248 resources and 3 collections matched your query.
Library of 3383 accessible STEM media resources.
Showing resources 221 to 240 of 248
Select a resource below to get more information and link to download this resource.
A chart of exponential growth shows that some things change faster over time. Back in 1798, Thomas Malthus noticed that not everything grows this way. This caused people to worry, and they were sure it would lead to massive death, starvation, and famine. However, the Green Revolution kept this from happening, and scientists are currently working to produce enough food for the current exploding population. Part of the “It’s Okay to Be Smart” series.
(Source: DCMP)
In this episode, host Emily Gralie features stories on current scientific research. One segment highlights the work of Paleontologist Carmen Soriano. She is studying tiny fractures in dinosaur limbs. Another segment focuses on a community group, and their quest to bring back an extinct plant. The final story explains how two scientists discovered fossils of the beardog. Part of the "Natural News From The Field Museum" series.
Climb aboard the Cyclops, a microscopic research vessel, and investigate an amazing hidden world on which all living things depend. The Cyclops houses a team of scientists known as the Micronauts and guides them through their discoveries of biological classification, diversity, and ecology. In this clip, the Micronauts explore the vast populations of filter feeders in the open waters of ponds. While exploring, they must escape the powerful feeding currents of these filter feeders. During this adventure, they also explore the special adaptations of algae and water fleas. Part 1 of the Microscopic Monsters Series.
Ten thousand years ago, corn didn’t exist anywhere in the world, and until recently scientists argued vehemently about its origins. Today the crop is consumed voraciously by humans, by livestock, and as a major part of processed foods. So where did it come from? Evolutionary biologist Neil Losin tells the story of the genetic changes involved in the transformation of a wild grass called teosinte into corn. Evidence from genetics supports archeological findings pinpointing corn’s origins to a very particular time and place in Mexico.
With today's high fuel costs, it is time to start looking beyond petroleum and into renewable resources to power vehicles. Ethanol is a clean-burning fuel derived from plants, primarily corn. It is combined with gasoline to produce a cleaner fuel that doesn't emit as many greenhouse gases as pure gasoline. Pure ethanol has not yet been approved to fuel vehicles, but it is the fuel of choice for racecars. By mixing gasoline with ethanol, fuel supply can be extended. Explores the production of ethanol and highlights the importance it holds in the "green power" movement.
The Magic School Bus is an award winning animated children’s television series based on the book series of the same title by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and being both highly entertaining and educational. When Wanda discovers that one of Ms. Frizzle's ancestors was Redbeard the Pirate, she naturally wants to follow the treasure map he left. The map leads the class to a coral reef, where they learn firsthand that life there is risky. To survive, they find, many plants and animals form surprising partnerships.
The disappearance of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period posed one of the greatest, long-standing scientific mysteries. This three-act film tells the story of the detective work that solved it. Shot on location in Italy, Spain, Texas, Colorado, and North Dakota, the film traces the uncovering of key clues that led to the discovery that an asteroid struck the Earth 66 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction of animals, plants, and even microorganisms. Each act illustrates the nature and power of the scientific method.
When the water along Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay is thick and green, it may be a bad day for a swim, but it’s an excellent day for University of Rhode Island marine ecologist Carol Thornber. Thornber and her team are conducting a long-term study of the impacts of climate change on macroalgae, or seaweed, and algal blooms. She is investigating how the blooms affect fish stocks and oyster beds as well as how nutrients in the water from sewage treatment and agricultural runoff can feed the blooms and make them larger. Part of the "Science Nation" series.
Part of the "Life in Aquatic Environments" series. Places many of the organisms into an ecological perspective of hydras, planarians, annelids, aquatic insects, rotifers, protists, and all other organisms that provide food for fish and other vertebrates. Observes adaptations for planktonic life in daphnia and other cladocerans, copepods, rotifers, and planktonic algae. Explores bacterial decomposition, recycling of materials, adaptations for bottom life, and ecological relationships in the bottom community. Takes an underwater look at the highly specialized organisms that live in rapids, under rock communities, and in slower waters. Investigates adaptations for life in temporary wetland environments.
One of the oldest, most successful arthropods on Earth, horseshoe crabs have existed for over 350 million years. But in recent years their populations, have crashed by 75% from overfishing, resulting in moratoriums on catching them. Few of us know that most human lives depend on the valuable, shockingly blue blood of these "living fossils." Even more surprising, a tiny shore bird, the red knot, is so dependent on them that the crabs' population crash may make these long-distance flyers extinct. This mystery of mutual dependencies emerges from filmmakers and scientists revealing a disturbing ecology story ranging from the Arctic regions to the southern tip of the Americas.
Think of earthworms and a few things come to mind: they make great bait for fishing, they aerate the soil, and they’re an excellent addition to a compost pile. But, what a lot of people don’t know is many earthworms are actually invasive species. Earthworms may be small but when they take over a forest, the impact is dramatic. They cause the rapid incorporation of organic material into the soil, changing its structure, chemistry and nutrient dynamics. What's known as the duff layer is suddenly removed, and this duff, or decaying organic material on the forest floor, is habitat for several species of insects, spiders, small vertebrates, bacteria and fungi. It is also the primary rooting zone for most plants.
Monitoring water quality is vital to make sure dangerous bacteria doesn't creep into drinking water or overcome sewage treatment plants. With support from the National Science Foundation, engineers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have developed the Environment Sample Processor (ESP), a "DNA lab in a can." The size of a trash can, it can be placed in the open ocean or at water treatment facilities to identify potentially harmful bacteria, algae, larvae, and other microscopic organisms in the surrounding waters. It can monitor and send results back to the lab in real time to monitor water quality. Now, the engineers are modifying the ESP so it can go mobile, working from an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).
Typically, diesel fuel is made from crude oil, but scientists can make high-grade diesel from coal, natural gas, plants, or even agricultural waste, using a process called Fischer–Tropsch (FT). FT Diesel is the ideal liquid transportation fuel for automobiles, trucks, and jets. It’s much cleaner burning than conventional diesel, and much more energy-efficient than gasoline. But, FT Diesel is expensive to make and generates lots of waste. With support from the National Science Foundation and its Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis (CENTC), chemists around the United States are working together to improve the cost and energy efficiency of alternative fuels. Part of the National Science Foundation Series “Science Nation.”
Moko is an explorer. As he travels the world continent by continent, he makes many friends and discovers many natural phenomena which sometimes delight him, and other times scare him. Each animated episode recounts an adventure and takes an "original story" approach to explaining these natural phenomena. In this episode, Moko is enjoying Alarick's country. The warm weather has returned, the trees have flowered and food is plentiful. Moko thinks now the cold has passed life here will be easy. An old man tells him that the cold will return, but Moko doesn't want to believe him and lets time pass. He sees the beauty of the changing seasons and one morning...winter!
These city kids from Boston may not look like conventional farmers, but they’re spending part of their summer getting their hands dirty. They’re learning how to build solar-powered hydroponic systems that grow organic vegetables without soil. With support from the National Science Foundation, Boston College educator Mike Barnett and his team developed the Urban Hydrofarmers Project to engage students in math and science through hydroponic farming and green energy technology. And, because the teens sell what they grow at farmers’ markets, the students get to experience green entrepreneurship. Barnett and his team have also partnered with the STEM Garden Institute to bring hydroponic farming into classrooms throughout the U.S. Part of the National Science Foundation Series “Science Nation.”
The first in a series of five documentaries plots the course of the river, from its source to its delta. In a succession of spectacular images we see the extraordinary geographical route that the Mekong takes, from the Tibetan plateau, down the mountains of the Yunnan Province in China, then through the tropical valleys and virgin forests of Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand before reaching the green plains of Vietnam. In the tropical forest, nature abounds with wild animal species, rare plants and flowers. In Laos', whole villages still pray to the Gods of Trees while in Thailand a hunter shows how the hunting of Asian elephants for preservation, now forbidden, was practiced. Series: The Soul of Southeast Asia
A quick glance at the marsh next to Saquatucket Harbor in Harwich Port, Massachusetts, reveals right away that some of the grass is missing. The cordgrass there, and all around Cape Cod, has been slowly disappearing for decades. Marine ecologist Mark Bertness of Brown University studies this critical ecosystem, which protects our coastal environment by nurturing a complex web of plants and animals, filtering nutrients, and serving as a critical storm barrier. Bertness says the marshes are being overrun by purple marsh crabs because their main predators, blue crab and finfish, are being overfished. So, the purple marsh crabs are free to gorge on healthy fields of cordgrass and once done feeding, they leave behind nothing but lumpy fields of mud.
Molecular biologist Scott Santos and his team at Auburn University are studying an unusual and endangered ecosystem in Hawaii called Anchialine pools. A threatened ecosystem, Anchialine pools are inland lava depressions found near the ocean that feed off fresh water aquifers. Little is known about the creatures and plants that live in these brackish waters, but a number of the lava pools are being destroyed by invasive species and development. With support from the National Science Foundation, Santos and his team captured video and photographs of this unique habitat during a two month field study. He hopes his research will help save the pools before they totally disappear. One of the most famous creatures in the Anchialine pools is a legendary tiny red shrimp.
The Magic School Bus is an award winning animated children’s television series based on the book series of the same title by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and being both highly entertaining and educational. The kids rent a rainforest cocoa tree as an Earth Day present for Ms. Frizzle. But when the harvest arrives, there's only one shriveled cocoa bean and a note from Inspector 47. The note reports that the tree isn't producing beans. Ms. Frizzle takes the class to the rain forest to meet the inspector and find out why the trees aren’t producing cocoa beans.
David Stahle travels to ancient forests around the world, collecting tree rings to learn more about major climate and historical events dating back hundreds and thousands of years. With help from the National Science Foundation, he uses dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, to get a snapshot of climate change over time. Stahle runs the Tree-ring Lab at the University of Arkansas, where he and fellow tree-ring researchers are learning that a trend of global warming began in the 1800s and continues today, brought about by changes in tropical sea surface temperatures of no more than a few tenths of a degree Celsius. Today Stahle is working with hydrologists and government planners in California and throughout Mexico to plan for drought and climate change events.
Showing collections 1 to 3 of 3
Biology related concepts
A collection containing 59 resources, curated by Benetech
Resources to teach younger students about animals
A collection containing 58 resources, curated by DIAGRAM Center
A collection of Chemistry related resources
A collection containing 67 resources, curated by Benetech
