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 activity will help students learn about how tree rings provide a record of past growing conditions and, by inference, climate. They use this principle to work out how cores from three different trees (three strips of paper marked with stripes to represent rings) fit together to represent a longer period of time and then use this composite record to plot a graph of changing climate conditions. ... Full description.

While engaged in this activity students will explore phytoplankton, the food of tiny marine animals, particularly krill. Students will prepare a hay infusion in two identical glass aquarium tanks or a 1-liter glass jar and expose one to 24 hours of continuous light, and the other for only four hours during the school day, with all light blocked off by opaque material during the remaining hours. They ... Full description.

In this activity students will simulate aspects of the Antarctic ice ecosystem, and see how simple life forms respond, thus modeling links between environmental factors and biological responses. Students should recognize the parallels between their work and that done by the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) team. Students will conduct a controlled experiment with brine shrimp eggs in order ... Full description.

This journal account describes the work of the limnology team on the lakes in the dry valleys of Antarctica in the form of a short story. It describes the long-term monitoring of lake water and organisms in order to create a picture of the ecology of the lakes. The account points out that galcial meltwater is essentially the only source of water and nutrients to the lakes and describes some of the ... Full description.

This article provides an eyewitness account by a photographer who traveled with Robert Falcon Scott on his last, ill-fated Antarctic expedition. The excerpt includes biographic information about Herbert G. Ponting, a travel writer and, arguably, the finest photographer to have worked in Antarctica, his account of the sights and sounds of Antarctica's shoreline, including the icebergs and whales he ... Full description.

This tutorial explains how environmental conditions and organism interactions determine animal and tree distribution and abundance. There are definitions of important ecological terms such as ecology, interactions, and abundance; descriptions of the environmental conditions needed for rainforests and how they provide habitat for many species; and an explanation of the spawning process. The tutorial ... Full description.

This data tip from Bridge, the Ocean Sciences Education Teacher Resource Center archive, explores possible causes of Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) community decline. Students use two spreadsheet databases to graph population trends based on two genetically different stocks, one of which has been listed as an endangered species. The eastern stock is located off the coasts of California to eastern ... Full description.

In this classroom activity, students consider what features an ideal creature would have to thrive in the extreme habitat of Antarctica, which has ice floes, katabatic winds, and subzero temperatures. They use recycled materials to construct a polar creature that is ideally suited to life in Antarctica. They then document their creation with a field guide entry. The printable four-page handout includes ... Full description.

This data tip from Bridge, the Ocean Sciences Education Teacher Resource Center archive, focuses on learning about environmental stress, which threatens coral reefs globally. The data activity provides maps and information about reefs throughout the world and presents questions about human and natural threats to reefs. Students are given access to information from a research trip to Belize in Central ... Full description.