Weathering the Future

We're turning a corner in climate change documentaries. There is a rich canon of warning-themed documentaries, which saw prominence with An Inconvenient Truth (2006) through Before the the Flood (2016).

Now we are documenting human responses to climate change. NOVA's Weathering the Future stands as a solid example. It doesn't spend time presenting the science establishing climate change. It understands that climate change is a reality that is having concrete consequences in communities right now. It spends its time detailing community responses to climate change impact.

Weathering the Future [PBS NOVA] at TPT

Big Links Pages

Really just an excuse for me to post a favorite shot from Brooks Falls, Katmai, Alaska a few years ago. Arctic Lynx.

In any case, I always found some utility in big pages of links for video series. Links to videos (where possible) and question sets. So I made some for video series in various content areas. Here's what I've got.

The Mechanical Universe [52 college episodes and 28 high school adaptations]

Conceptual Physics Alive! [34 Paul Hewitt lectures]

Cosmos

A Personal Voyage [Carl Sagan 1980: 13 episodes]

A Spacetime Odyssey [Neil deGrasse Tyson 2014: 13 episodes]

Possible Worlds [Neil deGrasse Tyson 2020: 13 episodes]

Chemistry

Chemistry: A Volatile History [Jim Al-Khalili: 3 episodes]

Hunting the Elements ... Beyond the Elements [David Pogue]

Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions [13 episodes]

The World of Chemistry [Roald Hoffmann: 26 episodes]

Earth Science and Environmental Science

How Earth Made Us | How the Earth Changed History [Iain Stewart: 5 episodes]

Earth Revealed: Introductory Geology [26 episodes]

The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science [13 episodes]

I'll keep these lynx links over in the bar on the right.

New covers for YouTube Physics and Skepticism

When I began cobbling together curriculum resources for my nascent TPT Store, The Lessons of Phyz, I was in a bit of a hurry. I was keen to populate the store with more than just Mechanical Universe question sets. So I added the YouTube Physics and YouTube Skepticism lessons I had developed over the years.

My product covers early on were fairly simple. By design (!). I wasn't a fan of ... what seemed like the universal TPT product cover look, which struck me as having a very K-6 aesthetic. I learned that this had something to do with Canva, a design tool favored by many TPT author-creators.

The covers I designed were a bit quieter/more mature. Maybe even boring. So I went back to these products and redesigned the covers. Since they were video-based, dropping in a few freeze-frame screen-shots seemed like a way to provide some previews.

Play the movie to see the new covers. Go full screen to enjoy the full effect. They are much more fun than the old covers.

The Big Page of Chemistry

When The Mechanical Universe series was posted to YouTube, I constructed an HTML page to index the episodes. Then I added the High School Adaptations and links to my TPT question sets. Now I've got a comprehensive The Mechanical Universe of Phyz web page that I found to be quite useful.

Now that I've created question sets for four series concerning Chemistry, I thought a Big Page of Chemistry might be in order.

Here's the link to the page: Chemistry

The series indexed (from fewest to most episodes) are

Chemistry: A Volatile History (with Jim Al-Khalili)

This BBC mini-series has been my best-selling chemistry series.

Hunting the Elements and Beyond the Elements (with David Pogue)

David Pogue is always kinetic and entertaining. Hunting is a two-hour special; Beyond was the decade-later mini-series sequel.

Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions (with a variety of host researchers)

Thirteen half-hour episodes cover many major topics in chemistry. And demonstrations are woven in nicely.

The World of Chemistry (with Roald Hoffmann)

Twenty-six half-hour episodes provide comprehensive coverage of chemistry topics. First aired in 1990, and the years have not been kind to it. The Mechanical Universe has aged much more gracefully. But the academic content is solid. Series demonstrator, Don Showalter, is always great fun.