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Media History Digital Library: Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Collection

For Students 9th - 10th
A large collection of original magazines that document the evolution of the American broadcasting industry from 1896 to 1964, covering radio, television, and motion pictures.
Website
NPR: National Public Radio

Npr: Edward R. Murrow Broadcasting History

For Students 9th - 10th
NPR takes a look at a biography written about Edward R. Murrow, a distinguished broadcast journalist. Features an interview with the author, excerpts from the book, and audio clips of some of Murrow's most famous broadcasts including the...
Website
Other

Media Line: Interactive Resource for Television Industry

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a multimedia information center for journalists working (or hoping to work) in television. Great visuals and reader-friendly copy.
Activity
CNN

Cnn: You Be the Producer

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This is a great learning tool for producing and writing for television news. You have the opportuntity to judge stories and see if they would make it to the newscast.
Handout
PBS

Pbs: People and Discoveries: Kdka Begins to Broadcast 1920

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from PBS details the history of radio and KDKA (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) the first radio station to offer programming. Mentions: advertising, NBC Radio, mass culture.
Website
Open Door Team

Open Door Web Site: Jethro Tull and the Seed Drill

For Students 9th - 10th
Jethro Tull (1674-1741) invented a machine that helped to increase the harvest yield by planting seeds in straight lines, a vast improvement over sowing by hand that led to greater crop yields.
Website
Other

American Public Media: Prairie Home Companion

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from American Public Media offers the opportunity to listen to "A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor" shows and also presents trivia about the show, writings by Keillor, and other related materials.
Activity
Stanford University

Riverwalk Jazz: Speakeasies, Flappers, and Red Hot Jazz: Music of Prohibition

For Students 9th - 10th
Script of a radio broadcast about Prohibition and Jazz Age America comments on black market bootlegging, jazz music, speakeasies, flappers, and women`s suffrage.
Website
Other

Vanderbilt University: Television News Archive

For Students 9th - 10th
This archive from Vanderbilt University contains an "extensive and complete" collection of television news broadcasts. "The collection holds more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national...
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Media Awareness Network: What's in a Word? Lesson Plan

For Teachers 5th - 7th Standards
Help 5th through 7th graders explore the power of words and their capacity to influence our thinking with this lesson from the Media Awareness Network. An easy-to-print .pdf version is linked from the top of the page.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs News Hour: Vanishing Verbs

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Ever noticed how tv news reporting sounds so different from conversation and from academic writing? Explore this topic with your students using the resources and plans at this site. Handouts, discussion questions and vocabulary practice...
Article
University of Houston

University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: No. 159: Lowell, Massachusetts

For Students 9th - 10th
History of Lowell, Massachusetts, textile mill that underwent tremendous growth in the early 1800s, and led to the creation of America's first industrial city. This is a transcript of an accompanying radio broadcast.
Article
University of Houston

University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: No. 1359: History of Windmills

For Students 9th - 10th
This page provides a brief account of the history of windmills, their origins and types. This is a transcript of an accompanying radio broadcast.
Website
University of Houston

University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: Nevil Shute

For Students 9th - 10th
Read this transcript or listen to the broadcast of a radio program about the books and characters created by Nevil Shute, who called himself "an engineer who wrote books."
Article
University of Houston

University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: Big Diesel Engines

For Students 9th - 10th
Traces the historical evolution of the diesel engine. Explains the distinction between gasoline engines and diesel engines. Discusses the uses of diesel engines. Interesting, anecdotal and well-written. (Text is the actual radio...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Blink (Lesson Plans About Hate Crimes)

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Two lesson plans about the nature of hate crimes can be found at this P.O.V. site. Students identify elements that make up a hate crime and try to determine what motivates those who commit them. They also analyze how hate crimes are...
Article
Siteseen

Siteseen: American Historama: American Sports in the 1920s

For Students 9th - 10th
A comprehensive overview with detailed facts about the history of sports in the 1920s, a time when sporting events were broadcast live across the nation and sports stars were idolized. Provides a list of famous athletes.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Gospel Music Meets a Wide Audience (Lesson Plan)

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson that identifies some of the leading figures in post-World War II gospel music. Students compare the differences in style and approach of several gospel musicians and analyze how music has different meanings in different social...
Interactive
PBS

Iowa Public Television (Iptv): Explore More

For Students 3rd - 8th
Explore More is an online and broadcast series engages students in problems they can relate to, provides compelling content for investigation and gives students opportunities to form their own points of view on contemporary issues such...