In a quiet forest in central Florida, a mysterious pond filled with warm clear water hides a secret at the bottom. In this video, Jonathan explores the pond to find a spring which leads into a cave. As Jonathan travels underground, he meets unexpected marine life in the dark depths and learns how water travels through an aquifer from the underground world to the surface. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

This video features the Prairie Heating and CO2 Enrichment Experiment near Cheyenne WY, where scientists expose mixed-grass prairie to higher temperatures and CO2 concentrations to study impacts on the prairie for late in this century.

This is lesson five of a 9-lesson module. Activity explores the effects of climate change on different parts of the Earth system and on human well-being: polar regions, coral reefs, disease vectors, extreme weather, and biodiversity.

This video segment adapted from NOVA explores the effects of the Glen Canyon Dam on the beaches, wildlife, and vegetation of the Colorado River.

In this lesson, students investigate wildfires in Colorado by analyzing wildfire data and information to create a local news story that educates community members about wildfire risk. In Part 1, students watch and discuss a short documentary about wildfires. In Part 2, students analyze wildfire data to build understanding of the causes, impacts, locations, and frequency of wildfires. In Part 3, students create a local news story for their community.

This video describes the effect of a warming climate on the tundra biome and specifically the impacts of changing climate on the Rocky Mountain Pika, a small mammal that struggles with summer heat.

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, explores reasons why Homo sapiens had an advantage over Neanderthals in the pursuit of territory and natural resources.

A regional conservation partnership in Massachusetts needed to update their approach to evaluating land acquisitions. Adding the complexity of climate change to their map helped resolve their vision.

This video segment adapted from NOVA describes the emergence of life on the islands of Hawaii from a barren volcanic platform under the ocean waves to the rich explosion of life that covers the many climate zones of the islands today.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students investigate plant growth by measuring their own plants.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson lets students discover the importance of plants in their environment and the basic materials plants need for growth. It also contains an activity for students to measure plant growth rate so as to discuss the factors that influence plant growth. All the accompanying materials in the lesson are well-sourced, and this lesson has passed our science credibility review.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson includes elements of project-based learning through hands-on activities.
-This lesson is cross curricular.
-The materials are easily accessible for teachers and can be collected by students from home. Consumable items can be collected from home, donated by families, or even local companies that support education. If donations are not possible, seed and bean costs are minimal and can be shared among multiple teachers in a school.
-Parts of the lesson can be conducted outdoors to connect with nature.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-For the Inquire section, students need access to outdoor space with living things to observe.
-The lesson time is approximately 90 minutes, but the lesson also requires ~10 minutes daily for 2 weeks after the lesson to measure and log plant growth in their journals.
-Students should have a basic understanding of the difference between living and nonliving things.
-Students should have an understanding of what living things need to grow.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-This lesson can be taught as three separate ~30 minute lessons.
-Students can graph growth at the end of the 2-week time period showing how their plants changed. This is an assessment opportunity for teachers to determine understanding of measurement.
-If there is no possibility of a nature walk or finding space outside for observation, substitutions can be made such as observing a living plant in a pot, a photograph of a space outside, a raised garden bed, etc.
-Due to the hands-on aspects of this lesson, English language learners can engage and be supported with vocabulary in their native language.
-The Plant Growth Journal can be edited to include additional writing opportunities.
-Measurements can be made through standard or nonstandard units of measure.
-Graphing can be included for students ready to engage in graphing based on grade level.
-Enrichment lessons can be included through designing outdoor space at students' homes or creating a school garden.

This activity focuses on the role of photosynthesis in a sustainable future. Students explore the effect of photosynthesis and respiration in a 'closed systems' containing plankton, marine plants, and fish. By calculating carbon dioxide uptake and production in these systems, they predict a plant: animal ratio sufficient to maintain a system in carbon dioxide 'balance' for one hour.

(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.)

In this activity, to learn about the biological needs of mosses, students will grow and maintain their own moss terrarium. Through daily maintenance and observation, students will identify those factors necessary for the successful cultivation of moss.

Selecting one environmental situation students will learn about some basic human rights norms and then analyze that environmental situation in terms of those human rights norms.

(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.)

This unit is geared for high school biology students. The unit will take place after the students have learned about ecology and population growth. The students will use their prior knowledge on subjects like food webs and balance within ecosystems to understand how small factors can cause great changes.

The unit will start off by considering invasive species and how the introduction of a single new organism into an ecosystem that is already in balance can disrupt the flow of energy. With this in mind, the students will think about how humans have done something similar. We introduced ourselves into new areas and have caused environmental harm. From there, we will study climate-based damage caused by humans and consider the environmental and biological impacts.

Finally, we will design strategies to adapt to a changing planet. This will have the students looking into how the world has changed, and what we can do to cope with the diverse climate-based impacts.

We hear the word ecosystems in the news and at school but just what are ecosystems? It turns out there are lots of ecosystems. You might even learn you have some inside you! Also in: French | Spanish

This audio slideshow examines the changes in the ecosystem that will occur to the Arctic due to increasing temperatures and disappearing sea ice.

Students will explore the kelp forest ecosystem by conducting research and by writing imaginary narratives through an activity that integrates science and language arts.

This is a five-activity module that explores the evidence for and impacts of melting glacial ice, with resources from major institutions and scientists who study glaciers -- primarily in Arctic areas. The suite of activities includes both glaciers and melting ice, as well as the impact of melt water downstream. Each activity follows the 5E model of Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation.

Students are presented with an engineering challenge: To design a sustainable guest village within the Saguaro National Park in Arizona. Through four lessons and six associated activities, they study ecological relationships with an emphasis on the Sonoran Desert. They examine species adaptations. They come to appreciate the complexity and balance that supports the exchange of energy and matter within food webs. Then students apply what they have learned about these natural relationships to the study of biomimicry and sustainable design. They study the flight patterns of birds and relate their functional design to aeronautical engineering. A computer simulation model is also incorporated into this unit and students use this program to examine perturbations within a simple ecosystem. The solution rests within the lessons and applications of this unit.

What is 'innate behaviour'? Where does it feature in the environment? And how does it compare to 'learned behaviour? In this Ecology GCSE / K12 video learn all of the answers to these questions.Are you a passionate teacher who would like to reach tens of thousands of learners? Get in touch: vsteam@fusion-universal.comFind out more: http://www.thevirtualschool.comThis video is distributed under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND