Summary: Who said statistics were boring? Using magic and circus motifs, this program demonstrates the significance of probability theory and the importance of using the correct test to analyze research data. Host Amy and her friend Matt the Magician guide viewers through the need to make probability statements, and along with a team of students, use juggling skills to explore choice of test. Setting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This video focuses on effective ways to understand and organize data using descriptive statistics. Analyzing data collected from studies of young music students, the video helps viewers sort through basic data-interpretation concepts: measures of central tendency, levels of measurement, measures of dispersion, and graphs. A wide range of organization principles are covered, including mode,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Adam suspects that most hairy dogs have balding owners. Testing his "pet" theory at a local park, he quickly finds flaws in his own experiment. This video demonstrates Adam's second test, involving better preparation, more rigorous analysis, and an exciting pasta cook-off. Showing how Adam can effectively determine the best spaghetti recipe, the program illustrates concepts that are central to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A dream may be the most difficult human experience to quantify-but dreaming is an excellent topic for building qualitative research skills. This program illustrates experiments, designed and conducted by students, that revolve around sleep and dreams. In the process, it provides thorough insight into the issues relevant to collecting and utilizing qualitative data. Viewers are shown how to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Like any branch of science, anthropology is constantly evolving, and its current challenges are better understood in the light of past achievements. This program serves as an excellent tool for studying archaeological techniques that preceded the rise of genetic analysis and DNA testing. Produced in 1989, the film describes fieldwork and investigative methods used in exhuming, dating, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1989
View online at AVOD
Summary: The more digital technology becomes inseparable from our daily lives, the more chances corporate and political media have to manipulate young people-unless students are taught how to dissect and defend against that manipulation. This program helps educators instill media literacy through an exploration of its basic concepts as well as examples drawn from film and television. Defining media...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Reading rate and comprehension can mean the difference between success and failure to students. Three strategies for improving both are presented in this program. The first suggests reading during the day, for short periods in a quiet place, for maximum efficiency. One method demonstrates how to divide words into groups on a page as an effective way of improving reading rate. The SQ3R Strategy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What if twelve strangers were deposited in separate locations all over New York City and ordered to find each other-without being told where to look? This ABC News program presents an intriguing psychological puzzle involving participants who must join up-somehow, somewhere-in a city of eight million people. Incorporating principles from the mathematical discipline known as game theory, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Selfish Gene is frequently misread as a biological justification for ruthless behavior. In this classic program, author Richard Dawkins sets the record straight through an exploration of selfishness and enlightened self-interest built upon evidence from the Prisoner's Dilemma game and real-world non-zero-sum social situations. "The tragedy of the commons," symbiotic behavior among animals,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Faced with a mountain of research to conduct, reading to do, and papers to write, students must work both efficiently and shrewdly. This three-section program tells how to identify and cite reliable online and offline sources of information, carve textbook chapters into manageable chunks, and outline and revise papers-all elements that are essential to getting the job done well. Correlates to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program stresses that good writing skills are critical to job success and that employers seek job applicants who have these skills. Learn how to produce a winning written report by analyzing the reader; determining the purpose; selecting and narrowing topics; gathering, recording, and filing information; and organizing the paper. Learn the benefits of concrete and specific supporting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The consequences of lax Internet security are severe! Use Securing the Web to awaken your students to the very real dangers posed by online security threats. In this video, a couldn't-care-less computer user is transported into his PC where he learns firsthand about phishing and pharming, spyware and adware, viruses and Trojans, and denial-of-service attacks and zombie networks. Weapons in the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: When people decide whether or not to follow the crowd, what happens inside their brains? This ABC News program explores that question, highlighting neurological research that helps explain conformity and sheds light on the complex relationship between group and individual behavior. Placing test subjects in candid-camera style settings, the program illustrates how social pressures can alter...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In a world of information overload, information literacy has become a survival skill. But what exactly does information literacy mean? With a focus on the Internet, this video explains how to conduct solid online research by collecting information in an organized, efficient, and ethical way. Professor Maurita Holland of the University of Michigan School of Information provides expert commentary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: While their motives aren't always evil, people who bend the truth don't usually do so for the greater good, either. The online world is no exception-in fact, it's a paradise for purveyors of hype, pseudo-journalism, and intellectual snake oil. This video explores ways to identify bias and propaganda on the Internet and sift through the various influences, such as political or corporate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: Flying into the eye of a storm, camping at the base of an active volcano, traveling backwards in time-students might think these adventures happen only in action movies. This video shows that they also take place in the lives of Earth scientists-those frequently daring researchers and theorists who study the past, present, and future of our planet and environment. Venturing into the realms of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Encourage students to explore biases and stereotypes with this group of ABC News segments. Each scenario puts actors into exchanges with unwitting bystanders, generating a wide range of responses-from overt hostility towards other races and cultures to acts of genuine compassion. Scenes include a bakery clerk's refusal to serve a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf; cruelty towards an overweight...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Formed decades ago from a small pool of data sources, the Internet has grown into a seemingly endless ocean of information-in which today's young researcher can easily get lost. This video introduces strategic, study-related online search methods that teenage or college-level viewers may not be familiar with, especially if they're accustomed to the more recreational side of the Internet....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: A progenitor of the National Geographic Society, John Wesley Powell was a naturalist, a rough-and-ready explorer, and a visionary in his understanding of the uncharted Colorado River. This program illustrates Powell's historic passage through the Grand Canyon in 1869, when the 35-year-old set out with eight companions from Green River, Wyoming, into the unknown. The film describes how, at...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Could we all be descendants of an Adam-like ancestor? And if he existed, who was he, where did he live, and what did he look like? This program uses sophisticated DNA testing methods to, in effect, trace humanity's family tree. Guided by renowned geneticist Dr. Spencer Wells, viewers learn about the primary tool that propels this quest for a common ancestor-the Y chromosome, which is...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although her fieldwork has been criticized, Margaret Mead was one of the foremost fieldworkers of her day. In the United States, Bali, and New Guinea, she examined child development, sex, and temperament to see what role society plays in making people what they are. She emphasized that humans arrange their social worlds in many different ways, and that qualitative judgments cannot be made...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This edition of Science Screen Report shows how the principles of microengineering and nanotechnology are being applied to environmental science, medicine, and engineering. A complete water-testing laboratory on a single microchip is spotlighted, as are grooved bandages that channel the movement and bonding of fibroblasts, speeding up healing and minimizing scarring. Research into the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: What distinguishes science from other human endeavors? How does scientific knowledge develop? What differentiates pseudo-science from science? This program attempts to answer these questions and give an account of the characteristics of scientific activity. The show deals with the importance of scientific instruments in the exploration of the universe and our view of the world. It also shows...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Between the early 19th century and the early 21st century, the global population grew from one billion to more than six billion people. This program describes population geography and explains how experts use it to define groups and forecast changes within those groups. First, population distribution and demographics are described. Then, the effects of birth and death rates on the populations...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010