This kit is a historical overview of American representations of chemicals from the three sisters to the Love Canal. It compares conflicting constructions about nuclear reactor safety, depleted uranium, Rachel Carson and DDT. Through analyzing diverse historic and contemporary media messages, students understand changing public knowledge, impressions and attitudes about chemicals in the environment.

This kit covers a historical overview of American representations of endangered species from the slaughter of the American buffalo to Palm plantations in Sumatra. It compares conflicting constructions about human/animal relations, rainforest biodiversity, the Northern Rockies gray wolf, frogs and Atrazine. Students decode how the relationship of animals and humans has been portrayed and passed on from generation to generation.

This resource provides a set of narrated animations demonstrating the normal and toxic actions within the axon and/or synapse of neurons. A brief overview of the neuron structure and neuron-to-neuron communication is presented first. Next, axon normal functions and synapse normal functions are presented in small segments. Each set of normal functions are followed by the associated toxic actions (pyrethroid toxicity of the axon, organophosphate toxicity and neonicotinoid toxicity of the synapse, and DDT toxicity occurring in both the axon and the synapse). The interface allows the user to compare and contrast the normal functions with those with toxic actions.

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.

This learning sequence is anchored in the phenomena: Salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest are declining.

Part of the job of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is to figure out why salmon populations are declining and create plans for how to help increase fish populations. Throughout this unit, students will engage with the phenomenon of Pacific salmon population decline as they explore salmonid species and discover how WDFW raises healthy fish in hatcheries.

Students will explore salmonid life cycles and discover patterns among life cycles of plants and animals who interact with salmon. Students will then learn what makes healthy habitats for salmon. They will evaluate solutions to the problems of salmon migration above and below dams and examine salmons’ role in a healthy river system. Students will embark on a virtual field trip (in person field trips also available) to a WDFW fish hatchery to learn about current practices in hatchery management and identify ways the hatchery meets the habitat needs of fish. Finally, students will be called to work as an engineering team and help develop a tool to support salmon recovery by working as conservation engineers.