‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET’ at the American Museum of Natural History (through Jan. 5). Fish and mollusks are smarter than you think. That’s one impression you’ll glean from this fascinating family documentary, which the museum is screening in 2-D and 3-D versions. “Oceans” shows a tuskfish repeatedly tossing a clam from its mouth onto a lump of coral until the prey cracks open. Another scene features an octopus methodically covering its body with shells — not for adornment but as a camouflage to deceive sharks. Directed by Mark Brownlow and Rachel Butler, the film captured these moments by following the travels of Alucia, a research vessel operated by the exploration company OceanX. A fitting complement to the museum’s exhibition “Unseen Oceans,” which closes on Aug. 18, the movie emphasizes how mysterious the seas are — we know more about Mars’s surface than their most remote depths — and how vital. The warming of these “life support systems,” as the script calls the oceans, threatens not only the intriguing creatures seen here, but us as well.

212-769-5200, amnh.org

[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]

RETRO DETECTIVES at the Brooklyn Public Library (through Aug. 30). The library is inviting children to become gumshoes, but for these cases, they’ll hit the books instead of the streets. Directed toward middle schoolers — the recommended ages are 11 to 14 — this program uses games, scavenger hunts, riddles and clues to engage young sleuths in unraveling mysteries about Brooklyn’s past. Six library branches — Arlington, Canarsie, Eastern Parkway, Red Hook, Stone Avenue and New Utrecht — will host the free weekday events, which will involve research into archival sources. Over the course of the series, participants can pursue four investigations: Medical Mysteries of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which looks into the decompression sickness affecting laborers who were building it; The Missing Good Luck Charm of Emily Roebling, about the woman who was instrumental in the engineering of the Brooklyn Bridge; Brooklyn Born: Equality for All, which finds some roots of the borough’s culture in the civil rights movement; and The Strange, the Forgotten and the Sublime: A Coney Island Tour.

718-230-2100, bklynlibrary.org

REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER: DEBORAH SAMPSON, FIGHTING WOMAN at the New-York Historical Society (Aug. 3-4, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.). Some of the participants in the American war for independence were revolutionary in more than their cause. Consider Deborah Sampson (1760-1827), who disguised herself as a man to enlist in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment. A soldier who fought and was wounded before her ruse was discovered, Sampson was the first American woman to receive a full military pension. Judith Kalaora, who portrays this real-life heroine regularly in her one-woman show “A Revolution of Her Own,” will visit the society. Costumed as Sampson, she’ll answer questions about this female patriot’s life and invite children to join her in period-style military drills with other re-enactors. Part of the museum’s series Revolutionary Summer, the event will be held in the courtyard (weather permitting), where young visitors can also learn about muskets, tents, knapsacks and other aspects of a Continental Army encampment.

212-873-3400, nyhistory.org

TWILIGHT IN THE GARDEN: BATS OF THE BRONX TALK AND WALK at Wave Hill (Aug. 8, 7:30-9:30 p.m.). What sensible New Yorker would complain about neighbors that are always quiet and unobtrusive and even help lower the local population of mosquitoes? But despite those characteristics, bats often inspire fear. At this program, recommended for children 10 and older, the ecologist Kaitlyn L. Parkins and the New York City Bat Group will give an indoor presentation on the diversity of these urban animals and their value. (Bats are also pollinators.) Afterward, the educators will lead a walk around this public garden in Riverdale, during which they’ll use a bat detector — a device that translates the creatures’ calls into sounds audible to humans — to look for Bronx species like the big brown bat and the eastern red bat. Participants should register and bring flashlights. (The rain date is Aug. 29.)

718-549-3200, wavehill.org