Some Clues to Describing and Understanding Organisms
This online guide helps students focus their biodiversity research in the classroom, field, and lab. It includes general and specific questions to consider, designed to help students see the clues they might otherwise miss and give them the vocabulary to discuss their findings. General questions include "What might this clue indicate?" and "Does the organism always occur in the same 'zone'? "Plant-specific questions range from "If it's woody, is there one main trunk (trees), or are there several
Finding Fossils
This OLogy activity serves as a kid-friendly how-to manual about searching for fossils. In Not Just Any Rock Will Do, kids learn that fossils "hide out" in sedimentary rock and see examples of shale and sandstone. Do's and Don'ts for Fossil Hunters gives kids practical tips and a list of fossil-hunting supplies. In Fossils You May Find, there are photos of common invertebrate, vertebrate, and plant fossils to guide kids. Paleontology Clubs and Web Sites lists resources to help kids determine whe
Feed the Birds
This OLogy activity introduces kids to the concept of biodiversity by helping them discover the diversity of their local bird population. To begin, students create a simple bird feeder from a milk/juice carton or a plastic soda bottle. They then fill the feeder with black-oil sunflower seeds, popular with a range of birds. In addition, they are given a list of additional foods to experiment with, such as millet, raisins, and breakfast cereal. Students track the birds that visit their feeder in f
Assessing the Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism Threat
BIOSECURITY FOR A NEW ERA Lecture Series
Biological weapons (BW) have been a significant national security preoccupation for nearly 15 years. The events of September 11 and the anthrax attacks that followed have magnified these concerns by orders of magnitude while shifting the context almost entirely to "bioterrorism." Over the past four years, the federal government has spent nearly $30 billion to counter the anticipated threat. Strangely, these responses took place in the absence of virtuall
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
Janine Benyus
Author of "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature"
- Biomimics related to Energy and other industries
- Opportunities in the rapidly growing Biomimics field
- Green Chemistry as part of Biomimicry
Co-Sponsored by:
- Clean Tech Venture Network
- Greenbiz
- The Helios Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories
- The Berkeley Energy & Resource Collaborative (BERC)
- The Horace M. Albright Lectureship in Conservation
Conversations with Berkeley Faculty: Manuel Castells (5/9/01)
Conversations with History Presents Faculty Research at the University of California, Berkeley
A Conversation with Manuel Castells
Professor of Sociology and Professor of City and Regional Planning
"Identity and Change in the Network Society"
This interview took place on May 9, 2001. Complete transcript is available.
A social theorist, Professor Castells has won the C. Wright Mills Award, and he has received the Robert and Helen Lynd Award from the American Sociological Association for his li
Lunch Poems: Robert Hass
After hosting Lunch Poems for eight years, Robert Hass has finally been prevailed upon to read his own poems in the series. Former Poet Laureate of the U.S., Hass is a UC Berkeley professor who has made important contributions in poetry, criticism, and translation. His books of poetry are Sun Under Wood, Human Wishes, Praise, and Field Guide, the latter winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award. His critical essays are assembled in Twentieth Century Pleasures, and the poets he has translated includ
Marine Microbial Ecology
This image-rich website from the Australian Antarctic Division's Biology program describes its research in marine microbial ecology. It includes an introduction of microbial ecology and microbial processes, followed by information about the research project. Field sampling, microscopy, flow cytometry, pigment analysis, flourometry, HPLC, culturing, feeding experiments, and the research staff are each discussed using vivid imagery. Links are provided to related websites.
Water Quality For Freshwater Organisms
This website features a field activity that demonstrates the effect of water temperature on the solubility of dissolved oxygen and how it relates to the gill beat rate of fish. The activity uses the Winkler method to measure dissolved oxygen.
Mentoring matters
How mentors can serve as role models, helpers, and colleagues.
Water-Resources Reconnaissance of the Southeastern Part of St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska
This 12-page PDF was prepared by the USGS to investigate sources of water and groundwater quality on St. Paul Island in order to design a well field without inducing saline water. Tables, diagrams and maps accompany the text.
Magnets and Electromagnets
Explore the interactions between a compass and bar magnet. Discover how you can use a battery and wire to make a magnet! Can you make it a stronger magnet? Can you make the magnetic field reverse?
Quantum Bound States
Explore the properties of quantum "particles" bound in potential wells. See how the wave functions and probability densities that describe them evolve (or don't) over time. Teacher's guide available.
Radio Waves & Electromagnetic Fields
Broadcast radio waves from KPhET. Wiggle the transmitter electron manually or have it oscillate automatically. Display the field as a curve or vectors. The strip chart shows the electron positions at the transmitter and at the receiver.
Quantum Wave Interference
When do photons, electrons, and atoms behave like particles and when do they behave like waves? Watch waves spread out and interfere as they pass through a double slit, then get detected on a screen as tiny dots. Use quantum detectors to explore how measurements change the waves and the patterns they produce on the screen.
The Photoelectric Effect
See how light knocks electrons off a metal target, and recreate the experiment that spawned the field of quantum mechanics.
Sampling
Sampling is a computer tool designed to help biology students obtain a qualitative understanding of basic concepts related to estimation and statistics.
Sampling presents the user with a group of hypothetical populations distributed throughout an area, and with tools for sampling these populations to estimate characteristics such as population size and density, the nature of each population's spatial patterning, and spatial correlations in abundance between populations. By manipulating the numb
3D FractaL-Tree
This interactive L-system simulation produces visualizations of tree forms based on data from specimens in the field or laboratory.
Viewing the Periodic Table of the Elements with X-rays
X-rays and x-ray fluorescence are not new subjects to the field of physics. Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays in 1895, and in 1901 he was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery. Soon after, Charles Glover Barkla discovered that each element has its own characteristic x-ray spectrum. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery in 1917. Sir William Henry Bragg and his son, Sir William Lawrence Bragg, were then able to experimentally prove that the discrete
Peer 2 Peer University
The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.
Currently P2PU is in a pilot
