Monthly Archives: March 2019

50 posts

War Zone/Comfort Zone

Offair Listings

Women account for roughly 14 percent of the active-duty U.S. military and more than 24 percent of the National Guard, yet they often receive less than a hero’s welcome upon their return to civilian life. Many face poverty, homelessness and joblessness; deal with the psychological and physiological effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from military sexual trauma and combat related injuries; and often receive poor service from a Veterans Administration ill-equipped and, in some cases, unwilling to help them. The Emmy -nominated documentary WAR ZONE/COMFORT ZONE uncovers the plight of these veterans through the intense and personal stories of four women veterans coping with life after their military service. Each seeks a sense of normalcy and peace without the benefit of a comprehensive support system. WAR ZONE/COMFORT ZONE weaves together intimate interviews with the story of two women – Shalini Madaras and Joy Kiss – struggling to establish transitional housing for homeless female veterans in Bridgeport, Connecticut, despite virulent community opposition.

Airs 3/25 at 7 p.m.; 3/26 at midnight; 3/26 at 8 a.m.; 3/26 at 2 p.m.; 3/31 at 4 a.m.

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Women: War & Peace – (4/60 minute programs)

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A series on the changing roles of women in war and peace. The vast majority of today’s conflicts are not fought by nation states and their armies, but rather by informal entities: gangs, insurgent groups and warlords using unconventional weapons. The series reveals how post-Cold War proliferation of small arms has changed the landscape of war, with women becoming primary targets and suffering unprecedented casualties. Yet they are simultaneously emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict. WOMEN, WAR& PEACE spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan, and Colombia to Liberia, placing women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security and reframing our understanding of modern warfare.” Actors Matt Damon, Geena Davis, Tilda Swinton and Alfre Woodard narrate.

#201 – Wave Goodbye to Dinosaurs – When Claire confronts her husband, Malcolm Webster, over his wild spending, he tries to control her with sedatives. Afraid he’ll soon be caught; he silences her forever. Three years on, he has a new bride…and history appears to be repeating itself. Airs 3/25 at 9 p.m.
#202 – The Trials of Spring – Follow 3 Egyptian women as they put their lives and bodies on the line fighting for justice and freedom. The film tells the story of Egypt’s Arab Spring, the human rights abuses that came to define it and the women willing to risk everything. Airs 3/25 at 10 p.m.
#203 – Naila and the Uprising – Discover the story of a courageous, nonviolent women’s movement that formed the heart of the Palestinian struggle for freedom during the 1987 uprising. One woman must make a choice between love, family and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three. Airs 3/26 at 9 p.m.
#204 – A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers – Embark on a risky yearlong U.N. peacekeeping mission into earthquake-ravaged Haiti with an all-female Bangladeshi police unit. Leaving their families behind, these police officers shatter stereotypes as they rise in the name of building peace.

Airs 3/26 at 10 p.m.

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Hard Problems: The Road to the World’s Toughest Math

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HARD PROBLEMS follows the six exceptional high school students who represented the United States in 2006 at the world’s toughest math competition – the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). Each year, the grueling and exhilarating contest pits the top teams from 90 countries against one another. In their quest to solve some of the most challenging problems, these dedicated and talented young men and women – some immigrants, others U.S.-born – shatter many stereotypes and cliches about the mathematically gifted. HARD PROBLEMS provides an insightful and thoughtful look at the process that produces and nurtures successful Olympiad teams, and ultimately, the great mathematicians of the future.

Airs 3/25 at 2 a.m.

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PBS STEAM Education Webinar Series

BlogPosts Professional Development

PBS is offering a series of three webinars designed to inspire young scientists through STEAM education. PBS will provide a certificate of attendance for each one-hour virtual learning event.

Part One | Helping Students Interpret Data

March 19 @ 7PM ET

Data, data, data. Data is everywhere! How do we teach students to interpret data? To care about data? About all the cool things that can be done because of data? Look no further. Join us in this LIVE conversation with NASA experts to explore how they brought visualizations of the Earth to the palm of your hands all using, you guessed it, DATA!

Part Two | Teaching Computational Thinking

March 26 @ 7PM ET

Join in on a live conversation with Josh Caldwell from Code.Org! Josh, a former classroom teacher, is the author of “Creative Coding” and the curriculum lead at Code.Org. This one-hour live learning event will dive into the ways in which you can help students think about computational thinking in artful, creative, digestible and fun ways!

Part Three | Exploring Models Inspired by Nature

April 2 @ 7PM ET

There are so many innovations and models we use in our day-to-day life that are inspired by nature. How do you incorporate these concepts into your classroom? And how do you get students excited to learn more about it? In this last of our three-part “Inspiring Young Scientists” series, world renowned anatomist, Dr. Joy Reidenberg, and Megan Schuknecht, from the Biomimicry Institute, will join us to present ideas about the science within nature!

Free To Rock

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Ten years in the making, FREE TO ROCK explores how American rock and roll contributed to the end of the Cold War. In the eyes of the Soviet Ministry of Culture, western rock music combined the twin evils of spreading the English language and encouraging illicit free enterprise. It was prohibited by the Soviet and Eastern Block authorities and deemed as propaganda. However, the “soft power” of American rock music was pumped into Eastern Europe and the USSR by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. This forbidden music inspired thousands of underground rock bands and tens of millions of their passionate supporters. Their enthusiasm for rock and roll became a youth movement that openly defied the Communist government. Narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, the film features interviews with former President Jimmy Carter; Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the USSR; musicians Billy Joel and Mike Love; Robert Santelli, Executive Director of the Grammy Museum; Oleg Kalugin, a former major general in the Soviet KGB; Soviet rock artists Stas Namin, Pete Anderson and Andrey Makarevich; and other scholars and experts.

Airs 3/22 at 3 a.m.

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A Harpist’s Legacy: Ann Hobson Pilot and the Sound of Change

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A Harpist’s Legacy: Ann Hobson Pilot and the Sound of Change profiles the inspirational life and distinguished career of the revered harpist. This compelling documentary follows Ann Hobson Pilot’s trailblazing journey as the first black female principal player in a major symphony orchestra and also as an international soloist, teacher, mentor and driving force behind music-education programs for underserved minorities. A HARPIST’S LEGACY uses her professional journey to explore the increasing racial diversity and shift in attitudes toward musicians of color in the classical music world.

Airs 3/22 at10:30 p.m.

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Reading Fiction Makes You a Better Person

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Ok, ok. It makes you a slightly better person. A study done by Rochester’s own David Dodell-Feder (a University of Rochester psychologist), that shows that reading fiction slightly boosts your emotional intelligence. Here are a few articles that came out recently about this study:

New Study: Reading Fiction Really Will Make You Nicer and More Empathetic

Want More Emotional Intelligence in 2019? Do More of This 1 Thing, According to 2 Clinical Psychologists

And you can request the original article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology General here: Fiction Reading Has a Small Positive Impact on Social Cognition: A Meta-Analysis

So, keep on doing the good work you’re doing getting kids to read more!

Hawking

Offair Listings

This is the intimate and revealing story of Stephen Hawking’s life. Told for the first time in Hawking’s own words and with unique access to his home and public life, this is a personal journey through Hawking’s world. The audience joins him at home, under the care of his nursing team; in San Jose as he “wows” a packed theatre audience; in Silicon Valley as he meets a team of technicians who hope to speed up his communication system; and as he throws a party for family and friends. HAWKING also carefully tells Hawking’s life journey, from boyhood under-achiever to PhD genius, and from a healthy cox on the Oxford rowing team to diagnosis of motor neuron disease, given just two years to live yet surviving several close brushes with death. The film also highlights his greatest scientific discoveries and plots his rise to fame and superstardom.

Airs 3/21 at 8 p.m., 3/22 at 1 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

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#FundLibraries

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ALA’s American Libraries journal reported that the White House released its Fiscal Year 2020 federal budget proposal on March 11, and again it aims to eliminate funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). In response, ALA is kicking off its #FundLibraries campaign.

Read the full article by Kathi Kromer here and see what you can do to take part in this important campaign.

Then go directly to the ALA Fund Libraries Campaign web page.

Digital Collections Accessible to Students

BlogPosts Featured Resources

There are a number of digital archives around the world that are free and open to the public and therefore, available to students. This past November, the British Library digitized 800 medieval manuscripts. These are accessible at the British Library.

The Library of Congress has thousands of items that have been digitized and made available online to the public. It houses anything from Presidential letters to to Civil War Maps to notated sheet music, famous and not so famous photographs, newspapers, and legislation.

The World Digital Library is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world.

The WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures including, Chinese rare books, Mozart’s original manuscript score of the Magic Flute, works by Galileo Galilei, primary documents from US history, and more!

The Library and Archives of Canada has archives and digital collections which include governmental records, immigration records, photographs and a collection on indigenous heritage.

The National Library of Australia has a few digital collections accessible from its home page. This includes Trove, a group of collections from hundreds of Australian cultural organizations.

The National Archives of Australia also has a number of digital collections available to view.

Trinity College in Dublin has also made the Book of Kells (a 9th-century gospel manuscript famous throughout the world) accessible in a digital format.