(often abbreviated VGHS) is an from Rocket Jump Studios. The first season has a movie format, broken into nine episodes, following Brian's acceptance into Video Game High School, and his first week there. He struggles to fit in and clashes with The Law, and gets expelled, but signs up for (FPS) tryouts, and gets accepted onto the Junior Varsity (JV) team. The second season has a television format, with story lines of every main character in each episode, and takes place over a longer time. The VGHS Varsity FPS team is disqualified from its season, and the JV team, including Jenny and Brian and coached by Jenny's mother, takes its place. Over the course of the season Jenny and Brian begin secretly dating, Jenny copes with having her mother back in her life, Brian tries to connect with his mother, Ted tries to fit in with the drifters, Ki finds her place at VGHS, and The Law picks himself up after losing so much.

• Episode 1 High School Student Guide Answers
• Freshman Guide To High School

Contents. Series overview Season Episodes Length Release date Season premiere Season finale 9 10–22 minutes May 11, 2012 ( 2012-05-11) July 5, 2012 ( 2012-07-05) 6 30–44 minutes July 26, 2013 ( 2013-07-26) August 31, 2013 ( 2013-08-31) 6 37–66 minutes October 13, 2014 December 15, 2014 List of episodes Season 1 (2012) Season 1 episodes were released once a week, from May 11 to July 5, 2012. Each episode was first released on the Rocket Jump website, and a week later the same episode was re-released on the channel 'freddiew.' This was done in an effort to attract more visitors to the studio's official website.

Episode 1 High School Student Guide Answers

People who pledged $20 or more to the project's received HD digital downloads of each episode as they came out, as well as an HD download of the complete season. Those who pledged $25 or more received an exclusive DVD of the series with limited edition cover art, signed by cast and crew, and those who pledged $30 or more received an exclusive Blu-ray version. Number Title Length Rocket Jump release date YouTube release date YouTube viewers (millions) 1 'Shot Heard Round the World' 11:54 May 11, 2012 ( 2012-05-11) May 17, 2012 12.611 Ordinary and wimpy high school student Brian Doheny rushes home to play his favorite online game, Field of Fire.

After being stopped by bullies, and chasing the cat around the house, he returns to his computer in time to kill world-famous FPS player The Law. With the world watching in awe, Brian is accepted into Video Game High School. 2 'Welcome to Me' 12:58 May 17, 2012 ( 2012-05-17) May 24, 2012 6.972 It is Brian and Ki's first day at VGHS.

There they meet the scary Dean Calhoun, the intimidating Jenny, and pushover RA Ted. Brian plays his first FPS game at VGHS, winning and causing a student to be expelled. The Law then catches up to him, alone, and shows his hate for Brian by smashing his keyboard. 3 'When You Know the Pit.'

10:26 May 24, 2012 ( 2012-05-24) May 31, 2012 6.261 Brian has nightmares after The Law's threats, and wakes up to find that much of the school hates him. He tells Calhoun that he will keep a low profile, but then attends the freshman FPS class taught by Ace, and assistant Jenny. Brian is volunteered to play a timed shooter, The Pit, and almost beats the record, but gets cocky and fails. Jenny invites Brian to a party at her place. 4 'Any Game in the House' 17:30 May 31, 2012 ( 2012-05-31) June 7, 2012 5.963 Brian, Ted, and Ki go to Jenny's party.

Freshman Guide To High School

When Brian and Jenny are alone they reveal to each other they both liked DXM, a dancing game, when they were younger, and Jenny mentions that her mother is a coach of a professional FPS team. The Law challenges Brian to a game, which Brian cannot refuse, he chooses DXM. The Law wins the game, but everyone is impressed by Brian's courage.

Meanwhile Ted and Ki are on their first date. After Ted fails to impress Ki on a rhythmic game, she shows him one of her games.

They meet the Drift King who bullies Ted into a drifting game, Ted goes into a hypnotized state after playing. Brian finds out Jenny is dating The Law. The Law' 14:26 June 7, 2012 ( 2012-06-07) June 14, 2012 5.397 The next day Brian prepares for the JV/Varsity FPS scrimmage, and finds out students are betting on him and The Law. At rhythmic gaming class, instructed by Ted's father Freddie, Ted ignores the fact that Freddie calls him 'no good', and blacks out, dreaming about drift car racing. Brian gets pumped up by Jenny's pre-game speech, learning the game will not be affected by her relationship with The Law, but then hears from The Law that he put her up to putting him in the scrimmage. Brian attempts to show off and kill The Law, but accidentally fires at Jenny, his team captain.

6 'Carpe Diem' 15:48 June 14, 2012 ( 2012-06-14) June 21, 2012 5.201 After the disastrous JV/Varsity FPS scrimmage Brian has become the laughing stock of VGHS. He is asked to leave the school by administration, and starts a fight with Games Dean.

Brian is about to lose, and get expelled, but is rescued by Jenny. Ted continues to see visions of drift car racing, and is asked to sign up for it by the Drift King. 7 'Sign Up to Sign Out' 17:32 June 21, 2012 ( 2012-06-21) June 28, 2012 5.021 Games Dean accuses Brian of moving in on Jenny, and Jenny tells Brian they can no longer talk, hoping to please Varsity captain The Law and get on Varsity. He tries to sign up for the FPS team, but gets in a fight with The Law and his followers. Brian signs up for the FPS team, but for starting a schoolyard brawl he is expelled. He tells Jenny The Law will not allow her on Varsity, and she storms off. Ted gets the courage to tell his father he is not a rhythmic gamer, and wants to drift, but Freddie convinces him to sign up for rhythmic gaming.

Ki switches IDs, and signs Ted up for drift racing. Ted is furious, and he ends their relationship. 8 'Locked in the System' 15:09 June 28, 2012 ( 2012-06-28) July 5, 2012 4.588 Wandering the streets after getting expelled Brian takes over an arcade. Ted shows up, hoping Brian will come back for FPS tryouts. Then Ki shows up, hoping to win back Ted, and Jenny shows up to apologize. Jenny tells Brian she broke up with The Law, and that she thinks Brian should still tryout for FPS. Ted realizes he hates his father, and that Ki cares for him.

Jenny and Brian make up over a game of DXM. 9 'It's All About the Game' 21:49 July 5, 2012 ( 2012-07-05) July 12, 2012 5.377 It is tryout day at VGHS, Ki is trying out for Freddie's rhythmic gaming team, Ted is suited up for drift racing, and Brian has shown up to play Field of Fire. The VGHS FPS tryouts are aired live worldwide, and not wanting to be shown up, The Law enters the game, aiming for Jenny and Brian. With the team thinking they are done, Jenny and Brian hatch a plan to sacrifice the rest of the team, so that Brian can meet The Law face-to-face.

There Brian takes on The Law's team, winning the game, getting back into VGHS, and gaining a spot on JV. Jenny and Brian kiss in the locker room, and Brian meets up with Ted and Ki, who also got onto their teams. Season 2 (2013) Season 2 was confirmed during the latter half of 2012 by several of the people who worked on the first season.

The Kickstarter fundraiser for season 2 started January 11, 2013, and ended on February 11, 2013, with the project more than sufficiently funded. A trailer for season 2 was released July 11, 2013, announcing the release of the first episode on July 25, 2013, but episode 1 was delayed until the following day. Inspired by, released a couple months before the production of season 2, select scenes were shot at, twice the used on YouTube. The high frame rate (HFR) episodes were usually released on Rocket Jump's website at the same time as YouTube.

Number Title Length YouTube release date HFR release date YouTube viewers (millions) 10 'Welcome to Varsity' 30:56 July 26, 2013 ( 2013-07-26) July 26, 2013 6.200 VGHS has hired a new FPS coach, Mary Matrix, Jenny's mother, and Freddie has not been assigning homework to Ki. Jenny hopes to join the varsity team, but Mary asks Brian instead, ruining Jenny and Brian's first date. The Law is accused and found guilty of, despite claiming he was framed, banning the varsity team from the championships, effectively ending the VGHS's FPS season before it has begun. However, due to a loophole found by Ki, the JV team is allowed to take their place. The team comes from behind and wins the first game, and Jenny and Brian agree to remain friends. Meanwhile Ted is sleep deprived, and misses the due date for his drifting assignment.

Ki writes it, due to craving homework after Freddie bans her from doing any, but Ted owns up to his mistakes. Afterwards, The Law shows up and announces he is moving in with Brian and Ted.

11 'You Can't Stop a Sandwich' 34:45 August 2, 2013 ( 2013-08-02) August 2, 2013 4.369 The Law has moved in with Ted and Brian, and is being miserable to everyone in residence. Without a focus, Ki sits in with each of the teams at VGHS, and is not able try out for any of them.

The head RA makes her the floor RA, instead of Ted, and she must deal with The Law problem. The Law agrees to keep Ted in his room, but remains miserable. Mary puts the FPS team on a healthy diet, and losing his scholarship, Brian is not able to eat. Calhoun gives Brian a janitor job, but the hunger gets Brian suspended from FPS practice. Ted steals soda from the faculty lounge for the drifting team, there the Duchess of Kart kisses him and steals the key. Brian and Ted confront the battle kart team, and win a battle kart game against them.

Brian apologizes to the team, and Mary returns him to practice. 12 'Double XP Weekend' 32:17 August 9, 2013 ( 2013-08-09) August 9, 2013 4.266 Video Game High School is preparing for parent's day. Ki and Ted are nervous for Ki's father's visit, and Ted tries to learn a card game that Ki's father is good at, but only convinces himself that he is stupid. After Ki takes her father on a tour around campus, telling him all she has done at VGHS, he says he wants her to come back home. He is unimpressed by her boyfriend, but admits she is growing up and lets her stay. Jenny is asked to speak about her mother before she receives the 'Parent of the Year' award, but cannot think of any nice moments with her, and she and Brian end up spending the night together when he comes over to help.

Over brunch with the head of the national FPS league, Jenny gets mad at her mother for reinserting herself into her life, but Brian helps to change her mind. The Law plays a video game Ki wrote about the events at VGHS since she and Brian got there, and he realizes that he has become a pushover. 13 'Thirty Foot Range' 37:34 August 16, 2013 ( 2013-08-16) August 18, 2013 4.292 Jenny and Brian are having a secret relationship.

When Brian is not able to disarm a bomb in practice, Mary wants to bench him in the next game, however Jenny convinces her to postpone her decision. Brian spends all day practicing, and at first lies to Jenny that he is good to play, but breaks down on their date, causing Brian to be benched until the last match. In the last match Brian is the last person to survive, and is able to disarm the bomb while being blinded by his cat that his mother sent him. Ki is being a perfect RA until Shane finds cat poop. She finds out Brian has a cat in the residence, who becomes her responsibility before she can tell Brian animals are against the rules. After the residence goes into chaos finding out that Ki is breaking a rule, she tosses the cat out of residence, causing Ki and Shane to chase the cat all over campus. Ted gets locked into a car racing game where he meets a glitching race.

After spending the night in the game he learns he must have fun and lose in order to be let out. 14 'Some Like it Bot' 32:54 August 23, 2013 ( 2013-08-23) August 23, 2013 3.851 VGHS is celebrating L33tmas, a combination of all holidays.

Faced with the threat of deactivation, ShotBot escapes the studio and comes to VGHS dressed as a human girl looking for a human story. There he befriends The Law as The Law is looking for evidence that Shane framed him for alleged cheating. The two are unable to intercept the evidence of Shane's plan, and The Law finds out ShotBot was using him before being tied up by Shane's goons. ShotBot returns to sacrifice himself in order to save The Law and the evidence from a dunk tank, however Shane's name is not recovered from the wet USB drive. Meanwhile Brian is running around the school helping out Calhoun, Jenny, Ki, and Ted, until he snaps. His friends, and even Calhoun, apologize for always thinking about themselves.

15 'Three Laps, Three Rounds, Three Words' 43:40 August 30, 2013 ( 2013-08-30) August 31, 2013 4.273 Brian says that he loves Jenny, a sentiment that Jenny does not immediately respond with. Jenny tells her mother that she and Brian are serious about dating, and that she feels her mother was never there for her.

Mary initially decides to bench Jenny and Brian, but lets them, and The Law, play. VGHS wins the game, earning them a spot in playoffs.

The Law signs a contract with another school, Jenny says she loves Brian, and Mary accepts the fact that they are dating. Ted feels that Brian is not always there for him, and that they are not best friends anymore. He sees that his fellow drifting students are gambling, which is against the rules, and decides to join them instead of watching Brian's FPS game.

At first he loses, but recalling how people have been treating him the past semester, he decides to not be a pushover anymore, and wins a race against the Drift King. Ted moves out of Brian's room, possibly ending their friendship. Ki is feeling empty, with no purpose at VGHS. When a girl comes to battle her meek friend Wendell, Ki takes his place. During their battle game, which her parents wrote, Ki also remembers the past semester, and realizes her role is to help people, and decides to run for student body president against Shane with Wendell as her running mate. Season 3 (2014) A third season was hinted at during the fundraising for season 2. Writing began during the post-production of season 2, and a third season was confirmed following the credits in the final episode of season 2.

Scripts were completed in mid January 2014, the fundraiser campaign ran from January 23 to February 24, this time on, and filming began in March 2014. It began releasing October 13, 2014.

Season 3 will be the final season. Number Title Length YouTube release date HFR release date YouTube viewers (millions) 16 'OMGWTFPS!?' 40:14 October 13, 2014 ( 2014-10-13) October 21, 2014 4.359 We return to VGHS with the FPS playoff season in high gear and the school election intensifying.

Brian and Ted are forced to embark on a magic quest in Deathstalker 2 in order to help Ki on the toughest day of the election yet: the Presidential Debate. Brian and Ted try to obtain a rare sword for the MMO Club to secure their votes, but fail when Brian accidentally picks up the sword, binding it to himself. This causes Brian and Ted to get into another fight, further straining their relationship. Ki loses the debate when she announces that she wants to set aside part of the school budget to modernize the unpopular Social Game Club's computers. Meanwhile, Jenny has to battle her archrival, Napalm team captain Ashley Barnstormer, on a different sort of battlefield: the unpredictable talk show OMGWTFPS!? After being asked a series of publicly humiliating questions, Jenny manages to wow the crowd with her opera singing skills. Back at the school, Ki finds that the social gamers, grateful for her standing up for them, have decided to join her campaign.

Ted has his fellow drifters intimidate the MMO Club into voting for Ki. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Ashley and Shane are brothers and are both plotting VGHS' downfall. 17 'Nobody Cool Goes To Prom' 42:32 October 20, 2014 ( 2014-10-20) October 28, 2014 3.087 It’s prom night at VGHS: Ki gets caught up in a mystery noir when Brian's cat Cheetoh goes missing. At first she believes Shane is responsible, but pieces together to clues to find out that Wendell was trying to frame Shane for Cheetoh's kidnapping. Hurt and betrayed, Ki fires Wendell from her campaign team. Brian has a night on the town with the FPS team, where they come across a 'barcycle' and get drunk. Brian eventually comes to consider the FPS team better friends than Ted before they are picked up by the police.

Jenny gets the flu and has a strange dream, where she has the chance of joining a pro gaming team at the cost of killing Brian. Despite wanting to go to Prom with Ki, Ted is forced to take Freddie's car to drive the drifters to a nude gaming arcade, where the drifters attempt to steal one of the arcade cabinets. While fleeing from the arcade owners, Ted appears to have an epiphany and wanders off into the night, all while Ki attempts to call him to find out where he is. 18 'A Map To Sex Town' 41:42 November 24, 2014 ( 2014-11-24) October 24, 2014 3.208 Law finds out that he's been fired from Napalm and replaced by a new Law, who breaks some of his fingers. Meanwhile, over the next three weeks, Ted is put into detention due to events of Prom Night, Ki's campaigning has her poll numbers steadily catching up to Shane, and Brian and FPS team steadily advance through the tournament up to the semifinal match against Napalm. When he is released, Ted finds out to his horror that the Tomowatchi he had been holding as leverage against the MMO Club has died.

He covers up its death and lies to the MMO Club to get their votes. During the election, Ki cannot seem to surpass Shane's lead. In desperation, she secretly fills the ballot box with fake votes for herself.

Ki barely wins the election, but as they celebrate, the MMO Club arrives and demands the return of the Tomowatchi, and Ted is forced to admit its death. Ki, shocked with Ted's dishonesty, admits that she stuffed the ballot box and withdraws from the election, allowing Shane to win. Jenny decides to join a pro FPS team after the tournament, and intends to tell Brian when she invites him to dinner after the Napalm match. However, Brian misunderstands and believes Jenny is inviting him over for sex and he begins to lose focus, which hampers his progress in Napalm match.

Brian manages to regain his focus and nearly wins the match, but is stopped by the new Law. Ashley then tells Brian about how Jenny will be moving to Paris to join a pro team, and their subsequent argument puts Napalm in a position to win. Jenny has a chance to stop Napalm with a single sniper shot, but chokes under the pressure, allowing Napalm to win the match. Brian, angry about Jenny not telling him the truth, breaks up with her.

That night, Ted arrives at Brian's door and tells him that Ki has left the school. 19 'Video Game Home School' 37:09 December 1, 2014 ( 2014-12-01) November 3, 2014 2.827 Ki returns to her family home, where her parents are curious why she's dropped out of school, but Ki is reluctant to tell them. Brian and Ted then arrive, having temporarily called off their feud to convince her to return to school. Jenny also arrives to bring Ki's belongings, creating an awkward situation for everybody involved. In order to solve their problems, Ki's parents decide to have them play Couple's Council, a board game designed to repair relationships. However, in the middle of the game, they receive news that Ted father, Freddie Wong, had died in a motorcycle accident. Ted at first tries to cover up his grief and maintains that Freddie was a great father, much to everybody's concern.

Brain and Jenny kiss on the couch; this marks that they are back together. Ki finally breaks down and admits to her parents that she cheated in the school election, and that she was afraid they would hate her for it, but her parents insist that they will love her no matter what. Later that night, Ted sneaks out of the house, so Ki, Brian, and Jenny go out to look for him. They find him at a laundromat arcade playing Axe Legend just to hear Freddie's voice again. Ted then finally breaks down, accepting Freddie's death and the fact that his father was 'an asshole'. 20 'Being A Teen Is Hard, I Guess' 47:21 December 8, 2014 ( 2014-12-08) November 10, 2014 3.136 Five years ago, Ashley and Shane Barnstormer attempt to enroll in VGHS, but are rejected by Calhoun due to their age.

When the brothers try to bribe him, Calhoun permanently bans them from the school. Angered, the Barnstormer brothers ask their mother to buy out the school, but she gives them the condition that they must bring Napalm's stock price up to $400 per share. Over the next five years, the Barnstormer brothers build up Napalm. While Ashley runs the business, Shane fakes his death and enrolls in VGHS undercover as Shane Pizza.

He engineers the Law cheating scandal in order to bankrupt the Law's sponsor, Jock Juice, which is a direct competitor to Napalm. In the present, Brian, Ted, and Ki finally return to VGHS.

While Brian and Ted have made amends and are now friends again, Ki is still having an existential crisis and becomes a nihilist, believing there is no point to life. Meanwhile, Jenny has become a social pariah due to her choking in the semifinals. She is still emotionally conflicted over the breakup, and her skill suffers as a result. Her mother assures her that Jenny is not the monster that she fears she is, and that the very fact that she cares about what Brian thinks of her makes her a good person. Meanwhile, Brian tries to figure out a way to mend his relationship with Jenny.

He asks Calhoun for advice, and Calhoun bluntly tells him to talk to Jenny directly. Ted is quickly roped into a prank war between the Drifters and the Duchess and ends up getting into detention as a result.

Ted finally realizes that he no longer enjoys the Drifters' childish antics, and after beating the Drift King in a race, leaves the Drifters for good. Ki initially ignores Wendell when he welcomes her back, and makes a game where you walk endlessly until you let go of the controls, and your character dies. Determined to find a point to the game, Wendell 'plays' it for almost twenty four hours straight. Inspired by Wendell's determination, Ki secretly reprograms the game, making it more fun as a result and is overjoyed to see Wendell happy with the game. Finally, Jenny decides to talk to Brian about their relationship, and Brian tells her how since his mother is game addict and his father was never there for him, he lashed out at Jenny because he was afraid of being alone again.

Relieved that Brian doesn't hate her, Jenny agrees to get back with him. Meanwhile, Ashley and Shane confront Calhoun and inform him that they have bought out the school, finally getting their revenge. They then announce to all of the students that VGHS will be torn down and turned into the Napalm Mega Mall.

21 'The N64' 1:06:27 December 15, 2014 ( 2014-12-15) November 25, 2014 3.074 With four days left until the demolition of VGHS, the school atmosphere is bleak. The students are all forced out of the dorms, and Calhoun leaves the school in shame. Ted signs up for a summer job at the Napalm Mega Mall, while Brian is forced to try to find another school to go to, but his options are limited since he missed the deadline for scholarships. Ki keeps trying to find ways to prevent or delay the school's demolition. Cpr training manual 2015.

She finally finds a way by playing to the brothers' egos. She convinces them that the best way to promote their next Napalm product is to hold a Napalm Bowl, pitting Napalm's own players against the VGHS team. The Barnstormers agree, but stipulate that match will be a 64 player game, so the VGHS team must find 32 players if they want to compete. Unfortunately, recruitment is unsuccessful, as nobody outside the FPS team has the will to go up against Napalm. Meanwhile, Napalm recruits the best pro players in the world, further demoralizing the school.

With no team, Brian and Jenny attempt to forfeit when Calhoun returns to the school and joins their team, revealing he never graduated from VGHS and is still technically a student. He then gives a rousing speech to the rest of the students, encouraging them to at least go down swinging and play one last game. This finally rallies the other students to join. While training at first is unsuccessful, Jenny decides to put each of the players in roles that correspond to their favored games. Brian also recruits the Law, who is happy to join to get a chance at revenge. On the game day, VGHS finally faces off against Napalm. The fighting is brutal, with many players on both sides getting killed early.

However, eventually, only Brian, Ted, Ki, and Jenny are left. They make their way to plant the bomb at the objective. Ted is killed by a sniper, Ki manages to throw Shane off a building to his death, Jenny shoots Ashley out of his plane, and Brian successfully plants the bomb, winning the game. Disappointed in her sons' failure, the mother of the Barnstormer brothers cancels the buyout and severely scolds them.

Meanwhile, both the new and old Laws find out they have a lot in common and become friends. With the school saved, the students celebrate. Jenny is given another chance to join a pro FPS team, and she takes it with Brian's blessing.

In the epilogue, Jenny is in France training with her new team, while Brian returns home to meet up with Ted and Ki in order to play Ki's new game. References.

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August 18, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2016. School is back in session October 13, 2014! Who is pumped for Season 3?! 13 October 2014. October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2014.

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Retrieved November 19, 2014. External links. List of on.

The Planet Earth BBC Series The Planet Earth series was released in 2006 by the BBC Natural History unit, the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and the first shot in high-definition. The series has become a favorite of biology and environmental science classrooms for its amazing footage, groundbreaking quality, and depth of information.

There are a total of 11 episodes of Planet Earth. The worksheets and student guides I have written for this series are all based on the BBC version starring David Attenborough as the narrator. I have not written anything for the From Pole to Pole episode, as it is largely a recap of the other episodes.

Each episode provides a tremendous opportunity for 'teachable moments.' Whether your focus is biology, earth science, or ecology, there is a good chance your concepts are covered by one more more of these episodes. Tip for teachers: Use closed captioning! Many of the animals and plants have very unusual names with very unusual spellings!

Seeing them in text makes it much easier for the students to follow! Planet Earth Teacher's Guide for Episodes 1-5 This is a guide for teachers using Planet Earth in their environmental science or biology classes. I highlight and explain some of the important ideas and concepts covered within each episodes that would be relevant and appropriate for high school and undergraduate college courses. The guide only covers the first five episodes: mountains, fresh water, caves, deserts, and ice worlds. Planet Earth - Mountains Key Concepts: Effects of altitude on climate, animal adaptations, abiotic factors of ecosystems, symbiotic relationships, K-strategists, r-strategists. Teachable Moments: The segment on the giant panda illustrates how competition for scarce resources can drive speciation. The giant panda lives in an ecosystem where it must subsist on a very nutrient-poor food, bamboo.

However, the ability of the panda to survive on bamboo allows it to live relatively free from competition with other species over food. Planet Earth - Deep Ocean Key Concepts: This is a worksheet set for students to complete as they watch the Planet Earth deep oceans video. This episode provides a great contrast between traditional photosynthetic ecosystems that rely on sunlight as their base source of energy and chemosynthetic ecosystems that rely on inorganic chemicals, such as that from a underwater volcanic vent.

Teachable Moments: Many students have only learned about biological communities with photosynthetic producers at the base. The communities shown in this episode rely instead on either dead and decomposing organic matter, or inorganic chemicals released from volcanic vents such as hydrogen sulfide. Planet Earth - Deserts Key Concepts: Effects of latitude on climate, animal adaptations, abiotic factors of ecosystems, types of deserts (tropical, temperate, and polar) Teachable Moments: The Nubian Ibex is an example of how sexual selection can drive the natural selection of a species. The juvenile ibex males are shown fighting with each other in an effort to establish a hierarchy of dominance.

The mature, dominant ibex is also shown travelling with a harem of female ibex. The idea here is that the male ibex that bests his competition has stronger genes, making him stronger, faster, smarter, or otherwise superior to the others. By choosing this male, the female ensures her offspring will also have these genes.

Planet Earth - Ice Worlds Key Concepts: Effects of latitude on climate, animal adaptations, abiotic factors of ecosystems, permafrost, seasons, climate change, global warming Teachable Moments: This is the only episode of Planet Earth to directly address human impacts on natural ecosystems. Specifically, the segments showing the male polar bear's attempts to find a hunting grounds and his subsequent failure at capturing a walrus illustrate the fragility of the arctic ecosystem. The polar bear is dependent on thick ice for seal huntin grounds. As sea temperatures increase, and more of this ice is lost, much of their hunting grounds are no longer available. Planet Earth - Shallow Seas Key Concepts: Aquatic ecosystems, food webs, food chains, photosynthesis, mutualism, competition, animal and plant adaptations Teachable Moments: For each of the aquatic ecosystems shown in this episode, plankton and other protists serve as keystone species. The entire biological community revolves around the growth and decline of these microorganisms. Planet Earth - Great Plains and Grasslands Key Concepts: Effects of latitude on climate, animal adaptations, abiotic factors of ecosystems, types of grasslands (temperate, tropical, polar) Teachable Moments: Prairie fires are a natural part of this ecosystem.

Any animals or plants who occupy the grassland as a habitat must be adapted in some way for surviving the flames. In the case of prairie plants and grasses, their roots run very deep and are able to resprout very quickly. Nearly every animal of the grassland either has the ability to run quickly or tunnel underground. This episode showcases both responses. Planet Earth - Jungles Key Concepts: Effects of latitude on climate, animal adaptations, abiotic factors of ecosystems, layers of a forest (canopy, understory, floor), reproductive isolation Teachable Moments: The very first sequence shown in this episode has several different species of Birds of Paradise exhibiting their mating dances and display rituals. The birds, although closely related and physically very similar, do not interbreed.

This is an striking example of reproductive behavioral isolation. Planet Earth - Freshwater Key Concepts: Dissolved oxygen, turbidity, parts of a river (rapids, run, riffle, pool), types of aquatic organisms (plankton, nekton, benthos) Teachable Moments: The episode begins by showing a part of a river near its source; where the water is very cold and moving very quickly.

The animals here have very unique adaptations for staying anchored to the bottom of the river, extracting nutrients from the water, and breaking oxygen from the water. Planet Earth - Seasonal Forests Key Concepts: Effects of latitude on climate, animal adaptations, abiotic factors of ecosystems, layers of a forest (canopy, understory, floor), seasons, deciduous trees, r-strategist Teachable Moments: The periodical cicadas emerge after 17 years underground. This produces a flood of cicadas throughout the entire forest. These arthropods are a great example of an r-strategist. They are big, slow, and do not have any effective defensive mechanisms. However, their sheer numbers ensures a high enough survival rate to continue the species Planet Earth - Caves Key Concepts: Food webs and energy flow, stalagtites, stalagmites, erosion, minerals, animal adaptations, vestigial structures Teachable Moments: Vestigial structures, such as the appendix of humans, are parts of the body that exist, but in a very diminished way. These are often cited as evidence of evolution.

This episode of Planet Earth includes two animals who are blind, but are closely related to species that have eyesight. These are the cave angel fish and the Texas cave salamander. These two animals are good examples of speciation occuring and leading to eyes becoming vesgitial, and eventually disappearing altogether.