NATURE: Kalahari
This website is the Web companion to the two-part NATURE documentary on the Kalahari Desert, which aired on PBS during fall 2003. The first episode, Kalahari: The Great Thirstland, explores the intense extremes of the Kalahari landscape, where wildlife "struggle for survival on the African plains." The site offers a number of Web-only extras, including a species guide in the form of animal trading cards, a slide show showing seasonal change in the Kalahari, and more. Episode Two, Kalahari: The F
The Messier Catalog
The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space of the University of Arizona maintains The Messier Catalog Web site. Named after the French astronomer who first discovered the objects, the catalog describes and features what are considered to be some of the most beautiful nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies in the sky. Visitors can read about Messier and about each individual object in the actual catalog, which includes a picture, its distance, brightness, the history of its discovery
Chasing Storms: Storm Photo Gallery and Case Study Page
John Monteverdi created this website to educate and entertain visitors in the science of storm chasing. Online storm journals for Spring Storm Chases from 1994 to the present take visitors through the life of a storm chaser. Throughout his discussions, the author provides weather charts and satellite images to assist visitors with the weather-related concepts. The site contains countless pictures of tornadoes and the destruction they leave behind. Although some of the amazing images take a few m
Seaworld: Water
An educational lesson plan entitled Water is offered by the Seaworld teacher resources Web site. Objectives of the unit include having students identify the three phases of water, discuss the hydrologic cycle, describe the structure of the water molecule and the properties of water, explain ocean currents, and more. The well designed lesson allows students to study various topics by reading provided text and completing the activities described such as measuring salt content in water and estimati
The New York Botanical Garden: International Plant Science Center
In "combining modern technologies with a century of field and laboratory research," the New York Botanical Garden's International Plant Science Center "is one of the few institutions worldwide with the resources, collections, and expertise to develop the information needed to understand and manage plant diversity." This website grants considerable access to resources from the Center, including numerous plant databases, digitized rare botanical books, online access to the herbarium collections, a
Oil, Out of Control
Oil, Out of Control is an in-depth Whyfiles story that follows from news coverage of an oil spill off Spain's northwest coast in 2002. This Web site offers a straight look at the issues surrounding this and other famous oil spills, particularly that of the Exxon Valdez off Prince William Sound in 1992. The authors make clear the allegiances of people quoted in the story, while clearly explaining both the science and politics of oil spills and cleanup efforts. The Web site also features a news re
AskERIC: Cell-City Project
In this AskERIC lesson plan for grades 5-9, students compare the structure and function of cell organelles to that of a working city -- a handy analogy for learning the basics of cell biology. The activities outlined in the lesson plan, which takes three to four 55-minute sessions to complete, combine art and science for an interdisciplinary learning experience. Vocabulary words, useful links, and downloadable worksheets are included along with lesson procedures.
Music Acoustics
The Music Acoustics Web site is maintained by the University of New South Wales School of Physics. General topics covered include what a decibel is, what interference beats are, what a sound spectrum is, what acoustic impedance is, and others. Specific instrument questions are also answered, such as waves in strings, flute and clarinet acoustics, Helmholz resonance, and pipes and harmonics. This very interesting site, with its many illustrations and animations, along with its easily-read text, a
How the Earth Fared
Environmental Defense, a nonprofit organization that "brings together experts in science, law and economics to tackle complex environmental issues," presents How the Earth Fared, a year-in-review of environmental news in 2002. Available as a 4-page document, How the Earth Fared highlights developments and setbacks in the following areas: climate change and global warming, natural resources, endangered species and wildlife habitat protection, antibiotic resistance and organic foods, toxic chemica
NanoOpto Technology
NanoOpto is a company using "nano-optics and nano-manufacturing technology to design and make components for optical networking." On this site, NanoOpto offers two white papers that describe some of the methods and techniques. The first serves as an introduction to Subwavelength Optical Elements (SOEs), which allow for improved performance and possibly new features in optical systems. The second white paper is more detailed and delves further into the application of these SOEs. A brief registrat
An Overview of Cryptography
Gary Kessler, a computer networking professor at Champlain College, is the author of this online introduction to cryptography. The material covers three main types of encryption and their applications, trust models, cryptographic algorithms, and much more. One of the most common areas that employs encryption techniques is the Internet, where it allows users to safely transmit private information (e.g, credit card numbers, financial information). These concepts are discussed in detail, with speci
NSTA Webwatchers' Science Guides
The Webwatchers' Science Guides website -- provided by the National Science Teachers Association -- is a portal to educational resources on the Internet. Along with carefully selected links, this website offers a few downloadable lesson plans, as well as audio reviews from fellow teachers and vignettes demonstrating how to use the Guides in the classroom. Navigation can be somewhat tricky -- the site follows an elaborate organizational scheme that requires its own 4-page explanation. For a quick
The AgNIC Dairy Information Center
The AgNIC (Agriculture Network Information Center) Dairy Information Center -- "a guide to quality information on the Internet" -- is a new open-access Web portal from the University of Wisconsin's Steenbock Library. The site is intended for "researchers in the field of dairy science, for farmers and others who raise dairy cattle, and for students of all ages interested in dairy." Users may easily browse the guide by navigating the website's nested categories, or simply search the entire site by
EERI/IAEE World Housing Encyclopedia
This online Encyclopedia of Housing Construction Types is a joint project between two prominent earthquake engineering organizations. It is intended to help engineers make buildings in regions of high seismic activity less susceptible to damage, and hopefully save lives. A large amount of housing information is given for many different countries. Hazard maps show areas that are most at risk. Building descriptions describe common construction types and structural features, and suggest seismic str
Coral Reef Information System: Discover NOAA's Data
Part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS), this Web site is "designed to be a single point of access to NOAA coral reef information and data products, especially those derived from NOAA's Coral Reef Initiative Program." With Discover NOAA's Data, users can access information by a text search of metadata records, or by a spatial search using an Arc IMS application. The two approaches share many of the same data sets. With the text search,
Panda Central
Panda Central, "the exclusive Web home of Shi Shi, Bai Yun, and youngster Hua Mei," is provided by the San Diego Zoo. Visitors may view real time footage of pandas at the zoo with Panda Cam, have their questions answered at the Panda Facts page, or read up on each panda with Panda Profiles. And of course, no one should miss the features devoted to panda Hua Mei, who seems to have spent nearly every minute of her life in front of a camera since her birth at the San Diego Zoo in 1999. Visitors can
The Methuselah Mouse Prize
While the average human lifespan has increased markedly over the past one hundred years, the ceiling has hardly been reached. An interesting contest, The Methuselah Mouse Prize -- presumably named after the biblical character who was said to have lived 969 years -- seeks to "promote public interest and involvement in research on mammalian life extension and encourage more such research on mice and other higher animals." Basically, research teams compete to prolong the life of a mouse, _Mus muscu
Dream Anatomy Learning Station
This Web site contains the educational materials for Dream Anatomy, a new exhibit at the National Library of Medicine. Viewable online, the exhibit offers a somewhat macabre but undeniably fascinating survey of changes in anatomical representation over the last five centuries. Recently added to the main Dream Anatomy Web site, Learning Station provides lesson plans and activities intended for 6-12 graders. The material can be used exhibit or its online version. The lesson plans titled Beginnings
aspectj.org: Crosscutting Objects for Better Modularity
AspectJ is a Java extension with aspect-oriented functions and programming technology. Continuing with the open source movement, the developers have made AspectJ free for download from this Web site. The software implements "the clean modularization of crosscutting concerns" like performance optimizations, debugging support, and more. The compiler, several accompanying tools, and example programs are all provided in the release. There is also extensive documentation and a tutorial to help new us
NPR: Titanic Baby
This Web site contains an audio file of a story broadcast on National Public Radio earlier this month. The broadcast relates the poignant story of a four-year effort to identify the exhumed body of a 13-month-old child who died in the Titanic disaster. A metal medallion buried with the body serendipitously preserved a bit of the wrist bone, from which forensic scientists could extract mitochondrial DNA and eventually find the child's living relatives.
