This unit on plant identification helps students prepare for their fieldwork by developing their observational skills and introducing them to resources that will help them with plant identification. It's designed to be completed in five or more sessions and has comprehensive curriculum materials information for teachers, including overviews of binomial nomenclature and dichotomous keys. Additionally, a guide to finding local specialists is available online. There are optional activites and information on supplemental resources available on line.

This article, part of Biodiversity Counts, reports on the process of doing a plant inventory. The article discusses how scientists begin by marking out the plot, using colored flagging and permanent marker, why you may need to divide a plot into smaller subplots if the plants you're inventorying are smaller than trees, and some of the difficulties scientists face in the field when they're working in particularly dense areas.

In this lesson, the students will be given time to create their own understandings about the parts of plants as they explore plants hands-on in the outdoor classroom.

In this lesson, students will explain their observations and understanding of various plant's external parts and how they help the plant survive in its environment.

What do plants eat? This unit explores plants and how they make food.

Students will use knowledge of life cycles to collect evidence of the stages of life a plant goes through.

Many factors influence the success and survival rate of a population of living things. Explore several factors that can determine the survival of a population of sheep in this NetLogo model. Start with a model of unlimited grass available to the sheep and watch what happens to the sheep population! Next try to keep the population under control by removing sheep periodically. Change the birthrate, grass regrowth rate, and the amount of energy rabbits get from the grass to keep a stable population.

Students develop their understanding of the exponential and logistic population growth models by analyzing food poisoning and the recovery of endangered species. Then, students analyze examples where the trends in population size do not match the predictions of the exponential or logistic population growth models because the simplifying assumptions for these models are not true for the population studied. In the final section, students analyze trends in human population size and some factors that have affected and will affect these trends. This activity helps students meet the Next Generation Science Standards.

This issue contains estimates of the resident population of Australian states and territories as at 30 June of each reference year. Estimates up to 2006 are final, based on the results of the 2006 Census of Population and Housing. Estimates for June 2007 have been revised and estimates from June 2008 onwards are preliminary.

We may not immediately think of our heart as a collection of individual cells. But it is the complex interaction of numerous cell types that give the heart its ability to pump blood. On this site, you will learn about the cells of the heart and you will get a see a video of the cells within the heart.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. The site opens by telling kids that people have learned to change the food we eat. The first comic strip looks at a farmer who works to produce a larger, redder, tastier tomato. The second comic strip tells kids about genetic modification and imagines a scientist putting the flounder's "anti-freeze" gene inside the DNA of a tomato. Food for Thought presents kids with two scenarios about genetically modified food, asking them if they think they're good ideas.

Test your knowlegde about cell biology in this short quiz. If you miss a question, you will be given a page of information to review so you can try again. Good luck!

How does energy flow in and out of our atmosphere? Explore how solar and infrared radiation enters and exits the atmosphere with an interactive model. Control the amounts of carbon dioxide and clouds present in the model and learn how these factors can influence global temperature. Record results using snapshots of the model in the virtual lab notebook where you can annotate your observations.

Thanks to the Disney/Pixar movie "Finding Nemo", virtually everyone has heard of the clownfish. In this video, Jonathan travels the Pacific to investigate the behavior of real clownfish. Even though they don't actually talk in real life, they are beautiful and fascinating fish to observe. Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

Try your hand at assembling this red blood cell jigsaw puzzle created with an image from CELLS alive! This puzzle is 32 pieces and generally takes a few minutes to solve.

Students learn how to measure heart rate accurately. Then students design and carry out an experiment to test the effects of an activity or stimulus on heart rate, analyze and interpret the data, and present their experiments in a poster session. In this activity students learn about both cardiac physiology and experimental method.

This annotated compilation of some of the best resources for teaching and learning about evolution includes activities, videos and articles. In the attached file, the first section provides general and introductory resources and the second section provides resources for understanding and analyzing the evidence.

Statistical table showing respondents's perceptions towards the nation's progress in coping with illegal drugs.

This article, part of Biodiversity Counts, examines how to responsibly collect and keep specimens. The article discusses the reasons why collecting specimens is important and the behaviors and attitudes that define responsible collecting for both scientists and students.

In this video, students learn how scientific surveys of wildlife are performed at a site in Yosemite, California. These surveys, in conjunction with studies from the early 1900s, provide evidence that animal populations in Yosemite have shifted over time in response to rising temperatures.