Reading picture books: resources for teachers
Illustrations, picture book finding aids, and great picture book websites.
Finding Common Ground
Finding common ground helps students make informed decisions to conserve temperate forests in the United States and central China, habitat of the endangered giant panda. Through classroom activities, on-line simulations, and field investigations students learn about the important role temperate forests play in local and global ecosystems. Action steps culminate in a Class Conservation Action Plan.
In the course of this curriculum students locate the biome in which they live, explore a local habi
Decoding the Past: The Work of Archaeologists
This site introduces students to archeology -- the study of material remains to learn about past human experiences. This lesson (Grades 3-8) discusses various challenges of an archaeologist: locating a site that will yield clues about the people who once lived there, conducting excavations, and more. Students identify artifacts from a contemporary setting, describe the function of each artifact, identify methods for dating soil layers, and interpret soil profiles.
Smithsonian Kids: Collecting
This site invites kids to start a collection of rocks, shells, postcards, posters, or something else that interests them. Three Smithsonian collections are sampled. Rocks and Minerals includes the Hope Diamond; Stamps includes Western Cattle in Storm (1898); Historic Coins includes the Jefferson Indian Peace Medal.
Whatzzzup-Stream?
In this set of exercises, students will study rivers and waterways around them by using the Internet, maps, and their knowledge of local landscapes. The students will use an EPA Web site to investigate what is upstream and downstream of them. They will also look at graphs of flow in familiar river locations on a live U.S. Geological Survey Web site. Using small rocks and a washbasin, students will build a model that leads to extending their understanding of streams in different geographic locati
Africa: Peace Corps
offers lessons on stories, letters, photos, and study units from experiences of Peace Corps volunteers across Africa. Topics include folk tales and patterns in them, racial prejudice in South Africa, life in a village of Tanzania, traditional healers and HIV/AIDS, the meaning of wealth, sharing and generosity, what it takes to be a hero, time and punctuality, perspectives of different cultures, and water.
DNA ehitus
TÜ Loodusteadusliku hariduse lektoraadi vastavatel kursustel (Loodusteaduste visualiseerimine) osalenud õpetajate koostatud interaktiivsed mudelid bioloogiliste protsesside tundmaõppimiseks. Kuigi mudeleid ei saa lugeda lõplikult viimistletuks, on nad õppeprotsessi visualiseerimiseks asjakohased: kasvõi ideede saamiseks. Kasutajal on soovitav fail enne oma arvutisse salvestada ning vajadusel täiendada.
Loodusteaduste visualiseerimine: protsesside virtuaalsed mudelid
TÜ Loodusteadusliku hariduse lektoraadi vastavatel kursustel (Loodusteaduste visualiseerimine) osalenud õpetajate koostatud interaktiivsed mudelid bioloogiliste protsesside tundmaõppimiseks. Kuigi mudeleid ei saa lugeda lõplikult viimistletuks, on nad õppeprotsessi visualiseerimiseks asjakohased: kasvõi ideede saamiseks. Kasutajal on soovitav fail enne oma arvutisse salvestada ning vajadusel täiendada. Koolitus ja praktiline mudelite koostamise õppus rõhutas protsessidele orienteerituse
Kõrv loodusesse - loodushelid ja helid looduses
Loodushelid ja helid looduses. Veebilehed info ja illustratsioonidega vastavatest liikidest, võimalik kuulata helindeid. Kõrv loodusesse kasutab kahte erinevat kokkusurutud helifaili formaati: mp3 ja real audio. Üldjuhul võimaldab mp3-formaat paremat kvaliteeti, kuid faili maht on suur. Real audio on väiksema failimahuga, kuid sellega kaasneb kehvem kvaliteet. Aeglase ühenduse korral on seetõttu otstarbekam valida real audio helindid. Kiirema ühenduse korral tasub kuulata parema kvalitee
Gümnasist biotehnoloogia pealispinnal
Artiklis käsitletakse geenitehnoloogiaga seonduvat gümnaasiumi õppekavast põhjalikumalt, ent õpilastele lisamaterjaliks sobivalt. Selgitatakse geenidega manipuleerimise meetodeid, DNA sekveneerimist, DNA-testi molekulaarbioloogilisi aluseid, DNA paljundamist (PCR).
Calisphere Themed Collection - 1939-1945: World War II: California and the Postwar Suburban Home
These images by Los Angeles–based photographer Maynard L. Parker show suburban homes in California in the two decades following World War II. Many appeared in popular house and design magazines of the era. They offered middle–class consumers a new way of living that emphasized a relaxed, low–maintenance, private, indoor–outdoor experience.
Calisphere Themed Collection - 1780-1880: California in Transition: Everyday Life, 1850s-1890s
The images in this topic depict everyday life in California during a time of explosive growth. Even as the state’s mix of cultures became more interconnected, they still managed to maintain and express their unique identities. People at work, at play, posing for formal portraits, and simply walking down the street are part of a diverse and vibrant population.
Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Waste: Thorsten Veblens Theory of the Leisure Class
One of South Africa's most prominent sociologists, Professor Deborah Posel, gave this Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great TextsBig Questions lecture, discussing "Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Waste". Thorsten Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class' conspicuous consumption of keeping up with the Joneses' describes the purchase of goods to show status or display wealt. Once more apparent within the nouveau riche or upper-income groups, recent research has indicate
Chris Nagel SMArchS Colloquium October 7, 2011
Starting with psychology
The most ‘important and greatest puzzle’ we face as humans is ourselves (Boring, 1950, p. 56). Humans are a puzzle – one that is complex, subtle and multi-layered, and it gets even more complicated as we evolve over time and change in different contexts.
When answering the question ‘What makes us who we are?’, psychologists put forward a range of explanations about why people feel, think and behave the way they do. Just when psychologists seem to understand one bit of ‘who we are’
7 Next steps
We all know that the heart is very important but what exactly does the heart do? Why is the blood so important? What functions do the lungs perform? In this unit, we will try to provide at least a basic understanding so we can answer these questions and begin to understand why knowing about the heart is important for all sports people. Before that we will take a look at the human body.
Biotic Indices of Stream Macroinvertebrates for Fun and (Educational) Profit
Water quality monitoring activities can support student inquiry into ecological concepts and pollution issues, as well as offer insight into integrating field and lab work. This exercise provides students with practice in identification (to order or family level) of stream macroinvertebrates that they've previously collected. Provided information indicates water pollution tolerance of the various taxa. Students use the data to calculate several different biotic indices for the macroinvertebrates
Phylogenetic analysis
This exercise introduces students to analysis of evolutionary relationships both by analysis of molecular similarity and by cladistic techniques. The molecular analysis uses both paper-and-pencil and bioinformatics comparison of the amino acid sequence of the hemoglobin beta chain of eight vertebrates. The cladistic exercises introduce students to cladistic principles, and then allow students to solve hypothetical problems both with and without homoplasy. Students then test their cladistic abili
Experimental Design and Testing: Hatching and Development in Brine Shrimp
This scientific investigation uses hatching and development in brine shrimp as the biological system in which to demonstrate the laboratory model of teaching experimental design.
Plant Hormones: Bioassay for Gibberellin
This simple assay makes use of the ability of the plant hormone GA3 to induce starch breakdown in the endosperm of a barley seed from which the embryo has been removed. The effect of the hormone is clear and repeatable. This exercise can be used in introductory biology courses to demonstrate a basic plant process, or can be modified and used to investigate more sophisticated questions in a developmental biology course.