This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here they learn about how living in the water differs from living on land. The students are challenged to play the Journey to the Bottom of the Sea game, in which they are given six turns to match creature descriptions with properties of water.

This six-day unit provides an in-depth look at the dynamic forces at work on the sea floor. Throughout the unit, students collect their findings in a portfolio. The comprehensive curriculum materials include teacher tools such as individually downloadable readings and detailed daily breakdowns of tasks, a hands-on experiment, three activities about how scientists find deep sea vents and two activities about the thriving ecosystems found in deep sea vents.

This article, part of Biodiversity Counts, provides insight into keeping field journals. The article discusses why journals are so important both to scientists and to the museums and institutions that employ them and has tips for how to keep a field journal.

By keeping a field journal, kids gain insight into local wildlife and the role of genetics in this OLogy activity. The activity begins by telling kids that scientists learn about animals by observing them and by analyzing DNA. They then are given directions for how to keep a field journal that tracks the appearance and behavior of an animal of their choice. Kids are asked to write down any questions they have about the animal that could be answered with DNA analysis. The activity includes a sample field journal page for reference.

In this activity, learners use a laser pointer and two small rotating mirrors to create a variety of fascinating patterns, which can be easily and dramatically projected on a wall or screen. In this version of the activity, learners use binder clips to build the base of the device. Educators can use a pre-assembled device for demonstration purposes or engage learners in the building process.

In this interview, Mark Siddall talks about his work as an invertebrate systematist and how marine organisms eat. Using a question and answer format, information is presented on the feeding habits, behaviors and strategies of various types of marine animals.

In this activity on page 1 of the PDF, learners compare the relative sizes of biological objects (like DNA and bacteria) that can't be seen by the naked eye. Learners will be surprised to discover the range of sizes in the microscopic world. This activity can be followed up with a second activity, "What's in a microbe?", located on page 3 in the same resource.

Did you know that when you look at a star, your eyes are capturing light that traveled all the way from the star to your eye? Learn more about how light carries information from distant objects. This Moveable Museum article, available as a nine-page printable PDF file, offers a kid-friendly look at how information about distant objects comes to us in the form of light. It includes suggested resources for further research.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they are introduced to Einstein's life and work with four engaging and kid-friendly areas. Equation Invasion looks at the world's most famous equation about the relationship between energy and mass. Web Master has information on the scientists whose ideas and discoveries shaped Einstein's career. Light the Way is an introduction to "the fastest thing in the universe" and the waves it travels in. Everyday Einstein: LASERS is a comic strip that illustrates how Einstein's work led to the development of lasers.

This OLogy trivia game offers a fun way to test kids' knowledge of light. The game board (included in a printable PDF) represents an atom, with a central nucleus circled by two orbits. Each player represents an electron that has been bumped into the atom's outer unstable orbit. Kids answer the questions about light on the trivia cards (included in a printable PDF) as they move around, circling the outer orbit. The first player to make it around the game board pops back into the stable orbit, emits light from the atom, and wins. Two additional overview articles are included with the activity: Where Do Photons Come From? and Einstein Sheds Some Light on a Mystery.

In this OLogy activity, kids learn about climate and atmospheric conditions by making their own weather station. The activity begins with an overview that explains that weather happens in the atmosphere, where conditions are always changing. Students are given step-by-step, illustrated directions to make a wind vane, a rain gauge and a barometer. The activity includes a printable Weather Chart and wind vane cutouts.

The Ancient Egyptians used a naturally-occurring salt from the banks of the Nile River, called natron, to mummify their dead. Natron is made up primarily of sodium carbonate (a very efficient, but relatively expensive, dehydrating material), with about 17% sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). This activity explains how to create your own fish mummy using common baking soda!

This is an online exhibit about color perception. Learners set a random background color and then try to mix red, blue, and green light to match. Although this is a perception activity, it also demonstrates the difference between mixing colors of light and mixing pigments. Why when mixing pigments does the color darken? How does this differ from mixing colored light? Find out here!

In this Digital Universe activity, students learn about observation, representation, perspective, and modeling by working up from two-dimensional perspective drawings to constructing and examining three-dimensional models. The printable PDF activity includes illustrated step-by-step instructions for the following hands-on and computer-assisted activities: Rendering Perspective in Two Dimensions and Creating a Three-Dimensional View. The American Museum of Natural History‰'s ‰"Digital Universe" program, including the Partiview software and Milky Way Atlas data set are needed for this activity and can be downloaded.

In this two-part activity, learners use everyday materials to visualize one mole of gas or 22.4 liters of gas. The first activity involves sublimating dry ice in large garbage bag. The second activity uses plastic bottles.

Build your own system of heavenly bodies and watch the gravitational ballet. With this orbit simulator, you can set initial positions, velocities, and masses of 2, 3, or 4 bodies, and then see them orbit each other.

This poster highlights a variety of Earth science careers, featuring short biographies from 13 NASA Earth explorers, including scientists, engineers, educators and more. The poster also includes information about NASA's unique perspective on the Earth, one educator's story about how he uses NASA Earth science data and materials in his middle school classroom, and a collection of classroom activity suggestions.

This online directory focuses on national parks throughout the country that offer educational opportunities. Where possible, it includes the following information for each: the type of support offered, including educational materials, access to a naturalist or specialists, and classes/workshops; and mailing address and contact information. In addition, a link to the National Park Service's Web site is included.

This online directory of natural history museums and science centers features those that have a live insect exhibit, educational materials or programs related to biodiversity, valuable Internet content, or access to scientists or naturalists. For each resource, contact information, including a link to its Web site, is provided. The list is contains general resources and is also organized by geographic region.

This reference list has more than 50 books on ocean life, with titles for both children and adults. A short description is given for each book, along with author name, publisher, and publication date. The list is divided into two sections: one for teachers with general listings and curriculum and one for students.