Crossing Boundaries

Includes a map showing that nearly half of all US shale gas and oil wells are being developed in regions with high to extremely high water stress.

Deciding where to install wind turbines and solar panels seems straightforward: Pick gusty and sunny spots. But researchers say the problem is a bit more complicated. To get the most emissions reductions and health benefits, the United States may need to focus its clean energy efforts on some unlikely regions.

Useful videos on these topics: - What is Biodiversity? - The Science of Biodiversity - Importance of Biodiversity - Losing Biodiversity - Saving Biodiversity - Promoting Biodiversity - Videos for and by Kids

TopoView is a searchable collection of historical U.S. topographic maps, published before 2009.

Multimedia, lessons, data, and background information about the Great Lakes. Includes a "Listen to the Lake" podcast and several webcams. Lessons to download relate to watershed land use, fish life cycles, invasive species, human population, and others.

"First World Problems read by Third World People" is by the non-profit "Water is Life" to ironically focus on the REALLY-CRITICAL issue of clean water. They enlisted Haitian children and adults to read the everyday gripes and minor irritations that first world citizens post on Twitter."

"Young Voices for the Planet is a film series featuring young people who are making a difference! They are shrinking the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities. You, too, can do something about global warming! As Alec Loorz says, "Kids Have Power.""

Follow an osprey's migration online: "As part of a two-year research project, we have outfitted a male Osprey nesting at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge with a GPS pack in order to follow him on his local hunting trips during the summer and his yearly migrations south."

"Explore 15,000 of the world's endangered species. With over 100,000 photos and videos, discover what these animals, plants and fungi look like, what makes them special and why we should protect them."

This map represents one possible supply chain for a running shoe. Two petroleum-based synthetics-polyester and polyurethane-make up 36 percent of the weight of a typical running shoe, including packaging; these synthetics are responsible for 57 percent of the carbon footprint of the shoe's materials. From extraction to the end of the shoe's life, the entire carbon footprint of this typical pair of running shoes is equivalent to using a 100-watt light bulb for a week.

When the sun goes down, dung beetles rely on a galactic source--light from the Milky Way--to navigate, according to a recent report in Current Biology. Study co-author Eric Warrant, of Lund University in Sweden, explains how dung beetles see the starry night sky.

"The birds-of-paradise are among the most beautiful creatures on earth-and an extraordinary example of evolutionary adaptation. On this site you can find what few have witnessed in the wild: the displays of color, sound, and motion that make these birds so remarkable. Then you can delve deeper, examining the principles that guided their evolution and the epic adventure it took to bring you all 39 species."

The Club-winged Manakin is a bird that makes an odd foghorn call using its wings rather than vocal chords. Through 13 short videos, this site explores how these wings "work," how they evolved, and how this was discovered by Cornell scientist Kim Bostwick.

A quiz of weird animal sounds assembled by Wired Magazine using recordings from Cornell's Macaulay Library

This animated special report by NSF profiles how scientists are using technology to track wildlife ranging from zebras to dragonflies.

" Richard Turere, a 13 year-old from Kenya, has been making waves at the TED conference with his innovative invention - a LED system that prevents lions from killing livestock (and also humans). Richard, whose family lives within the Nairobi National Park boundaries and raises livestock, had always seen lions as a threat to their livelihood."

"Streamer is an online map service that lets anyone trace downstream along America's major rivers and streams simply by picking a point on a stream. Streamer will map the route the stream follows. You can also trace upstream using Streamer. Imagine that you're standing along the Mississippi River in New Orleans. You're wondering not only where the river began but also which other streams drained into the Mississippi River before it made its way to your location. With Streamer you can also: locate your area of interest by specifying stream or place names; by entering latitude and longitude coordinates, enter the identification number for a U.S. Geological Survey streamflow gaging station, find out the names of streams and waterbodies by clicking on them, print maps of your downstream and upstream traces, create concise or detailed reports for your upstream and downstream traces, learn about current or historic streamflow at thousands of locations along America's streams, and find out about the places your stream trace passes through with just a few mouse clicks. "

"Let kids discover things on their own. Let them solve problems. One way to do this is ask questions about maps. But not just regular, turn to page 47 in your geography textbook kind of maps. But, you know, cool maps. So here ya go. A world map using only the locations of the world's runways, helicopter pads and airports." What questions can you ask? How about: Where are the developing countries? How do you know? Does location make a difference in who has access to knowledge? Does this matter? How does access to electricity impact how people live?

By Joseph Kerski at ESRI, a series of 10 short videos discussing uses of a book about the now-extinct bird species, the Great Auk. He discusses cross-disciplinary connections, use of ArcGIS Online to explore the geography of events in the book, and implications of connecting geography and language arts.

Relates the flamingo populations that Marita Davison worked with in Bolivia to mining of lithium for batteries.