Crossing Boundaries

Articles, Blogs and other resources for K-12 teachers.

An ActionBioscience.org original interview with E.O. Wilson.

The Environmental Literacy Council has been dedicated to helping teachers, students, policymakers, and the public find cross-disciplinary resources on the environment. An independent, 501(c)3 organization, the Council offers free background information on common environmental science concepts; vetted resources to broaden understanding; and curricular materials that don't tell teachers how to teach, but give them the tools to augment their own backgrounds - no matter what their current knowledge.

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation's mission is to mitigate critical threats to global biological and cultural diversity by: * advancing scientific research in diverse ecosystems; * strengthening the application of science to conservation practice and public policy; * developing professional, institutional, and community capacity; and * furthering the Museum's efforts to heighten public understanding and stewardship of biodiversity.

Creatures large and small may play an unsuspectedly important role in the stirring of ocean waters, according to a study released Wednesday.

student created podcasts

Library of Congress - maps related to conservation and the environment

The NBII Northeast Information Node (NIN) Web site gives users-educators, resource managers, researchers, and the general public-easy access to the data resources and analysis tools they need to better understand, utilize, and protect the environmental resources of this region.

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. The NBII links diverse, high-quality biological databases, information products, and analytical tools

The Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the ninth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,160,711 species. Please note that this is probably just more than half of the world's known species. This means that for many groups it continues to be deficient, and users will notice that many species are still missing from the Catalogue. The present Catalogue is compiled with sectors provided by 66 taxonomic databases from around the world. Many of these contain taxonomic data and opinions from extensive networks of specialists, so that the complete work contains contributions from more than 3,000 specialists from throughout the taxonomic profession. Species 2000 and ITIS teams peer review databases, select appropriate sectors and integrate the sectors into a single coherent catalogue with a single hierarchical classification. It is planned to introduce alternative taxonomic treatments and alternative classifications, but an important feature is that for those users who wish to use it, a single preferred catalogue, based on peer reviews, will continue to be provided.

Students will look at maps and satellite images to see how various settled parts of the Earth have changed over the past few decades. They will then draw maps of their hometown, showing how it might have looked in satellite images in the 1970s and today. This will probably require some research into their town's recent history.