This video segment from NatureScene features the area of the Congaree Swamp where the high ground and the flood plain meet. Learn how a few feet of difference in elevation on a floodplain can yield drastic changes in what youŰ__Ű__ŒŒÇll find living there.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the unique environment of southern Florida's Everglades and gain insights into the interrelatedness of living things, nonliving things, and climate.

This activity is a guided inquiry by students into balancing ecosystems through food chains and webs.

This article presents an overview of news and information presentations around the issue of polar bears drowning at sea due to melting polar ice, and how students might hone their news and information analysis skills taking into account media bias.

In these life science activities, students will participate in field observations of living things & do research of animals they observe to create a food chain & present it to the class. Students will participate in a food web simulation game.

With a continued focus on the Sonoran Desert, students are introduced to the concepts of food chains and food webs through a PowerPoint® presentation. They learn the difference between producers and consumers and study how these organisms function within their communities as participants in various food chains. They further understand ecosystem differences by learning how multiple food chains link together to form intricate and balanced food webs. At lesson end, students construct food webs using endemic desert species.

By using this tiered assignment students at different levels are able to review characteristics of living things by either creating a food web or food chart.

Students begin this activity by using the IPCC4, carbon diagram to distinguish natural and anthropogenic carbon. (A point that students may need to have clarified is that CO2 from natural and anthropogenic sources is the same molecule.). Students begin with Activity 1 , calculating the overall carbon transfer for a year, followed by an examination of the role of forests in the carbon cycle. This suite of activities includes 7 parts, and the selection of additional activities depends upon the discretion of the instructor and focus of the class.

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This video segment from the Earth Operators Manual summarizes how fossil fuels are made, provides a comparison of how long it takes to store energy in coal, oil and natural gas, and discusses how fast we're using them.

This practicum focuses on applying the principles of sustainability to improve the quality of life and activity along the Foshan downtown riverfront. The City has recently engaged in several planning efforts that, with the help of consultants and experts, will help to identify strategies to revitalize the City’s center and establish a new downtown. This practicum will compliment these efforts by focusing on planning and design options in and around the Pearl River, a now underutilized waterway that runs through the City’s new downtown.

A picture book for grades 2-5. Tells the story of a lonely fox who lives on an island and decides to grow a garden. He is initially frightened of a bee who comes to the garden, but eventually learns of the bee's usefulness and they become friends. Inside the illustrations are a series of rebuses that, when decoded, tell the story of how bees pollinate flowers and make honey. Decoding the rebuses teaches students not only the ecological functions of bees, but also the mathematical principles of PEDMAS/BODMAS.

This video is one of a series from the Switch Energy project. It presents pros and cons of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. In this video, new fracking technologies are presented as more economical and environmentally safe.

In partnership with the National Science Digital Library and Apple, NCAR and UCAR offer podcasts that provide a brief and accessible overview on climate and climate change. These podcasts, short 5-8 minute videos you can download on your computer or iPod, are a part of the NSDL on iTunes U collection.

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:

"Plants are shaped by the many microbes they host. But scientists are only beginning to understand how, especially in underexplored plant structures like aerial roots. A new study shows that the mucilage secreted by these roots can create a microbiome unlike that found in underground roots and nurture an environment that caters to beneficial, nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Researchers made these discoveries by examining the aerial roots of pink lady shrubs—a fast-growing invasive plant. Metabolite profiling of aerial root mucilage revealed a rich cocktail of nutrients that would be expected to support an equally rich variety of microbes. But genomic analyses suggested a mucilage community dominated by nitrogen-fixing diazotrophs. This homogeneous community structure was linked to the presence of the fungus C. raphigera. The antibacterial activity of this fungus was such that only diazotrophs were allowed to thrive, to the benefit of the pink lady shrubs..."

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

This animated slideshow introduces biodiesel as a fuel alternative. With concern about the use of petroleum-based fuels at an all-time high, biodiesel is experiencing a popularity surge. And algaeâotherwise known to some as pond scumâ are grabbing headlines as the next potential biodiesel superstar. But how and why do algae make oil? And why do they make so much of it? In this audio slide show, U.C. Berkeley's Kris Niyogi describes the process and its potential.

Leaders in the field of biological diversity present an overview of emergent issues in biodiversity, from the surrounding flora and fauna to the genes deep within us. (117 minutes)

This video montage of spectacular NASA satellite images set to music shows different types of ice and ice features as well as descriptions of satellite-based measurements of ice cover. Text captioning describes how global ice cover is changing, and how this is measured.

This fuel cell animation demonstrates how a fuel cell uses hydrogen to produce electricity, with only water and heat as byproducts. The animation consists of four parts - an introduction, fuel cell components, chemical process, and fuel cell stack.

In this activity, students consider the impact and sustainability of use of different classes of biofuels on the economy, the environment, and society. Students also learn about bioelectricity and how converting biomass to electricity may be the more efficient way to fuel cars in the 21st century.

This activity is a classroom and field activity in which students record observations of birds in their natural habitat and make connections between the structure and function of the bird feet.