TV and Radio Guide w/c 6th January 2014

Happy New Year! I’ve spent today collating the programmes for this week, “discussing” Teach First and teacher training routes on twitter (why?) and planning for tomorrow. And no I’ve not watched Sherlock yet.

Highlights are :

• Of course – Stargazing Live – with Prof Brian Cox and Dara O’Briain wth Liz Bonnin searching for the Aurora Borealis. There are 3 days of programmes dedicated to the skies starting on Tuesday.
• Code of Life – If you can catch this programme on BBC 4, or on iPlayer it’s really worth it. The discovery of DNA in the scientist’s own words.
• Dolphins: Spy in the Pod. Despite the characterisation of the underwater camera “spies”, this was compelling watching last week and Orca are always worth watching.
• Terry Wogan is looking at the Human Body Clock, this should be entertaining if not enlightening (hopefully both).

Download the PDF version of the guide to use at school

TV and Radio Guide w/c 25th February 2013

This week we’ve got meteors, bears and viruses, more of Attenborough’s Living Planet and a genius whose pre-eminent sewer development helped rid London of cholera. Yes it’s another Science TV and Radio guide, collated this week by @a_weatherall. Straight to the picks of the week – loads of great TV, but both Sarah and I have chosen radio : mine is the documentary about the life of Buckminster Fuller, and Sarah’s pick is Science Cafe on the 60th anniversary of the discovery of DNA. The pdf and spreadsheet copies of the guide are at the bottom of this post.

This week’s online video collection is literally out of this world. This week has been a fantastic opportunity to view the ISS from the UK with some very bright passes. Chris Hadfield is one of NASA’s astronauts in the ISS and this week he took part in a Google+ Hangout to answer questions from the people of Earth :). The good stuff starts 30 minutes in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8LI5JiWEfs. The amazing thing for me is that video communication technology has finally got to a point where we can have these conversations. @Cmdr_Hadfield also posts pictures of earth taken from the observation module on twitter, some of which are absolutely beautiful:

Tonight’s finale: Full Moon rising. So near, and yet…
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 30, 2013

And he has posted some great videos about life on the ISS: 

• Chris Hadfields Space Kitchen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZx0RIV0wss
• nicely juxtaposed with Nail Clipping in Space: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xICkLB3vAeU
• and keeping those hands clean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z2KNDGNnlc
• how to play guitar in zero G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLRunqi1mDM
• and his composition Jewel in the Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YufsbE4-jmY if you like that sort of thing 🙂
• and you’ve got to see Captain Kirk chatting to Commander Hadfield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ro4zkw-LA
  

Here’s the playlist from this current expedition from the Canadian space Agency: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUaartJaon3LV-ZQ4J3bNQj4VNVG2ByIG and also

Sunita Williams was a previous commander who left the space station in November and she posted a wonderful tour of the space station on the day she left: it’s fascinating how the orientation changes are so natural to them, but disorienting when watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k.