This tutorial introduces students to the concept of co-adaptation and presents examples of organisms developing behaviours or physical characteristics that help them work together. Examples include the re-use of old woodpecker nests by Boreal owls, the prolific breeding behaviour of voles (providing a food source for predators without threatening their own population), and the caching of whitebark ... Full description.

At this site, students learn that sound moves five times faster in water than in air and cleaner fish have cleaning stations where they remove parasites. Students deepen their knowledge with this ocean life challenge. They learn about how living in the water differs from living on land. An ichthyologist first explains that ocean creatures have special features that allow them to breathe, eat, communicate, ... Full description.

This tutorial explores animal adaptations by investigating the examples of animals commonly found in the natural environments of British Columbia. The discussion covers various ways in which plants and animals develop special features (adaptations) that allow them to survive in their environments, such as flight, echolocation, thermreceptors, thick fur, antlers, and others. A quiz and glossary are ... Full description.

In this lesson, students will understand how the combination of various rock formations and organisms with complex physical forms (like branching corals and sponges) can offer many different types of habitat and can provide food, shelter, and nursery places for many different kinds of organisms. As they study about structural complexity, they will describe the importance of structural features that ... Full description.

In this lesson students will investigate the ecology of benthic communities of the Charleston Bump, a series of rocky scarps, mounds, overhangs, and flat pavements that rise from the surface of the Blake Plateau in the Atlantic Ocean off Charleston, South Carolina. As they study the habitats of this feature, they will learn to explain what a habitat is and describe at least three functions or benefits ... Full description.

This report describes how paleontologists infer what dinosaurs looked like and how they behaved using evidence from fossil bones and, sometimes, comparisons with modern animals like the elephant. By comparing the size of the front and rear leg bones and the feet of an elephant as well as the dinosaur, one researcher was able to conclude that the sauropod Jobaria could "stand up", supporting its weight ... Full description.

In this activity students excavate their own fossil from a teacher-prepared "rock biscuit". Students chip away the matrix with wooden stirring rods (or sharpened wooden dowels) and glue brushes. In each biscuit is a genuine fossil such as a shark's tooth. The activity is designed to be the culmination of a lesson about fossil collecting, the importance of recording data, and different preparation ... Full description.

This interactive site allows students to learn about wetlands while conducting several activities on the computer. These include two games: Croaker concentration, in which the sounds of frogs are matched, and Secrets of the marsh, which allows students to construct a marsh food chain. Another activity allows students to watch what happens to the wetland as the seasons change. The topics of a section ... Full description.

This activity is designed to provide a general knowledge about paleontology and its intimate relationship to sedimentary geology. It will introduce the student to fossils with an emphasis on the invertebrate phyla. As a result of this activity students will acquire a general knowledge of fossils and paleontology, be able to identify the major invertebrate groups commonly found in the fossil record, ... Full description.

This tutorial explains scientific classification of organisms by introducing the seven levels of classification, the five kingdoms of organisms, the lowest level of classification or species, and the use of Latin to name species. Students can take a quiz after studying the material. Full description.