Summary: Sixteen skeletons-what is left of a 9th-century Mayan royal family-are discovered in the ancient city of Cancuen. Can their remains tell us anything about the collapse of the Mayan Empire? Did disease, starvation, or drought bring about that calamity? A crack team of experts from Guatemala's Forensic Anthropology Foundation uses its experience with wartime atrocities to investigate. While...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program provides a comprehensive introduction to the application of forensic science to crime scenes where human remains have been found. Promoting a team approach to crime scene analysis, Scott Fairgrieve, Tracy Oost, and Gerard Courtin, faculty members of the Department of Forensic Science at Laurentian University, cover the following topics: the decomposition timeline, identifying human...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: When excavation in downtown Manhattan unearthed an 18th-century Negro burial ground, New Yorkers were reminded that slavery was not limited to the South. This program explores an often-overlooked chapter in the history of the city and the colonies in general by examining the oldest slave cemetery ever found in North America. Scholars and leading experts conduct archaeological and forensic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: By grim coincidence, archaeologists are ideally suited by their conventional techniques to determine whether or not war crimes have been committed. This program looks at forensic archaeologist Richard Wright, whose work has greatly helped the international community in the pursuit of justice. The program shows details of his team's findings at the Ukrainian village of Serniki, proving with such...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Bubonic plague, starvation, maybe even cannibalism-such were the miseries of life in England's Jamestown settlement, circa 1609. Four centuries later, this program explores the colony's story with the help of dramatic reenactments and information on recent historical discoveries. Sophisticated forensics and archaeological methods reveal the contents of Jamestown graves, producing shocking...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This ABC News program spotlights the work of Doug Owsley, curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, who is a keen interpreter of the silent yet expressive language of bones. Owsley and his biographer, Jeff Benedict, give examples of how he has used bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology to unravel mysteries ranging from identifying an exhumed Civil War...
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: 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: 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: 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
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: 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