Acid Mine Drainage and Precipitates

In this video, environmental scientists measure the pH of water to detect acid mine drainage from an abandoned coal mine and then demonstrate how metals present in acid drainage fall out of solution as precipitates when a basic substance is added to the water.

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Arts in the Renaissance: Palestrina

Bruce Heim, a University of Louisville music professor, discusses and demonstrates key characteristics of Renaissance music including counterpoint and homophony. The segment concludes with the Louisville Brass performing an arrangement of Renaissance composer Palestrina's "Sicut cervus."

Controlling Water Run-off

This video shows how the environmentally friendly design of the Visitor Center at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville slows down water run-off and helps to control non-point-source water pollution, conserve water, and prevent soil erosion

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Tunneling for Water: Geology and the Ohio River Tunnel Project

This video explains the importance of the Ohio River as a source of drinking water, its geologic origin, the rock strata exposed when Louisville Water Company dug a tunnel beside the river to access the water, and the meaning of the terms “aquifer” and “filtration."

Arts in the Renaissance: Upon a Summer's Day

Instructor Jennifer Rose teaches students a Renaissance dance, Upon a Summer’s Day, from John Playford’s book The English Dancing Master. They perform the dance’s three figures and chorus. Rose relates that this was still danced in Appalachia in the 1920s and explains dance’s role in social interaction in the Renaissance.

Environmental Impact of Acid Mine Drainage

This video shows how acid mine drainage from an abandoned coal mine has affected Wildcat Branch in Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest. Because the creek has a very acidic pH of 2.9, most organisms cannot survive there, and Wildcat Branch is essentially dead.

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Reusing Wastewater

This video demonstrates how peat filtration beds at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky purify and conserve wastewater and eliminate one cause of non-point-source water pollution.

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Tunneling for Water: Understanding the Riverbank Filtration System

This video explores the importance of groundwater, the use of wells, and the unique nature of Louisville Water Company’s riverbank filtration system.

Arts in the Renaissance: About the Bransle

Carrie Nath, director of education for the Kentucky Arts Council, explains the purpose and structure of the Maltese Bransle, a country dance that was popular in the courts of England and France during the Renaissance.

The Geology of Coal

In this video, a geologist describes how coal, a sedimentary rock, was formed when organic materials piled up in swamps millions of years ago. Over time, heat and pressure transformed the buried materials into forms of coal that cause acid mine drainage when exposed to oxygen.

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Recycling and Restoration

This video explains how Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky used recycled cypress from pickle vats to build its visitor center and then “paid back” nature by creating a cypress-tupelo swamp at one end of a lake on the park grounds.

Tunneling for Water: Digging the Tunnel and Prehistoric Water!

This video traces the construction of Louisville Water Company’s riverbank filtration system, including the unexpected discovery of a reservoir of prehistoric water.

Arts in the Renaissance: Bransle

Kentucky students perform the Maltese Bransle (pronounced brahwl), a country dance that was popular in the royal courts of France and England during the Renaissance. The segment was recorded by KET in partnership with the Kentucky Arts Council and Kentucky Shakespeare. Kentucky Shakespeare also provided the costumes worn by the dancers.

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High-Sulfur Coal and Acidic Water

In this video, a geologist measures the pH of water after high-sulfur coal from a Kentucky coal mine has been added to it. This test demonstrates that the sulfate salts found on the coal’s surface cause the water to become much more acidic.

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Rain Gardens

This video shows how a rain garden at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky slows down the flow of water from the forest’s parking lot and helps prevent soil erosion.

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Tunneling for Water: Digging the Well and Treating the Water

This video examines the purpose, anatomy, and drilling of wells and looks specifically at how water moves through the Ohio River aquifer to the well and tunnel created by Louisville Water Company and how the water is treated to ensure its safety.

Arts in the Renaissance: About the Pavane

Carrie Nath, director of education for the Kentucky Arts Council, explains the purpose and form of the Pavane, an Elizabethan processional dance.

Mycoremediation

This video explores the process of mycoremediation: planting fungi such as oyster mushrooms to mitigate non-point-source water pollution caused by oil, gasoline, and other toxic substances.

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Restoring Lower Rock Creek

This brief video describes how Lower Rock Creek’s location between two National Wild and Scenic Rivers caused Kentucky environmentalists to choose the creek as a target for acid mine drainage remediation.

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Tunneling for Water: Full-Length Version

This video documents a massive riverbank filtration project undertaken by Louisville Water Company, including the construction of four wells and a mile-long tunnel. It also explores related science and engineering topics including Ohio River geology, aquifers, and the function and structure of wells.

Acid Mine Drainage Remediation

In this video, an environmental technologist visits an abandoned coal mine in Kentucky to talk about how a remediation system (a series of settling ponds and treatment cells) is neutralizing the acid drainage flowing from the mine and keeping it from damaging a creek downstream.

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Applying the Scientific Method

This video provides a real-life example of the scientific method: testing hypotheses about which plants will grow most successfully on a green roof in Kentucky.

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Arts in the Renaissance: Pavane

Kentucky students dance the Pavane, a processional dance from the Renaissance. The segment was recorded by KET in partnership with the Kentucky Arts Council and Kentucky Shakespeare. Kentucky Shakespeare also provided the costumes.

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Tunneling for Water: Teacher Materials

This PDF is a booklet developed by Louisville Water Company for use with Tunneling for Water. It includes standards correlations, background information and graphics related to the water company’s riverbank filtration project and the geology of the Ohio River, vocabulary, prompts, and activities.

Arts in the Renaissance: Scene from Hamlet

Actor Kevin Hardesty performs the famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy from Act III, Scene I of the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet. Hardesty opens the segment with an introduction to the scene.

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Results of Acid Mine Drainage Remediation

In this video, a biologist visits Rock Creek in Pulaski County, Kentucky to show how acid mine drainage remediation has increased the stream’s pH from acidic levels to almost neutral. Although the ecosystem has not been completely restored, many species have returned to Rock Creek.

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Stream Restoration

This video explores how Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky has restored a channelized or straightened stream to its original meandering path, thereby improving the stream’s water quality and creating a better habitat for wildlife.

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Aquatic Insects

In this brief video, a biologist talks about the macroinvertebrates (typically aquatic insects) that form the basis of food webs in healthy Kentucky streams.

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Arts in the Renaissance: Scene from Much Ado About Nothing

The main plot in Much Ado About Nothing revolves around Claudio and Hero. This scene features the more mature lovers from the play—Beatrice and Benedick. Hero’s character has been defamed, causing her fiancé, Claudio, to reject her at the alter. Enraged, Beatrice urges Benedick to kill Claudio.

Detached Wetlands

This video depicts a detached wetland, a small pool that forms beside a shallow meandering stream when it overflows its banks. These wetlands are important breeding grounds for the invertebrates that live in and beside streams

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Acid Mine Drainage: General Level Background Essays

These two background essays provide general information about acid mine drainage (AMD) for grades 6-12. The first explores how AMD is formed and its environmental impact, and the second focuses on the chemical processes involved in AMD. They can be shared with students or used as a reference by teachers.

Bernheim Forest: Background Essays

These two essays provide background information for grades 4-12 about water conservation and preservation at Bernheim Forest. The first essay describes the water-friendly features of the Bernheim Visitor Center, and the second describes two restoration projects undertaken at the forest.

About the Seasons

Children learn how seasonal weather changes affect everything, from the behavior of animals to the way we dress and play.

Acid Mine Drainage: Advanced Level Background Essay

This background essay for high school chemistry explores the chemical processes that underlie the problem of acid mine drainage and includes detailed equations representing these processes. It can be shared with students or used as a reference by teachers.

Bernheim Forest Discussion Questions

This PDF combines all discussion questions from the eight “Bernheim Forest” videos into a single document for teachers to download and print.

Acid Mine Drainage Discussion Questions

This PDF combines all discussion questions from the eight “Acid Mine Videos” pages into a single convenient document that teachers can easily download and print. The discussion questions are divided into three levels: General (6-12), Intermediate (9-12), and Advanced (High School Chemistry).

Bernheim Forest Graphic Handouts

This set of five graphic handouts illustrate concepts from the eight “Bernheim Forest” videos including the design of the green roof, the cistern, and the peat filtration system as well as mycoremediation to offset oil and gasoline pollution and restoring a creek to its original meander.

Acid Mine Drainage Quantitative Questions, Advanced Level

This handout for high school chemistry students is divided into general, intermediate, and advanced problems that require students to balance chemical equations, write equilibrium expressions, and answer other quantitative questions related to acid mine drainage.

Bernheim Forest Glossary

This glossary provides definitions for scientific and technical terms used in the eight “Bernheim Forest” videos.

Acid Mine Drainage Glossary

This glossary provides definitions for scientific and technical terms used in the eight “Acid Mine Drainage” videos.

Acid Mine Drainage Lesson Plans, Grades 6-9

These two physical science/chemistry lesson plans for grades 6-9 are both lab activities. One involves using acid/base indicators to test the acidity or alkalinity of common household chemicals, and the other involves testing how different factors affect the solubility of substances in water.

Acid Mine Drainage Graphic Handouts

This set of four graphic handouts illustrate important concepts from the eight “Acid Mine Drainage” videos: the pH of water, what the term “logarithmic scale” means relative to pH, how raising pH causes metal ions to fall out of solution, and an acid mine drainage remediation system.

American Chestnut Tree

This annotated slideshow adapted from KET's Electronic Field Trip to the Forest illustrates how blight decimated the American chestnut tree and the methods scientists use to identify and pollinate the remaining trees to create blight-resistant trees.

Animal Families

How long does a baby elephant stay with her mother? What do you call a baby goat? Young children learn some interesting facts about the lives of baby animals in this original video from KET.

Backyard Wildlife

Squirrels and chipmunks are just two of the animals you might see. Backyard Wildlife, an original KET video, encourages children to explore the world outside their back door.

Backyard Wildlife Interactive

Squirrels and chipmunks are just two of the animals you might see. Backyard Wildlife, an original KET video, encourages children to explore the world outside their back door.

KET Image Bank: Birds

Browse through thumbnail images of native birds in this KET Image Bank interactive catalog. Clicking a thumbnail will take you to a larger image for download.

The Civil War Era: About the Lancers Quadrille

Dance and music educator Jennifer Rose explains the history of The Lancers Quadrille, including the origin of the dance and why it was popular in Civil War-era America. She also discusses the movements and sets of the dance.

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The Civil War Era: Battle of Perryville

Historian Kent Masterson Brown discusses the importance of the Battle of Perryville for the course of the Civil War. It was crucial because the Union Army successfully drove the Confederate Army from Kentucky and ended its attempt to recapture the state.

The Civil War Era: Gospel Train

“Gospel Train” is a code-word song used by slaves in the Underground Railroad, often sung just before an escape to alert others wishing to go that the time was near. In this segment, folk singers Rhonda and Sparky Rucker perform the piece on harmonica and guitar.

The Civil War Era: The Lancers Quadrille

The Berea Festival Dancers perform two sets of The Lancers Quadrille, a social dance that was popular in Civil War-era America.

The Civil War Era: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

In this scene from George Aiken’s dramatization of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the escaped slave Eliza reunites with her husband, George, and their friend Phineas. She recounts how she crossed the Ohio River with their child while escaping from slave hunters. Their exaggerated language and performance are characteristic of melodramas.

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The Civil War Era: Words Like Freedom

Dhana Bradley Donaldson and Priscilla Hancock Cooper present a “poetic concert” featuring “Ain’t I a Woman?” the famous speech made by abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth; “Alabama Centennial,” a poem about the Civil Rights movement by Naomi Long Madgett; and Nikki Giovanni’s self-love poem, “Ego Tripping.”

Clouds and Weather

Learn about different types of clouds and the weather they signal in this video featuring original stop-motion animation.

The Cumberland Gap Tunnel

This KET video chronicles the incredible engineering effort that built the tunnel through Cumberland Mountain as well as the challenges posed by the geological composition of the area.

Dragonflies in Kentucky

This KET video segment from Kentucky Life explains the differences between dragonflies and damselflies and explores their habitats.

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Drama Based on Historical Characters: Angus Augustus Burleigh, Civil War Soldier

In this video segment, writer/actor Hasan Davis portrays Angus Augustus Burleigh, a slave who fought for the Union army during the Civil War. At age 16, Burleigh ran away from his master’s home in Anderson County, Ky., and registered for the Union Army.

Drama Based on Historical Characters: George Rogers, Lucy, and William Clark

This segment from the KET series Kentucky Life includes an excerpt from the historical drama The Remarkable Clarks, about three famous siblings, George Rogers Clark, Lucy Clark Croghan, and William Clark, and interviews with the actors who portray them.

Drama Based on Historical Characters: Henry Clay: Colonel Tarleton's Visit

George McGee, a drama professor at Georgetown College and a Kentucky Humanities Council Chautauqua performer, performs a monologue scene as 19th century Kentucky statesman Henry Clay. In this scene, Clay recalls a childhood incident—the invasion of his family’s farm by British troops the day after his father’s funeral.

Drama Based on Historical Characters: Henry Clay: The Mendenhall Incident

George McGee, a drama professor at Georgetown College and a Kentucky Humanities Council Chautauqua performer, performs a monologue scene as 19th-century Kentucky statesman Henry Clay. In this scene, Clay discusses his stand on slavery, a stance that was both politically and personally troubling to him.

Drama Based on Historical Characters: Jemima Boone

This is a scene from a play about the daughter of famous Kentucky pioneer Daniel Boone. This scene opens with Jemima recalling a date in 1773. The scene transports us to that day.

Dress for the Weather

Learn more about the seasons and help George dress for the right time of year with this interactive game.

Look At Me Now

Children go through countless physical changes during the first year of their life. Look At Me Now, an original KET interactive, depicts a year in the life of a baby through photos, and highlights the changes we experience while growing.

What Do You Get From That?

Children learn how farm animals contribute to people’s lives by providing food for the table and clothes to keep them warm.

Zoo Safari

Take a trip to a zoo and learn more about some of our favorite animals.

The Falls of the Ohio

This video from KET examines one of the largest exposed fossil beds in the world, found at the Falls of the Ohio River, near Louisville, Kentucky.

Farm Solutions to Water Pollution

In this KET video from Common Ground and Cleaner Water, Tribby Vice, a Kentucky farmer, talks about the changes he has made on his farm to protect the water quality of the stream running through his property and the watershed in which he lives.

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From Seed to Fruit

Children get a glimpse of what happens underground in the life of a cherry tomato plant in this original animated video from KET.

Habitat and Diet in Racehorse Development

This animated segment from KET's Electronic Field Trip to a Horse Farm demonstrates one of the ways calcium, a naturally occurring mineral derived from limestone, enters a horse's diet to give it an advantage in bone strength.

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How The Ohio River Was Formed

This video segment adapted from KET's Where the River Bends demonstrates how climate change and glacier movement during the Ice Ages destroyed the old Teays River and created the Ohio River, Kentucky's northern border.

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Indiana Bats of Carter Cave

This KET video segment from Kentucky Life explores one of the endangered habitats of Indiana bats and describes the benefits of bats to humans.

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Inverse Square Law

This animation from KET's distance learning physics course demonstrates the mathematical formula for a scientific law as it applies to light.

Japanese Culture: Bunraku

In this excerpt from a documentary on Bunraku, students meet an apprentice studying to be a puppeteer at Bunraku Theater in Osaka. In addition, they learn a little bit about the history of this classic Japanese art form and see puppets being manipulated.

Japanese Culture: Japanese Aesthetics

Shozo Sato provides a brief overview of Japanese aesthetics and explains the major differences between Western and Japanese aesthetics. He talks about the Japanese emphasis on stylization and the function of art and the artist in Japanese society.

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Japanese Culture: Kabuki Actor's Technique

Shozo Sato describes Kabuki acting technique and the training that Kabuki performers, traditionally all male, go through in order to learn how to play male, female, young, and old characters. He demonstrates vocal inflections and actual movements—walking, how the head is held, poses—of various Kabuki characters.

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Japanese Culture: Kabuki Fan Symbolism

Kabuki master Shozo Sato discusses the origin of fan use in Kabuki theater and demonstrates the common usage and symbolism of the various fan movements, using the fan to represent a tray, a sunrise, the wind, rain, cutting with a knife, drinking, and other items and ideas.

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Japanese Culture: Kabuki Makeup

Kabuki master Shozo Sato applies makeup to actor Michael Goldberg as he discusses about how makeup is applied and how colors and lines help suggest character. In Kabuki theater, makeup is used to express a character’s personality.

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Japanese Culture: Koto

Kazue Sawai, a well-known koto player and widow of Tadao Sawai, who is considered the greatest modern koto player, performs “Midare” (“Chaos”) on the traditional Japanese instrument. Used with permission of Films for the Humanities and Sciences, a division of Films Media Group, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.

Japanese Culture: Scene from Macbeth Kabuki-Style

In the segment Macbeth: Kabuki Style, actors Michael Goldberg and Barbara Robertson perform the scene from Macbeth in which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plot the murder of Duncan. The text used by the actors in this video was adapted to better suit Kabuki-style performance and only resembles the standard text of Macbeth.

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Japanese Culture: Shakespeare Meets Kabuki: Scene Introduction

In the segment Shakespeare Meets Kabuki: Scene Introduction, Shozo Sato explains why he created “American Kabuki” to help Americans understand and appreciate this art form and why he chose to use Shakespeare to introduce Western audiences to Kabuki theater.

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Japanese Culture: What Is Kabuki?

Shozo Sato, a Kabuki master, presents an overview of Kabuki, pointing out major characteristics such as male actors, stylized acting, and audience. He also discusses the distinction between Kabuki and Noh theater, the other classical Japanese theatrical style.

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Karst Topography and Mammoth Cave

This video from KET shows karst topography in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky, illustrating how caverns and sinkholes are formed from water dissolving limestone underground.

Kentucky/Appalachian Culture: The Two Gals

Storyteller Anndrena Belcher tells the story of two sisters, one kind and compassionate, the other lazy and greedy, and their separate adventures in a land they discover at the bottom of their well. In telling the story, Belcher invites young people in the audience to assume roles and participate.

Kentucky/Appalachian Culture: Goin' to Boston

Goin’ to Boston is a traditional folk dance enjoyed as a “play party game” in Appalachia. Instructor Anndrena Belcher teaches a group of middle school students the song and dance moves.

Kentucky/Appalachian Culture: About Play Party Games

Anndrena Belcher interviews traditional Kentucky performer and national treasure Jean Ritchie about the play party games she played as a youngster in Eastern Kentucky. Ritchie discusses the importance of the games as community celebrations and opportunities to court.

Kentucky/Appalachian Culture: Bluegrass Clogging

Host David Thurmond tells how clogging came to America and how shoes with taps evolved. He tells students to note that the dancing emphasizes movements below the waist and to look for movements that resemble square dancing.

Kentucky/Appalachian Culture: Shady Grove/Bandyrowe

Folksinger Jean Ritchie performs the Appalachian tune “Shady Grove,” a traditional song she learned from her family. Then she performs “Bandyrowe,” a song for which she made up verses to help get her two sons to sleep when they were very young. Ritchie accompanies herself on the lap dulcimer.

KET Image Bank: Flowering Plants

Browse through thumbnail images of flowering plants in this KET Image Bank interactive catalog. Clicking a thumbnail will take you to a larger image for download.

KET Image Bank: Insects

Browse through thumbnail images of various insects in this KET Image Bank interactive catalog. Clicking a thumbnail will take you to a larger image for download.

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KET Image Bank: Kentucky Places

Browse through thumbnail images of Kentucky places in this KET Image Bank interactive catalog. Clicking a thumbnail will take you to a larger image for download.

KET Image Bank: Mammals

Browse through thumbnail images of different species of mammals in this KET Image Bank interactive catalog. Clicking a thumbnail will take you to a larger image for download.

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KET Image Bank: Reptiles

Browse through thumbnail images of reptiles in this a KET Image Bank interactive catalog. Clicking a thumbnail will take you to a larger image for download.

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Let's Build Something Interactive

Children learn about the types of machines on a construction site and the different jobs they do to help us build in this original interactive from KET.

Making Electricity at a Coal-Burning Plant

This video from KET traces the energy transformations that occur when coal is burned to produce electricity. Some of the mechanical processes are also described.

MARTHA SPEAKS Reading Buddies in Action

In this video from the MARTHA SPEAKS mini-tutorial on vocabulary, teachers Weddy Youn and Joseph Cooke describe their success in using the cross-age literacy program, MARTHA SPEAKS Reading Buddies.

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MARTHA SPEAKS Reading Buddies Up Close

In this video from WFSU, staff and students describe how the MARTHA SPEAKS Reading Buddies Program works and discuss the benefits of pairing younger and older students.

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Mixing Colors

Children learn the basics of mixing primary colors in this original animated video.

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Mixing Colors Interactive

Children learn the basics of mixing primary colors in this original interactive.

Native American Culture: Cherokee Beaver Dance

The Raven Rock Dancers perform the Beaver Dance, a social dance depicting the actions of a hunting party, at the 2006 Festival of Native Peoples. The Raven Rock Dancers is a family group founded by Walker Calhoun, a respected Cherokee elder.

Native American Culture: About Apache Dances

The Apache Crown Dancers are enrolled members of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and live in Whiteriver, Ariz. In this video segment, the group leader, Joe Tohonnie, Jr., talks about the long history of the dance and its role in Apache culture as the dancers perform Crown Dances.