Tuesday, October 25
8-10 p.m. E/P

National Geographic Channel

Subjects: Science

Middle and High School

"MegaStructures: Inside the Pentagon and NORAD?"

This is a broadcast of two episodes in the "Megastructures" series. The first is about the Pentagon, the one single building in the U.S. that pulsates with a collective effort through which the nation defends itself and its people and projects power around the globe. It's a portrait of this quintessential American institution and its ongoing struggles to renew itself despite tragedy, controversy, and the changing of political administrations. It provides rare access to some of the Pentagon's most sensitive areas and frank commentary from those who know it best. The second hour is about the underground headquarters of The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the largest bilateral military command center in the world.?? From deep inside a 9,000-foot mountain in Colorado, this center's mission is to monitor all enemy air threats on the United States and Canada.?? In the program explains how engineers constructed this topsecret fortress to withstand potential nuclear explosions.??

Wednesday, October 26
9-11 p.m. E/P

PBS

Subjects: American History

Middle and High School

"Destination America: The Earth is the Lord's/Breaking Free: A Woman's Journey"

This is a broadcast of the final two episodes of the "Destination America" documentary miniseries about mass migration to the United States. "The Earth is the Lord's" describes how, ever since the Mayflower pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, immigrants have come to America to escape religious persecution: Amish and Mennonites, Jews and evangelical Christians, Huguenots from France, Bahai's from Iran, Chinese practicing their esoteric Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists. The idea of America as a haven for those seeking freedom to worship looms large in the American imagination. The program features a Tibetan woman who fled persecution by Chinese communists; Hasidic Jews who fled Nazi Germany; and the immigration of the Amish and Mennonite people to America more than 300 years ago. "Breaking Free: A Woman's Journey" explains that, in the world they left behind, women were second-class citizens, subservient to men by law and custom. Some feared for their lives. Others were searching for new opportunities. This episode features the Guatemalan victim of spousal abuse who's seeking political asylum; an Italian woman who fled a brutal husband in 1887; and an Iranian woman and her two daughters, whose story of why and how they left Iran is a chilling tale of what it takes to break free.?? TV-PG

Log on #offiste_link( 'http://www.pbs.org/destinationamerica' '')http://www.pbs.org/destinationamerica

Thursday, October 27
10-11 p.m. E/P

PBS

Subjects: Math and Economics

Middle and High School

"Small Fortunes: Microcredit And The Future Of Poverty"

This documentary uses the stories of recipients of small loans in locales from India to the Philippines to New York City to explore the issues of poverty and microcredit. The program shows how short-term loans of even a few dollars have resulted in dramatic improvements in the lives of families who otherwise would have no means of lifting themselves out of poverty. It includes commentary by grassroots organizers, bankers, economists and scholars on the past, present and potential successes of microcredit programs.?? ??

Log on #offiste_link( 'http://www.yearofmicrocredit.org' '')http://www.yearofmicrocredit.org

Friday, October 28
8-10 p.m. E/P

A&E Channel

Subjects: Literature and World History

Middle and High School

"Vampires"

Halloween is just around the corner, so here's a documentary about vampires - the rock stars of the horror genre. They embody the dark, hidden, element of human consciousness; at once seductive and repellent. The program explores the creature's lasting impact on culture over more than a century. TVPG ??

The BBS in Britain has a site on this topic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires

Saturday, October 29
9-10 p.m. E/P

Discovery Channel

Subjects: American History

Middle and High School

"Jesse James: Legend, Outlaw, Terrorist"

Jesse James may be the most famous American outlaw, but how much of his story is factual, and how much is legend? In this documentary detectives, criminologists, western historians and even professional bank robbers investigate the mysteries of this historical figure. Rated TV-PG.

For another version of this story log on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James

Sunday, October 30
9-11 p.m. E/P

National Geographic Channel

Subjects: World History

Middle and High School

"Hannibal v. Rome"

This is a documentary about a general who, vastly out-numbered and deep in enemy territory, achieved the impossible on command of one of the most daring and ingenious military invasions of all time. Hannibal Barca, a North African from the territory of Carthage, lead an army mounted on elephants over the snow-capped Alps to crush his sworn life-long enemy, the Roman Republic. The program brings to life the gritty reality of the story of an African warrior who shaped the course of human history.

Log on http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hannibal/hannibal.html

Sunday, October 30
8-10 p.m. E/P

History Channel

Subjects: World History

Middle and High School

"The Plague"

This documentary is appropriate for the Halloween season and because the word "plague" is in the headlines these days. The plague in this film began like the common cold. Then fever, baseball-sized black swellings on the neck, coughing of blood. Few lived more than two days. The year -- 1437. It was history's worst biological disaster and almost half of Europe's population died within three years. The program visits the plague ships' rat-infested holds, witnesses the terror that swept through the towns, and portrays the sad pilgrimages of the era???s religious flagellants. Specifically, it follows a princess as she travels into the center of the plague, a doctor who struggles to understand what is happening, and a Jewish merchant caught up in violent attacks - because his ethnic group was falsely blamed for causing the plague. Based on the actual words of the victims, taken from diaries and journals, it ranges through the Pope's palace to the humble huts of medieval peasants as people live and die in the unforgiving grip of fear and death. In conclusion, the program asks how we would act if such a terrible event happened today.???? TVPG

Log on http://www.historychannel.com/thcsearch/thc_resourcedetail.do?encyc_id=219380

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

PBS

Subjects: English

Middle and High School

"Masterpiece Theatre: Kidnapped - Part I"

This two-part dramatization of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Kidnapped" begins as young Scotsman Davie Balfour is sold into slavery by his uncle to a ship captain bound for the Indies. The abduction on the eve of inheriting the family's noble title sets the story on its wild ride through mid-18th-century Scottish history. It's worth summarizing right here. With Davie an indentured servant aboard this ship bound from Scotland to America there's a collision with a small blockade runner commanded by Alan Breck , a notorious and colorful Scottish nationalist who is bringing gold from France to finance Highland rebels who are fighting the English. The captain of Davie's ship wants the gold, which sets up a classic siege pitting the entire crew against Breck and his new ally, Davie. Naturally, the new duo prevails, but not before scuttling the ship and being washed ashore. Separated, the two meet again by chance after the infamous assassination of the "Red Fox," a despised tax collector for the British who's innocently chatting with Davie when he suddenly falls to a single musket shot. Fleeing the pursuing redcoats, Davie runs into Breck, whom he assumes is the assassin - as do the British. Now Davie is wanted as an accessory to murder, and he and Breck hightail it through the Highlands, chased by vicious bounty hunters. Breck and Davie encounter friend and foe alike, and are captured by a group of wild men who appear to be cannibals. But Davie is determined to catch up with his double-crossing uncle sooner or later. The novel is set amid actual historical events in the author's native Scotland. Indeed, Alan Breck himself and Colin Campbell, the "Red Fox," are real people. In the historical record, Breck was indicted but never apprehended for Campbell's murder. The circumstances surrounding the crime exonerate Breck; the identity of the person who really pulled the trigger is still a closely guarded secret in the Highlands. Part II airs November 6, 9-10:30 p.m.

Log on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/kidnapped/index.html