Long Island Sound Resources

As we start our spring unit on the Long Island Sound, it would be helpful to bookmark The Long Island Sound Study website. We'll be reading the publication Sound Health, and you can access that document online (and save the pdf to your computer). We'll be talking about the impact that the millions of people that live around the Sound (including us) have on this important ecosystem. Please watch this video for more information on estuaries.

Web Search Strategies

As you start researching for environmental debates, it's important to know how the internet works. I know that you think you know how the internet works, but just watch these two videos. They should help you get some better results out of the Google machine. Both are from Common Craft's In Plain English series.

 On basic search strategies:

 This one explains why certain websites get ranked higher on Google's results. Understanding this can help your business get ranked higher on searches, but for us, can help to see that the top hits aren't always the best results, just the most connected ones:

Endangered Eukaryotes

As you research information for your favorite endangered eukaryote project, consider checking out the following websites. Remember to keep track of your sources to include in your bibliography, and keep an eye out for interesting images to include your PowerPoint slides (and keep track of those URLs as well for image credits).

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species  and Earth's Endangered Creatures are both good places to start, especially if you're not sure of your organism's conservation status (whether it's endangered or not).

National Geographic Great images and information on all kinds of organisms
ARKive Information on 15,000 of the world's endangered species

Environmental Debate Resources online

As you work on your points, collect information for rebuttals, and learn more about your environmental issue, consider checking out the following websites:

Environmental News Network
Grist - Environmental News
Nature Journal - newsblog
Patagonia - The Cleanest Line blog

Check back for updates.

If you find others that are useful, please add them below in the Comments section, and say briefly why a site is helpful.

Energy Resources

As we've been talking about in class, there are a lot of different ways of getting energy. Some are more readily available than others; some are clean, and some are dirty. A few clips to consider:

People Power for electricity?


And, what if everything ran on gas:


And finally, an animation that shows how conventional power plants work (ones that burn fossil fuels):
How is Electricity Generated

Flu Virus Animation from NPR and XVIVO

Robert Krulwich at NPR does a great series called "Krulwich Wonders," and he ran a story last fall on viral infection. He showed (and explained in plain English) a terrific flu virus animation put together by the folks at a company called XVIVO Animation, who made the animation for a different company called Zirus, who are working on research in antivirals.

Orginal story here: Flu Attack! How a Virus Infects Your Body

and video below:

My Favorite Eukaryote: Gulo gulo

Here is the first segment from the wolverine movie we started in class. You can find the full video at pbs.org: http://video.pbs.org/video/1642358743/

Watch the full episode. See more Nature.