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Online Activities

"To infinity, and beyond" As part of the STS-124 space shuttle mission, Disney and Pixar's Buzz Lightyear will accompany the crew as they bring vital new equipment to the International Space Station.  To track Buzz's progress with the mission and read his mission logs, NASA's Kids Club Web site will post daily updates and host a virtual meteor storm of online games.  With Each step Buzz takes, kids will be able to match his progress in their games and read about real life space history as it happens.

Science Explorations and Adventures A website designed by Paul Doherty, a science teacher, writer and winner of the NSTA's Faraday Award for science communication, which offers hundreds of scientific explorations for all grade levels, indexed alphabetically and by topic.

New NASA Global Climate Change Site This new Web site from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is devoted to educating the public about Earth's changing climate, providing easy-to-understand information about climate change and how NASA studies it. Some features include a continuous snapshot of the condition of Earth's ice sheets, global average temperatures, sea level change, and concentrations of greenhouse gases.

Simple Steps to Protect the Planet From the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Simple Steps Web site is designed to help people who are looking for easy, environmentally friendly actions they can take every day to protect their health, their home, and the planet. Site visitors are invited to share their experiences and additional tips through a blog that also provides an archive of topics and comments.


A Reason for the Season   National Geographic has classroom activities about reasons for seasons with links for illustrating Earth's seasonal positions around the Sun.  This activity provides students with an opportunity to learn about the changing of the seasons.

ECOBASURA - EcoGarbage Board Game   ECOBASURA is a board game to help teach recycling, raw material recovery, profitable reduction of wastes, and the environmental renovation. Created in Colombia and endorsed by its Educational Ministry, it is an adaptable game to all languages and cultures. The Web site is available in English or Spanish.

ARKive Wildlife Image Site   This site promotes the conservation of the natural world through the power of wildlife imagery.  Site features photographs of endangered and protected species worldwide.  Includes information on habitat, status, descriptions, threats, and biology.

CEE Kids R Green Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) site geared toward young students to explore various environmental issues and topics, educational activities and games about many aspects of the environment. 

"Energy Hog" Energy Efficiency Campaign The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) launched a national public service advertising campaign directed towards children and their parents regarding energy efficient behavior.  Featuring a new energy arch-villain known as the "energy-wasting Energy Hog," the campaign focuses around learning and teaching others about proper energy use.  As the core of the campaign, the new Energy Hog website attracts children of all ages, but also has resources for parents and teachers.  The site's main attraction is the Energy Hog Training Camp and its five intensive games where children can train to become Energy Hog Busters, while learning fun and easy ways to use energy more wisely. 

Energy-Saving Tips Created and maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy this easy to use site offers detailed information and tips on how to save money by developing smart energy habits. Access free web tools to evaluate energy use and determine what can be saved by adopting simple, energy-smart practices such as upgrading old, leaky windows, installing a programmable thermostat or simply turning down the hot water heater.

I Buy Different Hey kids!  Do you want to know more about your environment and how you impact it?  Do you want to change your habits to promote a friendlier world?  If these questions interest you, check out the site!  This is a great site for information on how you interact with your environment. Stuff as diverse as where your quarter-pounder comes from to kids like you who have already made a difference.  Let this site help you help your environment. 

Interactive Spring Tour Located in the Florida Panhandle near Tallahassee  , Wakulla Spring is a colossal spring system. On average, more than 250 million gallons of water flow from Wakulla Spring every day forming an nine-mile river that reaches the Gulf of Mexico. Take a tour of Wakulla Spring in this special, in-depth Interactive Spring Feature. Learn about the history, people and geology that define this amazing spring system located within the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park .

Introduction to Environmental Justice New course offered online from Harvard  University . Teachers, college professors, city officials, civic leaders, social workers, community organizers, and citizens involved in civil rights and environmental activism will find much of direct relevance to their work in this course, and they will be provided with the tools for lifelong research in this realm

Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Adventures The son of famed ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Jean-Michel is exploring a variety of locations around the world. 

Marine Fisheries Series Activities Guide This is an online activity guide geared for middle to high school students. It is a guide created by the Marine Fisheries Series project to help students dive deeper into the topics covered in the documentary series. The guide includes six engaging, peer-reviewed activities, correlated to national science and social studies education standards. These activities work well in classrooms as well as non-traditional educational settings such as nature or science centers, aquariums and zoos. National Wildlife Federation - Educator E-Newsletter   This monthly e-newsletter is designed to provide educators with hands-on activities, new ideas, resources, and strategies for getting kids outside to learn about the wonders of the natural world.  Each newsletter also includes a link to download the latest Ranger Rick® Educator Guide

New Watershed Course Online This is the first in a series of free online courses relating weather to the environment. "Watersheds: Connecting Weather to the Environment" is a primer on how weather events relate to the health of a watershed, and how the public can take simple actions to protect watershed health. The website was produced by the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology Education &Training (COMET) and National Environmental Education &Training Foundation (NEETF).

Ocean Explorer CD-ROM   National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Explorer CD sets feature a series of ocean expeditions. CDs of the 2001-2003 ocean expedition seasons can be downloaded or viewed from the NOAA website. 2004 explorations are now available to explore online.

Ollie Saves the Planet An Interactive environmental computer game for ages 5 and up. Learn all about the 3 R's- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle! 

PBS The Shape of Life Public Broadcasting System (PBS) hosts the Shape of Life website, a project of Sea Studios Foundation, features activities, explorations, and experiments for K-12 formal and informal educators, students, and families. Includes accompanying downloadable activity guide.

Planet Protectors Coloring Book - Use your mouse to color these pictures on your computer!

Recycling Activity& Coloring Book- Recycle Media has created a new recycling activity/coloring book with in-school recycling materials to help schools turn green!  This unique recycling activity & coloring book has been properly designed to educate young students on the basics of recycling, reducing, reusing, buying recycled materials, and litter prevention.

Sea Stories Online Journal Sea Stories is an international online journal of marine writing and art. In the winter issue, join children exploring the beach, gaze in the eye of a wild dolphin, listen in on the daily lives of birds, and even meet a mermaid or three! Educators are encouraged to use Sea Stories in the classroom or submit their own or students' work

SimForest   This is a software program designed for grades 7-12 that allows students to plant trees from a pool of over 30 regional species, set environmental parameters such as rain fall, temperature, and soil conditions, and watches the forest plot grow and evolve over many years.  The project software is intended for mainly biology and ecology classes, with educator and professional materials included. 

Simon Says "Stop Global Warming" New Hippoworks.com program designed to teach kids about global warming with activities, lesson plans and printable materials for teachers, and a carbon calculator to help students figure their global footprint.                         

Teens for Planet Earth This website was developed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) based at the Bronx Zoo. The website helps teens learn more about the environment and conservation, and then apply this knowledge in a service-learning project that will have a real impact on their own corner of the globe.

Terra Server USA   Sponsored by United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Microsoft Terra Server allows you to view virtually any place in the United States  . Visit famous and historic sites or check out your own neighborhood or home. Type in an address and Terra Server will give you several photo and date options.

Virtual Museum University  of Michigan Museum of Zoology online virtual museum with a searchable encyclopedia of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology designed to facilitate inquiry-driven education. 

Webquest Expedition This site allows you to virtually paddle along the Susquehanna River  which in the most endangered river in the nation. The journey takes you 444 miles from the Susquehanna River 's headwaters to the Chesapeake Bay all the while investigating water quality and land use. You will gather information on the history, economy, ecology, and politics of the river. You will then use the data you have gathered to determine if the Susquehanna River can be saved and will present your information to a gathering of political leaders, scientists, environmentalists, farmers, watermen, and community members.

Xpeditions   This website, by National Geographic, provides links to maps, activities, and related lesson plans all teacher-tested and sorted by grade level.

An Educator's Toolkit - The web version of the mercury toolkit contents can be viewed or downloaded on the Region 7 homepage: go to R7 homepage - click on mercury under quick finder - down a couple of paragraphs and click on link to listing of toolkit contents, or click this link to go straight to it: http://www.epa.gov/region7/mercury/educator_toolkit.htm

Summer 2008 Diversity Programs - Lists of summer diversity program have been made available by the North American Association for Environmental Education. Please check out this list of diversity programs for summer 2008. List includes general and college-specific programs.  http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314663

Online EE Teacher's Institute  June 2 - August 8, 2008 ~ Online

The online EE Institute is a designed to actively involve educators in facilitating the investigation and evaluation of environmental issues with their learners. It exhibits a variety of EE strategies to help teachers in assisting their students in exploring and seeking responsible courses of action toward the resolution of environmental issues specific to their community. Via distance learning, two optional graduate level recertification credits are available through the Colorado School of Mines Teacher Enhancement program for an additional fee. http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314671

SEPUP Opportunities for Teachers Opportunity #1

The Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP) is seeking teachers to validate Ecology and Cell tests. All that is required is to give the test to students and return answer sheets to SEPUP. The tests are 40-50 questions, a mix of multiple choice and short answer, and are all directly from, or based on test questions from national test bank sources. Each test is designed to take one class period. Seeking test results by mid-June. Funding and grant restrictions prohibit pay for this help, but a small gift certificate to Amazon.com is offered as a thank you.

Opportunity #2

SEPUP is also accepting applications for field test centers to participate in the national field test of our new course "Science in Global Issues" for the 2008-2009 school year. The development of this National Science Foundation funded curriculum is utilizing a process of backward design to develop four biology units and an accompanying introductory unit on sustainability. The process will begin with an all expense paid trip to the summer conference, July 28 - August 1, 2008, for professional development to prepare for field testing. http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314673

Research and Publishing Opportunities

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) has provided school districts and their design teams with tools for building a new generation of high performance schools since 2000. At the heart of the CHPS program is the CHPS Criteria, Volume III of the CHPS Best Practices Manual, which provides a stringent and comprehensive standard for high performance schools. The Criteria is updated every three years, concurrent with the updates to California's Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Title 24). The 2009 Edition of the Criteria will be out for public review in early June 2008 and CHPS is seeking public comment on the updated Criteria. The comment period is forty-five days. Resources are available for download in the link below http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314677

Adventures with Jonny - Resources for Students and Educators.

Adventure with Jonny is a very unique outdoor children's series that combines three books into one. This colorfully illustrated book opens up with rhyming children's story to pique the child's interest in the sport of fishing. There is also a parental tutorial section to aid parents in the proper introduction of their children to the sport. The book concludes with a fish identification game and a writing journal so that kids may record their early fishing adventures. Adventures with Jonny have teamed up with Project F.I.S.H. in a combined effort to reach more children and introduce them to the great sport of fishing. http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314679

LandScope America

This online resource for the land-protection community and the public is a collaborative project of Nature Serve and the National Geographic Society. It is an interactive conservation Web site linking maps, data, and stories about natural places of America's lands and waters. LandScope America is planned for full release in Fall 2008, Tour the site, sign-up for the newsletter, and learn more about conservation efforts and issues in the U.S.

http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314681

Assessing Teacher Candidates' Ability to Impact P-12 Students -This book published by the National Council for Association of Teacher Education (NCATE) and edited by Arthur E. Wise and associates, is a compilation of performance assessments currently in use by consortia (the Performance Assessment for California Teachers, or PACT; the Renaissance Partnership, and the Ohio Teacher Quality Partnership), and individual teacher preparation institutions, to measure candidates' ability to impact P-12 student learning, including challenges and lessons learned. The publication includes actual assessment instruments. It provides practical assistance to those designing assessment systems or individual assessments. http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314683

TV Talk Show Seeks Teacher for Science Segments

A knowledgeable science teacher who would feel comfortable taking Jimmy through multiple unusual and entertaining science experiments for a potential new segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live is needed. Interested? Submit a brief video by June 2, 2008, introducing you. Share some background information, mention a few potential experiments, and explain why you would be a good candidate for this segment. The video should be no longer than five minutes and can be mailed or emailed to:

Tara Varilek

Jimmy Kimmel Live

6834 Hollywood Blvd., 6th Floor

Hollywood, CA 90028

http://eelink.net/cgi-bin/ee-link/newclick/7314685

 

4-H Children's Garden Virtual Tour : Take your students on a virtual tour of Michigan State University 's 4-H Children's Garden with 56 individual themes. Visit the Imagination Garden , Butterfly Garden , Treehouse area, and the Alice in Wonderland maze! 

New Video on Envirovet: This new video clip features mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda , one of the few national parks where mountain gorillas are found (world population of only 750).  Envirovet is an organization that brings veterinary medicine to wildlife health issues.  The web site offers webumentary video clips featuring interviews with Envirovet alumni offering expertise on a variety of wildlife issues.  

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