Earth Week 2021 is April 19-25. To celebrate, the Michigan Learning Channel is providing programming and accompanying lesson materials all about the environment and ecosystem available for stream online.*
*Some programs are only available for streaming on PBS Passport.
Age of Nature
Watch online: PBS Passport
Subject and grade level: Science (Grades 9-12)
Related Resources: PBS Learning Media
Explore humanity’s relationship with nature and wildlife, as scientists and conservationists from all over the world examine ways we can restore our planet. This documentary series asks whether newfound awareness of nature could bring about a new chapter in the human story.
EGLE Classroom
Watch online: EGLE Classroom YouTube Channel
Subject and grade level: Science (Grades 6-12)
Videos that explain complex issues in easy-to-understand ways. Topics include protecting air and water resources, Michigan geology, materials recycling, climate change and more. EGLE Classroom was launched in September 2020 as a resource for teachers and parents faced with an unprecedented learning environment. EGLE Classroom shares new content each Tuesday, hosted by subject matter experts either on EGLE’s staff or through its partners. The EGLE Classroom educational resources webpage includes classroom-ready material from EGLE and its partners to assist students and instructors with information on environmental topics.
Follow the Water
Watch online: PBS Passport
Subject and grade level: Social Studies (Grades 6-12)
Follow the Water is an adventure story with an environmental message. Traveling by bike, on foot and in a canoe, photographer Mike Forsberg and filmmaker Peter Stegen follow a mythical drop of water 1,300 miles through three states. Using iPhones, Go-Pros and underwater cameras they share how it feels to get close to the flow of the water — to taste it, touch it, and struggle to understand it.
Great Lakes Now
Watch online: Great Lakes Now Official Website
Subject and grade level: Social Studies (Grades 6-Adult)
Related Resources: Great Lakes Learning and Teaching Resources
With a monthly magazine-style television program and daily online reports at GreatLakesNow.org, the Great Lakes Now initiative offers in-depth coverage of news, issues, events and developments affecting the lakes and the communities that depend on them, while capturing the character and culture of the region.
Housed at Detroit Public TV, Great Lakes Now’s growing network of regional partner public broadcaster stations and other media outlets contribute coverage to the television program and to the Great Lakes Now website. The monthly show, “Great Lakes Now,” launched in April 2019, and since then has expanded to a basin-wide, bi-national program carried on more than a dozen PBS stations in five states as well as in Ontario.
GreenBeats
Watch online: WHRO Media
Subject and grade level: Science, Social Studies (Grades K-5)
GreenBeats is a 10-part WHRO-produced series of animated shorts that focuses on critical environmental issues and themes to promote environmental education and stewardship.
Inventing Tomorrow
Watch online: Amazon Prime Video
Subject: Science, Social Studies (Grades 9-12)
Related Resources: Remote Learning Toolkit
Meet passionate teenage innovators from around the globe who are creating cutting-edge solutions to confront the world’s environmental threats – found right in their own backyards – while navigating the doubts and insecurities that mark adolescence. Take a journey with these inspiring teens as they prepare their projects for the largest convening of high school scientists in the world, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) a program of Society for Science & the Public.
Jonathan Scott's Power Trip
Watch online: PBS Passport
Subject and grade level: Science, Social Studies (Grades 6-Adult)
In “Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip,” the HGTV home makeover guru shines a light on the obstacles and opportunities for America’s solar industry, following fossil fuel monopolies that halt the growth of renewable energy while visiting with politicians, coal miners, solar panel installers, the Navajo Nation building its own solar plant, and others at the forefront of the battle for energy freedom.
Power Trip: The Story of Energy
Watch online: Amazon Prime Video
Subject and grade levels: Science (Grades 6-Adult)
“Power Trip: The Story of Energy” uncovers the hidden energy that is embedded in our modern way of life, revealed as the underlying force behind water, food, wealth, cities, transportation and war. Filmed around the world, the six-part documentary series takes viewers on a journey through the past, present and future of energy.
