The lessons in these teachers guides are based upon the Journey to Planet earth public television series. Included in these guides are lessons for the eleven episodes in the series.

The following documents are available for download and will need Adobe Reader to view. Click on the icon below to download the latest version:

Episodes 1-11

• Teachers guide for grades 6 through 12
  in PDF(This file is 168K)


• College instructors guide
  in PDF (This file is 652K)

The following documents (grades 6-12 version only) are available in HTML format and can be read in your web browser:

Journey to Planet Earth Teachers Guides in HTML:

• Rivers of Destiny


• The Urban Explosion


• Land of Plenty, Land of Want


• Hot Zones


• Seas of Grass


• Future Conditional


• The State of the Planet


• State of the Planet's Wildlife


• State of the Ocean's Animals


• State of the Planet's Oceans


• Rights, Credits & Questions

A common thread runs throughout all eleven programs and the lessons in this guide — the necessity to achieve a balance between the needs of people and the needs of the environment. Loss of farmland to urban development, the pollution of the Earth’s rivers, inadequate housing and water resources for those living in the world’s mega-cities — these are just some of the topics covered in these lessons. In the section of each lesson entitled "Viewing Activities," you will see when to play each segment. When the segment concludes, the screen will go to black. Pause at that point and continue student discussion.

Listed in parentheses next to the video segments are visual and audio cues for finding that portion of the 60-minute PBS program. (For example: In the "Rivers of Destiny" lesson, the text reads: View Segment One: length: 3 minutes and 19 seconds. Pause when the screen goes black. (Visual and audio cues: Start when you see a stormy sky and hear "The year is 1993. An almost never-ending series of storms stalls over the upper Mississippi basin . . . ." Stop when you hear ". . . nothing can stop a powerful river from trying to reclaim its rightful inheritance.")

In the Focus for Viewing and Viewing Activities sections, suggestions for what to "say" to the students are made. Naturally, you may paraphrase this wording or create your own introductions. At the end of each lesson is a list of Resources that you or your students can use for further research.

On behalf of the producers of Journey to Planet Earth and South Carolina ETV, we hope you find this package a useful classroom tool.