Monday, October 17
7-8 p.m. E/P

National Geographic Channel

Subjects: Science and World History

Middle and High School

"Naked Science: What is Human?"

This documentary travels the globe in search of evidence of our earliest ancestors. It follows our struggle to survive and learn what eventually propelled one animal to rise above all other creatures on Earth. This is our story - the story of what makes us human.

Monday, October 17
9-10:30 p.m. E/P

PBS

Subjects: American History

Middle and High School

"American Experience: 'Two Days in October'"

This documentary is based on the book "They Marched Into Sunlight" by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Maraniss. It tells the story of two turbulent days in October 1967. In Vietnam, a U.S. battalion unwittingly marches into a Viet Cong trap. Sixty-one young men are killed and as many wounded. The ambush prompts some in power to wonder whether the war might be unwinnable. Half a world away, angry students on the campus of the University of Wisconsin protest the presence of Dow Chemical, makers of napalm. The demonstration spirals out of control, marking the first time that a student protest of the war turns violent. Told almost entirely by the people who took part in the harrowing events of those two days - American and Viet Cong soldiers, police officers, relatives of men killed in battle, protesting students, members of a political mime troupe and university administrators - the film opens a window onto a moment that divided a nation and a war that continues to haunt us.?? TV-PG

Log on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex

Tuesday, October 18
6-7 p.m. E/P

History Channel

Subjects: World History

Middle and High School

"The Worst Jobs In The World"

This documentary shows history from the bottom up. Host Tony Robinson demonstrates the really dirty jobs of Victorian England, including several on the railway (engine and ash-pan cleaners) and??navvies -- an army of itinerant laborers who dug the roads, canals, docks, sewers, and tunnels by hand. Next, he looks at child labor and the terrible tasks assigned to tots, like dibbling (poking holes to sow seeds), herring caller (spotting gulls to alert fishermen to a??shoal), stone collector (to clear fields), and chimney sweep. He tries his hand at rat catching, label sticking (a job held by Charles Dickens as a lad), cigar collector, bone grabber, dustman, tosher (sewer hunter), mud lark (shoreline scavenger), stone breaker, oakum picker (deconstructing old??rope), and??the??odoriferous and odious??job of tanner (scraping the??flesh off dead animals to make leather). TVPG

Tuesday, October 18
8-9 p.m. E/P

PBS

Subjects: Science

Middle and High School

"NOVA Science NOW"

This science magazine covers four stories: "Artificial Life" is about scientists working to create life from scratch, a controversial effort going on in labs across the country - and it has created a worldwide race to the finish. "Lightning" explores the unexpected origins of lightning, which scientists have recently found may have an extraterrestrial source. Joe Dwyer at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing in Florida, home to the world's largest array of lightning detection instruments, will show how he uses rockets to lure down lightning bolts, and he'll explain the remarkable finding that cosmic rays may seed lightning. "Profile: Erich Jarvis" is about a neuroscientist who has recently focused his profession on the underestimated intelligence of certain birds, bringing new appreciation to brains that look nothing like our own. "Fish Surgery" is about an entire field of veterinary medicine, complete with anesthesia and post-op pain medication, that has grown up around prolonging the lives of aquatic pets. The last report is an update on our January 2005 story about hurricanes.

Log on http://www.pbs.org/nova/sciencenow

Wednesday, October 19
9-11 p.m. E/P

PBS

Subjects: American History

Elementary, Middle and High School

"New Destination America"

This is a broadcast of the initial two episodes of a documentary serieswhich explores migration to the United States. The first episode, entitled "The Golden Door," features an illegal Mexican immigrant, and outlines the sweep of immigration across more than 350 years of American history, focusing on the early history of Mexican immigration, the Norwegian immigrants to the Midwest and the Irish famine.?? The second, "The Art of Departure," is about creative people who have come to America from all over the world, drawn to the possibilities of a free society. But it has never been easy to leave home. Featured are a dancer from Taiwan and two artists from Russia, also the story of the scientists, artists and intellectuals who fled fascism in the 1930s, focusing on conductor Arturo Toscanini, the maestro who defied both Mussolini and Hitler.

Log on http://www.pbs.org/destinationamerica

Thursday, October 20
6-7 p.m. E/P

Travel Channel

Subjects: Geography and Natural Science

Elementary, Middle and High School

"Earth's Natural Wonders"

This documentary explores the powerful Niagara Falls and Australia's Great Barrier Reef, plus the Grand Canyon, the world's finest example of water erosion. Then is goes to the highest mountain peak, Mt. Everest, which grows higher each year.

Friday, October 21
8-10 p.m. E/P

TNT

Subjects: American History and Science

High School

"Erin Brockovich"

If you've missed this classic movie about environmental activism, here's your chance. Julia Roberts portrays the unemployed single mother who convinces a lawyer to give her a job. When she begins to investigate a suspicious real estate case involving the Pacific Gas & Electric Company she discovers is that the company is trying quietly to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a deadly toxic waste that the company is improperly and illegally dumping in California and, in turn, poisoning the residents in the area. As she digs deeper, she finds herself influencing events that would involve her law firm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation. Available on video. Rated R (that means the movie has to be watched with the consent of a parent or guardian)

For details about the actual events depicted in this movie log on http://www.lawbuzz.com/famous_trials/erin_brockovich/erin_brockovich_ch1.htm

Saturay, October 22
4:30-8 p.m. ET, 1:30-5 p.m. PT

TCM - Turner Classic Movie Channel

Subjects: American History

Middle and High School

"Dances With Wolves"

This classic movie, based on a book by Michael Blake, is an unusual depiction of life on the American frontier. It won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and is about a Civil War military hero who requests an assignment on the western frontier, but finds the location he's sent to is deserted. For company, he finds only a wolf he dubs "Two-socks" and a curious Indian tribe. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man's ways. Not soon after, the isolated frontier becomes isolated no more, and as the army advances on the plains, John must make a decision that will not only affect him, but also the lives of the natives he now calls his people. Available on video. Rated PG-13.

For details about the author and the book on which the movie is based log on http://www.danceswithwolves.net/bio.php

Sunday, October 23
8-9 p.m. E/P

Discovery Channel

Subjects: World History

Middle and High School

"Genghis Khan: Rise of the Conqueror"

This is a history documentary about a person who combined primitive savagery with tactical genius. It follows the rise of Genghis Kahn to become the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, measuring his territories not in thousands but in millions of square. Rated TV-PG for violence depicted.