Biology

In the pursuit of her Girl Scout Gold Award, Tarin Rickett of Croton-On-Hudson, NY created an extensive lesson plan booklet focusing on Invasive Species. Realizing that invasive species pose a serious threat to ecosystems around the globe, Tarin's lesson plan booklet includes classroom activities geared towards 4th, 5th, and 6th graders (though they can be adapted for older age groups).

The NCSE-NASA Interdisciplinary Climate Change Education Team is developing a curricular package on climate change based on a University of California Davis course taught by Professor Arnold Bloom. The curriculum includes modules that cover a wide range of topics relevant to climate change. Data produced by NASA is used to create data-driven modules focusing on ice core and recent climate change observations.

Cluster Busters is a unique science curriculum in which students research disease clusters that might be induced by environmental toxicants. In the process, students utilize a range of skills, draw from various academic subjects, and learn the issues and processes of disease cluster investigation. The game introduces the concepts of epidemiology, risk assessment, and toxicology. The process of investigation encourages logical thinking and problem solving and enhances student familiarity with research techniques and statistics.

Students develop an integrated project through the comprehensive study of a species, a region, or both. This long-term project requires students to explore fiction, history, cultural attitudes, and government. The scientific data students can collect and analyze may include GIS information, climate and weather, satellite tracking/mapping, and observations from research scientists' journals. This lesson is best suited for grades 5-9 and adheres to National Science Education Standards.

The purpose of this lesson is to educate students on endangered species and to provide them with basic knowledge of the causes of extinction. This lesson is best suited for grades 5-9 and adheres to Alabama State Learning Standards.

This lesson provides students with an overview of some endangered species and the ways that human activities contribute to species endangerment. This lesson is designed to provide students with a sense of optimism and to help them figure out ways they can help protect species. Students will be asked to devise their own species protection plans. This lesson is best suited for grades 3-5 and adheres to National Geography Education Standards.

To become familiar with endangered species' habitats and characteristics, students design, present, and evaluate a visual presentation (kiosk or website) for a specific endangered species. This lesson is designed for grade 4 and adheres to Florida Sunshine State Standards.

In this lesson 2nd graders will gather information about an endangered species, the panda. After making a research web as a class, the class will work together to organize and write a research report about Pandas. This research report will then be posted on the website Project: TESAN - The Endangered Species and Nature, a collaborative project that posts and collects student work about endangered species from all over the world. This lesson is best suited for Grade 2 and adheres to National Education Standards.

This activity, developed by Smithsonian Education and tied to National Science Content Standards and National Mathematics Standards, helps introduce environmental issues using fun and challenging real-world math problems. Students do the work of a team of paleontologists studying a time of rapid global warming 55 million years ago. By examining fossils of leaves from various tree species, and by incorporating the findings into a mathematical formula, the students are able to tell average annual temperatures during this prehistoric time.