Los estudiantes descubriran las condiciones necesarias para la vida de las plantas y los animales, incluyendo seres humanos.
Students will hone their intuitive sense of biology and in the process discover what conditions are required for life. Students will also investigate how sunlight impacts the temperature of surfaces. Finally, students will engineerand test a shelter that can change a surface’s temperature to make it more compatible with apotential schoolyard creature.
In this video, a team of paleontologists, paleobotanists, soil scientists, and other researchers take to the field in Wyoming's Bighorn Basin to document how the climate, plants, and animals there changed during the Paleocene- Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). During this time a sudden, enormous influx of carbon flooded the ocean and atmosphere for reasons that are still unclear to scientists. The PETM is used as an analog to the current warming. The scientists' research may help inform our understanding of current increases in carbon in the atmosphere and ocean and the resulting impact on ecosystems.
O material didático intitulado Planilha Eco-Controle Financeiro na Escola, foi elaborado com a
participação e envolvimento dos alunos da turma, para assim servir de apoio para os devidos cálculos matemáticos no decorrer da evolução da pesquisa. O presente trabalho buscou envolver as Ciências Matemáticas para a sensibilização ambiental de alunos do Ensino Fundamental. Com o objetivo de estimular a Economia Solidária por meio de uma moeda social (Eco Moeda), nomeada como DIC. Assim estimulou-se o letramento matemático, a solidariedade e a consciência ecológica.
Students use the procedure outlined by Casey Hermoyian and colleagues (2002) to test whether competition played a role in structuring a strophomenid brachiopod community in the Middle Devonian Onondaga limestone of western New York. It is not necessary to use these particular brachiopods; brachs from other localities, ages, and species could work, too, if chosen well. Students sort through a collection of brachiopods, separating them into groups of species defined by mutual agreement. They then use measurements of the commissure length to test two predictions made by Robert MacArthur's (1972) theory of how Hutchinson's (1959) niche partitioning would be evidenced: nonoverlapping resource use among former competitors but with very little distance between them. Students graph results, calculate ratio sums of their measurements and z statistics to test whether their results are significant. Finally, students prepare a conference-type abstract based on their results. The activity gives students practice in observing differences among groups, measurement, graphing, statistical calculation, synthesizing results, and clear presentation of their synthesis. Students also practice group and individual work in this exercise.
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In this activity, students divide into groups of 4-5, choose a hypothesis relating to escalation, and fine-tune it for testing-- using bulk sampled material from the local Yorktown Formation (Pliocene). They select a study organism on which to focus, develop a sampling regime, and decide on approaches to data collection and analyses. As students collect and analyze data, I rotate around the classroom discussing hypotheses, answering questions, and assessing their progress. Students finish the data collection, analyses, and interpretation in class (or lab), then write up the results outside of class.
Students enjoy the activity because:
(1) it is essentially a mini research project-- including developing a hypothesis, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, and presenting it (either in writing or orally)
(2) it emphasizes the concept that paleontology can be a hypothesis-driven science,
(3) it provides students with additional experience applying a variety of basic statistical tests (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA, chi-square, regression)
and (4) it includes lots of hands-on experience with fossils.
The activity can be designed as either a lecture or lab activity, and can easily be expanded to include a field component (bulk sampling), additional lab component (sorting and identifying fossils), and/or oral presentation component.
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Students are provided with a dinosaur article from a popular magazine (e.g. Discover or Natural History) or the journal Science. Their task is to dissect the article distinguishing
evidence from interpretation. They need to recognize the various hypotheses presented and also evaluate the strength of these ideas. Then during classroom discussion, they explore the implications of their dissections. For example they would address some of the following questions: Are other interpretations possible? Where have the authors over interpreted the evidence? What are the strongest interpretations? How could the ideas be further tested?
What type of evidence would be sufficient to falsify or further support the interpretations
of the papers?
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This informational text introduces students to photosynthesis and lichens-plant-like organisms resulting from a symbiotic relationship between an alga and a fungus. The text is written at a grade four through grade five reading level. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.
In this lesson, students will compare weather and climate, explain patterns over time and make observations by creating a rain gauge.
NGSS: 3-ESS2-1
Time: 55 minutes
Materials: laminated patterns in nature photos (photos included), thermometer for the class, duct tape, data sheet, rulers, sharpies, scissors, empty soda bottles for rain gauages, pebbles
In this lesson students will learn about evaporation, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, and the greenhouse effect. Patterns in nautre are discussed, including what is happening over time and why we should care.
NGSS: 5-ESS2-1, 5-ESS3-1
Time: 55 minutes - 1 hour
Materials: laminated patterns in nature photos (photos included), plastic cups, rulers, Sharpies
In this lesson, students will compare weather and climate, explain patterns over time and participate in a climate relay race.
NGSS: K-ESS2-1
Time: 45-50 minutes
Materials: globe, flashlight, three sets of clothing for the relay race (sunglasses, sunhat, swim suit, board shorts, rain jacket, hiking boots, umbrella, sweater, heavy jacket, warm hat, gloves, scarf, etc.)
Students will begin by brainstorming a list of ways that organisms may interact within an ecosystem. Then students will have an opportunity to share their list with a peer and with the class. Next, students will create a jot chart that will detail the five relationships that may exist between organisms in an ecosystem: competition, predation, mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. At the conclusion of the lesson, students will examine food webs and predict the patterns of interactions that may exist between and among organisms in an ecosystem. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
This activity mimics the ecological energy pyramid using money to represent energy moving between the various trophic levels.
In this activity, students will learn how water can be polluted by algal blooms. They will grow algae with different concentrations of fertilizer or nutrients and analyze their results as environmental engineers working to protect a local water resource.
This video segment adapted from the NOW-RAMP 2002 Expedition documents a research expedition to Pearl and Hermes Atoll in Hawai`i. Watch as biologists assess the bird and plant populations and then work to eradicate invasive species.
In this video from Outdoor Nevada, Brian Wignall speaks with an ornithologist about the peregrine falcon, a majestic and endangered species that is one of the fastest animals in the world.
We have created this free collection of resources in an effort to share with the world the amazing potential for making positive change that Permaculture design has to offer. Permaculture design is a method of landscape planning that can be applied to anything, from a home garden or farm to a city block or entire village. Permaculture design is an ethically based, whole-systems design approach to create sustainable human settlements and institutions. Although rooted in horticulture and agriculture, permaculture design also touches on regional planning, ecology, animal husbandry, technology, architecture and international development.
Join Scripps marine ecologist Edward Parnell as he describes the science behind Marine Protected Areas, how they are established and preliminary results from the first such areas around CaliforniaŐs Channel Islands. (58 minutes)
Join research oceanographer and photographer Dale Stokes for a global photographic journey featuring ships, submarines, underwater habitats, and both poles. This presentation includes a decade of images documenting exotic locations underwater and topside and a variety of unusual vessels and research instruments. (58 minutes)
Believe it or not, your life depends on algae! Join Scripps' Institution's Russell Chapman as he discusses the important roles algae have played in the development of life as we know it. (55 minutes)