DEN Blog Network

Image Credit: NASA

Did you know that Discovery Education streaming is adding new video content all the time?

I am really excited for the newest video added to extensive media library, In the Shadow of the Moon.  This 2-hour special production aired on the Discovery Channel just last year and it’s already available for teachers and students through DE streaming.

Journey with crew members from NASA’s Apollo missions as they recount the exhilaration, fear, and awe of voyaging to the moon. Featuring never-before-seen, remastered footage shot by the astronauts themselves, the program captures the thrill of the space race and pays tribute to the men and women who dedicated their lives to space and scientific advancement. Interviews with astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, James Lovell, Eugene Cernan, Alan Bean, Charles Duke, and others provide an intimate view of the lunar missions from the only men who have ever walked on another world.

This show tells the story of true human ingenuity, creativity, and fearlessness.  It is a story of hope that is uplifting and inspiring.  It is also a story seeped in contextual understanding of the historical time and place that made a mission of this unimaginable magnitude possible.

In the Shadow of the Moon is available as a full video and also as video segments.  There is an excellent teacher’s guide to help you find creative and engaging ways to use the video with your students.

If you are a DE streaming subscriber, click here to access the video and teaching materials for In the Shadow of the Moon. If you are not a current subscriber, click here to request a preview.

For additional teaching resources, check out NASA at 50 - available through Discovery Education School.  The Discovery Channel  has some terrific resources available online:

• How Stuff Works Moon Quiz
• Top 10 Moon Mysteries
• Discovery Space
• When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (contains interactives, quizzes, puzzles, primary sources, and images)

DE streaming also has some excellent video series that also appeared on the Discovery Channel within the past year:

• The NASA at 50 series contains 18 videos, all with teacher guides. DE streaming subscribers, search for “NASA at 50″ to access the full collection.
• The When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions six-part series is available in both English and Spanish and has awesome resources included in the teacher guides.  DE streaming subscribers, search for “When We Left Earth” to access the complete series.

The story of America’s journey to the moon is interdisciplinary.

• Science: study the science behind space travel or research the solar system
• Social Studies: study the space program and its place in the larger context of the Cold War or investigate the geography on Earth that was used as a training ground for astronauts to prepare for the geography of the moon
• Math: investigate the mathematical principles that allowed humans to travel to the moon or use Google Earth to measure distance, angles, and practice geometry
• Language Arts: investigate themes of heroism and how the journey to the moon has entered into our modern mythology
• Art: create artist renderings of the moon or investigate photographs of the moon as a lesson in color and shading
• Music: discover how space travel and the moon inspired popular songs
• Industrial Arts: create a model of a lunar landing or transportation vehicle
• Family and Consumer Science: study the nutritional needs of astronauts while in the zero gravity of space
• Undergraduate and Graduate Education: investigate how the space race and the journey to the moon impacted the educational programs in the USA

So, spark your students’ imagination by taking them to the moon with Discovery Education!

There is a new series on the Discovery Channel that has me hooked, Doing DaVinci.

Leonardo da Vinci was the original Renaissance Man — master of science, master of the arts, master of war. His revolutionary designs were the most advanced weapons of their day and were capable of unparalleled destruction. Yet no proof exists that they were ever constructed.

In Doing DaVinci a team of expert builders will try to construct these unique inventions using only materials available in da Vinci’s own time. It’s a modern twist on the classics, but will these outrageous machines work? Or were Leonardo’s genius ideas better left in the history books?

Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT

This series is devoted to testing the plans and inventions imaged by Leonardo da Vinci hundreds of years ago.  There are also some terrific interactive resources available online:

• Da Vinci Timeline
• Leonardo’s War Machines
• Da Vinci Video Highlights
• Da Vinci Personality Quiz
• Da Vinci Puzzles
• How Da Vinci Works

If you are interesting in exploring the world of Da Vinci with your students, be sure to check out the resources in DE streaming and DE Science.  In streaming teachers and students can access 24 full videos, 53 video segments, 9 articles, and 18 images.  Here are a few highlights:

• Achievement of Leonardo da Vinci - video segment
• Leonardo da Vinci - full video
• Leonardo da Vinci - article

DE Science subscribers can access 3 full videos, 8 video segments, and 3 images.  One of my favorites are the three video clips about da Vinci in Understanding Robotics.

EdSITEment has a series of great lesson plans that are part of “Leonardo da Vinci: Creative Genius.”

Science NetLinks also has a few lesson resources for teaching about da Vinci:

• Leonardo’s Machines
• Exploring Leonardo
• Mona Lisa’s Smile

So, if you are looking to bring one of the Renaissance’s greatest thinkers to life in your classroom or you are brushing up on your history for a Dan Brown novel, check out some of these lesson resources and Doing DaVinci on the Discovery Channel.

Discovery Education streaming subscribers already know that new media content is added all the time.  Tonight ” Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment” premiers on the Discovery Channel and streaming subscribers can already access corresponding video in streaming to use with their students:

• The Alaska Experiment: Part One: Into the Wild
• The Alaska Experiment: Part Two: What Did We Get Ourselves Into?
• The Alaska Experiment: Part Three: Starving in the Wilderness
• The Alaska Experiment: Part Four: Hunt or Be Hunted
• The Alaska Experiment: Part Five: Alaska Bites Back
• The Alaska Experiment: Part Six: No Turning Back
• The Alaska Experiment: Part Seven: Take the Long Way Home

I’m really excited about this series as I had the opportunity to travel to Alaska in February to work with the terrific teachers in the Anchorage School District.

Yes, we did actually see a moose!

[It probably wasn’t advisable to get this close to the moose, but when will I ever get a picture like this again?]

What is “The Alaska Experiment”?

The experiment begins when nine ordinary people are abandoned off in Central Alaska with only a few essential supplies and a goal to make it back to civilization. Alaska wastes no time testing their wilderness experience and severe hunger sets in.

There are some terrific interactive features posted on the series website.

• Meet the Volunteers
• Supply List (Could you survive with just these items?)
• Alaska Puzzles
• Frontier Alaska Game
• Alaska Survival School Videos
• Video Quiz 
• Discussion Board

Plus, there are a few corresponding resources from How Stuff Works.

• How to Survive Alaska
• If I Kill an Animal, Can I Eat it Raw?
• How to Find True North

So, if you are looking for a terrific series with great classroom extensions, check out “The Alaska Experiment” premiering on April 14th at 10:00 PM ET on the Discovery Channel.