This student guide provides an introduction to the types and value of tropical forests, deforestation, the practice of forestry, forestry research, and tropical forestry. The guide shows how modern practices can help stem the tide of forest destruction while continuing to provide valuable products for people. Examples of sustainable forestry are cited, which could be used as models for protecting ... Full description.

This site allows students to interactively explore the answers to basic questions regarding fossils. It explains what we can learn from fossils and demonstrates how their characteristics can be used as clues to the past. Full description.

This Web companion to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television series features essays, video clips, and special interactive features that explore the story of life on Earth. Additional features include an animated evolutionary timeline and a set of links to related materials including lesson plans and instructor's guides. PBS is a non-profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's ... Full description.

This educational module on fossil interpretation contains four interactive computer activities for students and a teacher's section with supporting lesson plans and assessments. Student interactive lessons based on fossil evidence include paleoecology, extinct species, geologic time, and biodiversity. Full description.

These procedures for creating a timeline from the Big Bang to the present include directions and images suitable for all major events in time, downloadable so they can be copied and made available to students to build. Scale is 1 mm = 1 million years. Users have the option of starting at the Big Bang or the beginning of our solar system. Full description.

This is the teacher resource site for the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) program "Stories from the Fossil Record". It provides information to aide instructors in implementing the program in a classroom setting. Included are lesson plans, handouts, related activities, and background references. Also included are pre- and post-lesson assessments. Full description.

This introduction to the concept of biological complexity demystifies and debunks the argument of Paley that a complex watch is compelling evidence requiring a (complex) watchmaker (designer or creator). It employs a mathematical exercise to demonstrate this, involving a randomizing component (a die), and a simple mathematical rule (the non-random component), resulting in the repeated plotting of ... Full description.

This guided tour of the dinosaur known as Dilophosaurus is narrated by the discoverer of Dilophosaurus, Sam Welles, formerly a professor at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP). Links lead to Dr. Wells' description of the discovery, as well as the morphology and habits of the creature. He also compares and contrasts the real animal with the one shown in the movie Jurassic Park. ... Full description.

In this lesson, each student is given a block of wood and a screw (or nail), and is asked to put the screw into the block, without any tool (like a screwdriver or hammer). Their efforts, with varying success, lead to a discussion of contrivances, using various items and strategies as make-do (contrived) tools for which they were not intended, and an exploration of many examples of contrivances or ... Full description.

This on-line project is part of the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) program. As they complete this series of lessons, students will use real-time data to solve a problem, study the correlation between earthquakes and tectonic plates, and determine whether or not there is a relationship between volcanoes and plate boundaries. Musical Plates has four Core Activities that ... Full description.