"New Breed Vets," the latest six-episode miniseries from Steve Irwin, best known for his crocodile-hunting escapades, does for older kids what many adults wish would happen in classrooms across America. That is, it makes biology, ecology and sociology relevant and interesting to students who aren't angling to become scientists.

Viewers should not be squeamish — or else they need to be willing to turn their eyes once in a while. (Don't worry: The really gory scenes get a heavy blue screen, muting the blood and tissue occasionally oozing around.) But plenty of preteens and teens don't mind watching vets stitch up a koala that lost its run-in with a car, a camel with a weird nasal cavity that traps food (causing constant sinus infection), a snake with a benign growth on its kidney or a cheetah with a severely damaged palate.

In his hyperkinetic way, Irwin has noted the hospital at his Australia Zoo treats up to 60 koalas a month that suffer broken bones and other injuries caused by cars. The problem, he states plainly, is habitat destruction — koalas can't find their "mates" (in the literal and Australian sense) without crossing suburban roads.

When vets traveled to Indonesia after last year's tsunami, it was to treat elephants injured while clearing debris. It's interesting that in this horrific emergency, humans needed animals' help in rescue and recovery because all the heavy machinery was lost or destroyed by the tidal wave. The elephants' feet, trunks and heads, however, were injured from moving or stepping on sheared metal, broken glass and splintered wood. In order to keep the animals alive and healthy, vets administered a variety of vaccines, salves and antidotes.

Also featured on the show is the extensive surgery needed to repair a cheetah's jaw, broken when it became tangled in an African farmer's snare. While there's the small view — repairing the cheetah's injuries — the broader view presents more texture for kids and their teachers. Who's right in this situation, the farmer or the conservationist? What role do these wild animals play? Is it humans' responsibility to fix the damage to animals? Who should pay?

This week's episode tackles various crimes against animals, a visit to the National Wildlife and Forensics Laboratory in Oregon, and suspicious mouth lesions found in lowland gorillas.

Regular Irwin viewers need to get past his histrionic ways to realize this series asks a lot more questions than it answers.

BEFORE, AFTER TURKEY

Like Butterball, "Scooby-Doo" comes out with new product every year. This year's "Where's My Mummy?" movie is somewhat less important than the white bread-corn bread stuffing debate that can occupy families all day long. But after eating that huge dinner, watching this Scooby nonsense can be hugely satisfying.

In "Mummy," Velma, still in glasses, is restoring an Egyptian pyramid. She then discovers the long-lost necklace of Cleopatra, which magically unlocks a trap door leading to the ancient queen's treasures and undead soldiers.