LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth

http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/

Provider: National Geographic and PBS


Learn more

Legal

This catalog record is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license applies to the content of this page only and does not apply to the referenced website.

Edward Norton, the host of Strange Days on Planet Earth describes it as a mystery series. Scientists are trying to find out what is going on in the world today. There are four parts to this program. In each part, viewers will see scientific investigators looking into these cases.

The first part of the series is called “Invaders”. It looks at species spreading across their traditional boarders. These invasive species can have a devastating effect on the native species, be they animals, insects, or plants.

“The One Degree Factor” tackles the issue of global warming and climate change. The Native Americans are worried that the Caribou are being affected and will not be able to survive in a warmer world. In Africa, lakes are being swallowed up by desert and the resultant airborne dust may be causing health problems to people half a world away.

In the third episode, scientists are noticing that predators are disappearing from the Earth. Once vibrant and lush, coral reefs are being attacked by algae and are dying because of the loss of predatory fish. Scientists are wondering if the removal of wolves and other large predators from Yellowstone National Park have resulted in a loss of the forest. Elk are devouring the vegetation unchecked.

The fourth episode is “Troubled Waters”. What is the effect of pollution on our most precious resource, water? Scientists are worried about the animals that are being detrimentally affected by chemicals that make their way into marine and fresh water habitats.

On this website, each episode asks four questions. Why should I care? What do the experts say? How do I measure up? What can I do? Each question is explored in depth. Included on the website are a glossary of terms, interviews, and an idea exchange.

Educators will find activities to go along with each episode. These have been designed to be used for grades 7 through 9. These activities can be downloaded in HTML or in PDF format.