Instructify

BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

We had the LEARN NC staff retreat last week, and one of the subjects that received a good deal of discussion was efforts to promote STEM education resources. Seeing as we’re not scientists here at Instructify, the best way we can promote STEM is to shine our light on groups of scientists who are fighting the good fight. In that spirit, we direct your attention to BioED Online, offered by the good folks at Baylor University, is an online repository of lesson plans, teaching resources, full blown presentations and interactive contests for students.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Ever since Charles Darwin published On the Origins of Species 150 years ago, the Galapagos Islands have always been of particular interests to scientist and environmentalist alike. Back then the diversity of species as they evolved in relative isolation formed some of the basis of Darwin’s ground-breaking and controversial scientific hypothesis.

Fast forward a century and a half and a new debate surrounds the famous archipelago and its renowned environmental treasure. Like the rest of the planet, the Galapagos is trying to deal with an ever increasing human population in relationship to a finite amount of resources locally available; it’s a delicate balancing act in an area with a fragile ecosystem.

In order to document and present the challenges the islands face, a website call Living Galapagos has been created with a wealth of information about the current situation in the Galapagos. (more…)

BY BILL FERRIS

It’s that time of year again when lazy bloggers rehash old material under the guise of “Best of” lists rather than come up with new stuff. Instructify is no exception.

Below are the top 10 Instructify posts of 2009. The rankings were determined via a combination of Google Analytics, retweets, and the capricious and arbitrary whims of the editor.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Do you remember the penguin renaissance of 2005-2007 when every movie was about antarctic fowl going surfing, doing a dance, or marching around? I think I found myself rooting for the leopard seal after a while.

Penguins’ overexposure has subsided since then, as has my irritation. That means I’m finally in a good enough frame of mind to look at Penguinscience, a science-education site that introduces students to Adelie penguins.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Do you like birds? Perhaps more to the point, are you teaching a unit on birds? If so, make All About Birds the next site you visit. Created by the Cornell Lab or Ornithology, All About Birds strives to be “the Web’s best and most comprehensive resource for North American birds, bird watching, and bird conservation — accessible to everyone for free.” It’s a lofty goal, but if this site didn’t achieve it, I can’t imagine anyone else has.

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BY BILL FERRIS

“Birdies are friends!” That’s what my two-year-old son says. He even thinks an owl lives in the ceiling fan in his room. If that’s not a ringing endorsement for the avian kind, I don’t know what is. He especially loves the “birdie book,” a book from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that plays the songs of 250 birds.

Given how much he likes the book, I’m a little nervous about showing him another great bird resource from Cornell. Round Robin: The Cornell Blog of Ornithology has a lot of fascinating bird content, including video, audio, and images that my little boy will probably want to look at all day long. (more…)

BY BILL FERRIS

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way — Get High Now has to do with optical and audio illusions. It in no way advocates getting hepped up on goofball. To quote from the site itself:

“Get High Now is an illustrated, mind-blowing magic carpet ride of more than 175 ways to alter human perception and consciousness—without drugs or alcohol” (emphasis added lest you think Instructify is promoting anything inappropriate for a school audience).

See? We’re still a family site, more or less.

Anyway, the Get High Now website is a companion to a book of the same name. Both catalog stunning illusions of sight and sound, explaining the biology and neuroscience that makes them possible.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Win a trip to Antarctica. Yes, that’s supposed to be an incentive.

PolarTREC will send 36 teachers to the Arctic or Antarctic to work with polar research teams. They’ll take a mittens-on approach to learning about atmospheric chemistry, biology, history and culture in the coldest places on earth. (more…)

BY REBECCAH HAINES

If you know anything about biology, you know about the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. They are involved in a lot of important biological research, and they also make the results of this research available to the public in many ways. One way is through the Biointeractive Virtual Labs.

As the name of the site suggests, you can access five virtual, interactive labs.  The topics of the labs include transgenic fruit flies, immunology, bacterial identification, cardiology, and neurophysiology. I think you’ll agree with me in that I believe this site to be most appropriate for high school biology, and maybe even best for AP biology.  These virtual labs will introduce your students to some very advanced biological techniques.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Summertime means fishing, camping trips, taking Junior to the zoo, and hitting the beach. All of those activities put you into contact with the wonders (or if you’re unlucky, the terrors) of the animal kingdom. July’s random roundup brings you the best Instructify posts that feature critters other than humans.

Tune in to The Great Turtle Race
The Great Turtle Race raises public awareness of leatherback turtle migration, plus threats to the creature’s survival, through the magic of sports. The site has lots of nifty race stats, such as how many hour-long dives each turtle makes. You can cheer on your favorite turtle, and elect to receive daily updates on how it’s doing in the field.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

We’ve heard a lot about some renegade microbes in the news lately.  The Swine Flu hysteria closed down many schools across the country and continues to be an issue worldwide.  With all the press that H1N1 has gotten, you might think that all microbes are harmful. In fact, the vast majority of microbes are not at all harmful, and many are downright helpful. At Microbeworld, you can discover the abundant positives of microbes.

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BY BILL FERRIS

A while back we looked at some of the world’s weirdest plants. I don’t know how, but the list didn’t include anything from Socotra. Part of an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa, Socotra is home to plant and animal species that look like they’re from another planet. Socotra has been isolated from the African mainland for millions of years, and its plant and animal life show it. According to this article from Dark Roasted Blend, “Like the Galapagos Islands, this island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic, i.e. found nowhere else on Earth.”

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BY BILL FERRIS

For this month’s random roundup, we’ve selected the Library of Congress, our nation’s storehouse of pretty much everything worth knowing. As you’d expect, a lot of great resources for teachers have been derived from the Library. See your tax dollars at work by reading the articles linked after the jump.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

Kids these days, you know?  They don’t care about the state of the world.  They don’t care about endangered species.  They don’t care about the environment.  If you’re a teacher, you’ve probably heard statements such as these (and maybe even thought them a few times yourself in moments of frustraction).  It is up to us as educators to broaden our students’ horizons and give them a reason to care.  Field Trip Earth is one place you can go to expose them to some world views, and hopefully inspire them to conserve.

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Your students may or may not know the importance of estuaries. They may not even know what they are. You can solve both of those knowledge deficiencies by taking them on an online field trip to Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in coastal Alabama. EstuaryLive presents two live broadcasts from Weeks Bay on May 15 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Eastern time.

Your students can learn about estuary wildlife, ecosystems, as well as the threats each of those components face. Since it’s live, you and your class can interact with the field trip leaders (check the technical requirements to make sure you can view this virtual field trip without any net-based hangups). If you can’t make the May 15 broadcasts, you can view archived field trips as well.

EstuaryLive is a great opportunity to learn a lot about environmental science without having to trudge through the mud. -BILL FERRIS

EstuaryLive

Related stuff:

Go hug a tree at the the Sustainable Forestry Teachers’ Academy

Photo credit: DCSL on Flickr.