Our History My Heritage The History Channel, Wednesday November 27, 8.55-9.05pm (repeated Jan 15,16) Our History My Heritage - a competition run by English Heritage in association with the History Channel - encouraged schools to research an aspect of their local history. As well as extending their knowledge and understanding of local history and allowing students to build up their personal and teamwork skills, the winners of the competition will be able to see the fruits of their labours on the small screen. The history club at Stephenson Way Primary School in County Durham marched off with the 5-11 award for their re-enactment of the Battle for Primosole Bridge during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In secondary, the all-girl team at Weatherhead High in Wallasey produced a booklet WHS At War which chronicles life at their school which was bombed during the Blitz. The primary project is on Wednesday.
How We Used to Live: a Giant in Ancient Egypt C4, Thursday, November 28, 11.40am-12noon An Italian explorer, Giovanni Belzoni, heads for Egypt with his Irish wife in the early part of the 19th century and becomes fascinated by the relics of the country’s history. Through flashbacks during an imagined conversation between Belzoni’s widow and her grand-niece, back in mid-Victorian London, this three-part series for nine-to 11-year-olds tells how Europeans discovered the civilisation of Ancient Egypt and questions the morality of their plundering of its treasures. It is now available on video (at pound;14.99), together with an activity book (pound;6.95).
The Mysteries of King TutHoward Carter History Channel, Monday, November 25 and Tuesday, November 26, 7-8pm.
It is Ancient Egypt Month on the History Channel and these programmes look at the most dramatic discovery in the history of Western Egyptology. Incredibly, the tomb of King Tutankhamun remained untouched by grave robbers until Howard Carter broke into in 1922 and uncovered “wonderful things”. Together with the story of Carter’s expedition, it would be suitable for an older age group than “A Giant in Ancient Egypt”, while casting light on a later age of exploration.
The Human Body BBC2, November 28, 2-4am This is a special schools’ version of the 1998 series studying the changes in the human body from conception to death. The series, presented by Robert Winston, took two years to make and started with a sequence in which the camera panned along a line of 100 naked human beings, each representing one year in a century of life. An interactive CD-Rom and video pack are also available, helping turn this into a useful aid for biology.
For full schedules: www.channel4.co.uklearningmainprogrammesautumn2002.cfmwww.bbc.co.ukscho olswhatsontvindex.shtmlwww.historychannel.comclassroomindex.html
