Students learn about organic gardening by developing their own research questions, conducting research, gardening at their school, creating signs about their plants, and presenting their research to the class.

This activity is a guided inquiry where students will find their own lichen and classify it into one of three categories. They will collect, analyze, and present their finding to the class.

In this lesson, students will learn about the life cycle of an apple tree and sequence the stages of development. Includes activity instructions, extension activities, songs, and student worksheet.

NGSS: K-ESS3-1, 1-LS1-1

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: "Apples Grow on Trees" or other book about apples, apple life cycle student worksheet, glue sticks.

Trade was critical to Old Babylonia, where many highly prized natural resources were scarce but agricultural goods were in surplus. A vibrant trading system developed, bringing manufactured goods and raw materials from as far as Turkey, and even India, 1500 miles away. Trade became integral to the economy and the culture. In this lesson, students explore the trade industry in Old Babylonia and its far-flung influence.

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-up look at biodiversity in a city park. The site opens by telling kids that, despite appearances, a great deal of biodiversity exists in cities. From tiny mites to mighty trees, thousands of species thrive there. It then takes them to a slice of life from a thriving city park, where they are asked to find 10 hidden critters living alongside the trees, plants, and insects. Each time they locate one of the tiny critters, they are rewarded with a quick look at its importance to the habitat.

Produced by the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, Life in the Leaf Litter is a guide to the diversity of soil organisms and the crucial role that invertebrates play in woodland ecosystems. The booklet was based, in part, on a leaf litter survey conducted by the CBC's Metro Program and the Museum's Division of Invertebrate Zoology in Central Park's woodlands, which led to the discovery of a new genus and species of centipede, Nannarrup hoffmani. The booklet may be downloaded as a pdf or ordered free of charge.

This article discuss basic ecological concepts such as food chains and webs within the context of the tundra.

This three-week project begins with a measurement of "baseline" consumptive behavior followed by two weeks of working to reduce the use of water, energy, high-impact foods, and other materials. The assignment uses an Excel spreadsheet that calculates direct energy and water use as well as indirect CO2 and water use associated with food consumption.

(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.)

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:

"Domesticated edible insects are a sustainable protein source that has been gaining global attention. P. brevitarsis is one such species, and their larvae can also eat decaying organic waste and turn it into a plant-growth promoting mixture. But organic matter like this is high in lignocellulose, which is difficult to digest. In fact, these larvae lack the enzymes needed to break lignocellulose down on their own. So, researchers checked their microbiome for microbial genes able to fill in the gaps. The researchers established a comprehensive reference catalog of gut microbial and host genes. Between the two sets of genes, lignocellulose-degrading enzymes were abundant and highly diversified. P. brevitarsis larvae also selectively enriched their microbiome for lignocellulose-degrading microbes and had physiological adaptations that assisted in lignocellulose degradation..."

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

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:

"Postpartum systemic oxidative stress is common in dairy cows and can lead to health complications and production loss. While the gut microbiota can influence host health and stress, its role in dairy cow postpartum oxidative stress was unclear until a recent study found a strong link between the fecal microbiota and postpartum oxidative stress in dairy cows. Compared to low oxidative stress (LOS) cows, those with high oxidative stress (HOS) had altered bacterial community composition, including 16 species from 9 genera that were negatively correlated with oxidative stress. There were also changes in the microbiota’s functional behavior and related metabolites, and the findings suggested that changes in glutathione synthesis played a causative role in oxidative stress. Specifically, HOS cows had reduced microbial metabolism of amino acids involved in glutathione synthesis..."

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

This video segment from a WPSU documentary Liquid Assets connects public health to the availability of clean and safe drinking water and elaborates on the threats our bodies face due to increasing kinds and quantities of pollutants.

Students will be able to use correct terminology for livestock (e.g. bovine, steer, ewe, ram). This lesson is used in exploring agriculture, animal science lesson.  Written by Kathryn Savat.

Produced by the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, these four guides form a four-part series, Living With Biodiversity: What You Can Really Do For the Environment. The four guides in pdf format are: Biodiversity and Your Food, Biodiversity and Your Energy Use, Biodiversity and What You Buy and Biodiversity and Your Water Supply.

This online article, from the museum's Musings newsletter for educators, provides some mind-boggling facts about leaf litter. It has an overview of what leaf litter is and how it's produced and a link for further research.

This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, illuminates how living on the coast affects individuals and communities, particularly humans' interrelationships with natural resources.

A patient discusses diabetes and how he manages his carbohydrate intake in this video segment from TV 411.

This video highlights specific climate change-related phenomena that are threatening the flora and fauna of Yellowstone National Park.

This interactive visualization provides a clear, well-documented snapshot of current and projected values of several climate variables for local areas in California. The climate variables include observed and projected temperatures, projected snowpack, areas vulnerable to flooding due to sea level rise, and projected increase in wildfires. The projected values come from expert sources and well-established climate models.

Students analyze data on temperature and precipitation collected from 26 different Long Term Ecological Research sites and compare them with annual net primary productivity. The students then form an ecological rule to explain their results.