Crossing Boundaries

"In this lesson students examine the patterns of gray whale migration along the Pacific Coast of North America. The exercise provides data at both broad and local scales, providing students with migration patterns and local scale feeding patterns. "

bad maps

From Cartastrophe Blog: "Yesterday evening, I was having a conversation with one of my roommates about Beaver Island, which lay in the north of Lake Michigan. It's a sizable chunk of land with some interesting history. It was, at one point in the 19th century, home to a kingdom inhabited by a breakaway Latter-Day Saints sect, until the US government facilitated the assassination of its eccentric ruler and the ejection of the Mormon settlers. While mentioning the island to my roommate, I pulled up Google Maps in order to show him where it is. Except it wasn't there. An entire archipelago, in fact, was missing from the map."

"Watch the countries on the map change their size. Instead of land mass, the size of each country will represent the data for that subject --both its share of the total and absolute value."

"A consortium has formed to develop, support and maintain an on-line, GIS-based, all-taxa invasive species mapping tool, iMapInvasives, focused on serving the needs of land managers, regional planners and others working to prevent, control or manage invasive species. A particular emphasis is placed on functionality designed to aid in Early Detection/Rapid Response (ED/RR) efforts. "

"The Dashboard of Sustainability is a free, non-commercial software package that illustrates the complex relationships among economic, social and environmental issues. "

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."

"Understanding Sustainability is a flexible, self-contained two-week curriculum unit aligned with national science standards for middle school educators to teach sustainability issues. The curriculum unit features hands-on activities that explore sustainability issues, such as energy, consumption, water scarcity, transportation choices, and potential solutions. "

"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."

"Buy, Use, Toss? A Closer Look at the Things We Buy is an interdisciplinary unit that includes ten fully-planned lessons. This unit is correlated with national science and social studies standards and will lead your students through an exploration of the system of producing and consuming goods that is called the materials economy. Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Science, Social Studies"

"Trained as a musician, acoustic biologist Katy Payne was first to discover that humpback whales compose ever-changing song to communicate, and first to understand that elephants communicate with one another across long distances by infrasound. We hear what she has learned about life in this world from two of its largest and most mysterious creatures."