In this Nature video, watch a battle between a loggerhead turtle and a shark.
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 wonŰŞt believe the disgusting truth! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.
The theme of this guide is the protection and maintenance of diverse shark populations by understanding the effect that overfishing has on ocean ecosystem food webs
In this video segment from Nature, see the value that sharks can have on the tourism industry in an area.
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.
An interactive lecture that uses flash animations showing the researcher and their experiments that were used to develop the basic concepts in Mendelian genetics. Includes multiple choice questions students can answer in class.
In this field investigation, students will identify and determine the population size of snails in an aquatic environment.
This group activity charges students with teaching their colleagues about the biogeochemical cycle of one key soil element (e.g., either C, N, S, P, Ca, or Fe). Students are given a single class period to summarize their knowledge and to develop a lesson that includes (1) an organized, 5-8 minute oral presentation, (2) a graphical, conceptual model of their assigned element's soil-biogeochemical cycle, and (3) a list of discussion questions with which to engage their colleagues on the other teams. A second class session is used to refine and to expand upon the submitted models as necessary.
(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.)
Students collect soil samples from places of interest around campus and run a series of basic soil analyses to make conclusions about how soil fertility relates to the biological community and human management.
(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 interactive, students learn all about soil and how to conserve it. Students are walked through a series of questions and scenarios to help them learn about the connection to the carbon cycle and climate change.
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum/Geology of National Parks module. Students use the geometric mean and multiplicative standard deviation to examine the right-skewed distribution of nutrient concentrations in water-quality data at Mammoth Cave National Park.
In this video adapted from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska Native people of Chevak teach visitors about the beauty of Cup'ik culture and the spirit of the earth, sea, and animals.
Students evaluate water quality data as indicators of the health of an ecosystem and manage, graph and analyze data from an online database. This activity is designed to facilitate student interest in their ecosystem, focusing on where they live.
(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 video profile produced for Teachers' Domain, meet conservationist Steve MacLean, an Inupiaq from Barrow, Alaska, who works to preserve the health of the Bering Sea ecosystem.
In this activity, students research various topics about ocean health, e.g. overfishing, habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, pollution, and ocean acidification. An optional extension activity has them creating an aquatic biosphere in a bottle experiment in which they can manipulate variables.
Studying life on the seafloor beneath Antarctica's thick ice is a major challenge for ecologists. Learn about a new device that can reach those icy depths in this video segment adapted from WomenInAntarctica.com.
A short video on how changing climate is impacting the ecosystem and thereby impacting traditional lifestyles of the Athabaskan people of Alaska.
This is a survey course in which we will discuss the science behind historical and current environmental issues. We will discuss the major threats to biodiversity and ecosystem function. We will study how human activities have affected the limited resources of our planet. We will learn how air, water and soil degradation have affected human health. Lastly, we will explore the emerging field of sustainability, what it means, and how it is being applied in todayęs world.