In this classroom activity, middle school students simulate a "dinosaur dig." The activity opens with background information for teachers about fossils. Working in groups, students excavate fossil sites created in advance by the teacher, or other group of students, and try to reconstruct a chicken skeleton. The activity closes with a two-page student worksheet that directs students to diagram the fossil site and includes probing questions to help them decode their findings.

The American Museum of Natural History is home to the world's largest collection of vertebrate fossils, totaling nearly one million specimens. This Web site offers visitors a virtual visit to the Museum's famed Fossil Halls. It features seven sections along with a brief introduction, a Teacher's Guide, and information about the Museum's Division of Paleontology.

This activity is a printable one-page PDF handout, which focuses on dinosaur features. It includes an album of animal fashions in which students compare three dinosaur's frills with similar features found on animals alive today in order to determine their function and a "design your own dinosaur" challenge in which students create a dinosaur that has the features they'd like to see.

This illustrated guide to a grasshopper's head is designed to help students recognize and learn the many parts found on an insect's head. The single Web page, which can be easily printed for use at field sites or in the lab, also includes a short description for the following labeled parts: ocellus compound eye antenna gena frons clypeus mandible labrum labium palps.

In this Digital Universe activity, students learn firsthand about estimation strategies and observational bias. They estimate how common several celestial objects are based on their location and make inferences about larger population patterns throughout the galaxy. The printable PDF activity includes illustrated step-by-step instructions for the following hands-on and computer-assisted activities: Introduction to Celestial Objects, Broad Distribution of Objects in the Galaxy and Making Galactic Estimates

Students learn how a telescope's aperture determines how much light it can gather in this Moveable Museum unit. It has three procedures, one of which is optional. The four-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, and information about where to obtain supplies. In this activity, the light collector is not a lens or a mirror, but a hole in a cardboard box. Light enters through the hole and lights up the box. Users can change the size of the hole and see how the amount of light entering the box changes. The results show why increasing the aperture of a telescope increases the amount of light it can collect.

This online article is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Genetically Modified Food: Bt Corn, part of the Genetics, Genomics, Genethics seminar, briefly covers the planting of genetically modified corn instead of using insecticides and the possible ill effects this corn may have on monarch butterflies.

Produced by the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, this booklet records the findings of the DIVERSITAS/Systematics Agenda 2000 International Workshop that took place at the AMNH in 1998. The objective of the New York workshop was to develop recommendations for undertaking country assessments and national reports of taxonomic knowledge and capacity, for preparing and designing national strategies and action plans to meet the goals of the Global Taxonomy Initiative, and for building regional networks in support of country - driven activities that advance the GTI. A major component of the workshop addressed how systematic inventories can serve as an organizing framework for building taxonomic knowledge and capacity, and thus advancing the GTI.

Produced by the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, this booklet records the findings of the DIVERSITAS/Systematics Agenda 2000 International Workshop that took place at the AMNH in 1998. The objective of the New York workshop was to develop recommendations for undertaking country assessments and national reports of taxonomic knowledge and capacity, for preparing and designing national strategies and action plans to meet the goals of the Global Taxonomy Initiative, and for building regional networks in support of country - driven activities that advance the GTI. A major component of the workshop addressed how systematic inventories can serve as an organizing framework for building taxonomic knowledge and capacity, and thus advancing the GTI.

This Web article is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here they meet two Museum scientists who go fossil hunting every year in the Gobi, and view the duo's scrapbook. In addition to seeing photos and illustrations from the Gobi scrapbook, students learn about the journey to Mongolia, discover the challenges of fossil hunting, and see what a typical day is like for these scientists.

This OLogy activity takes a look at some of the more amusing traits that are determined by genetics. Students answer four yes/no questions, and then compare their answers with others.

This Web site, created to complement the Museum's Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, offers a virtual visit to the Museum, complete with text, photos, and a downloadable desktop background. The site contains information on ten exhibition highlights.

The Museum's Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth allows visitors to explore geologic time and to gain an understanding of the methods scientists use to study vast Earth systems. This comprehensive guide to the hall's resources is designed to help you maximize your trip to the Museum with elementary school students. It includes detailed background information, a map of the hall that shows the five sections of the exhibit and several pre-, during-, and post-visit activities to do with your students. There is a listing of related Museum exhibits and suggestions for how to tie them into your field trip and notes about how the topics featured in the hall address performance standards and curriculum requirements.

This online directory lists government environmental organizations that can help you identify good field sites, find educational programs and materials, and contact scientists or naturalists who can answer your questions. Along with the national headquarters for these organizations, the directory includes at least one contact each for the Northeast, Southeast, West, Midwest, and Northwest. Where available, the mailing address, phone number, Web site URL, and email address are given. In addition, the directory has links to two Web sites where additional state and regional resources can be located.

We owe our lives to gravity. It holds the atmosphere to Earth and keeps us all from falling off into space. Not to mention that without gravity, the stars and planets—including Earth—wouldn't even exist! This Moveable Museum article, available as a nine-page printable PDF file, introduces the key concepts of gravity, orbits, weight, and weightlessness.

In this classroom activity, young students are introduced to sets and subsets. The activity opens with background information for teachers about cladistics. After brainstorming different ways to group the class itself, students work in small groups to identify subsets of coins. The groups then complete a worksheet that challenges them to group dinosaurs into sets and subsets and share their results with the class.

This online article, from Biodiversity Counts, is a guide to finding local specialists who are knowledgeable about plants and arthropods. It includes: an overview of how local specialists can be of help; a link to the Directory of Local Specialists, a list of specialists who have agreed to work with participating schools; a list of additional organizations, with links to Web sites, that are good sources for local specialists; tips on how to find local specialists from Linda Beyt, a middle school teacher in Louisiana and a Biodiversity Counts mentor; and tips for enlisting volunteers by Karen Spaulding, a middle school teacher in Massachusetts and a Biodiversity Counts mentor.

Just like the permanent exhibit it was created to complement, the online Hall of Biodiversity showcases the beauty, diversity, and abundance of life on Earth while warning of the threats posed by human activity. Along with a brief introduction to the exhibit, it includes these four sections: Spectrum of Life - A virtual journey through 3.5 billion years of evolution on Earth. The interactive cladogram includes detailed information on more than 25 diverse life forms. Transformation of the Biosphere - An overview of how the Earth is continually experiencing climatic changes and changes brought on by physical events, such as meteorite collisions. The Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest - An explanation of what visitors will find when they explore this walk-through diorama at the Museum, which features the sights and sounds of a dense tropical rain forest. Solutions - A list of concrete actions individuals can take to help save the Earth's resources for generations to come.

In this biodiversity activity, students learn how to construct their own cladogram. They consider four coins (quarter, dime, nickel, penny), identifying defining characteristics. Then, students construct a Venn diagram, followed by a cladogram. The two-page printable PDF includes tips for both teachers and students.

In this biodiversity activity, students learn how to construct their own dichotomous keys. They use either specimens they've collected or ones you bring into class, such as shells, fruit, or leaves. The one-page printable PDF includes guidelines about what students should look for and include when creating their dichotomous keys.