Where the tropical ocean meets the sea, a peculiar kind of plant thrives in shallow, salty water. These mangrove plants are incredibly important for shoreline protection and baby fish habitats. In this video, Jonathan investigates life in mangroves by visiting both Caribbean and Pacific mangroves. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

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:

"Global urbanization is driving a flood of plastic pollution, and we desperately need ways to break these plastics down. And plastic-eating insects may be able to help. Such insects leverage their gut microbes to degrade plastic polymers, but little is known about how insects acquired this ability. To learn more, researchers examined the mealworm gut microbiome’s response to different diets. The bonds in synthetic plastic polymers can resemble those in natural polymers. Polystyrene, for example, has bonds like lignin, a polymer found in all vascular plants. So, the researchers fed mealworms polystyrene or corn straw, which is high in lignin. Neither experimental diet had a negative effect on the mealworms’ survival compared to a normal cabbage diet. Both polymer-heavy diets led to similar gut microbial community structures, metabolic pathways, and enzymatic profiles..."

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

Students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the greenhouse effect. They construct their own miniature greenhouses and explore how their designs take advantage of heat transfer processes to create controlled environments. They record and graph measurements, comparing the greenhouse indoor and outdoor temperatures over time. Students are also introduced to global issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and their relationship to global warming.

Use this plant diagram to have your students label the parts of a plant

What do plants need? Students examine the effects of light and air on green plants, learning the processes of photosynthesis and transpiration. Student teams plant seeds, placing some in sunlight and others in darkness. They make predictions about the outcomes and record ongoing observations of the condition of the stems, leaves and roots. Then, several healthy plants are placed in glass jars with lids overnight. Condensation forms, illustrating the process of transpiration, or the release of moisture to the atmosphere by plants.

Can you pull a car with cordage made just from a plant? We put it to the test! This clip with Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum's Educator Nate Salzman provides a simple demonstration proving that a cell's microscopic structure affects its macroscopic properties. Included in the video is the very simple method needed to produce and test cordage from yucca leaves on your own.

If you're thinking of using this in a classroom, considering pairing this exploration of cells' structures with an engineering challenge! Yucca fiber can be made without boiling the leaves, if needed: students can either pound/mash leaves to isolate fibers or fibers can be peeled from wet leaves and used while still "green" (any cordage made from green fibers will loosen as it dries, however).

This resource is part of JPPM’s open educational resources project providing education content from our in-house educators, horticulturalists, curators, and conservationists at our 560 acre public park. The grounds have provided a home for different peoples for over 10,000 years and includes extensive archaeological sites, multiple ecosystems, and a 1930s farmstead designed by architect Gertrude Sawyer for the park’s namesake, Jefferson Patterson.

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:

"Nitrogen removal is a critical part of the wastewater treatment process. and one of the most efficient ways to remove nitrogen from water is anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox). Anammox is a process mediated by bacteria that — via several biochemical steps — converts ammonium to nitrogen gas. Understanding how external factors like nutrient availability impact these organisms can help us optimize and maintain these systems. A recent study found that the anammox bacterial communities are resilient to short-term starvation. The community structure changed slightly, and the bacteria increased expression of important nutrient transporters and energy metabolism genes. Expression of key genes associated with anammox reactions were also increased in response to starvation. The anammox bacteria showed fewer differences in transcriptional patterns after starvation than heterotrophs, suggesting that the anammox bacteria had greater transcriptional resilience than the heterotrophs..."

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:

"Underground organisms are critical to supporting plant life above the ground. While the availability of nutrients above and below is likely to affect this lifeline, it’s unclear how. To find out, researchers monitored soil microbes across Chinese National Ecosystem Research Network (CERN) under two conditions with either low or high amounts of nutrient resources. Data showed that the availability of resources affected how the functional traits of organisms in each ecosystem achieved stability. In systems with low resources, stability was achieved mostly by interactions between organisms occupying the same trophic level of their food web. In contrast, systems with high resources achieved stability through microbial interactions across different trophic levels. These multi-trophic interactions ultimately helped ensure the stability of overall plant biomass..."

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

This website was created by the GMO working group in the UConn College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources. We offer clear descriptions and explanations of a variety of issues related to genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. We hope you find the information useful, and we welcome your feedback. We thank Purdue Agriculture for inspiration, the format and assistance in building this site.

Esse material é o Produto Educacional, parte integrante de nossa pesquisa intitulada: “FRUIT AGRODIVERSITY: construção de novos saberes por meio da língua inglesa”, inserida no Mestrado Profissional para Ensino das Ciências Ambientais da Universidade Federal do Amazonas, ligado às reflexões e propostas educacionais produzidas no Grupo de Pesquisa Núcleo de Etnoecologia na Amazônia Brasileira – NETNO.
O Produto Educacional traz sequências didáticas que poderão ser utilizadas por professores de Língua Estrangeira - Inglês, de forma a ser mais um recurso a ser adotado em sua prática docente, na tentativa de auxiliar seus discentes a aprender, a conhecer e a compreender a produção de significados de outra língua.
Esperamos que as sequências didáticas aqui apresentadas possam contribuir para a melhoria da qualidade do ensino - aprendizagem de Língua Inglesa.

Students learn basic concepts of robotic logic and programming by working with Boe-Bot robots—a simple programmable robotic platform designed to illustrate basic robotic concepts. Under the guidance of the instructor and a provided lab manual, student groups build simple circuits and write codes to make their robots perform a variety of tasks, including obstacle and light detection, line following and other motion routines. Eight sub-activities focus on different sensors, including physical sensors, phototransistors and infrared headlights. Students test their newly acquired skills in the final activity, in which they program their robots to navigate an obstacle course.

In this ZOOM video segment, cast member Francesco follows the paper trail to find out what happens to his recyclables. He visits a material recovery center and learns how paper is recycled and the number of trees that are saved as a result.

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, visit a water treatment plant and learn how water from a local reservoir is turned into drinking water.

Students will learn about where different types of food come from, why nutrition is important, and how to grow their own food. Students will also learn the basic conditions required for plants to grow, and the importance of human action in maintaining the availability of these conditions.

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:

"Above ground, plants can seem fairly simple, but below, there is a rich world full of hidden activity. To promote their growth, plants secrete chemicals from their roots that can affect the soil and air around them. This helps them adapt to environmental conditions, stressors, and pathogens. But how these chemicals affect the plants’ microbiota is poorly understood. A recent study evaluated chemical interactions between peanut plants and cassava, which are often co-cultivated. The researchers found that cassava plants produced cyanide, which induced stress in peanut plants. This caused the peanut plants to emit ethylene, a volatile hormone that diffuses through gas and water in the soil. Ehtylene, in turn, attracted specific microbial species that helped to remineralize the soil, ensuring that the peanut plants could increase their yield alongside cassava..."

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