The purpose of this resource is to measure and classify the plant life at a Land Cover Site to help determine the MUC classification.

Students use ultrasonic sensors and LEGO© MINDSTORMS© NXT robots to emulate how bats use echolocation to detect obstacles. They measure the robot's reaction times as it senses objects at two distances and with different sensor threshold values, and again after making adjustments to optimize its effectiveness. Like engineers, they gather and graph data to analyze a given design (from the tutorial) and make modifications to the sensor placement and/or threshold values in order to improve the robot's performance (iterative design). Students see how problem solving with biomimicry design is directly related to understanding and making observations of nature.

Students are introduced to the concepts of biomimicry and sustainable design. Countless examples illustrate the wisdom of nature in how organisms are adapted for survival, such as in body style, physiological processes, water conservation, thermal radiation and mutualistic relationships, to assure species perpetuation. Students learn from articles and videos, building a framework of evidence substantiating the indisputable fact that organisms operate "smarter" and thus provide humans with inspiration in how to improve products, systems and cities. As students focus on applying the ecological principles of the previous lessons to the future design of our human-centered world, they also learn that often our practices are incapable of replicating the precision in which nature completes certain functions, as evidenced by our dependence on bees as pollinators of the human food supply. The message of biomimicry is one of respect: study to improve human practices and ultimately protect natural systems. This heightened appreciation helps students to grasp the value of industry and urban mimetic designs to assure protection of global resources, minimize human impact and conserve nonrenewable resources. All of these issues aid students in creating a viable guest resort in the Sonoran Desert.

By studying key processes in the carbon cycle, such as photosynthesis, composting and anaerobic digestion, students learn how nature and engineers "biorecycle" carbon. Students are exposed to examples of how microbes play many roles in various systems to recycle organic materials and also learn how the carbon cycle can be used to make or release energy.

How can you tell if harmful bacteria are in your food or water that might make you sick? What you eat or drink can be contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxins—pathogens that can be harmful or even fatal. Students learn which contaminants have the greatest health risks and how they enter the food supply. While food supply contaminants can be identified from cultures grown in labs, bioengineers are creating technologies to make the detection of contaminated food quicker, easier and more effective.

The economy in North Carolina began as a largely agrarian one. Many of our traditions today hearken back to that agricultural past, including the traditional school calendar. As time has passed, North Carolina gained many jobs from textile manufacturing. Farms consolidated and there were less small family farm operations and more, large scale industrial farms. Over the past few decades, textile and furniture manufacturing jobs have been lost by North Carolina – many of these jobs have gone overseas. The new jobs that have been coming in to replace these are biotechnology jobs. These jobs pay well, but require more training and expertise than traditional manufacturing jobs.

Poster showing biplanes in flight. Poster has no text, but blank space for text to be added. No. 78. Title devised by Library staff.

Students in this lesson will investigate the differences in avian beaks and how they are used to benefit their species and lifestyle. There is an introductory portion, a lab portion, a compare and contrast portion and conclusion/reflection. 

The purpose of this resource is to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of a classification system. Students sort birds into three possible classes based on each bird's beak: carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. Students compare their answers with a given set of validation data.

There are almost as many types of bird beaks as there are types of food that birds like to eat. This collection of images shows a wide range of beaks and the types of foods handled by each.

By paying attention to the sounds and behaviors of birds, students are introduced to a whole new way to experience and observe what’s happening in their surroundings, both during their field experience and back home. In this Focused Exploration activity, students pay attention to the birds around them. After listening as a group, students imitate calls and notice differences between them. Students think about and discuss the different messages birds might communicate, then they individually watch and listen to birds from a Sit Spot. When the group gathers again, students compare their observations and make a large map of the bird vocalizations and behaviors they observed.

Stare at one color—but see another. You see color when receptor cells (called cones) in your eye’s retina are stimulated by light. There are three types of cones, and each is sensitive to a particular color range. If one or more of the three types of cones adapts to a stimulus because of long exposure, it responds less strongly than it normally would.

Birds are everywhere. Have you ever stopped to consider what your neighborhood birds need to survive and what their habitat is? Check out the Bird Biologist video to learn how the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is studying white headed woodpeckers. In the Discovery Challenge video, you will go outside and map the sounds you hear. Then, design, build, and set out a bird feeder to explore the habitat needs of your neighborhood birds.

This lesson introduces NGSS standards, and those standards are listed in the lesson and is part of the Explore Science Club series, an online Career Connected Learning program developed by the Greater Oregon STEM Hub. To learn more find us at: www.go-stem.org.

This task asks students to glean contextual information about bird eggs from a collection of measurements of said eggs organized in a scatter plot. In particular, students are asked to identify a correlation and use it to make interpolative predictions, and reason about the properties of specific eggs via the graphical presentation of the data.

In this activity, students construct "flying birds" (pollution collectors) from paper and wire hangers. Students hang up their birds to see how they react to air pollution, and compare and make observations about the differences in the birds.

In this activity, students distinguish between directly and indirectly transmitted diseases and participate in a group game to simulate the spread of vector-borne diseases. They then research a particular pathogenic disease to learn how global warming and biodiversity loss can affect disease transmission.

Birds sit on power lines above buildings, mountains and setting sun in the background. Title transcribed from Ansel Adams' caption on verso of print. Original neg. no.: LC-A35-6-M-10. Gift; Ansel Adams; 1965-1968. Forms part of: Manzanar War Relocation Center photographs.

In this Nature video, learn about the extraordinary impact that birds have on the agriculture of a small Indian community.

This lesson asks students to interrogate six historical documents that show differing opinions about the conflict in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

This activity is designed for use with our free curriculum kit, Mighty Times: The Children's March, designed for the middle and upper grades.