This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they see how DNA is used to solve crimes against animals. The activity starts with an introduction to George Amato, an AMNH scientist who sometimes helps the U.S. government solve mysteries. In a three-part online slide show, students see how Amato earned the title "DNA Detective" in 1993 when he helped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service catch someone trying to sneak protected reptile skin into the United States. Then students are challenged to Crack the Code, an online game in which they play DNA detective and determine which of a collection of handbags, clothing, figurines, and other items are made from protected species.

"Normally, an animal gets half its DNA from its mother and half from its father. But Dolly had three mothers: one mother gave Dolly her DNA; one supplied an egg; and the third, her surrogate mother, gave birth to her. Dolly is an identical twin of the mother who gave her her DNA. But Dolly is six years younger."This kid-friendly Web page helps kids understand how and why Dolly was cloned, and understand the potential benefits of cloning as well as the controversy it raises.

This activity from our family magazine series provides a fun way for kids to learn about how early microbe discoveries led to later ones. The online activity begins with a page of directions for how to play this "hidden picture" challenge. Kids meet the people behind six key discoveries: Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Fleming, Jonas Salk, Luc Montagnier, and Robert Gallo. To uncover each portion of the hidden picture (an animated microscope) and move to the next discovery, kids must correctly answer a multiple-choice question about what they just learned.

The Amazing Mundo is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. In this interactive comic strip (also available as a printable PDF), kids are challenged to determine the composition of everyday objects.

This site presents a collection of scientific learning resources for educators, parents, kids, after-school coordinators, informal learning center staff, and anyone else interested in teaching or learning about science. The site provides a searchable database of resource materials, including activities (computer based and otherwise), curriculum materials, articles, evidence and analytical tools and procedures, exhibition materials, reference lists, and special collections of resources organized around a particular theme. Users can browse resources by topic, sub-topic, grade level, or resource type. Each resource is displayed with a concise description that includes the title, resource type, grade level, and key concepts. Clicking the icon next to the title displays the full resource description. If available, other icons link to the resource in print format, Web format, or both.

This fun Web article is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they learn about the ancient city of Petra. The article begins with an overview of this city, which was located along the ancient trade routes between Arabia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. Kids then have the chance to take a walk through Petra's ruins.

This OLogy reference list has six kid-friendly books on archeology. A short description is given for each title, along with author name and publisher. The list includes: illustrated looks at the world's great civilizations hands-on activities for kids that introduce them to the methods and tools archaeologists use a visual chronology of life on Earth that stretches from the ancient world to AD 1500.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they take a look at genetics and DNA research with six AMNH scientists' journals. The Humpback Whale Journal takes kids to Madagascar to meet this endangered species. The Spotted Owl Journal takes kids to California for a look at these birds who are at risk because their forest homes are being cut down. The Sumatran Tiger Journal takes kids to Indonesia for a look at this genetically unique tiger. The Ruffed Lemur Journal also takes kids to Madagascar, but this time they venture inland to meet the endangered primate. The Pacu Journal takes kids to Brazil to meet this vegetarian relative of the meat-eating piranha. The St. Vincent Parrot Journal takes kids to the West Indies to meet the rare, colorful birds that are further at risk because of smuggling.

This Web page serves as a linked table of contents for the museum's supplemental resources on arthropod morphology. From it, you can access the following illustrated guides with a single click: Types of Antennae, Front View of an Insect (Grasshopper) Head, Parts of an Insect (Grasshopper), Parts of a Spider: Dorsal View of a Male Spider, Parts of a Spider: Ventral View of a Female Spider, and Metamorphosis.

This Web site, created to complement the Hall of Meteorites, looks at these fallen rocks and what they tell scientists about the formation of stars and planets.

This reference list has 11 kid-friendly books on a wide range of astronomy topics. For each title, the publisher and publication date are included along with author name.

In this hands-on OLogy activity, kids learn about matter by building their own models of carbon out of pipe cleaners, wire, and clay. The activity begins with a kid-friendly introduction to matter, elements, and atoms. The illustrated, step-by-step directions show kids how to use the information about carbon on the Periodic Table to create a mobile that shows the element's basic structure. A PDF version of the Periodic Table, along with a kid-friendly overview of how to read it, is also included.

This online audio gallery is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Scientists and Social Responsibility, part of the Frontiers in Physical Science seminar, is available in broadband and modem formats and with a printable PDF transcript. The audio discuss some of the social-responsibility issues that scientists are grappling with today.

This activity from our family magazine series challenges kids to go on a microbe quest to solve a riddle. The online activity begins with a page of directions for how to find the missing letters of the riddle. As kids click their way around a virtual lunchroom, they are given 11 Yes/No questions asking whether the featured bacteria helps people. Along with the answer to the riddle, kids get a round of applause when they correctly answer all 11 questions.

This Web site, created to complement the Baseball as America exhibit, looks at how this sport has changed along with the country. It includes the following sections:Our National Spirit examines why the label "national pastime" has grown increasingly accurate over time. Ideals and Injustices considers the game's troubling legacy of segregation and why the sport is seen as "doorway to American culture" by many immigrants. Sharing a Common Culture looks at how the game and its heroes have become a form of cultural shorthand. Rooting for the Team examines the ways we share in the experience of the game, from trading cards to the seventh-inning stretch. Invention and Ingenuity Looks at how the American spirit has helped shape the game. Enterprise and Opportunity considers the business of baseball, from the Players' Association to branded candy bars. Weaving Myths looks at the nostalgia of stadiums and how we live out our fantasies through players' achievements.

This OLogy activity shows kids that there are simple, but very helpful things they can do to protect the ocean -- even if they live nowhere near the water. The activity opens by introducing kids to Gabby, a future marine biologist who wants to study dolphins. Then it has a checklist of 14 ways kids can be ocean helpers that includes asking for tap water instead of bottled water and leaving plants and animals where they find them.

This BioBulletin Web site takes an in-depth look at the Asian longhorn beetle. The site includes text, videos, photographs, and interviews with key scientists.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they learn about cladograms and the vast variety of dinosaurs that once roamed Earth. The activity opens by telling kids that there are more than 400 known species of extinct dinosaurs and by explaining how cladograms show their relationships to one another. Students then go to an interactive cladogram that has 19 dinosaur species, ranging from Velociraptor mongolienis and Eudromia elegans to Protoceratops andrewsi and Drinker nisti. Each of the 19 dinosaurs includes a trading card with details about the species and its discovery, photographs, and interactive multiple-choice and "Fact or Fiction?" quizzes.

By building their own Big Dipper mobile, kids learn that the distance between stars is not what it appears to be in this OLogy activity. The activity directions are provided as both a Web page and a printable PDF. The activity begins with a brief overview about how the small size of stars and the close distance between them are illusions. Kids then create a replica of the Big Dipper which realistically shows the relative size and distance of the constellation's stars -- allowing kids to view the Big Dipper as if they were in a spaceship looking at it from the side.