This lesson plan has students working in small groups to research the Mountain Pine Beetle in Colorado and other inter-mountain Western states. Students identify the factors that control pine beetle population and research how warmer winters and decreasing spring snowpack allow the population of pine beetles to expand.

Insects are an excellent resource for science education. Many insects are easily maintained in the classroom and can happily thrive despite being handled and kept in captivity. The remarkable diversity in form and function of commonly found insects promotes interest and enthusiasm in observing the natural world. Insects can also be used to model a variety of scientific principles.

The objectives of this page are to give educators basic information about insects and ideas on how to use insects in the classroom.

In this activity, student teams learn about research design and design a controlled experiment exploring the relationship between a hypothetical planet, an energy source, and distance. They analyze the data and derive an equation to describe the observations. Includes student data sheets, a teacher's guide, and a tutorial on how to use the spreadsheet program Excel. This is Activity A in module 3, titled "Using Mathematic Models to Investigate Planetary Habitability," of the resource, Earth Climate Course: What Determines a Planet's Climate? The course aims to help students to develop an understanding of our environment as a system of human and natural processes that result in changes that occur over various space and time scales.

In this activity, students build a simple computer model to determine the black body surface temperature of planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Experiments altering the luminosity and distance to the light source will allow students to determine the energy reaching the object and its black body temperature. The activity builds on student outcomes from activity A, "Finding a Mathematical Description of a Physical Relationship." It also supports inquiry into a real-world problem, the effect of urban heat islands and deforestation on climate. Includes a teacher's guide, student worksheets, and an Excel tutorial. This is Activity B of module 3, titled "Using Mathematic Models to Investigate Planetary Habitability," of the resource, Earth Climate Course: What Determines a Planet's Climate? The course aims to help students to develop an understanding of our environment as a system of human and natural processes that result in changes that occur over various space and time scales.

Students explore how mathematical descriptions of the physical environment can be fine-tuned through testing using data. In this activity, student teams obtain satellite data measuring the Earth's albedo, and then input this data into a spreadsheet-based radiation balance model, GEEBITT. They validate their results against published the published albedo value of the Earth, and conduct similar comparisons Mercury, Venus and Mars. The resource includes an Excel spreadsheet tutorial, an investigation, student data sheets and a teacher's guide. Students apply their understanding to the real life problem of urban heat islands and deforestation. The activity links builds on student outcomes from activities A and B: "Finding a Mathematical Description of a Physical Relationship," and "Making a Simple Mathematical Model." This is Activity C in module 3, Using Mathematical Models to Investigate Planetary Habitability, of the resource, Earth Climate Course: What Determines a Planet's Climate? The course aims to help students to develop an understanding of our environment as a system of human and natural processes that result in changes that occur over various space and time scales.

In this analysis and discussion activity, students develop their understanding of photosynthesis by answering questions about three different models of photosynthesis. These models are a chemical equation, a flowchart that shows changes in energy and matter, and a diagram that shows the basic processes in a chloroplast. Students learn about the role of scientific models by evaluating the advantages of each of these models for understanding the process of photosynthesis. This activity helps students meet the Next Generation Science Standards.

Incorporating your schoolyard into your classroom can be a powerful tool for making learning meaningful and engaging for your students. Local and relevant phenomena can engage your student’s prior understandings, better connect to their interests and identities, and help in draw in students who don’t see science, reading or writing connecting to their lives.  This online course is a series of professional development workshops for Early Elementary (K-2) educators, developed by IslandWood with funding from the OSPI ClimeTime Grant. A slide deck and accompanying handouts supplement the course outline for a complete picture. 

Students will gather information and data about vaccine information. They will use this information to argue whether or not vaccinations should be mandatory, culminating in a summative assessment in the form of a debate and a reflection on the information gathered.

While most fish are completely harmless to people, there are some species that are mildly to extremely venomous and can actually kill humans. In this video, Jonathan travels the world to meet some of the most venomous fish in the sea. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

This gallery of online resources is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Video Gallery: Man Bites Shark, part of the Sharks and Rays: Myth and Reality seminar, features three videos: Man Bites Shark I, which looks at the reasons sharks are threatened by people. Man Bites Shark II, which looks at Tampa Bay and how contamination from human development is affecting sharks. Man Bites Shark III, which looks at the role of sharks as a sentinel species, alerting us early on to problems within a habitat.

In this analysis and discussion activity, research concerning the health effects of vitamin E is used as a case study to help students understand why different research studies may find seemingly opposite results. Students learn useful approaches for evaluating and synthesizing conflicting research results, with a major focus on understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different types of studies (laboratory experiments, observational studies, and clinical trials). Students also learn that the results of any single study should be interpreted with caution, since results of similar studies vary (due to random variation and differences in specific study characteristics).

In this video segment, adapted from a student video produced at Northwest Indian College in Bellingham Washington, Native American elders discuss the impact of climate change on salmon populations and the importance of restoring balance in the natural world.

This video documents the challenges that climate change presents for four specific Arctic predators: polar bears, Arctic foxes, beluga whales, and walruses.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they take a close look at the interdependence of all living things in the Dzanga-Sangha. The site opens by introducing kids to BaAka, a young girl who will guide them through the site. In the Connect the Dots, an interactive game, kids learn how the people, animals, and plants depend on each other to thrive three in habitats: Forest, Bai, and River. In Visiting Dzanga-Sangha, kids get to meet six people who have visited the rainforest as part of their work: an ornithologist, artist, historian, video maker, anthropologist, and ethnomusicologist.

Students learn the genetics of the ABO blood type system and use simple chemicals to simulate blood type tests. Then they carry out genetic analyses to determine whether hospital staff accidentally switched two babies born on the same day. Students learn about Punnett squares, codominance, and multiple alleles of a single gene. This activity helps students meet the Next Generation Science Standards.

In this video, Jonathan travels to Holbox, Mexico in search of the massive whale shark‰ŰÓthe world‰ŰŞs largest fish. Reaching 50 feet long, these animals grow larger than a school bus, but they are completely harmless since they eat only plankton and small fish. Jonathan gets up close and personal to a mouth the size of a small car in his investigation to discover why so many whale sharks visit Holbox every summer. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

This unit gives students insight into how various living things, inanimate objects, and environmental factors are related. It is designed to be completed in four to seven sessions. The unit investigates the following two questions. What kinds of relationships exist among plants, arthropods, and abiotic factors? Can the presence of a plant species predict the presence of an arthropod species, and visa versa?

Science expert Emerald Robinson explains what an ecosystem is and why they are important

Biodiversity is the spectacular variety of life on Earth and the essential interdependence among all living things. Students begin to learn about the term biodiversity at its most basic level. On their first field trip, students observe a natural space and report on what they see. They also begin to see the need for keeping written records and how to make scientific observations of their site. A series of optional mapping activities are presented that develop the skills required to create detailed and representational maps derived from observations and data.

In this classroom activity, young students learn what distinguishes dinosaurs from other animals. The activity opens with background information for teachers about these prehistoric reptiles. Working in small groups, students look through dinosaur books to gather interesting facts to share. As a class, students use their facts to create a semantic map. Then they explore the differences in dinosaur and lizard legs, and examine how these differences affect their stances. The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify the dinosaurs within a collection of animal illustrations.