Crossing Boundaries

"Bird species in rainforest fragments in Brazil that were isolated by deforestation disappeared then reappeared over a quarter-century, according to research results published today in the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) ONE. Scientists thought many of the birds had gone extinct."

Chris Jordan's online photography gallery.

"EcoTipping Points are small actions that tip the balance from decline to restoration by tapping the inborn power of nature and human societies to heal themselves." Case studies range from community gardens in NYC to reversing tropical deforestation in Thailand.

When officials gather for an international summit on biodiversity next month, they might look to remind the world why species matter to humans: for producing oxygen, finding new drugs, making agricultural crops more productive, and something far less tangible - a sense of wonder.

New EPA website for students includes learning about climate change as well as how students can become involved in solutions. The presentation of material is at a student-friendly level. The site also has an "educator resources" section.

Short clips from Simpson episodes which demonstrate particular science concepts/topics **Jesus Fish and Natural Selection is a neat one**

Resources for using Edublog more effectively

"Uses satellite images to look at changes in glaciers over time. "

This report provides a new approach to examining the links between ecosystem services (the benefits derived from nature) and the poor. Through a series of maps and analyses, the authors focus on the environmental resources most Kenyans rely on such as soil, water, forest, rangeland, livestock, and wildlife. The atlas overlays georeferenced statistical information on population and household expenditures with spatial data on ecosystems and their services (water availability, wood supply, wildlife populations, and the like) to yield a picture of how land, people, and prosperity are related in Kenya.

Created by Missouri Botanical Garden, describes biomes of the world.

science lesson and unit planning

Some links are on my class website. I hope you may find some of them useful

A training manual to use a free open-source GIS to do spatial analysis with plant biodiversity and distribution

Videos include: - What is the Global Food System? - Land Use Change and Agriculture - Food Security - Water and Agriculture - Climate Change, Agriculture, and NASA

"As the numbers of species declines due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change, the risk of catching infectious diseases may rise for humans, animals and plants. "

"The OpenHeatMap site lets you create heat maps and choropleths from uploaded spreadsheet data (CSV format), or Google Docs Spreadsheet data (which makes it continuously updatable). It supports location coding by latitude/longitude coordinates, or by a large number of name/code attributes (e.g. address, FIPS code, zip code, state, province, country). And as a bonus, you can also have time as a variable, letting you create animated heatmaps or choropleths."

"A collection of rubrics for assessing portfolios, cooperative learning, research process/ report, PowerPoint, podcast, oral presentation, web page, blog, wiki, and other web 2.0 projects."

"Google Earth Engine brings together the world's satellite imagery-trillions of scientific measurements dating back more than 25 years-and makes it available online with tools for scientists, independent researchers, and nations to mine this massive warehouse of data to detect changes, map trends and quantify differences to the earth's surface. "

Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires... "IcEarth offers an innovative approach for the use of satellite and airborne remotely sensed data and current and historical aerial photography combined with an in-depth explanation of what the data represents. Images, technical application, and topical themes support environmental science, earth science, and geographic inquiry by complementing educators existing curriculum."