Students learn about material culture in this Moveable Museum lesson plan by taking a firsthand look at how culture influences the kinds of things we do. The 12-page PDF guide has educator materials including background information, teacher strategies, assessment guidelines, and detailed notes about the curriculum standards addressed. The Becoming a Cultural Researcher activity worksheet has a series of questions that prompts students to reflect on the material culture of daily activities, customs, or ceremonies. There is a kid-friendly glossary of related terms.

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. 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.

In this classroom activity, middle school students examine the wide-ranging sizes of dinosaurs. The activity opens with background information for teachers about the enormous range of dinosaur sizes. In a classroom discussion, students describe the size of some dinosaurs. Then, working from an existing grid, students create either a to-scale drawing of a Tyrannosaurus head or a life-size drawing of a Protoceratops.

Satellite observations that detect and map fires provide important insight into the widespread nature of fire activity around the world. This visualization, which shows global satellite observations of fires in 2002 and 2003, goes on to focus on a region where fire plays a dominant role in the landscape: Southern California. The wildfires that roared through Southern California in the autumns of 2003 and 2007 were particularly fast-burning and destructive because people have actively suppressed fires in the region where residential development is expanding further and further into wild land areas.

This reference list has a dozen kid-friendly books on a wide range of biodiversity topics. For each title, the author, publisher, and publication date are included along with a brief description of the book. The list includes field guides and other reference books to help students begin exploring plants, insects, birds, and other living things, easy-to-complete activities to bring the importance of biodiversity home, and engaging stories that introduce students to cultural tales that celebrate biodiversity.

This reference list has more than 30 kid-friendly books on biodiversity. For each title, the author, publisher, and publication date are given. The diverse list includes field guides for identifying plants and insects, hands-on nature experiments and activities, photographic looks at the world's diverse species, and handbooks with tips about collecting and preserving specimens.

This diverse list of 13 multimedia resources can help you enhance the study of biodiversity in your classroom. For each resource, ordering information is provided. The list is divided into five categories: videos, magazines, posters, audio tapes, and other kits, units, and projects

Produced by the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, this brief guide summarizes for policymakers the consequences of biodiversity loss for human health, including threats to global supplies of food and fresh water, exposure to formerly rare diseases and opportunistic infections, and loss of important sources of medicines. The guide can be downloaded as a pdf at no charge.

This list of botanical gardens and arboretums includes links to Web sites which you can search for institutions in your region. In addition, it includes detailed information about 14 of the country's largest botanical gardens and arboretums. Where possible, it includes the following information for each: mailing address and phone number, Web site and email address, details about its grounds and collections, and the type of support offered, including educational materials, resource libraries, and classes/workshops.

This online article, from the museum's Musings newsletter for educators, profiles two scientists who lead walking tours in New York City's green spaces. Bill Schiller, a botany lecturer and senior museum instructor, discusses the ways in which he "builds an appreciation of how nature works and a sense of responsible stewardship" during his tours. Bob DeCandido, an urban park ranger, explains how he "teaches city-dwellers to look closely at their wild neighbors and become better environmental stewards in the process." The article also includes ideas for four activities that can be completed during a walking tour.

This online article, from the museum's Musings newsletter for educators, profiles the Museum Investigation in Science Program. The program's two objectives are to reach out to communities that are not "traditional" museum audiences and to introduce participants to the idea that a museum can be a great place to learn as a family. The strategies and activities the program uses to meet these two objectives are reviewed.

Students learn about refracting telescopes in this Moveable Museum unit, in which they construct a simple telescope. The three-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, and information about where to obtain supplies.

Students learn about the variations of white light in this Moveable Museum unit, in which they build a pocket-sized spectroscope from readily available materials and examine different light sources in school, at home, and around their town or city. The seven-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity and safety notes, step-by-step directions, and a spectroscope template.

In this Biodiversity Counts activity, students learn how scientists calculate a biodiversity index using a page from the phone book as their data source. The printable five-page PDF handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions to get students thinking about what they already know about biodiversity and how living and non-living things are connected, step-by-step directions for calculating a biodiversity index, and a worksheet that includes brainstorming questions and areas for recording answers.

This online article, from the museum's Musings newsletter for educators, reports on the YouthCaN organization. It discusses the background and activities of this youth-run organization, begun in 1993, which gives kids concerned about the environment the chance to think and work on a national and international level. There is information on how to create a YouthCaN program in your community.

In this online article, from the museum's Musings newsletter for educators, a resource teacher for gifted children discusses how she keeps one step ahead of her students. Cindy Sheets offers tips on devising a dynamic curriculum tackling the ever-changing field of genetics.

This article, part of Biodiversity Counts, takes a look at methods for collecting arthropod specimens. It outlines six methods, explaining the sort of terrain and specimens for which each is best suited.

This article, part of Biodiversity Counts, takes a look at collecting plant specimens. The article discusses what tools are needed to collect specimens, how to press and dry specimens and has tips for numbering and labeling specimens.

This AstroBulletin article takes an in-depth look at the newest technology and instruments used to study the Cosmic Microwave Background. The site includes text and a seven minute video. There are links to three essays: "What Is the Cosmic Microwave Background?", "Antarctica: A Hotbed of Cold-Weather Research" and "DASI Does It."

This online article is from the Museum's Science Explorations, a collaboration between AMNH and Scholastic designed to promote science literacy. Written for students in grades 6-10, this article from Science World magazine has an interview with AMNH astrophysicist Mike Shara, in which he explains what space objects are and what happens when they collide. There are Web links that offer further opportunities for learning about space objects and their collisions.