This teaching activity addresses environmental stresses on corals. Students assess coral bleaching using water temperature data from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center. Students learn about the habitat of corals, the stresses on coral populations, and the impact of increased sea surface temperatures on coral reefs. In a discussion section, the connection between coral bleaching and global warming is drawn.

Coral Reefs in Hot Water is a short video displaying computerized data collected on the number of reefs impacted by coral bleaching around the world.

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:

"A recent case study reports the apparent benefits of classical homeopathy for people with varying severities of psoriasis. Their conclusion: a more holistic approach that goes beyond skin clearance might be one solution for certain sufferers of the disease. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting more than 125 million people worldwide. In addition to its effect on the skin, psoriasis can take a psychological toll due to its appearance. And if tied to systemic inflammation, it can even cause serious morbidity or death. Modern treatment options for psoriasis, such as the use of biologics, are designed to block the inflammatory factors that give rise to disease symptoms. While generally effective, these agents can actually weaken a patient’s immune system, making their prolonged use risky. That has many researchers exploring alternative routes for treatment that go beyond clear skin to achieve a better quality of life..."

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

Course materials including an instructor guide, course map, and weekly schedule for the third part of a three-part Anatomy and Physiology class. Includes learning objectives, assignments, formative feedback, learning activities, and readings from the OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology 2e open textbook.

This activity is a field investigation where students observe plants, animals, and insects that are common to Minnesota.

This activity is a field investigation of the biodiversity in a given area. The exercise will give students experience making scientific observations and creating a dichotomous key.

Here in the Dunn lab, siphonophores are our favorite animal and the focus of much of our research. Dr. Phil Pugh is a good friend of the lab, and he also happens to have described more new species of siphonophores than anyone who has ever lived. In the video below, he describes what it’s like to come across a siphonophore in the deep sea with a submarine. What looks like one long body in this video is actually a free-swimming colony of clones — many genetically identical bodies that are all attached. But each body in the group isn’t just like its neighbor. They each do a specific job for the colony. Some individuals will swim, some will catch food, and some will reproduce.

Robert Sandler tells the story of doliolid reproduction. The video was made with paper puppets and hand-drawn animations. Robert made this episode with support from the Society of Royce Fellows.

Riley Thompson, from the College of the Atlantic, tells the story of how animals become invisible.

If you are stuck to a rock it is tricky to get close enough to a partner to mate. One solution to this problem would be to release eggs or sperm into the open water, which is what many animals in this situation do. Acorn barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides), however, found a different solution. They have evolved the longest penis relative to their body size of any animal. In this video the penises of several barnacles are probing the neighborhood for mates. The penis is re-grown each mating season.

Robert Sandler tells the story of ocean slime, using stop motion and jellyfish puppets. Robert made this episode with support from the Society of Royce Fellows.

This video demonstrates some of the features of PhyloTree. It then shows the early explosive discovery of mammal species (most major mammal groups were discovered early on), and then shows the slow and steady discovery of cnidarians (many cnidarians remain to be described). The tool can also be used to quickly find the first species that was described in a group. The first siphonophore to be described, for example, was Physalia physalis (the Portuguese man o’ war).

Alysse Austin, a student in Casey Dunn’s Invertebrate Zoology course at Brown University, describes sexual dimorphism in green spoonworm.

Here is a semi-interactive video (with the option of a single, non-interactive video here) from CreatureCast alum Sophia Tintori, featuring tips from a handful of ocean-dwellers that each have drastically different approaches to being invisible.

In this first video, Alison Sweeney talks about work that has been done in the Morse lab on Squid iridescence.

This comprehensive reference list highlights numerous articles related to Cretaceous marine reptiles and provides links to other relevant, classic paleontology references. Several of these references date back to the 1800's and some articles are hyperlinked to pdf files that can be easily downloaded and printed. Examples of topics covered by these references include the Cretaceous period, paleontology, evolution, marine reptiles, Cretaceous fossils and sedimentary rocks.

The goal of this virtual field trip to Iridium Hill, Montana is to investigate the disappearance of dinosaur fossils above the Cretaceous/ Tertiary boundary. The site provides rock outcrop photos of Cretaceous and Tertiary strata (Hell Creek and Fort Union Formations), stratigraphic sections and supporting text for this classic iridium-bearing locality. Topics include the K/T boundary, iridium concentrations, stratigraphy, sedimentology and, fluvial and lacustrine depositional environments.

With your mouse, drag data points and their error bars, and watch the best-fit polynomial curve update instantly. You choose the type of fit: linear, quadratic, cubic, or quartic. The reduced chi-square statistic shows you when the fit is good. Or you can try to find the best fit by manually adjusting fit parameters.

With your mouse, drag data points and their error bars, and watch the best-fit polynomial curve update instantly. You choose the type of fit: linear, quadratic, cubic, or quartic. The reduced chi-square statistic shows you when the fit is good. Or you can try to find the best fit by manually adjusting fit parameters.