This six-week project requires students to research wetlands and communicate concerns about these environments using persuasive writing. Students research wetland characteristics, issues and problems surrounding wetlands, the purpose of wetlands, plant life, and some products that wetlands produce to form an opinion about the future of wetlands in the United States. This site provides mini-lessons ... Full description.

This tutorial covers various aspects of trees. It explains which chemicals cause leaves to change colors, how the process of photosynthesis works, the functions of bark, roots, pollen and leaves, and the effect of trees on nearby temperature. Full description.

This website illustrates how and why NASA's Earth-orbiting satellites measure ocean productivity. Materials highlight key scientific research topics such as harmful algal blooms and ocean optics. This resource help teachers and students discover linkages among marine ecology, phytoplankton, the behavior of light at the ocean surface, and satellite derived ocean color data. Exercises and concepts are ... Full description.

A common criticism of natural selection is: How can it produce novel complex useful structures by pure random chance? Darwin argued that selection is not a random process, and furthermore, it is cumulative. This lesson provides a way for students to actually compare the cumulative non-random selection of Darwin with the non-cumulative version so often erroneously implied. Students attempt to produce ... Full description.

Younger students can learn about plant biology. Topics include characteristics of living things, germination and growth, the basic parts of plants, photosynthesis, reproduction, and ecological adaptations of plants. The information presented can also be ordered as a video. Full description.

Students will have the chance to see some strange and unusual dinosaurs they have never heard of when they can play with the cladogram. A cladogram is like a family tree. It's a way of organizing dinosaurs based on the unique characteristics they share, like a three-toed foot or a hole in the hip socket. In order to see the information the student will roll over a dinosaur's name to see its picture, ... 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.

Paleontologists have been remarkably successful in determining what earlier life forms looked like, as well as how they probably behaved when alive. This interactive feature illustrates a slab of rock containing fossils of several types of creatures that once inhabited the Borden Sea, over 300 million years ago in what is now central Indiana. Clicking on highlighted fossils accesses animations of ... Full description.

This is a series of interactive modules that explore the history of life on Earth, while focusing on the processes of science. Each module contains suggested lesson plans and an extensive teacher's guide. In addition, each module has a suggested grade level and an adaptable grade level. Full description.

PALS is an on-line, standards-based, continually updated resource bank of science performance assessment tasks indexed via the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and various other standards frameworks. The tasks, collected from numerous sources, include student directions and response forms, administration procedures, scoring rubrics, examples of student work, and technical quality data calculated ... Full description.