Winning in sport is big business, with big financial returns. This can motivate sports people to decide to use performance enhancing drugs to give them the winning edge. This insightful program examines the world of performance enhancers, both legal and illegal, and outcomes of using them. Discussions with coaches, sport nutritionists and athletes reveal motivations for drug cheating, the medical side effects of the drugs, the drugs themselves and the implications of getting caught. This program is a must see for athletes and coaches at all levels of sport, especially those deriving an income from playing and winning.
Grade levels: Senior High (10-12)
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Nutrition and Hydration in Sports
The correct nutrition and hydration is vital for peak sports performance. This essential program examines the nutritional requirements that athletes have to be able to train and compete without disadvantaging their chances or damaging their health through fatigue and dehydration. Athletes, coaches and nutritionists discuss the correct way to structure an eating and hydration plan during training periods and a plan for competition days. Special emphasis is given to carb-loading, electrolyte intake and the correct use of hypotonic and hypertonic hydration and sports drinks.
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Mars Landing 2012: The New Search for Life
This one-hour special introduces the audience to a team of dedicated scientists who brought Curiosity to life. Brand new science and technology that had never been attempted made this mission a reality. From her custom-built heat shield designed to withstand intense 1,600 C degree heat and speeds up to 21,735 km/hr, to her state-of-the-art supersonic parachute. A revolutionary sky crane touchdown system was developed specifically for this mission, its job: get Curiosity to the surface of Mars. For the first time ever, a rover will be able to supply NASA – and the rest of the world – with stunning HD images from 17 different cameras. She will be able to zap rocks with a laser that’s as powerful as a million light bulbs focused on the head of a pin. She will drive for hundreds of kilometers and use her massive robotic arm to drill into Gale Crater to help answer questions of life. Curiosity is set to break all records.
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All About Food Additives
Most foods that we purchase for every day consumption, and those that we eat a little less often, contain additives of various descriptions. In fact humans have been using food additives for thousands of years, including salt, spices, colorings and flavorings. This excellent program looks at food additives, including colors, flavors, emulsifiers, gelling agents and stabilizers, preservatives and antioxidants, and processing aids that gets added to our foods and why we use them. Lief Lundin, a food scientist discusses these additives, why we use them and what the impacts of their use on our food are.
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Food Preservation Techniques
Food preservatives are commonly used in many foods we purchase and consume daily. While some food preservation techniques have been practiced for millennia, such as salting, drying and smoking, others have been made possible on a commercial scale by 20th century advancements in technology, such as freezing and pasteurizing. This film takes a look at why foods are preserved and the many advantages we gain as consumers, from the ability to store food for long periods of time to the causes of food spoilage; the differences between natural and artificial food preservatives; preservation techniques using temperature; and water and oxygen removal.
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Mental Preparation
Mental preparedness is vital to succeed as an athlete. To stay calm and remain focused on the task at hand athletes need to develop the mental strength to block out external distractions. This excellent program discusses with athletes, coaches and sports psychologists techniques that can be adopted to clear your mind and maintain concentration. We explore developing a belief system that gives you the confidence to believe you have the talent to win and focus on that and not on what may interrupt that from external distractions.
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Motivation, Anxiety and Arousal
Understanding the sports psychology effects of motivation, anxiety and arousal are essential for achieving high levels of performance in sport. This program examines the effects of repetitive training on motivation and the internal and external factors that can affect it. Sports psychologists and coaches discuss the effects of anxiety and the pressures both internal and external that athletes can feel. Athletes and their coaches also discuss physical and social stress and how to manage it and turn it to the athlete’s advantage. This is a excellent must see program for athletes and coaches to enhance their performance and get a better understanding of positive and negative motivators.
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Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?
A new groundbreaking feature documentary about the roots of the American economic crisis, and the continuing assault on working and middle class people in the United States. “Heist” boldly reveals the crumbling structure of the U.S. economy – the result of four decades of deregulation, massive job outsourcing, and tax policies favoring mega-corporations and wealthy elites. Through expert testimony, investigative filmmaking and key archival footage, “Heist” unfolds critical historical background, beginning with the dismantling of FDR’s New Deal, uncovering the ideological influence of the infamous Powell Memo and the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership on government reform, and traces both Republican and Democratic allegiance to big business. A movie with its pulse on the most urgent issues of our time.
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Ryan’s Renaissance
Equal parts tragedy and triumph, Ryan Larkin’s life story is the subject of the documentary film, Ryan’s Renaissance. Directed by Nicola Zavaglia and Laurie Gordon, the film retraces how the talented animator went from NFB wunderkind to panhandler on Montreal’s St. Laurent Boulevard, from 1970 Oscar nominee (for Walking) to alcoholic, from McLaren’s protégé to nobody. The film shows how Gordon finds Larkin on St. Laurent and takes him under her wing and encourages him to begin work on Spare Change, for what will turn out to be a brilliant but all too brief artistic renewal.
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Forty Shades of Grey
The aim of this project was to create an experimental, feature-length, non-narrative film piece, shot on location in Israel and Palestine. Some very black and white ideas and opinions exist, particularly in Europe, when people think of this notorious hot-spot. This project aims to explore the forty shades of grey and the many stories that exist in between the definite black and white opinions that we are presented with daily in our western news media.