Biology/Biomes

Biomes
http://www.mbgnet.net/
This Evergreen Project site features fascinating biome facts, useful charts, and excellent related links. You'll find scientific, historical, and conservationist information written on an upper-elementary reading level.

Biomes-Habitats
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/
A treasure chest of resources awaits your third to sixth grade students at Enchanted Learning's Biome site. Find in-depth information about biomes and detailed animal information pages. Challenge older students by asking them to complete the printable animal labeling pages. Younger students will love coloring the Biome 2001 calendar in which each month highlights a different biome.

Ecosystems and Conservation
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/ecosystem-and-conservation.html
Investigate ecosystems and their value to humans, biomes, and conservation with these interactive maps. There is a special focus on Kenya and conservation of elephants. Additional maps and trends are provided towards the bottom of this page.

Everglades Journey
http://www.theevergladesstory.org/
This is an educational web production about the Florida Everglades and the world's most ambitious ecosystem restoration program. The site includes in-depth content and is a companion to the HDTV documentary that aired on PBS stations.

Habitat Adventure: Panda Challenge
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Education/ConservationCentral/challenge/default.cfm
Students can trek through a cartoon Chinese forest reserve as conservationists with the educational website Habitat Adventure: Panda Challenge. Work with experts to protect the habitat of the giant panda. Set up a core area for endangered animals, choose the best habitat corridor, look for carnivores, and help find alternative sources of income for community loggers. Collect data from plant samples, photos, tracks, and sound recordings to identify plants and animals using the field guide.

Hidden Forest
http://www.hiddenforest.co.nz
This site is a personal collection of detailed information on everything from Lichens to Fungi to Slime Moulds, and many other organisms you might find in your backyard. Complete with helpful mouse-overs, fascinating information, photographs, and an intuitive format, visitors can experience the lush surroundings of the Auckland region of New Zealand from a truly unique perspective.

Learning Landscapes
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/res/Education_in_BLM/Learning_Landscapes.html
This site offers lessons on deserts, ecosystems, riparian zones, invasive plants, wild horses, groundwater, soil composition, hydroelectric power, renewable energy, water conservation techniques of desert animals, sound conductors, volcanoes, waterwheels, watersheds, weeds, gold mining, habitat depletion, and more. Students may design a home for an animal or create a seismograph, anemometer, steam engine, greenhouse, or solar collectors.

MBGnet
http://mbgnet.mobot.org
This site provides you with information on Biomes of the World, Freshwater Ecosystems and Marine Ecosystems.

Passport to the Rainforest
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest/main.html
This is a unique multiple media teaching and learning Web site that focuses more on the science of the forests rather than explicit activism to protect or conserve them. It is based on the belief that more people, in nations north and south, will ultimately care about, and act to preserve rainforests, if they understand more clearly what makes them such rare and wonderful places. Whether you teach ecology or biology or general science, PTRF will help you introduce, explain and simulate such key concepts as: photosynthesis, food webs, the recycling of matter and the transfer of energy through an ecosystem, and much more.

Rainforest Alliance
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/index.cfm
The Rainforest Alliance, an international conservation organization, has expanded their site to introduce curriculum resources that will bring the rainforest to life in the classroom. Teachers will find free lesson plans that meet national standards and educational resources on all aspects of the rainforest biome. Most content focuses on the South American rainforests, but there are articles on Eastern Europe and North American forests as well.

Serengeti
http://www.serengeti.org/
This website is the official page for the Serengeti National Park in Africa. The Friends of the Serengeti provide extensive information about the Park's ecosystem, its physical features, and its magnificent wildlife. "Human Footprints" probes the human history of the Serengeti, comparing the "hunter-gatherers of the distant past" to the park's caretakers and visitors of today. The Serengeti provides an excellent example for the National Geography Standard, No. 14: How human actions modify the physical environment. Students can play the "Call of the Wild" game to listen to the sounds of the Park. For added fun, they can learn some Swahili. Jambo!

Walk in the Forest
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Education/ConservationCentral/walk/default.cfm
Students can do some field research in a virtual forest with the interactive educational website Walk in the Forest. There are six different educational walks to take. Learn about how different trees prefer specific types of soil and pH. Find plants and animals living from the treetops to under logs. Use leaves, branches, and fruit to identify trees. Observe how plants and animal react to the cold. Observe the effects of non-native insects on plants, and find out how trees keep ponds clean.

Water's Journey, Everglades
http://theevergladesstory.org/
Southern Florida's Everglades is an amazing place. Once the object of developers' attempts to drain and reclaim it, is now part of the worlds most ambitious wetlands restoration project. This site takes a look at all of this plus the Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, and the Florida Bay. The site offers tons of information, including videos and animations of the current effort.

Wetland Watch
http://www.redshiftnow.ca/wetland/default.aspx
A major feature of this site is the remarkable WebCam view offering an exact shot of the wetlands of the backyard of the Ontario Science Centre. A unique feature is the playback feature allowing users to screen through views from the previous few months. The site also offers lots of information about wetlands.

World Biomes
http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/index.html
At this site from National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis you will find the answers to many questions about biomes. Also find a listing of biomes along with a detailed explanation of each.