Each year on April 22 people around the world mark Earth Day, founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 in order to celebrate our planet and encourage its protection. At Discovery Communications, our commitment to celebrating the Earth stems from our company’s founding in 1985 continues today.
This Sunday, Discovery Channel in the U.S. will be marking Earth Day with a special presentation of Frozen Planet — beginning with a marathon of the David Attenborough-narated series at 2pm ET/PT and concluding with the finale, On Thin Ice, at 8pm ET/PT. To learn more about the state of our polar regions, don’t forget to check out our Frozen Planet infographics and videos from the series on Discovery.com.
Additionally, our Discovery Education team has been busy with several Earth Day-related projects, reaching out to the younger generation to educate and engage them:
- Teaming up with LeapFrog, Discovery Education has brought Earth Day to life on the LeapPad tablet and Leapster with four new video apps — Holiday Facts and Fun: Earth Day, Taking Care of Our Earth, Animals in Action and Stuff Happens with Bill Nye!—now available in the LeapFrog App Center!
- On Wednesday, Discovery Education also launched a new program with The Nature Conservancy, Nature Works Everywhere. The partnership features a new online destination, www.natureworkseverywhere.org, that provides middle school teachers, students and families with free tools and resources to explore and understand nature — including lessons plans, games and much more.
- The Siemens STEM Academy hosted an Earth Day webinar recently, featuring Dan Rees (Producer & Director, Frozen Planet), Bob Bindschadler (former Chief Scientist at NASA’s Laboratory for Hydropheric and Biospheric Sciences) and Ron Naveen (Founder of Oceanites, Inc.). You can watch an archived version of the webinar on the STEM Academy website.
Finally, if you’re looking to learn more about our planet and its plight, don’t forget to check out Discovery News’ Earth Day Wide Angle and great coverage from our TreeHugger.com team, including Earth Day wishes from several contributors to the site.
Happy Earth Day! We hope you celebrate it with friends, family and nature.
