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The Weather Wiz weather prediction education site goal is to introduce teachers to the most successful school weather program in the United States and get the student involved in this fascinating science. The Program was designed by Jim Witt and honed via years of teaching and weather predictions.

And as the El Nino weather system has been storming across the Pacific this season, it has stirred up ocean waters enough to cool down the original Blob off of Alaska, but at the same time helped give birth to what has been nicknamed the "Son of Blob" off the coast of Southern California. The still-warmer Alaskan waters, and Son of Blob sector are expected to continue to magnify the El Nino effect for months to come, according to Weather Underground's "Blob Watch" blog.

This case study uses a jigsaw activity to introduce students to four specific plant responses to climate change: elevational range shifts, phenology shifts, community shifts, and changes in biodiversity. Students become "experts" on one of these responses by reading an article (from Nature, Science, or American Journal of Botany; not included with the case) on their assigned topic and then sharing their expertise with others in class. In order to hone their understanding and increase retention on these topics, students then learn about plant communities found in a specific system-vernal pools or seasonal wetlands typical of Mediterranean climates (a PowerPoint presentation on this topic is included). Students accomplish several small group tasks to assess how different vernal pool plant communities have responded to fluctuations in annual weather patterns and predict how these communities may respond to greater weather variability resulting from future climatic change. This case was written for mid- to upper-level ecology, plant ecology, botany, or environmental studies courses. The material covered may also be suitable for classes examining the role of weather variability/climate change in relation to plants.

2:09 video Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the differences between weather and climate change.

As weather warms up off the coast of France, blooms of plankton have once again begun to form, creating a beautiful, multicolored swirl visible from space.

From something as small and complex as a chromosome to something as seemingly simple as the weather, sex determination systems vary significantly across the animal kingdom. Biologist and teacher Aaron Reedy shows us the amazing differences between species when it comes to determination of gender.

By analyzing the chemical signatures of six coral reef cores taken from multiple sites in the Pacific Ocean around Panama, the scientists found an extreme weather event associated with what we would call La Niña today triggered the reef collapse. A series of events similar to El Niño continued to suppress the reef for the next two millenniums.

An exciting new test might help us save antibiotics. Needing only a drop of blood, researchers at Duke have developed a rapid assay that can tell viral infections-which generally can't be treated-from bacterial ones that may benefit from antibiotics. While I don't usually write about drugs or products in development, this test piqued my interest and left me excited about its potential to help contain antibiotic overuse.