On TV

NEA Today, Mar 2005

THE BROOKE ELLISON STORY

A&E, March 7-8, 7 a.m., ET.

Christopher Reeve directed this two-part 2004 film based on the life of a young quadriplegic woman who, with her mother's help, graduated from Harvard University. The hourlong show can be taped and used in the classroom for two years.

WOMEN COMBAT PILOTS: THE RIGHT STUFF

History Channel, March 10, 6 a.m., ET.

This show looks at the struggles, accomplishments, and contributions of female pilots, from the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) of WWII to today's top guns. Can be taped and used in the classroom for two years.

MOTHERS OF INVENTION

History Channel, March 11, 6 a.m., ET.

A presentation of the history of women inventors with a look at the advances women are making today. Can be taped and used in the classroom for two years.

PARTNERS OF THE HEART

PBS, March 21, 9 p.m., ET, check local listings.

Some of the best surgeons of the 1940s and 1950s were trained at Johns Hopkins Medical School by a Black man with a high school education. Alfred Blalock, a white surgeon, met Vivien Thomas, then a Black janitor in a research lab, and hired him as an assistant when he took a job at Johns Hopkins. Despite facing discrimination, Blalock and Thomas together researched the "blue baby" heart condition, which was a fatal defect in thousands of children born each year. While Blalock ran the department, Thomas conducted hundreds of operations on animals to perfect a technique to correct the heart defect. By 1944, the technique had worked in a dog and was tried on a young girl close to death. With Thomas directly behind him, Blalock performed the first successful operation on the human heart.

HOWARD GOODALL'S BIG BANGS

Ovation, March 22, 12 p.m., ET, check local listings.

As part of a series that reviews the history of music, "The Invention of the Piano" examines the origin of the piano and the contributions of Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn to its development. Can be taped and used in the classroom for one year.

On TV listings are provided by KIDSNET, a national resource for children's media in Washington D.C., www.kidsnet.org, and by Cable in the Classroom's Access Learning magazine at www.ciconline.org.