Science Topics

Lists of web sites categorized by subject areas within science.

Biodiversity

1. Online expeditions
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 019298
   This Internet site follows the live, field-based expeditions of teachers from Chicago as they explore various locations around the globe. Journals, photographs, and QuickTime movies describe the native cultures and customs encountered each day as well as the local weather, landscape, and wildlife.
   While following the journey, students have an opportunity to participate in a live chat with the explorers, to e-mail questions to science experts, and to email schoolchildren from the region under study.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
2. From jungle to lab: the study of life's complexity
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026098
   This web site explores biological research being conducted at Las Cuevas Research Station in Belize. The resource is part of the Exploratorium Museum's ORIGINS: LOOKING INTO OUR SEARCH FOR BEGINNINGS series, which provides overviews of research being conducted by scientists into the origin of matter, the planet Earth, and life itself.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
3. Birmingham Zoo
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 008642
   This web site describes the educational programs operated by the Birmingham Zoo, including activities and handouts for visiting students, as well as general information. The zoo offers several outreach programs designed to teach a specific topic.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
4. Kids in the creek
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): K - 6 Cost: Free ENC#: 027020
   This Internet site provides lesson plans and printable materials for assessing the health of freshwater streams. The materials were developed by the Bonneville Power Administration, a major hydroelectric producer in the Pacific Northwest.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
5. Tidepool math
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029361
   This web site provides two different sets of lesson plans that integrate science and math in the context of having students examine the organisms in a tidepool environment. One set of plans is for students in grades K-8, while the other set is intended for high school students.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
6. Center for Biodiversity and Conservation
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 028269
   This web site describes the outreach, education, and research programs associated with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. This organization operates through the American Museum of Natural History, and seeks to increase public awareness for the planet's shrinking biodiversity through education programs and environmental research.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
7. WWF, the conservation organization
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2004 Grade(s): Pre-K - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 011989
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site is the homepage of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the world's largest independent conservation organization. The WWF was established to conserve nature and ecological processes by preserving genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity; ensuring the sustainable use of renewable natural resources; and promoting actions to reduce pollution and the wasteful exploitation and consumption of energy.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
8. National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA)
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 028475
   This web site, produced by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), provides information on the 388 units within the National Parks Service (NPS), and highlights threats to the vitality and biodiversity of the parks system. The NPCA is an organization that seeks to protect the national parks from over use and recommends policies that protect the ecosystems within each park.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
9. WWF field expeditions: Central African Republic (C.A.R.)
   Featured in ENC Focus   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2001 Grade(s): 4 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 020408
   This Internet site, developed by the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), follows a team of top biologists from the around the world as they perform a biological inventory in the Southwestern Central African Republic (CAR). Located in the lowland tropical forest of the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, the expedition's goals are to learn about the biodiversity of the region, analyze outside threats to the ecosystem, and to use this information to design conservation efforts with local cultures.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
10. Kojee's educator's ethnobotany website: a teacher's resource for investigating medical plant use by indigenous people of Americas
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1999 Grade(s): 6 - 8 Cost: Free ENC#: 015468
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site is a teacher's resource for a unit in which the students investigate the use of medicinal plants by indigenous people of the Americas. It includes a unit lesson plan for seventh grade students and links to forty educational and ethnobotany sites.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
11. Brookfield Zoo: go wild
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 2000 Grade(s): 7 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 018800
    This Internet site offers a collection of interactive explorations and field guides that highlight the Brookfield Zoo's exhibits and worldwide conservation efforts. At the time of abstracting, one of the interactive explorations is an animated adventure through a rain forest in central Africa along the Ways of Knowing Trail.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
12. Wild world
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 2001 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 018949
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained by the National Geographic Society, World Wildlife Fund Online Programs, and ESRI, offers conservation facts, information, and images for 867 land-based ecoregions on Earth. Of those regions, scientists have identified the Global 200, which are among the richest, rarest, and most endangered natural areas on Earth.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
13. Seven biological challenges: how do they affect your life?
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 2000 Grade(s): 9 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 020190
    This Internet site provides lessons for high school and undergraduate level students that accompany peer-reviewed articles. Articles are written by scientists, science educators, and science students on issues related to seven biological challenges: biodiversity, environment, genomics, biotechnology, evolution, new frontiers in the sciences, and education.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
14. DNA for dinner?
    Featured in ENC Focus   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1999 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 016070
    This Internet site, developed for grades 9 through 12, is intended as a webquest or structured activity that introduces students to the practical mechanics and societal implications of the genetic engineering of plants grown for human consumption. The site encourages students to learn about public policy and shows how ordinary citizens can become part of the decision making process for issues that are important to them.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
15. National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 2000 Grade(s): 1 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 016934
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, developed primarily for biology professionals and educators, is intended as an important national resource for the collection and dissemination of biological data, the organization of online biological materials and the development of partnerships and collaborations that can promote effective biological research and education. The site is maintained by the US Geological Survey (USGS), in conjunction with a variety of other globally recognized organizations including federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Park Service (NPS), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and several others.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
16. Environmental Literacy Council
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1999 Grade(s): 9 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 015619
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained by the Environmental Literacy Council, is intended to help students and teachers study environmental issues by guiding them to the resources available on the Internet. The Environmental Literacy Council is a non profit organization established to bring together scientists, economists, educators, and other experts to inform environmental studies.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
17. American Museum of Natural History
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1998 Grade(s): 5 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 012430
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site is the home page of the American Museum of Natural History. Located in New York City, the Museum's exhibits focus on biodiversity and environmental conservation.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
18. Radio expeditions
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1997 Grade(s): 7 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 013431
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, a co-production of National Public Radio (NPR) and The National Geographic Society, contains a collection of audio expeditions to sites around the world reporting on adventures such as reef diving, trekking in the Arctic, and searching for the Tasmanian Devil. The newest page at this site is Frontiers in the Sea which includes underwater adventures along the coast of the United States, information about the National Marine Sanctuary program, and inside glimpses into twelve underwater areas protected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
19. bioSURF
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1997 Grade(s): 10 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 011836
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained by publishers Scott Foresman Addison Wesley Longman Inc., offers on line reference and resource materials that supplement their secondary biology program BIOLOGY:THE WEB OF LIFE. For each chapter of the textbook, the site provides a list of related Internet links, news articles, and career information.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
20. Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens
    Featured in ENC Focus  
    Date: 1997 Grade(s): Pre-K - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 011348
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, suitable for all ages, presents information about the animals, plants, and programs of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Pictures and background information may be seen of many different animals such as tigers, lowland gorillas, and okapis.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)