Central Kansas Library System

Join the theater department of the University of California at Berkeley on an in-depth journey to the heart of William Shakespeare's plays. Simple but brilliant reenactments of plays from both cultures, featuring beautiful costumes and accessible acting make both worlds interesting and easy to understand despite the barriers of language. Shakespeare and the Spanish Connection is a must for students, teachers, and Shakespeare scholars of all ages....

The science of magnets is explained in an exciting and unique way as readers encounter colorful illustrations that are paired with achievable text and eye-catching fact boxes. The bright and bold design of this helpful guide to an important STEM topic features concise and clear labels that add context and clarity to the illustrated fun. Additional visual elements include diagrams and infographics that allow readers to practice obtaining information...

We're all familiar with sounds-quiet sounds, loud sounds, high sounds, and low sounds. But how do those sounds reach our ears? Readers explore the science behind sounds in this delightful illustrated guide. The bright and bold illustrations are paired with simple text that breaks down complicated science curriculum concepts and provides readers with relatable examples of the science of sound at work in the real world. These important lessons are further...

Christmas Island, discovered December 25, 1643, is just a speck of land in the Indian Ocean. The annual red crab migration at the beginning of the rainy season, however, is so massive it can be seen from the air. It has been named a wonder of the natural world. This program follows this terrestrial arthropod from its rainforest burrow, across dangerous landscape to the ocean to mate. The park offers the perfect forest ecosystem for the Christmas...

Comets have been causing fear in the minds of humans for millennia. Now new spacecraft are giving us insights into their composition and behavior. Comets allow us to study what the solar system was like in its formative period. They orbit the Sun in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. This program teaches students about comets and helps students understand why comets cause both fear and fascination.

For many years the Hubble Space Telescope has collected breathtaking images of the cosmos with remarkable clarity. Now, ground based telescopes are fighting back. They are combining the sight of several instruments and correcting atmospheric shimmer. This program presents and explains the designs, uses and output of different types of telescopes used to see our universe. From the Keck in Hawaii, the Very Large Telescope in Chile and OWL, the Overwhelmingly...

This programming explores theories of the Universe exploding from an infinitesimal speck to create matter, radiation, time and space. In the first trillion-trillion-trillionth of a second, the cosmos grew a hundred million times to less than the size of an atom. Then, in another instant, the Universe was the size of a galaxy. Now, billions of years later and strung along vast filaments, our Universe has some 50-billion galaxies that continue to expand...

Since its discovery in 1930, astronomers have been debating the status of the tiny world at the farthest reaches of our solar system-Pluto. In this program, students are given a firsthand look at the scientific process that initially classified Pluto as a planet and then reclassified it in 2006 as a Dwarf Planet. Not all scientists are in agreement with this definition and the future may bring further reclassification. Students will learn the scientific...

In a gas turbine, the linear motion of gas causes rotors to spin, ultimately creating electricity. The forward rotating blades pump air under high pressure into the combustion chamber where natural gas ignites on contact with the air. At 1,500 degrees Celsius, the stream of gas rushes past the rear turbine blades, causing the entire rotor to spin. A generator transforms that rotational energy into electricity. This program shows the extreme precision...

This program discusses the concept of the expanding Universe. Calculations by astrophysicists show that the cosmos seems to be speeding up. The 50-billion galaxies thought to comprise our Universe are rapidly moving farther apart. As our Sun's energy diminishes, scientists are working to understand the nature of space called "mysterious dark energy and dark matter" – believed to comprise 96 percent of the Universe. With each discovery made by astronomers...