Wachstumshormone

Resources June 2010

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Acronym Finder

Find out what an acronym, abbreviation, or initialism stands for on this easy-to-use webpage.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/

Air: The Search for One Clean Breath

The film, Air: The Search for One Clean Breath, produced by the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District with a cooperative grant agreement from the EPA, acts as a biography of air.  With animation and live action, viewers take a guided tour of the story of air, from its ancient beginnings to today’s clean air technologies.  In addition, the downloadable Educator’s Guide for middle and high school instructors and accompanying classroom lessons enable students to not only see the film, but understand more about air quality by expanding upon the material presented in the film.

http://www.vcapcd.org/AirTheFilm/teacher.htm

The Bay Game

The University of Virginia’s Bay Game simulation allows players to take the roles of stakeholders, make decisions about their livelihoods and professional expertise, and see the impacts of these decisions on the watershed and on each other over a twenty-year period.  The website provides information about the simulation, along with materials on the different simulation events and the participating groups.  Visitors can review the Bay Resources with links to organizations and interactive maps of the Chesapeake Bay.  Additional web pages include links to news and more.

http://www.virginia.edu/vpr/sustain/BayGame/

Casco Bay Curriculum

Friends of Casco Bay developed the place-based Casco Bay Curriculum to help teachers of grades 4-6 incorporate locally-focused environmental education into their classrooms to instill an ethic of stewardship by helping students understand the immediate marine world around them through the use of hands-on science, inquiry activities, and actual data.

http://friendsofcascobay.org/curriculum.aspx

EasyBib

The EasyBib website helps visitors create bibliographies in a variety of different citation

styles, including MLA and APA.  Users type in the item they need to cite, and EasyBib will provide the correct citation for each entry.

http://www.easybib.com/

EPA Wastes Website

This website from the EPA provides materials for teachers, students, and researchers to develop an increased knowledge of solid waste issues.  The resources are divided into four sections:  What You Can Do, Resource Conservation, Hazardous Waste, and Nonhazardous Waste.  Students can find activities and project ideas to learn more about waste reduction, reuse, and recycling, along with information sources, tools, and data to enable student researchers to collect environmental information for use in projects and reports.  The website also offers links to curriculum, activities, games, and other educational materials, along with grant and career information.

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/index.htm

False Assumptions

This false assumption activity from the Evolution & the Nature of Science Institutes at Indiana University teaches high school students about the nature of science, its uncertainty, and the need to consider multiple perspectives and ask different questions.  Students solve short problem scenarios by only asking yes/no questions.  Recognizing the false assumption makes the solutions tricky.

http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/falsasum.html

FMSEA 2010 on the Web

FMSEA 2010, Changing Reefs: Corals on Acid, took place May 14-162010 in Key Largo, Florida.  Some of the conference highlights, curricula, and other resources from speakers and participants are available for downloading from the website.  Be sure to check back as additional materials are offered.

http://fmsea.org/events/conferences/2010/

GIS at Lane Community College

Lane Community College offers geospatial education across the curriculum for college and high school students.  Web-based GIS modules are designed to engage students in real-world scenarios that teach geospatial thinking while reducing the complexities of traditional desktop GIS.  MAPS-GIS (Mapping, Analyzing and Problem Solving Using Geographic Information Science) focuses on embedding web-based GIS learning modules across curriculum at the Lane Community College, focusing on lower division college courses.  GeoSTAC is a professional development opportunity for Language Arts, Math, Social Science and Science high school teachers.

http://gis.lanecc.edu/

Gray’s Reef Expedition

Join NOAA’s Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary as scientists and crew conduct a research mission aboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster, May 18-June 8, 2010.  Read the blogs, watch video, and more from this website.  Investigations include tagging and tracking of reef fish, habitat mapping, invertebrate studies, marine debris and CO2 monitoring, and fish predation behaviors

http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/missions/2010nancy_foster/welcome.html

Hurricane Preparedness Websites

NOAA teams up with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance and the Environmental Protection Agency to offer two websites to bolster gulf readiness for the 2010 hurricane season.  StormSmart Coasts assists in identifying what can be done before, during, and after a storm to enhance community resilience.  The sister website, StormSmart Connect, provides a venue for real-time collaboration, allowing users to share documents and expertise.

http://stormsmartcoasts.org/

http://stormsmartconnect.org/

Long Island Sound Study

The Long Island Sound Study website offers teachers different ways to incorporate Long Island Sound into their curriculum and classroom.  The newly redesigned website offers a section for Educators, including a virtual tour of the sound, classroom resources, and links to other websites.  Check out the downloadable Long Island Sound Curricular Resource Guide.

http://longislandsoundstudy.net/get-involved/teaching-resources/

Marine Renewable Energy

The June 2010 issue of Oceanography focuses on marine renewable energy.  The contributing authors to this special issue come from many areas of the marine renewable energy arena—academia, industry, federal and state government, social science, and commercial fishing.  Visitors can read it online.

http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/current.html

National Geographic: Environment

The Environment section of the National Geographic website has photos, quizzes, blogs, games, and news.  Check out the Ocean Extremes Quiz, The Hidden Water We Use, and much more.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/?source=NavEnvHome

Not Just Mine: Kids and Plovers on the Beach

The Western Snowy Plover website is devoted to the protection and recovery of the Western Snowy Plover, and offers resources for information, education, and community involvement.  Not Just Mine is a movie about kids and plovers on the beach and can be downloaded fast, in low quality, or more slowly at a higher quality.  In addition, the film is available at no charge to marine educators for classroom use and distribution.

http://www.westernsnowyplover.org

Contact Marla Morrissey at marlamorrissey@gmail.com

OzCoasts

OzCoasts represents a collaborative effort between coastal scientists from a range of government agencies and universities across Australia, to provide comprehensive information about Australia’s coast, including its estuaries, coastal waterways, and climate change impact. This helps to generate a better understanding of coastal environments, the complex processes that occur in them, the potential environmental health issues, and how to recognize and deal with these issues.  The materials are divided into six primary areas, including Coastal Indicators, Habitat Mapping, Natural Resource Management, and more.  Each section documents a wide range of natural and man-made phenomena including beach erosion, sea level rise, and more.

http://www.ozcoasts.org.au/

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Explorations 2010

Follow along on a 25-day research expedition to Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  The multidisciplinary scientific party includes a maritime archaeology team, shark researchers, invertebrate and invasive species specialists, ecologists conducting work at maritime heritage sites, and a television newscaster.  The main objectives of the expedition for the maritime heritage team are to interpret these diverse archaeological sites through underwater mapping, video, and photography.

http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/missions/2010monument/welcome.html

Plastic Oceans

Plastic Oceans offers a documentary film about plastic in our oceans.

http://www.plasticoceans.net/

Protect Your Climate Curriculum

The (California) Bay Area Air Quality Management District offers Protect Your Climate, a comprehensive climate protection curriculum with 16 lessons for grades 4-5, which can be easily adapted for other grades.  The lessons investigate the science and causes of climate change and how students can take action to protect our climate through hands-on activities.

http://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/Files/Planning%20and%20Research/Climate%20Protection%20Program/protectyourclimate.ashx

Salmon & Steelhead: A Time for Recovery

The Steelhead and Stream Recovery Coalition has recently created and released a movie about the plight of Steelhead Salmon and how we can protect them.  The QuickTime movie is downloadable from the website or available at no charge to marine educators for classroom use and distribution.

http://www.steelheadrecovery.org

Contact Marla Morrissey at marlamorrissey@gmail.com

Water Basics

The Water Basics website from Environment Canada includes the hydrologic cycle; rivers; lakes; snowfall; and measuring, storing, and controlling water.  Check out the interesting Quick Facts along with the more detailed Water Sources.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=En&n=A6A15B0B-1

Water Sourcebooks

The EPA offers the downloadable Water Sourcebooks, with activities for grades K-12 divided into four sections: K-2, 3-5, 5-8, and 9-12.  Each section is divided into five chapters: Introduction to Water, Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment, Surface Water Resources, Ground Water Resources, and Wetlands and Coastal Waters.

This environmental education program explains the water management cycle using a balanced approach showing, how it affects all aspects of the environment.  All activities contain hands-on investigations, fact sheets, reference materials, and a glossary of terms.

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/wsb/

Wilkes Land Expedition Videos

Check out the videos from the Joides Resolution expeditions through Penguin TV, PEAT News Network, and more at this website.  Each video update includes an interview with a scientist aboard the 470’ JOIDES Resolution during a seafloor coring expedition off the Antarctic coast earlier this year.  The videos tie paleoclimate research to modern climate change discussions and allow students to get an idea of what it’s like to live and work at sea, with a little comic relief thrown in.

http://joidesresolution.org/node/52

World Environment Day

World Environment Day, June 5, was started in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly, to stimulate worldwide awareness about environmental issues and their impact on humans.  Learn more about this year’s theme, Many Species. One Planet. One Future, download posters, and more.

http://www.unep.org/wed/2010/english/theme.asp