animal well-adapted to life in the rugged mountainous terrain, the Alpine ibex. Learn about this unique animal and the effects of climate change on its mountain habitat in this video from NATURE’s The Alps: The High Life. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, and teaching tips.
  • The Marmot's Winter Den | The Alps: Winter's Fortress (Grades 3-12) Marmots are rodents who spend more than half of their lives hibernating! Learn how marmots prepare their winter den in this video from NATURE's The Alps: Winter's Fortress. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, and an insulation design challenge for students.
  • Annie Smith Peck | Unladylike2020 (Grades 6-12) Learn about Annie Smith Peck, one of the first women in America to become a college professor and who took up mountain climbing in her forties, in this video from Unladylike2020. Peck gained international fame in 1895 when she first climbed the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps -- not for her daring ascent, but because she undertook the climb wearing pants rather than a cumbersome skirt. Fifteen years later, at age 58, Peck was the first mountaineer ever to conquer Mount Huascarán in Peru, one of the highest peaks in the Western Hemisphere. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, and teaching tips for extending learning through research projects.

 

Breakthrough: Ideas that Changed the World: The Telescope 
Airs Wednesday, September 15 at 1pm on 9.2

  • Video: Galileo's Telescope (Grades 6-12) Contrary to what many people think, Galileo did not invent the telescope. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, the Italian physicist and mathematician improves on an existing spyglass design to create a more powerful one—a refracting telescope that he then used to study the night sky.
  • Galileo: Discovering Jupiter's Moons (Grades 3-12) The telescope forever changed astronomy by providing more detailed views of distant objects than was previously possible. Galileo pioneered astronomy as the first person to study celestial objects through a telescope. His observations, including the discovery of moons around Jupiter, helped revolutionize the way people think about the universe. This video segment adapted from NOVA describes some of Galileo's first discoveries with the telescope.
  • The Beginnings of the Telescope (Grades 6-12) This animated essay from NOVA details the design and workings of Galileo's refracting telescope and Newton's reflecting telescope. Newton recognized several shortcomings of the refracting telescope's design and used mirrors in place of lenses to overcome them.

 

Salud! Celebrating San Antonio’s Latina Leaders 
Airs Thursday, September 16 at 7:30pm on 9.1

 

 

Muhammad Ali: Four-Part Documentary Series 
PREMIERES Sunday, September 19 - Wednesday, September 22 at 7pm on 9.1

Sensitive: This program contains material that may be sensitive for some viewers. Please exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for all viewers.


 

Truly Texas Mexican 
Airs Monday, September 20 at 9pm on 9.1

  • Video: 19th Century Mexican-American Relations (Grades 6-12) In 1821, Mexico invited the United States to help settle Texas, an invitation that led to the Battle of the Alamo and ultimately set the stage for 80 more years of bloody conflict. In 1846, escalating tensions led to the two-year Mexican-American war, after which Mexico lost half of its territory and the U.S. gained one-third of what is now theirs. When the U.S. didn’t honor its treaty with Mexico, rancher Juan Cortina, dubbed the Robin Hood of the Rio Grande, led a revolt, though it was ultimately unsuccessful. When American expansion spread to longstanding Mexican-American cities in California, Americans of Mexican heritage turned inward to preserve their culture.
  • Figures of the Mexican-American Conflict (Grades 6-12) Related printable activity

 

 

Earth Focus: Climate Migration 
Airs Wednesday, September 22 at 12:30pm on 9.2

  • Video: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation | Climate Wisconsin (Grades 6-12) In this video from PBS Wisconsin Education, learn about actions humans can take to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. Use the resource to stimulate thinking and questions about climate change and to provide opportunities for students to design solutions and communicate information.
  • What Is Climate? (Grades 3-5) Learn about the basic relationship between weather and climate. The video contrasts the climates of Utah and Thailand in order to help students understand how factors that constitute weather, such as temperature, humidity, and precipitation, also make up climate over a long period of time. Support materials include: Background Reading, Teaching Tips, and Discussion Questions. This resource was developed through WGBH’s Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms project, in collaboration with NASA.


 

In Their Own Words: Jimmy Carter 
Airs Tuesday, September 28 at 7pm on 9.1

 

Cyberchase: Going Solar 
Airs Wednesday, September 29 at 4pm on 9.1

  • Video: Cyberchase | Power Up Game (Grades 3-5) and Card Activity (Grades 3-5) Learn more about this card game where players explore how to power up different locations using solar panels.
  • Cyberchase: Cooking with the Sun (Grades 3-5) and Cooking with the Sun Activity (Grades 3-5) After watching a Cyberchase video, answering discussion questions and completing an activity, students will learn how to collect energy from the sun, convert it to electricity, and store it for use at night or on cloudy days.
  • Solar Power (Grades 6-12) In this video from NOVA's Energy Lab, learn about the benefits and limitations of converting the Sun's light and heat into electricity. Animations show how two solar power technologies—photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar power systems—convert the Sun's energy into electrical energy. Solar power technologies are environmentally friendly, but there are technological challenges that limit their widespread use. For example, solar power technologies are not very efficient, they are relatively expensive, and we do not yet have a good way to store solar energy. This video is available in both English and Spanish audio, along with corresponding closed captions.