This is a field and classroom activity in which students will observe tulip growth and identify and describe the parts of the tulip flower.

This nonfiction article, written for students in grades 4-5, explores the relationships between various tundra species: marsh marigolds, bot flies, and caribou. Modified versions are available for students in younger grades.

This article assembles free resources from the Tundra: Life in the Polar Extremes issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

The environment plays a critical role in shaping the evolutionary changes that organisms undergo. For animals, food is one of the most important components of the environment. This video focuses on snakes and some of the most important adaptations of these remarkable creatures.

This video from Kentucky's Last Great Places shows how the Green River has remained unusually clean and why it is home to several endangered aquatic species.

Unit plans for Grades K-2 and 3-5 are a regular feature of the magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The plans draw on articles and resources in a themed issue and are aligned with national science and language arts standards. This unit is designed to provide elementary students with the opportunity to investigate how the annual rings in trees help scientists learn about past climates. It uses hands-on experiences and nonfiction text to answer the unit question: How do trees help scientists learn about the past?

Four unit plans provide opportunities for in-depth explorations of important foundational climate concepts -- weather, water as a solid, liquid and gas, and the water cycle -- that are appropriate for K-2 and 3-5 learners. These unit plans incorporate many of the lessons highlighted in other articles in this issue of the online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The magazine is structured around the essential principles of the climate sciences.

In this lab exercise, students of intermediate-level French will watch a short video on brain plasticity from the universcience VOD collection online.

A variety of symbiotic relationships exist between sharks and other marine species in this segment from Nature.

In this video segment adapted from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Inuit observers describe how their traditional understanding of weather patterns is being challenged by unpredictable weather behaviors.

In this video segment from Louisville Life, high school students in Louisville, Kentucky describe the benefits of creating rain gardens as a solution to non-point source water pollution.

This article discusses the strategy of using discrepant events in elementary science instruction. It includes links to four video clips of the sun's path in the Arctic or Antarctica.

Students explore the response of springs to forces as a way to begin to understand elastic solid behavior. They gain experience in data collection, spring constant calculation, and comparison and interpretation of graphs and material properties to elucidate material behavior. Conduct this activity before proceeding to the associated lesson.

This activity is a teacher-guided inquiry activity of the sorting or grouping of Minnesota critters according to student driven criteria or purpose of their groupings. Teacher/student questions and discussion should be encouraged after this activity to emphasize that awareness of the criteria or purpose of certain groupings may be important before beginning an investigation.

Learning Assistants are used to facilitate student discussion in peer instruction during clicker questions (i.e., classroom response systems), by asking Socratic questions, emphasizing reasoning, and probing student thinking.

This activity is a field investigation where students will compare the biodiversity of two separate habitats based on the collection and identification of insects.

This article provides ideas and lessons on how elementary teachers can integrate webcams from the Arctic and Antarctica into their teaching. Five webcams are highlighted as well as three lessons on writing poetry and observing animal behavior.

This video adapted from the University of Leicester demonstrates the proper use of different-sized micropipettes to measure precise volumes of liquid in the lab.

This activity allows students to investigate classification and create their own dichotomous key. Discussion will include classification of items in everyday life.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students examine our growing waste problem and learn about strategies we can use to lessen the strain on our landfills and Earth's natural resources: reduce, reuse, recycle.