In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad replaces a piece of track to get the Madre Bonita Express to the Mother's Day harvest.
This video adapted from the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive, explores what happened during the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 through original footage, first-person accounts, and animations illustrating plate tectonics.
This animated essay from the American Experience Web site explains the difference between alternating and direct electric current and offers in-depth explanations about the role played by a battery, light bulb, wire, and generator. Grades 6-12.
This video segment adapted from First Light explains why the highest peak in the Pacific, Mauna Kea, is an ideal site for astronomical observations. Featured are new telescope technologies that allow astronomers to explore the universe in more depth.
Add acidity to a healthy lake and see what happens to the plants and animals in this interactive activity adapted from EcoKids.
In this video segment, the ZOOM cast demonstrates how to use cabbage juice to find out if a solution is an acid or a base.
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two cast members demonstrate what happens when vinegar is added to baking soda inside a container. The resulting chemical reaction produces enough carbon dioxide to launch their paper rocket skyward.
Recommended for: Grades K-5
A car propelled by the reaction between lemon juice and baking soda has more in common with rockets and jet aircraft than one might think. In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two cast members demonstrate the power of rocket-propelled vehicles and how to exploit the force produced by the carbon dioxide gas. Grades 3-8.
It would seem that bottles of lemon juice and rockets have only their basic shape in common. However, as two cast members from ZOOM demonstrate in this adapted video segment, when baking soda is added to the mix, a plastic bottle can act very much like a real rocket. Grades 3-8.
Finches on the Galapagos Islands have evolved to exploit almost every possible niche. This diagram shows the range of food sources available on the island and the different beak shapes adapted to exploit each of them.
Hear about how respect for Earth can help us attain a more sustainable lifestyle in the face of climate change in this video segment adapted from United Tribes Technical College.
Our brains control every movement we make. Most of us take for granted our ability to pick up a cup or change the television station. However, for people who have lost a limb or become paralyzed, the inability to do these things means a loss of freedom and independence. This video segment from Greater Boston describes how neuroscientists and bioengineers have teamed up to create a system that allows people who have lost motor functions to control electronic devices through their thoughts alone. Grades 6-12
Do you need proof that driving is a dangerous activity? More Americans have died in car crashes over the past 100 years than in all the wars the U.S. has ever fought combined. More than 40,000 Americans die each year on the nation's highways, most as the result of high-speed collisions. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn how engineers developed the air bag, an important automobile-safety device now found in most cars.
Recommended for: Grades 3-12
This collection of still images presents different ways to visualize air, from billowing sails to windblown hair to tornadoes.
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members make their own hovercraft and demonstrate how the air leaking out of a balloon can make a plastic plate hover above a table.
In this interactive activity adapted from Air Quality Index: A Guide to Air Quality and Your Health by the U.S. EPA, learn about common pollutants in the air we breathe, their health effects, and how their levels are reported.
Explore this NOVA interactive activity to see how engineers have modified a military plane's sound, shape, and heat emissions to minimize detection.
This video from First Alaskans Institute spotlights the Alaska Native community of St. Paul and its hands-on commitment to care for the land and animals on which it depends.
In this video adapted from Storyknife Productions, Alaska Native pilots share how they use traditional knowledge to read the landscape and predict the weather.
In this video adapted from KUAC-TV and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska Native students contribute to research on how their environment is changing as a result of global warming.
In this video adapted from Alaska Sea Grant, discover why multiple tsunamis resulted from the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.
This illustration from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory shows the approximate sizes of the planets relative to each other. Note that the planets are not shown at appropriate distances from the Sun.
Test your knowledge of the digestive, respiratory, and other human body systems in this interactive game from Kinetic City. Race the clock to put Arnold's organs back into his body one system at a time.
In this Evolution Web feature, test your skills at judging who's who on the tree of life while you learn about the tools and methods of cladistics.
These images from the Smithsonian Institution depict Nancy Knowlton's work with snapping shrimp in Panama. Knowlton found that the closing of the isthmus -- dividing the Pacific Ocean from the Caribbean -- resulted in new species of shrimp.
This video segment from the Secret of Life School Video: "Genetic Medicine: Tinkering with Our Genes" explores the potential for gene therapy to cure diseases like Alzheimer's.
This annotated slideshow adapted from KET's Electronic Field Trip to the Forest illustrates how blight decimated the American chestnut tree and the methods scientists use to identify and pollinate the remaining trees to create blight-resistant trees.
This interactive activity adapted from the University of Utah's ASPIRE Lab shows how a pendulum's amplitude changes as you set it swinging from different distances from its axis, and how the amplitude of a sound wave changes as you adjust the volume.
In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Alberta, identify the living and nonliving things in an ecosystem. Then look further at the living things to identify the producers, the consumers, and examples of mimicry.
In this interactive activity from NOVA, learn about the sophisticated scientific instruments on two identical robotic rovers that have explored Mars Spirit and Opportunity.
Tsunami waves can be distinguished from ordinary ocean waves by many factors, including the tremendous amount of energy they carry, the great distance between their wave crests, and their capacity to travel at jetliner speeds across an entire ocean. In this interactive from NOVA Online, explore how the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami -- the deadliest in recorded history -- was triggered, how its waves traveled thousands of kilometers largely unchanged, and what happened once the waves reached coastlines both near and far from their source. Grades 6-12
In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, explore the main features of the Nyiragongo volcano, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and learn what risks it poses to the 500,000 people who live in its shadow.
Find out how angles and symmetry come into play in the game of pool in this video adapted from Annenberg Learner’s Learning Math: Measurement.
This video segment from NOVA: "Animal Imposters" shows the lightning-fast strike of the anglerfish.
It takes a thick skin to withstand the hardships that life has to offer. This collection of images shows a variety of animals, each with a slightly different type of protective covering.
In this activity, students learn how an animal's sense of hearing is adapted to -- as well as affected by -- its environment. They begin by exploring how a shark's senses enable it to be an efficient predator. Students then compare a shark's senses to those of a land animal of their choice, and discover how each animal's senses are adapted to its particular environment. Next, they focus on the sense of hearing, and a common cause of hearing loss: continual exposure to loud noises. Students learn how a change in the way that an Arctic community hunts -- using rifles instead of harpoons -- has caused widespread hearing loss. Finally, students research noise levels in their environment and conduct a public awareness campaign about noise pollution and the associated hearing loss.
In contrast with its largely lifeless interior, the Antarctic coastal marine environment supports a vibrant and diverse ecosystem. Explore the region's living bounty in this interactive activity adapted from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In this interactive game adapted from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, build a food web that illustrates the flow of energy in an Antarctic ecosystem and the relationships between predators and prey.
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains why ice sheets move. To find out how fast they move, scientists carve a tunnel through a glacier.
What would happen if a portion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt? This video segment adapted from NOVA uses animations to show the effect of a 6-meter sea-level rise on coastal cities across the world.
What happens when the ground under your feet is ice and it's moving? This video segment adapted from NOVA features some of the dangers faced by scientists conducting research in Antarctica.
This video segment adapted from NOVA uses microwave images to reveal how sea ice doubles the size of Antarctica each winter. Rare footage shows how sea ice crushed the famous ship Endurance in 1914.
This video segment adapted from Building Big illustrates the strength of the arch in bridge design and construction.
In this interactive atlas adapted from UNEP/GRID-Arendal, explore different environmental features of the Arctic. Select from a list of themes to customize your map, then zoom in to take a closer look at one of six featured regions.
Despite seemingly inhospitable conditions, the Arctic environment has a vibrant and diverse ecosystem. Explore the life that thrives in this region in this interactive activity adapted from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In this interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain, learn how Arctic sea ice has changed over the past 25 years in terms of maximum winter extent, concentration, and the timing of breakup each spring.
This video segment from Wild Europe: "Wild Arctic" explores the struggle for survival in one of Earth's most extreme environments.
This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.
The CyberSquad tries to figure out a table arrangement for 20 workers in this video from Cyberchase.
In this video segment from Cyberchase, Matt tries for a second time to arrange tables and chairs to accommodate 20 workers.
Matt's third table arrangement helps fit all 20 workers at five tables in this video segment from Cyberchase.
This video segment explores the benefits and pitfalls of cloning as a means of reproduction. From Evolution: "Why Sex?"
Explore some of the wonders of modern engineering in this video from the Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York. Hear a diverse selection of engineers explain how things work.
In this video segment produced for Teachers' Domain, Andres Berrio, an associate scientist at Biogen Idec, discusses what he has done to succeed in the biotechnology field.
This media-rich series of interviews from the NOVA Web site explores the unique challenges faced by astronauts doing construction work in outer space.
Visible light is just one portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that a telescope may detect. This collection of images produced for Teachers' Domain features radio wave, infrared, visible light, and X-ray images of distant stars and galaxies as well as images of the telescopes designed to detect the various wavelengths of radiation.
In this feature, adapted from Interactive NOVA: "Earth," students explore the relationship between oxygen concentration and the well-being of various organisms by simulating a change in oxygen levels and observing what happens.
Did you know that air has weight? This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site explores conditions that affect air density and atmospheric pressure.
In this interactive activity from ChemThink, take a closer look at atomic structure, properties, and behaviors.
This video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey takes a look at the scale of the atom and the tremendous amount of space between the electrons and the nucleus. If all this empty space exists in matter, how can any substance be solid?