Offair Listings

Rob Stephenson and inquisitive kids take a hands-on approach to scientific exploration. airs Fridays 1-2 a.m. beginning 11/15

• #301 – Wheels and Axels – Difficult doorknobs, funnel races, water wheels and pinwheel power! Explore how a round wheel works together with an axle so that they rotate together. STEM Challenge: Making a rubber band powered wheel and axle. Curious About Careers: Scientist Tonya Matthews gives an interactive tour at Michigan Science Center in Detroit.
• #302 – Resonance – Resonant rods, rings and pipes and powerful pendulums! Explore how every object has the potential to vibrate, and those vibrations occur in different wave patterns. Resonance is adding an additional force with a matching frequency the wave. STEM Challenge: Making a membranophone. Curious About Careers: Nuclear physicist Artemis Spyrou explains how an atom-smashing cyclotron works.
• #303 – Momentum – Racing cans, pencil spinners, bowling ball bangers! Explore how whenever something is moving, it has momentum, and the faster it’s moving, the more momentum it has. STEM Challenge: Designing a better bobsled. Curious About Careers: Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha describes what it takes to care for children’s health.
• #304 – Football Science – Football bounce and flight, sticky fingers and more! Explore how a football’s shape makes it more difficult to predict how it will bounce, while that shape helps its gyroscopic motion when thrown or kicked. STEM Challenge: Designing a water balloon helmet. Curious About Careers: Biomechanical engineer Tamara Reid Bush explains the movement of the human body.
• #305 – Buoyancy – Sinking stones, aluminum boats, Cartesian diver, scuba action figures, hot air balloons and more! Explore buoyancy, which is an object’s ability to float. STEM Challenge: Making a hovering balloon. Curious About Careers: Microbiologist Joan Rose discusses the workings of a water research lab.
• #306 – Skeletal System – Broken bones, tendon tricks, acidic exoskeletons and more! Explore the human skeletal system including bones, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and joints; and how it stores calcium and phosphorous and produces blood cells. STEM Challenge: Making a no-hands crutch. Curious About Careers: Orthopedic surgeon and baseball team physician Julie Dodds on her career in sports medicine.
• #307 – Rockets – Multi-staging balloons, water bottles, air rockets and more! Explore how rockets can lift off the ground through an imbalance of forces. STEM Challenge: Designing a water bottle rocket. Curious About Careers: Astrophysicist Shannon Schmoll at Abrams Planetarium and technology manager Mary Palkovich.
• #308 – Candy Chemistry – Buoyant candy, marshmallow melee and more! Candy and science? It’s funny to think that candy is related to science, but it’s true! STEM Challenge: Making sugar stained glass. Curious About Careers: Audiologist Brooke Tudor explains how to properly test and care for our hearing.
• #309 – Inertia – Spinning eggs and more! Explore how an object that is still or at rest will stay at rest, while an object in motion will keep moving unless another force acts on it. STEM Challenge: Making ‘eggciting’ safety restraints. Curious About Careers: Technology coordinator Michelle Massey and pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha.
• #310 – Electric Batteries – Human batteries, electric lemon, potato possibilities and more! The Curious Crew learns that batteries are used to change chemical energy into electrical energy. STEM Challenge: Designing a better battery. Curious About Careers: Scientist Tonya Matthews and Nuclear physicist Artemis Spyrou.

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In 2012, a thousand once-forgotten burials were excavated under a parking lot at a San Jose hospital. Now anthropologists at California State University, Chico study how the skeletons could offer insight into navigating a future of antibiotic resistance.airs 11/21 at 4-4:30 a.m.

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SEA CHANGE uses the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia to exemplify the challenges of Climate Change, sea level rise, rising salinities, weather extremes and other changes that includes local, state, regional and national implications. The effects of Climate Change are far ranging including property and land loss, human health impacts and significant economic and sea life impacts. The impacts examined in this program are not unique to Georgia and South Carolina but reflect the far reaching implications of Climate Change on the entire Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts.  airs 11/19 at 3-4 a.m.

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Inventing America brings our Founding Fathers back to life in a TV talk show before a live audience. In Episode 3, “Liberty for All,” James Madison (John Douglas Hall), Thomas Jefferson (Bill Barker), Alexander Hamilton (Hal Bidlack) and Patrick Henry (Richard Schumann) reveal the conflicts and infighting behind the new U.S. Constitution and how that led to the Bill of Rights. The program features a Q&A with college students in which the Founders apply the Bill of Rights to our own time. It concludes with Henry’s famous “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech that inspired the idea of America in the first place.  airs 11/13 at 2-3 a.m.

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WALDEN – THE BALLAD OF THOREAU is a combination documentary and theatrical play about the final two days Henry David Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond. The documentary, which bookends the play, is a look at the life of Henry David Thoreau and filmed at Walden Pond at the actual cabin site in the woods. The two-act, four-character play dramatizes conversations between Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson as Thoreau was packing up to leave Walden Pond. The play, which has already been performed in over 7,100 schools and colleges, also explores the roles we play in the protection of the earth, while challenging the audience to live more simply, and preserve the natural environments of their home communities. Folksinger Michael Johnathon, host of WOODSONGS, wrote the play and is the host of the documentary portions of the program.  airs 11/12 at 3-4 a.m.

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THE BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY: A LONG & WINDING ROAD is a historical documentary concerning the most visited segment of the National Park Service. It explores the impact on people along the route and the conflicts inherent in building the 469-mile Parkway. The documentary also makes public, for the first time, a secret deal between FDR and a powerful congressman that was a stunning New Deal political trade off.  airs 11/5 at 3-4 a.m.

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Based on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott and loved by generations of women worldwide, “Little Women” is a universal coming-of-age story. Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, the story follows sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March on their journey from childhood to adulthood. With the help of their mother, Marmee — and while their father is away at war — the girls navigate what it means to be a young woman: from sibling rivalry and first love to loss and marriage. This adaptation is from the award-winning creator of “Call the Midwife,” Heidi Thomas, who also wrote “Cranford” and the latter-day “Upstairs Downstairs” for Masterpiece.

• Part One – airs 11/28 at 8 p.m. – With their father away at war, sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March come to terms with their new life, alongside their mother, Marmee. The girls make friends with Laurie, the new boy next door.
• Part Two – airs 11/28 at 9 p.m. – The March family fears the worst when Mr. March falls ill. As circumstances change for Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, the family must come together to face their most difficult challenge yet.
• Part Three – airs 11/28 at 10 p.m. – The March family fears the worst when Mr. March falls ill. As circumstances change for Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, the family must come together to face their most difficult challenge yet.

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Learn the heartbreaking, inspiring and largely untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. This film relates the stories of Native American warriors from their own points of view –stories of service, pain, courage and fear.  airs 11/11 at 9 p.m. (repeats 11/16 at 4 p.m.)

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PBS’ premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA programs demystify science and technology and highlight the people involved in scientific pursuits.

• “Dead Sea Scroll Detectives” airs 11/6 at 9 p.m. – What can new technology reveal about the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls? Join scientists as they investigate suspicious, newly surfaced fragments to see if they’re forfeited, and use imaging techniques to digitally unravel the charred remains of a scroll.

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This documentary is about Ely S. Parker, a 19th- century Seneca Indian Renaissance man. Parker was an engineer, tribal chief, and Civil War Secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant. Parker was a Cherokee actor Wes Studi hosts this account of Parker’s struggle in two worlds. He was responsible for preventing racial tensions to rise to its peak for both the Indians and the Whites. airs 11/4 at 9 p.m. (repeats 11/16 at 5 p.m.)

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