Monday, September 12
6-7 p.m. ET, 3-4 p.m. PT

National Geographic Channel

Subjects: Science and World History

Middle and High School

"Science Of The Bible: Quest For Noah's Flood"

This documentary explores the oxygen-deprived waters of the Black Sea which may hold many ancient mysteries. National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Robert Ballard leads a National Geographic expedition to look for proof that people were living here at the time of an ancient flood, which, according to a controversial theory, may have inspired stories of Noah's Flood.

Monday, September 12
8-9 p.m. E/P

History Channel

Subjects: Science and American History

Middle and High School

"Katrina: Devastation In Her Wake"

This documentary special interweaves the devastation of Hurricane Katrina with New Orleans' history. Learn how the city, built precariously below sea level and between two bodies of water, came to be. What engineering feats made it survive for as long as it did, weathering other dire storms. Why did the various systems fail this time? How did so much of the nation's oil and gas repositories come to be in this environmentally fragile area? Was there anything that could have averted the disaster, given that the meteorology predictions of Katrina's path were quite accurate? This special mixes news footage, personal video, historical archive, and expert and witness interviews into a compelling hour looking at this disaster from a technology and historical perspective. TV-PG.

Tuesday, September 13
8-9 p.m. E/P

PBS

Subjects: Science

Middle and High School

"NOVA: Origins - Back to the Beginning"

In this final episode of the "Origins" documentary miniseries astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History turns back the clock to the beginning of time itself to understand how a universe conducive to life materialized from the cataclysm known as the Big Bang. For centuries most astronomers assumed that the universe was eternal. Then, just 42 years ago, two researchers stumbled on the cosmic echo of the Big Bang, the event that started it all. Scientists are still collecting data from this all-pervasive microwave "whisper" from deep space. Two teams are racing to measure the echo to discern what happened during the Big Bang and how it was that the first stars, galaxies and ultimately the universe we inhabit now came to be. Others are working on the processes by which stars explode and disperse newly forged elements throughout space, which then serve as the building blocks for new generations of stars. This "star stuff" was recycled over and over, and it provided the raw material for Earth - and us. To demonstrate how this happens, a chef from New York City's Union Square Caf?? joins Tyson to cook up a cosmic soup rich with all the building blocks of life.

Log on and try your hand at calculating how many intelligent, communicating civilizations might be in our galaxy - http://www.pbs.org/nova/origins

Wednesday, September 15
8-9 p.m. E/P - Check local listings

PBS

Subjects: American History

Middle and High School

"American Experience: Fatal Flood"

This documentary puts the Katrina disaster in historical context. In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River went on a rampage from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, drowning hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving a million homeless. In Greenville, Mississippi, efforts to contain the river pitted the majority black population against an aristocratic plantation family, the Percys -- and the Percys against themselves. A story of greed, power and race during one of America's worst natural disasters

Watch online video footage from the 1927 flood at the companion web site. http://www.pbs.org/amex/flood

Wednesday, September 14
9-10:30 p.m. E/P

PBS

Subjects: American Literature and History

Middle and High School

"American Masters - Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea"

This is a biographical documentary about author Ernest Hemingway. More than 40 years after his death, he is one of the most widely read, and widely written about, American authors. His distinct style and profound influence are indisputable; his larger-than-life persona is still the stuff of heated debate. As well-known in his lifetime as any movie star, he was a dashing international figure who challenged the notion that writers exist in an ivory tower. There were the battles, the bull fights, the big game, the heavy drinking - and he channeled these experiences into stark prose, creating a new form of expression, describing action and emotion in simple, authentic terms. An enormous critical success, his major works - The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls - are still in print, some in as many as 20 languages. The recent excitement over Cuba's release of its Hemingway collection is unmatched in modern literature, TV-PG

Log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/hemingway_e.html

Thursday, September 15
9-11 p.m. ET, Check local listings

PBS

Subjects: American Literature and History

Middle and High School

"The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman"

This nine-time Emmy Award-winning movie is based on the esteemed novel by Ernest J. Gaines. It follows 110-year-old Jane Pittman, played by Cicely Tyson, on her incredible life journey from the end of the Civil War in the 1860s through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Through the years, Miss Jane survives the last vestiges of slavery in Louisiana, Jim Crow laws, encounters with the KKK and the slaying of her husband, only to triumph in the end over social injustice. The broadcast includes an introductory segment hosted by Queen Latifah. TV-PG, L, V. Available on video

For additional information about the novel and the historical periods in which it is set log on http://www.webenglishteacher.com/gaines.html

Friday, September 16
8:30-9:30 p.m. E/P, Check local listings

PBS

Subjects: Science and Social Science

Middle and High School

"NOW: Katrina the Response"

In the wake of Katrina, many around the nation are asking: what's next for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast??? This special one-hour edition of PBS' weekly newsmagazine travels to Baton Rouge for a town-hall meeting to explore the rebuilding challenges ahead and to assess how the reconstruction efforts will take into account the unique environmental vulnerability of the Gulf Coast.?? In a discussion moderated by David Brancaccio, experts, government officials, and the people who lived through it will shed light on what went wrong and the root causes of the failures in the government's emergency response.

For additional information log on http://www.pbs.org/now

Satuday, September 17
8-11 p.m. E/P

Hallmark Channel

Subjects: Literature

Middle and High School

"Jules Verne's Mysterious Island"

This movie is based on Jules Verne's classic science fiction novel. In the story a hot air balloon carrying escaped Union soldiers and a dog from Richmond, Virginia during the American Civil War. They ar blown far off course, resulting in a crash landing on an uncharted island. Struggling to stay alive as they hunger for a rescue that may never come, the isolated, desperate survivors face pirates, scavengers, giant reptilian creatures, the wrath of Nature and the mysterious dangers of the Island. Some descriptions of scientific processes seem overly detailed, but it was the norm for Verne to explain how things work. Verne's real goal was an exploration of the dynamics of a human group in a "start from zero" situation, highlighting the optimism of giving of self for the group that people had once upon a time.

To compare the book to the movie and find out more about Jules Verne (the George Lucas of yesteryear) log on http://www.online-literature.com/verne/mysteriousisland

Sunday, September 18
8-9 p.m. E/P, Check local listings

PBS

Subjects: Natural Science

Middle and High School

"NATURE: Deep Jungle - New Frontiers"

This is the initial episode of a 3-part documentary miniseries which goes deep into jungles around the world, following explorers and scientists who are committed to unraveling the secrets there. The first hour presents examples of how the rainforest acts as an engine of evolution, featuring the Sumatran tiger, recorded on film in the wild for the first time; the frenetic manakin birds of Central America; a giant moth of Madagascar; the rainforest in Borneo; and elephants in the Congo.??TV-PG. Subsequent episodes air in this time slot the next two Sundays.

Log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature