Located in Greece, the Benaki Museum features European and Asian pieces of artwork dating all the way back to prehistoric ages. In addition to having a massive collection of art you can explore virtually, the Benaki also offers audio tours for several of their larger exhibits.
The lessons in this issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom introduce the work of botanists and botanical illustrators, specifically their race to make records of endangered plant species around the world. “Very little of the world’s flora has been fully studied,” says one Smithsonian botanist, “and time is running out.” In the first lesson, students gets to know six endangered plants. They examine illustrations, photographs, and dried specimens of the plants as they consider this question: If a scientist can take a picture of a plant, are there advantages in having an illustration? They go on to consider some of the big questions that botanists themselves must ask: Which of these species are most in need of conservation efforts? Are any of these plants more worth saving than others?In the second lesson, the students try their own hands at botanical illustration, following the methods of a Smithsonian staff illustrator. All that is required for the lesson are pencils, markers, tracing paper, and access to a photocopier.
Students are introduced to the work of botanists and botanical illustrators, and specifically to their race to make records of endangered plant species around the world. Students examine illustrations, photographs, and dried specimens of endangered plants and consider the conservation value of an illustration over a photographic image. In a second session, students try their own hands at botanical illustration and follow the methods of a Smithsonian staff illustrator. Pencils, markers, tracing paper, and access to a photocopier are required.
Explore the innovative ways countries are revolutionizing farming to ensure we can feed humanity in a way that works with the environment. About 10,000 years ago, humans began to farm. This agricultural revolution was a turning point in our history and enabled the existence of civilization. Today, nearly 40% of our planet is farmland. Spread all over the world, these lands are the pieces to a global puzzle we’re all facing: in the future, how can we feed every member of a growing population a healthy diet? Brent Loken investigates.
This collection of web resources contains materials for the core units of the Saskatchewan Evergreen Curriculum for Chemistry 30. Links to each unit are found in the gray navigation bar near the top of each page.
*student materials
*teacher resources
*other items
Investigate collisions on an air hockey table. Set up your own experiments: vary the number of discs, masses and initial conditions. Is momentum conserved? Is kinetic energy conserved? Vary the elasticity and see what happens.
Students will learn about issues concerning soil and water and how farmers use science to help conserve these resources.
Counting Collections is an important mathematical routine that students or families can do with very little guidance at home. Teachers could make kits with available resources for use at home, or send suggestions for commonly found objects that families could use for counting practice at home.
Counting Collections are just as described; they are collections of items that students count. Depending on your students, you will need several different kits. Kits hold several different collections of items.
Crash Course Kids combines the same engaging lecture-style content delivery with animated graphics that focus on grade school science.
Topics include Earth Science, Physical Science, Biology, Geography, Engineering, and Astronomy.
These videos are amazing!
"Sponsored by the the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, this resource provides free educational resources to help you learn or teach about the science of car crashes. Videos, demonstrations and teacher-developed, classroom-tested activities aligned to the latest standards bring crash safety STEM applications to grade 5-12 classrooms." MIT
Start by watching the "about" video. Follow "How it Works"
You can select Lessons on the top menu or more videos.
VIEW, DO, EXPLORE, UTILIZE
quarter of the global fish stocks are regarded as overfished, half of these been exploited to the limits of their capacity. Overfishing occurs when more fish are continuously being caught than naturally proliferate. Scientists fear that many stocks will collapse if the politics and management of fisheries do not change drastically. This means that fisheries activities must be coordinated internationally and that fish as a resource must be handled sustainably by law. From an economic perspective, overfishing is a problem which has developed because fish stocks are a common resource. A fish in the sea belongs to everyone; a caught fish belongs only to the fisherman.
The online game ecoOcean addresses this issue and shows that large catches do not necessarily bring the best results. In ecoOcean the players become fishermen and have to develop the best possible strategy for sustainable fishing.
The Idea
The online game ecoOcean was designed in association with the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” at Kiel University from the research of the “Sustainable Fisheries” work group.
In “The Future Ocean”, economists, lawyers, fishery biologists, oceanographers and geologists work together on developing new approaches and models for the realisation of a sustainable fisheries management concept.
Use this board game to introduce the concepts of energy use in our lives and the very real impact that personal choices can have on our energy consumption, energy bills and fuel supply. The game begins as students select cards that define their modes of transportation and home design. The players roll dice and move around the board, landing on "choice" or "situation" blocks and selecting cards that describe consumer choices and real-life events that impact their energy consumption and annual energy bills. As the players pass gasoline stations or energy bill gates, they must pay annual expenses as defined by their original cards, with amounts altered by the choices they've made along the way. Gasoline cards are collected to represent total consumption. Too many gas-guzzling vehicles can result in total depletion of their gasoline supply – at which point everyone must walk or ride the bus. At the end of the game, the players count their remaining dollars to determine the winner. Discussion questions probe the students to interpret what choices they made and which situations they encountered had the most impact on their energy consumption and energy bills. All game board, card and money files are available online free of charge.
Students are introduced to the idea that energy use impacts the environment and our wallets. They discuss different types of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, as well as the impacts of energy consumption. Through a series of activities, students understand how they use energy and how it is transformed from one type to another. They learn innovative ways engineers conserve energy and how energy can be conserved in their homes.
The students participate in many demonstrations during the first day of this lesson to learn basic concepts related to the forms and states of energy. This knowledge is then applied the second day as they assess various everyday objects to determine what forms of energy are transformed to accomplish the object's intended task. The students use block diagrams to illustrate the form and state of energy flowing into and out of the process.
Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants brings science, exploration, adventure, and conservation to students through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe. All past live streams are available and access is free.
When you think of fresh produce and fields of grain, the Arctic may not spring to mind. But just 800 miles from the North Pole, the Global Seed Vault holds emergency stockpiles of most of the world's crops. It provides scientists with the tools they need to breed plants able to cope with a changing world.
This video explores the Global Seed Vault and its uses, especially with the threat of climate change for crops.
Faced with the potential of a large expense related to water quality, the Portland (Maine) Water District performed a thorough analysis of their options. Their choice came down to making an investment in conservation or concrete.
The Planet Protector Academy: H2Whoa! resource teaches students about water conservation and protection and inspires them to take action.
The resource consists of four 60-90 minute lessons that include content developed with Indigenous elders, culture keepers and artists.
Teachers can sign up on this site and get started.
PLUG & PLAY! MINIMAL PREP!
Print Worksheets, Set Up Projector, Let The Website Do The Rest!
Students complete three different activities to evaluate the energy consumption in a household and explore potential ways to reduce that consumption. The focus is on conservation and energy efficient electrical devices and appliances. The lesson reinforces the relationship between power and energy and associated measurements and calculations required to evaluate energy consumption. The lesson provides the students with more concrete information for completing their culminating unit assignment.
Students learn about the human water cycle, or how humans impact the water cycle by settling down in civilizations. Specifically, they learn how people obtain, use and dispose of water. Students also learn about shortages of treated, clean and safe water and learn about ways that engineers address this issue through water conservation and graywater recycling.