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PROGRAM LIST

Media Menu, February 6, 2010

Here are home viewing suggestions for the week, selected from online advanced TV program listings and aligned with the state and national K-12 academic standards available online. Please consult local listings also, since actual broadcast times may vary. The Websites cited in the “Log on“ box below the tv listing contains further details about the show and may contain links to video clips from the show or a complete streaming video version of the show.

Saturday, February 6, 2010, 8-10 p.m. E/PSunday January 31 9P Sunday January 31 8P	HBO	Science and Technology	Middle and High School
“ Temple Grandin ”Next PrimeTime Airing
Based on “Thinking In Pictures: My Life With Autism” by Dr. Temple Grandin and starring Golden Globe winner Claire Danes in the title role, this biographical film chronicles Grandin’s early diagnosis; her turbulent growth and development during her school years; the enduring support she received from her mother, her aunt and her science teacher; and her emergence as a woman with an innate sensitivity and understanding of animal behavior. Undaunted by educational, social and professional roadblocks, Grandin turned her unique talent into a behavioral tool that revolutionized the cattle industry and laid the groundwork for her successful career as an author, lecturer and pioneering advocate for autism and autism spectrum disorder education.
Log on http://www.hbo.com/movies/temple-grandin/index.html and http://www.templegrandin.com

Saturday, February 6, 2010, 10-11 p.m. E/P	Planet Green	Science and Economics	Middle and High School
“What’s On Your Plate?”Next PrimeTime Airing
This is a documentary about kids and food politics. Filmed over the course of one year, it follows two eleven-year-old multi-racial city kids as they explore their place in the food chain. Sadie and Safiyah take a close look at food systems in New York City and its surrounding areas. With the camera as their companion, the girl guides talk to each other, as well as to food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, in their quest to understand what’s on all of our plates. The girls address questions regarding the origin of the food they eat, how it’s cultivated, how many miles it travels from the harvest to their plate, how it’s prepared, who prepares it, and what is done afterwards with the packaging and leftovers. They visit the usual supermarkets, fast food chains, and school lunchrooms, but they also check into innovative sustainable food system practices by going to farms, greenmarkets, and community supported agriculture programs. They discover that these programs help struggling farmers to survive and additionally provide affordable, locally-grown food to communities, especially to lower-income urban families. TV-G
Log on http://www.whatsonyourplateproject.org

Sunday, February 7, 2010, 4:30-5 p.m. ET, 1:30-2 p.m. PT	CBS	U.S. History	Elementary, Middle and High School
“Presidential Interview”Next PrimeTime Airing
This is the President's first broadcast interview since his State of the Union Address. It will air during Sunday's Super Bowl Pre-Game Show. CBS EVENING NEWS Anchor and Managing Editor Katie Couric will talk with President Barack Obama in a live interview containing questions solicited from CBS affiliate viewers across the country.

Sunday, February 7, 2010, 10-11:30 p.m. E/P	PBS	U.S. History and Arts	High School
“GREAT PERFORMANCES: Harlem in Montmartre ” Next PrimeTime AiringNext PrimeTime Airing
Airing during the observance of Black History Month, this is a documentary about of the African-American expatriate community in Paris between the First and Second World Wars. American jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway once said, “You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmy Luncefords, the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.” Far from ordinary, this documentary tells the story of the long-forgotten “extraordinary ones,” who left America to create the jazz age in Paris between the First and Second World Wars. After peace was signed at Versailles , many black Americans remained in Europe rather than return to the brutal segregation and racism of America . Over the next two decades, they formed an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs, primarily congregating in Paris ’ hilly Montmartre neighborhood. Some achieved enduring fame, while others faded into history.
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/the-story-of-louis-mitchell/917

Monday, February, 8, 2010, 10-11 p.m. E/P	Planet Green	World History and Economics	Elementary, Middle, and High School
“BLOOD, SWEAT & T-SHIRTS: The Backstreet Workshop”
In this documentary a group of hip fashion victims - with closets full of cheap, chic brands – get a lesson on the true cost of their fashion habits after they head to India to work on a production line churning out hundreds of items of clothing per day. They will learn the hard way the price of their habit from the workers who toil daily to produce the outfits they wear. They travel to West Delhi to live and work alongside the migrant tailors of a backstreet workshop. It’s a real departure from the slick production lines they expected– as they come face to face with a world where the workers can spend up to 15 hours a day at their sewing machines.
Log on http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/blood-sweat-tshirts/show-info.html

Monday, February, 8, 2010, 10-11:30 p.m. E/P	PBS	U.S. History and Technology	Elementary, Middle, and High School
“BLUEPRINT AMERICA : Beyond the Motor City ”
The latest installment in the BLUEPRINT AMERICA documentary miniseries takes viewers on a cinematic journey in search of America ’s transportation future. With Detroit , Michigan , as home base, the film hop-scotches across the globe in an effort to look at what’s possible.
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica

Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 10-11 p.m. E/P	Animal Planet Channel	Science and Geography	Middle, and High School
“WILD RECON: Costa Rica ”
In this documentary host Donald Schultz travels to ground zero for biodiversity – the rainforests of Costa Rica . His mission: find and extract toxin, blood and venom samples that may hold keys to human pharmaceutical breakthroughs from a range of animals, including poison dart frogs, a three-toed sloth and a newly discovered species of sea snake.
Log on http://animal.discovery.com/tv/wild-recon/about.html

Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 8-9 p.m. E/P	PBS	U.S. and World History	Middle, and High School
“FACES OF AMERICA WITH HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: “The Promise of America ” PrimeTime AiringNext PrimeTime Airing
This is the initial episode of a 4-part documentary miniseries. Using DNA testing and genealogical research, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. offers investigations of the family stories and ancestry of a group of renowned Americans. Episode one explores the dynamic and shifting relationship America had with her new immigrants in the 20^th century. World wars tore apart families and sundered the fabric of many lives, but America beckoned and millions came. America was an ambivalent host, however. At its best, it was a place of refuge and salvation, as it was for film director Mike Nichols, whose entire family escaped Nazi Germany. At its worst, it was a country that would imprison two generations of Japanese Americans, including the forebears of Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi. Viewers will discover the buoyant American optimism that shaped chance — as in a single encounter that changed cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s life forever — to pave the road to success. TV-PG
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica

Thursday, February 11, 2010, 9-10 p.m. E/P	Discovery Channel	Science and World History	Middle, and High School
“ Haiti 's Killer Quake: Why It Happened ”Next PrimeTime AiringNext PrimeTime Airing
Discovery Channel documentary makers travel to Haiti to take a close-up look at the science behind the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit the island January 12, 2010. Find out when and where the next "big one" might strike. Rated TV-14
Log on http://www.pbs.org/parents/supersisters/archives/2010/01/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about.html

Friday, February 12, 2010, 7-8 p.m. E/P	History Channel	Science and Technology	Middle and High School
“Modern Marvels: Coin Operated”
Americans insert over 3.5 million coins into vending machines every 15 minutes every day. This documentary takes viewers to a sprawling factory that mass produces the latest in high-tech vending machines, and a small company that makes a giant gumball machine that holds 40,000 gumballs. Then, there's the dreaded parking meter, including new ones that can take credit cards and text message for help when they are being robbed or vandalized. We'll visit America 's last pinball factory, and see what strange coin operated fare kept people amused 100 years ago. Is coin counting Coinstar the ultimate coin operated machine? We'll follow their coins all the way to a Brinks warehouse. Our last stop is Marvin's Marvelous Mechanized Museum , housing some of the weirdest coin-op machines ever invented. Rating TV-PG

Friday, February 12, 2010, beginning 7:30 p.m. E/P	NBC	Science and Health	Elementary, Middle and High School
“Opening Ceremony: The 21st Olympic Winter Games”Next PrimeTime AiringNext PrimeTime Airing
This is a broadcast of the opening ceremony of the 21st Olympic Winter Games from Vancouver , Canada . Coverage begins at 7:30p ET/PT Special Note: A free video series (see below) from NBC and the National Science Foundation uses the Winter Olympics and athletes to explain scientific principles and could be used as a resource for teachers interested in incorporating the games in Vancouver, Canada – available from Feb. 12 to 28 -- into their lessons. The videos include a look at how angular momentum allows figure skaters to perform, the role of Newton 's Three Laws of Motion in speed skating and other principles.
For event listings on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC and USA networks http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv-listings/index.html The NBC-LEARN site is http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn

Saturday, February 13, 2010, 2:15-5:45 p.m. ET, 11-15 a.m.-3:45 p.m. PT	TCM-Turner Classic Movies	Literature and World History	High School
“War And Peace”
This is the 1956 movie version of a Leo Tolstoy novel often included in lists of the ten best novels in the world. It’s about a young Russian girl who fights to save her family during Napoleon's invasion of her homeland. Rating TV-PG .Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda. Director: King Vidor. Available in video. (Note: An Oscar-nominated (2010) movie about Tolstoy’s life, “The Last Station”, is playing currently in movie theatres.)
For a summary of the plot of this 1956 movie log on http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=95063. For information about the novel, including its full text log on http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/war_and_peace