Companion to a PBS program in the Nova series. There are wonderful photos of the Lechuguilla cave system in New Mexico, and some new information on how caves are formed.

Part of the National Park Service website, this page provides general info. about the resident bat population, and links to more specific bat info. For the bat enthusiast!

Great site providing a "Quickindex" to find various resources. Also included are links to more information on this museum.

These wonderful virtual field trips allow students to explore a coastal rain forest or the coral reefs in the Dominican Republic, and so much more.

How could a biomimetic-inspired exhibit design improve an animal exhibit, either for the animals and/or for the people using it? This activity is designed to start your students in recognizing themselves as scientists and thinking critically about problem-solving. The goal is to teach concepts through discovery and to encourage using scientific thought processes. As with all lessons provided, please feel free to adapt them according to your students’ abilities. You may find it more successful to lead activities and discussions as a whole group as opposed to having your students’ work in small groups. Certain scientific vocabulary may or may not be appropriate for your students’ level of understanding. Take these ideas, make them your own and your students will have a greater chance at success.

How can nature inspire a design for more effective medical equipment to be used in providing veterinary care? This activity is designed to start your students in recognizing themselves as scientists and thinking critically about problem-solving. The goal is to teach concepts through discovery and to encourage using scientific thought processes. As with all lessons provided, please feel free to adapt them according to your students’ abilities. You may find it more successful to lead activities and discussions as a whole group as opposed to having your students’ work in small groups. Certain scientific vocabulary may or may not be appropriate for your students’ level of understanding. Take these ideas, make them your own and your students will have a greater chance at success.

On this site, find short minute-long videos from Nature for students to become active learners about topics from animal homes to spiders at work.

This activity is an investigation where students observe cells from various organisms and then compare and contrast the cells they observe.

What types of behaviors might elephants exhibit if they are threatened? What types of behaviors might elephants exhibit if they are at play? This activity is designed to start your students in recognizing themselves as scientists and thinking critically about problem-solving. The goal is to teach concepts through discovery and to encourage using scientific thought processes. As with all lessons provided, please feel free to adapt them according to your students’ abilities. You may find it more successful to lead activities and discussions as a whole group rather than using individual Research Plan sheets. Certain scientific vocabulary may or may not be appropriate for your students’ level of understanding. Take these ideas, make them your own and your students will have a greater chance at success.

This is a classroom activity in which students observe and describe cells in stages of division. They share observations about what they see in the cells, then formulate questions and do research concerning the changes that take place in cells during the process.

Smithsonian Institution presents ?Ocean Planet: Interdisciplinary Marine Science Activities?. Through this series of six interdisciplinary lessons, students will look at such things as the organisms in different marine ecosystems, the many different products we get from our seas, and the effects of pollution on our oceans. Teachers and students alike will love the easy to understand background information and vibrant photos. Each lesson comes complete with clear learning objectives and instructions, as well as supplemental resources and student handouts.

In this lesson, students will use the Arcadia Earth app to learn about and develop a foundational understanding of our oceans.

Estimated time required: 1 class period.

Technology required for this lesson: Tablet or Smartphone.

The goal of this program is to get your students to answer one question — can the reintroduction of a wetland dependent
animal, such as the trumpeter swan, increase the level of conservation both for the habitat and the
species? Of course this one question leads to a million other questions and that is the purpose of the lessons.
plans. We have tried to develop lessons based on some smaller questions that would eventually lead the student
back to the larger problem they are trying to solve. Each

In the Arcadia Earth app section titled “Sustainability Beneath the Surface,” students are introduced to several factors that impact ocean health. This lesson takes a deeper dive into one specific challenge: overfishing. Through the game, “One Fish, Two Fish,
Overfishing, NO Fish,” students discover how fishing management reformation is necessary to sustain fish populations and prevent permanent supply collapses.

Estimated time required: 1 class period.

Technology required for this lesson: Tablet or Smartphone.

In this biology activity, students will first brainstorm how humans use their hands. They will then conduct a short experiment to determine the importance of the opposable thumb to humans and how it is an important adaptation.

This evolution plug in was designed for teachers and informal educators to conduct with their students at an orangutan exhibit . The students will learn basic natural history information about orangutans, how to conduct basic behavioral research.