Quantitative Ecology introduces and discusses the principles of ecology from populations to ecosystems including human populations, disease, exotic organisms, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity and global dynamics. The book also reformulates and unifies ecological equations making them more accessible to the reader and easier to teach.

An Eco ed resource based on the rainforest explorers of the 19th C. They went to the forest to record and classify the plants, animals and people. The site has lessons for Eco events like Earth Day as well as 10,000 rare images and the explorers' journals. Within the 700 pages of text, all locations, plant and animal names are linked to their images. Exploring even one page of the text will raise Eco awareness. There is an extensive index for reports and projects. This is a family project that was approved by the British govt. for Curriculum OnLine, by the National Wildlife Federation and the Da Vinci Science Center.

Comments about Remember the Rainforest:
Rob Fox, education director Da Vinci Science Center : “ Fantastic !”

Ken Higgins, regional director and founder of Green Schools Alliance :
“I did open the link, and it is very impressive. I passed it along to our lower school and middle school science teachers, and have posted it with my sustainability educators group in New York.”

In this video segment from NatureScene, discover some reptiles in the swamp forest ecosystem at Congaree Swamp National Park.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Underground organisms are critical to supporting plant life above the ground. While the availability of nutrients above and below is likely to affect this lifeline, it’s unclear how. To find out, researchers monitored soil microbes across Chinese National Ecosystem Research Network (CERN) under two conditions with either low or high amounts of nutrient resources. Data showed that the availability of resources affected how the functional traits of organisms in each ecosystem achieved stability. In systems with low resources, stability was achieved mostly by interactions between organisms occupying the same trophic level of their food web. In contrast, systems with high resources achieved stability through microbial interactions across different trophic levels. These multi-trophic interactions ultimately helped ensure the stability of overall plant biomass..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this field exercise for an introductory environmental science course, students investigate plant cover and type in a riparian area using transects. The final assignment is a lab report that includes a summary data table, a graph of cover types along their transect and an analysis of riparian health.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Short Description: This is an inquiry investigation, geared toward student use of outdoor schoolyard sites. Its focus is to have students applying what they've learned about the scientific method and experimental design, gathering quantitative evidence to support hypotheses.

This document provides a simplified version of an investigation that uses quadrats to compare habitats in your schoolyard. Depending on your focus, the activity can be adapted to compare the diversity or amount of ground insects, invertebrates or plants in two areas. Students use the Next Generation Science Standards’ Planning and Carrying Out Investigations practice and the Cause and Effect and/or Stability and Change crosscutting concepts to build understanding of the needs of animals, differences in ecosystems and/or change in ecosystems.

This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 2.LS4.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps

Place and Location are two of the five themes of geography and a natural starting point for a study of the Arctic and Antarctica. Location answers the question, "Where am I?" while the study of place asks, "What kind of a place is it?" and, "How does this place connect to my hometown?" This issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears examines how you can introduce the Arctic and Antarctica and use science, geography, literacy, and technology to help your students compare and contrast these two dramatically different areas as well as their own home. Get ready for an adventure as you and your students develop your polar sense of place!

Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is an online professional development magazine for elementary teachers which focuses on preparing teachers to teach polar science concepts in an already congested curriculum by integrating inquiry-based science with literacy teaching. Such an integrated approach can increase students' science knowledge, academic language, reading comprehension, and written and oral discourse abilities.

This video features the remarkable discovery Jonathan made in 1998 about Basking sharks, the second largest fish on Earth. While diving with Basking sharks in the frigid waters of the Bay of Fundy, Jonathan saw parasitic lampreys on the backs of the sharks. This had never before been documented, so he returned the next year with a shark biologist and a lamprey biologist to attempt to recover living lampreys from the backs of Basking sharks. They didn't think Jonathan could do it. Wait until you see what happens! Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

In the warm and blue waters off Hawaii, Oceanic White Tip sharks often follow behind pods of Pilot whales. For the longest time, biologists have had no idea what is going on. Are they eating the whales? Are they stealing food from the whales? In this video of an expedition to follow the sharks and observe them, Jonathan finally figured out what is going on, and you won‰ŰŞt believe the disgusting truth! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

This video features the Thresher shark, which may very well be the strangest looking shark in the world, with a tail almost as long as its body. This shark is very rare, almost never seen by divers...until now. Using advanced diving technology, Jonathan visits a remote reef in the Philippines where Thresher sharks show up every morning to be cleaned by small fish. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this video, filmed thirty miles off the coast of North Carolina, there is a shipwreck on the bottom, 130 feet down. Swarming around the wreck are dozens of Sand Tiger sharks. They look menacing, but they seem to be very docile. What are they all doing there, in one spot? That's what Jonathan wants to find out. Using a variety of filming techniques, Jonathan attempts to discover the secrets of the Sand Tiger shark gatherings at the wrecks, and does the first ever night dive with these shark..talk about scary! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

Students observe cutouts of birds around the classroom, sketch and describe field markings, and use field guides to make identifications.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_ScienceSkills_BioblitzSkillbuilderOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 1: Meet a Creature
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 2: ID That Bird!
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 3: How Diverse is Biodiversity?
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 4: Modeling Classification
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 5: ID Using a Dichotomous Key

Students explore biodiversity statistics by hypothesizing the number of animal species and comparing to scientific estimates.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_ScienceSkills_BioblitzSkillbuilderOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 1: Meet a Creature
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 2: ID That Bird!
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 3: How Diverse is Biodiversity?
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 4: Modeling Classification
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 5: ID Using a Dichotomous Key

Students classify themselves into different groups based on observable characteristics of clothing and accessories, then apply to biological classification systems.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_ScienceSkills_BioblitzSkillbuilderOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 1: Meet a Creature
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 2: ID That Bird!
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 3: How Diverse is Biodiversity?
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 4: Modeling Classification
Biodiversity Skillbuilder 5: ID Using a Dichotomous Key

Remove a problem species and make a natural soap! Lindsay Hollister, JPPM's horticulturalist, shares how to identify the invasive English Ivy vine and make a soap from the saponins it naturally produces. These molecules naturally deter predators from eating the species, but their structures also make them bond to both waters and fats. Consider using the video or conducting the activity at your location as an integrated introduction to learning about biodiversity and the structures of molecules or atoms, since saponins are valuable as a soap because they are able to bond with either water or fats/lipids.

Always be sure you can successfully identify a plant before using it and take precautions to avoid negative reactions.

This resource is part of Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum’s open educational resources project to provide history, ecology, archaeology, and conservation resources related to our 560 acre public park. JPPM is a part of the Maryland Historical Trust under the Maryland Department of Planning. If you evaluate or use this resource, please respond to this short (4 question!) survey at bit.ly/3GrTjPk

Learn about the sounds of the night. Mary and Mike stay up late to explore the magic and music of nighttime. We sing songs about the beauty of the night and a young pianist plays Clair de Lune under the light of the moon. Our friend, Dr. Lerdau, teaches us about nighttime creatures who are making music of their own: owls, crickets, and even plants! Enjoy a lovely evening with us as we discover the simple beauty of our surroundings.

More About This Resource
Presented by VPM.

Songs and Stories with Mary and Mike uses music and story as the joyful pathway to learning for young children while integrating and modeling the state's new EC learning standards for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning as well as the National Standards for Music Education. The show forges connections across the greater community by featuring guest teachers, artists, musicians, authors, and community members. With every music selection, book selection, and guest spotlight, Mary and Mike strive for a rich, diverse, beautiful representation of all people and cultures. The message to beautiful learners is clear: they are loved, they are valued, and they can do amazing things.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Islands are hotspots of biodiversity. But they’re in danger. Human activities are disrupting the natural habitats of numerous island plant and animal species, causing them to degrade, fragment, or perish altogether. Including here, in the islands of Japan. In response, the Japanese government has recently committed to a 17% expansion of its network of protected areas, spaces such as national parks that support long-term conservation of biodiversity and natural resources. The proposed expansion is one of the common global strategic plans for biodiversity, specifically, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. The problem is that experts have no comprehensive, ecologically justified way of determining which areas to include. Now, a team of researchers from Japan and Finland has devised an analytical framework that could make Japan’s protected area expansion as efficient as possible..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The sustainability of the terrestrial ecosystem depends on the stability of its tiniest residents. The terrestrial microbiome controls functions such as organic carbon turnover, nutrient-use efficiency, and productivity, and losing critical keystone functions may cause dramatic shifts in microbiome composition and function. A recent study sought to better understand the relationship between biodiversity and microbiome stability. Researchers inoculated microbial communities differing in phylogenetic diversity into sterilized soil and evaluated the resulting microbiome stability. They found that bacterial communities with higher phylogenetic diversity tended to be more stable throughout a range of pH values. Specialized metabolic functions, including “nitrogen metabolism” and "phosphonate and phosphinate metabolism,” were identified as keystone functions. These critical functions were carried out by specific bacterial taxa, including Nitrospira and Gammatimonas..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.