This article highlights resources related to water from the American Museum of Natural History and at-home activities on ice and water.

Look in the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia to observe and record some hand-written notes and markings in areas of the spacecraft that have been hidden from view for more than 40 years.

Applied ecology is a framework for the application of knowledge about ecosystems so that actions can be taken to create a better balance and harmony between people and nature in order to reduce human impact on other beings and their habitats.

This course is designed to be a basic course in Biodiversity Conservation.

Full course available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11599/2384

Biodiversity Loss in the Age of the Sixth Mass Extinction was co-authored by undergraduate students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (USA) while exploring issues of extinction and conservation of biodiversity. The book highlights key interests and insights of current students in their quest to create a better world.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Identify new technologies for describing biodiversityExplain the legislative framework for conservationDescribe principles and challenges of conservation preserve designIdentify examples of the effects of habitat restorationDiscuss the role of zoos in biodiversity conservation

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Define biodiversityDescribe biodiversity as the equilibrium of naturally fluctuating rates of extinction and speciationIdentify historical causes of high extinction rates in Earth’s history

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Identify chemical diversity benefits to humansIdentify biodiversity components that support human agricultureDescribe ecosystem services

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Identify significant threats to biodiversityExplain the effects of habitat loss, exotic species, and hunting on biodiversityIdentify the early and predicted effects of climate change on biodiversity

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

The lessons in this issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom introduce the work of botanists and botanical illustrators, specifically their race to make records of endangered plant species around the world. “Very little of the world’s flora has been fully studied,” says one Smithsonian botanist, “and time is running out.” In the first lesson, students gets to know six endangered plants. They examine illustrations, photographs, and dried specimens of the plants as they consider this question: If a scientist can take a picture of a plant, are there advantages in having an illustration? They go on to consider some of the big questions that botanists themselves must ask: Which of these species are most in need of conservation efforts? Are any of these plants more worth saving than others?In the second lesson, the students try their own hands at botanical illustration, following the methods of a Smithsonian staff illustrator. All that is required for the lesson are pencils, markers, tracing paper, and access to a photocopier.

The Council on Foreign Relation's (CFR) "Deforestation in the Amazon" InfoGuide provides a compelling look at the causes and consequences of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and is available online in English and Portuguese. CFR InfoGuides are a multimedia series to promote understanding of complex foreign policy issues.

Biodiversity is a useful measure to help us understand the range of diverse species that make up our ecosystems! Calculating Species Diversity is an interactive tutorial that walks learners through the different types of species diversity and how to calculate them. Additionally, learners will gain an understanding on how human activities negatively impact biodiversity and how they can help alleviate the side effects of these actions.

Investigate collisions on an air hockey table. Set up your own experiments: vary the number of discs, masses and initial conditions. Is momentum conserved? Is kinetic energy conserved? Vary the elasticity and see what happens.

Students will explore the ways that plants get recycled into soil/food for other plants.