Quakes, Leaks and Spills
From deadly disasters to environmental hazards, March marks the anniversaries of some catastrophic milestones. Click on the links below to see playlists featuring breaking news about these devastating events.
25 years ago this month: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
On March 24, 1989, an Exxon oil tanker smashed into a reef, leaking 11.3 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. It was the worst oil spill in U.S history until the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. Click on the links to the right for a playlist detailing the impact on the Alaskan coast, and how the accident prepared scientists for future oil spills. |
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35 years ago this month: The Three Mile Island Accident
On March 28, 1979 a leak at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania sent radioactive gas into the air. Our Three Mile Island playlist includes reactions that day from local townspeople and from an anti-nuclear energy group who say that the government should have known that the plant was unsafe. |
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50 years ago this month: The Largest Earthquake in North American History
On March 27, 1964, the most powerful earthquake recorded in both U.S. and North American history struck Alaska. With a magnitude of 9.2, the mega thrust quake collapsed buildings in Anchorage and unleashed tsunamis in Prince William Sound. More than 140 people perished in the disaster. Click on the links to the right to watch the breaking news of the quake and see a report assessing the damage. |
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Women’s History Month: “Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment”
Have we “come a long way baby”? March is a time to focus on the achievements and contributions of women around the world. The theme for Women’s History Month this year, as announced by the National Women’s History Project, is “Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment.”
In keeping with this theme, we reflect on a milestone anniversary for women in politics. On March 8, it will be 50 years since Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman from a major political party to run for president. Watch Frank McGee’s 1964 report on Smith’s campaign below.
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 Margaret Chase Smith Becomes the First Woman from a Major Political Party to Run for PresidentK-12 | HigherEd |
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You can delve into the stories of other great women with your students in our Women’s Studies Collection.
K-12 Users click here
Higher Ed Users click here
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Irish-American Heritage Month
| From Irish satirist Jonathan Swift to the first female President Mary Robinson, our Irish-American Heritage Month playlist covers all things green- and Irish! |
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Writers’ Birthdays in March
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Tom Wolfe
March 2, 1931
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John Irving
March 2, 1942
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Jack Kerouac
March 12, 1922
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John Updike
March 18, 1932
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NBC Learn K-12 Subscriber Spotlight: “These Videos Ignite Their Critical-Thinking Skills”
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Meet Cristina Hargis, a world geography teacher who teaches eighty students at St. Charles Parish in Louisiana. How does her freshman class trek the globe to understand cultures and civilizations they’ve never experienced? Hargis uses NBC Learn.
“It is amazing how small they think the world is until they come into my class. They think everyone has iPads and computers. Their minds are blown looking at some of these cultures. I’ve found that now they seem to really understand that the world is a bigger place than what they know.”
Hargis uses the State Standards feature to search for NBC Learn videos, and then organizes them into playlists by culture or continent: Latin America, East Asia, Southwest Asia, Africa, South Asia, Europe, and U.S. & Canada.
“A picture can only reveal so much. But for my students to see people weep or see journalists terrified, it shows them the world is more alive than you think it is. Kids will come back to me and say they were able to talk to their mom while she was watching the news because we had discussed a certain topic. It engages kids to have discussions with their parents because they aren’t intimidated by a subject.”
Hargis recently used the video Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain? to introduce a class project. |
“The students got a kick out of it because they had no idea Columbus was controversial.” Hargis had her students debate whether the early explorers were heroes or villains and then write a three-paragraph essay using primary source material.
“I use these videos because I want history to come alive for these kids. For my students to see news events like the Iraq War, it really opens their perspective. I try to get them to think outside the box and think critically in a way they haven’t thought before, and these videos ignite their critical-thinking skills.”
Click on Cristina Hargis‘ Geography Playlists and Use them with Your Own Students!
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NBC Learn Higher Ed Subscriber Spotlight: “It’s the best way to get information to students because it demonstrates the real-world implications.”
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We spoke to Meredith Burnett, a professor at George Washington University who teaches Human Resource Management. Burnett previously used NBC Learn at Florida International University, so she’s a real NBC Learn veteran.
NBC Learn: How do you use NBC Learn videos?
Burnett: “When I have topics that relate to NBC Learn videos, I use them to reinforce a point or to create a topic for discussion. I try to use videos that are the most current. I like that NBC Learn videos will include an interview, they’ll have NBC reporters, and sometimes they have a guest from a research center, so the students will view them as a reliable source of information. The videos are timely and the students respond positively to them.”
NBC Learn: Why do you use NBC Learn videos?
Burnett: “Familiarity. The students view the source as valid, and that makes it real-world for them. And it’s not acting. Sometimes textbook videos have actors. If you contrast the actors with NBC Learn videos, students see the real people as a safe source, because they recognize NBC [News] talent. It also helps them get familiar with the names of research centers. It is the best way to get information to students because they see that what they’re learning has implications in the real world.” |
NBC Learn: How is NBC Learn different from other teaching and learning resources?
Burnett: “Our textbook videos and the way they are prepared, it’s very likely they’ve been rehearsed. The NBC Learn videos don’t seem rehearsed. And in many cases they are impromptu; something could have happened the night before and they interview someone the next day. The production is different and it is more likely to engage my students.”
Click here to see Meredith Burnett’s playlist for her Human Resource Management class.
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How are you using NBC Learn as a teaching and learning resource? E-mail us at newsletter@nbclearn.com. Send us summaries of lessons or units enriched with NBC Learn resources, examples of NBC Learn videos that especially engaged your students, or the names of candidates for future K-12 or Higher Ed Subscriber Spotlights.
Want to read more Subscriber Spotlights? On the Home page of both NBC Learn K-12 and NBC Learn Higher Ed, look under the heading NBC Learn In the Classroom.
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Announcing the Redesigned NBC Learn Carousel!
You may have noticed a change when you last visited NBC Learn. Our newly remodeled carousel features relevant and timely teaching resources for your classroom.
What to look for in the carousel each week:
- Current Events: Every day, the NBC Learn team is reviewing stories so you can keep your students informed on what is happening in the world today.
- This Week in History: Show your students breaking news reports of significant historical events that happened this week in history.
- Campus Perspectives: Are your students inspired to go to college? Demonstrate how higher education provides them with opportunities to change the world and how what they learn today could one day become a career. Look for new videos coming soon from the College of Charleston and Syracuse University.
- Original Collections: Get the latest “STEM-ware” for your classroom and see what’s new in our Emmy award-winning original collections.
- Subscriber Spotlights: Those profiles of creative teachers you read about in our newsletter also appear in our carousel. And you or a colleague could be next! Just write to contactus@nbclearn.com with an interesting way you’re using NBC Learn.
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Serial Summon Integration
Over the next few months, we’ll be announcing several exciting partnerships with leading library discovery services. This month we launched the availability of NBC Learn Higher Ed resources for customers of ProQuest Summon™ discovery service. NBC Learn is working with ProQuest to index video content in the Summon® discovery service to expand visibility of its videos to its educational users. Metadata from NBC Learn will be indexed allowing researchers to discover video content and expand their knowledge across a wide variety of subjects, while also providing lecturers and teachers improved access to this video content so that they can then leverage it within the learning environment. The Summon® discovery service features a single search box and provides users a rich, easy, and efficient research experience in more than 700 libraries across 40 countries. After searching for NBC Learn resources in Summon™, users can authenticate using IP authentication, EZproxy, or similar remote access authentication. To enable NBC Learn Higher Ed resources in Summon™, speak with your librarian or contact nbclearnsupport@nbcuni.com for more information.
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