Crossing Boundaries

"How is climate change affecting your region? What are the impacts on key sectors like health, water, and agriculture? Find out from USGCRP's Third National Climate Assessment."

Jim found this site but is too shy to post it on Diigo. It has side-by-side imagery showing 1975, 2000, and change in vegetative cover in that time interval. Searchable by location.

A New App to Discover, Use, and Share Maps on Your iOS Device

NOAA created this site to help educators find data resources ranging from student-friendly to raw real-time and historical data on topics ranging from hurricanes to Great Lakes science. The Visualization Laboratory has an image of the day that relates to a current meteorological event and it contains images and videos pertaining to current and historical severe weather events, disasters, hurricanes, climate, oceans, atmosphere, and remote sensing.

"here are 40 maps, charts, and graphs that show where our food comes from and how we eat it, with some drinking thrown in for good measure."

"Travel by boat with ornithologists as they catalog breathtaking bird life along the banks of one of Brazil's remote rivers. You'll discover how their work is redefining diversity in Amazonia and reshaping traditional conservation boundaries by identifying new Areas of Endemism-regions that harbor species found nowhere else in the world. Explore our interactive map to follow in the scientists' footsteps and view video journals and site notes documenting the team's experiences during their expedition. You can take a look at-and listen to-the amazing birds found at each of the three study sites and learn more fun facts about each species' habits and habitats!"

"Birds instinct to migrate is often influenced by sudden shifts in temperature, amount of available daylight, moon phases and when strong tail winds are present. Like air quality, pollen count and UV reports, the FLAP Tracker is a Bird Migration Intensity report that alerts you to the concentration of birds as they fly through your region. "

This resource by Howard Hughes Medical Institute addresses the questions of how species form and why there are so many species. Includes films on Charles Darwin, finch beaks, and evolution of lizards.

"Ocean Tracks provides access to authentic data collected by migrating marine animals, drifting buoys, and satellites, along with tools that allow you to display and analyze these data to investigate current and important scientific questions about animal interactions with the ocean environment. "

Kenya's high-elevation forests are the source for most of the water on which the drought-plagued nation depends. Now, after decades of government-abetted abuse of these regions, a new conservation strategy of working with local communities is showing signs of success.

Taking Root tells the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy-a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration.

Live webcams at Mpala Research Center in Kenya, and lessons for grades 3-8

Animated dots represent moving ships, paths show routes, and filters focus on areas of interest. Narration guides you from area to area.

"First report of its kind assesses state of world's plants, including baseline information on all vascular plants currently known to science, new plant discoveries and threats. The report estimates that there are about 391,000 species of vascular plants in the world."

"The interactive crop map displays the native origins and primary regions of diversity for selected major agricultural crops."

"A good essential question Is open-ended; that is, it typically will not have a single, final, and correct answer. Is thought-provoking and intellectually engaging, often sparking discussion and debate. Calls for higher-order thinking, such as analysis, inference, evaluation, prediction. It cannot be effectively answered by recall alone. Points toward important, transferable ideas within (and sometimes across) disciplines. Raises additional questions and sparks further inquiry. Requires support and justification, not just an answer. Recurs over time; that is, the question can and should be revisited again and again."

High-resolution earth imagery has provided ecologists and conservationists with a dynamic new tool that is enabling everything from more accurate counting of wildlife populations to rapid detection of deforestation, illegal mining, and other changes in the landscape.

Google Chrome recently introduced Land Lines, a delightful new way to explore the gorgeous satellite images from Google Earth. Landlines invites users to discover new satellite images in two ways: Draw and Drag. With the Draw feature, visitors simply create a small doodle on their monitor or personal device. Next, Landlines, with the aid of machine learning, presents visitors with a satellite picture that contains this line or shape in some form: perhaps as a gridded street, the shape of a mountain range, or the curve of a lake. A caption in the bottom left hand side of the browser alerts readers as to what they are looking at and allows visitors to explore each area in more detail via Google Maps. With Drag, users can "create an infinite line of connective rivers, highways, and coastlines." Both modes of exploration offer innovative and highly enjoyable ways to see the world from one's own computer.