Frogs & Amphibians

Gr 7 Up—Students will be enthralled by the exceptional, high-quality photography that brings them eye-to-eye with frogs of all sizes that reside around the globe in this classroom version of Frogs: The Thin Green Line, a title in the PBS award-winning Nature series. Having survived for more than 250 million years, frogs are now disappearing at alarming rates. This program follows several scientists, both male and female, in the United States, Panama, and Australia who are trying to discover the reasons why. Changing climates, droughts, loss of habitat, clashes with humans, and a mysterious disease known as chytrid are causing the species to collapse worldwide. We see scientists in California who are investigating the use of pesticides and other toxic substances that drain into the water and appear to be the cause of frog deformities. Other scientists maintain arks, artificially created sanctuaries for frogs, to preserve species from total extinction. One scientist reminds viewers to act locally, and to help reverse this population's decline. Well-paced and well-edited, key vocabulary words appear on-screen with definitions. The program's length makes it especially classroom friendly and is a must-have for science classes and library collections.—Patricia Ann Owens, Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Mt. Carmel, IL