Crossing Boundaries

Shows how long ago species diverged from a common ancestor

Three cheers go out to Jim Murphy for sharing this great website! It's an amazing resource for Global Climate Change! The NOAA Coastal Services Center would like to acknowledge those organizations that provided direct content used in this tool or feedback, ideas, and reviews over the course of the tool's development. Specifically the Center would like to acknowledge the following groups. The U.S.

LIke! Actually crying. Too funny.

A free downloadable textbook written by the top names in conservation biology with the principal aim of disseminating cutting-edge conservation knowledge as widely as possible. Topics include balancing conversion and human needs, climate change, conservation planning, designing and analyzing conservation research, ecosystem services, endangered species management, extinctions, fire, habitat loss, and invasive species.

The strategy provides recommendations for developing effective biosphere reserves and a framework for the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. It introduces the history of the Biosphere Reserves and the concept before outlining the vision and strategy as developed from the conference in Seville. Organization: UNESCO: MAB programme Sourced from: Report based on International Conference on Biosphere reserve

GIS Files of data for the world

Fast and easy access to dynamic worldwide, multi-spectral, multi-temporal Landsat data for your projects. This is a great resource for observing and analyzing land use changes.

One stop page for links to fun tools you or your students can use

I've used Animoto, Quizlet, Xtranormal and Dropbox. Love Quizlet and Dropbox....don't use Animoto or Xtranormal all that much although they are fun and your students might enjoy "playing".

Drop box is awesome - external storage site! Allows you to access files from any computer and up to 2G free storage. More with pay upgrade. I think I will link the Web Tools Index in my wiki for students to use at their convenience.

Engaging Students Through Global Issues is an activity-based lesson book that contains 40 inspiring lessons. These lesson plans are designed to help students understand complex global issues and sustainable solutions. Each lesson offers creative tools for students to take action in their local and global communities."

This website explains the high-tech systems used by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to hear, monitor, and protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, and you can see live info about where these whales have been detected within the past 24 hours.

The Land Use Calculator is a tool for rapid scenario analysis of land-use implications, useful for decision-makers to address real-world challenges and for classroom teaching of conservation biology, sustainable development, environmental economics and global change biology. It is a decision-support tool targeted at land-use decision-makers in the tropic, allowing users to evaluate the implications and tradeoffs of pursuing alternative development scenarios by simultaneously accounting for the societal priorities of agricultural production, economic development, carbon conservation and biodiversity protection. Users specify a few environmental and socioeconomic parameters describing a landscape scenario, and the tool determines the implications of that scenario in terms of biodiversity, carbon stocks, greenhouse-gas emissions, financial returns of the land and employment opportunities.

"Climate Change, Grades 9-12 is a two-week curriculum unit that encourages students to think critically about climate change and to collaborate to devise solutions. Students learn about climate change within a systems framework, examining interconnections among environmental, social, and economic issues."

Links to many Google Earth overlays

GIS Links for state clearinghouses and federal data

cut intro to global climate change

Can 'water footprinting' help cut the 500 liters of H2O needed to produce a carton of OJ? Carbon trading promotes good behavior by creating a standardized currency representing a verifiable environmental benefit. Payments for watershed services do the same for cutbacks in water pollution, albeit on a smaller scale. Now, the Nature Conservancy and the Coca-Cola Company are experimenting with a new method of "water footprinting" that could do the same for total water use - a key component in the development of a market-based scheme that would promote responsible water usage.

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.

An interactive website for learning about cloud forest ecosystems. Includes videos and lesson plans.