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National Geographic Channel's groundbreaking series Great Migrations explores the massive movement of animal populations around the planet. The project chronicles these inspirational, often harrowing journeys that are marked by unforgiving odds, and what it means to move like your life depends on it. Wildebeests, zebras, red crabs, Mali elephants, walruses, monarch butterflies, jellyfish, and whale sharks will all be on display, and the production crew traveled some 420,000 miles, filming hundreds of stories in more than 20 countries. Using new science and technology, the series reveals how animals make death-defying journeys to survive. Great Migrations is the largest undertaking of its kind in the National Geographic Society's 120-year history. The seven-hour miniseries premieres globally in fall 2010. National Geographic's net proceeds support vital exploration, conservation, research, and education.

Animal species all follow the same rule for how common they are in an ecosystem, scientists have discovered. And the rule is simple. Everything from birds to fishes, crabs to snails to worms, and the parasitic animals that live inside or on them, follows it. "You can predict how common something might be just by knowing its body weight--how big an individual is--and how high up the food chain it is," says biologist Ryan Hechinger , lead author of a paper in this week's issue of the journal Science.

This article highlights some Citizen Science projects that you may want to get involved with personally and/or with your students. Links to websites are provided. There are all sorts of projects for monitoring organisms including but not limited to birds, frogs, fish, ladybugs, plants, even horseshoe crabs!