If you are stuck to a rock it is tricky to get close enough to a partner to mate. One solution to this problem would be to release eggs or sperm into the open water, which is what many animals in this situation do. Acorn barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides), however, found a different solution. They have evolved the longest penis relative to their body size of any animal. In this video the penises of several barnacles are probing the neighborhood for mates. The penis is re-grown each mating season.

Robert Sandler tells the story of ocean slime, using stop motion and jellyfish puppets. Robert made this episode with support from the Society of Royce Fellows.

This video demonstrates some of the features of PhyloTree. It then shows the early explosive discovery of mammal species (most major mammal groups were discovered early on), and then shows the slow and steady discovery of cnidarians (many cnidarians remain to be described). The tool can also be used to quickly find the first species that was described in a group. The first siphonophore to be described, for example, was Physalia physalis (the Portuguese man o’ war).

Alysse Austin, a student in Casey Dunn’s Invertebrate Zoology course at Brown University, describes sexual dimorphism in green spoonworm.

Here is a semi-interactive video (with the option of a single, non-interactive video here) from CreatureCast alum Sophia Tintori, featuring tips from a handful of ocean-dwellers that each have drastically different approaches to being invisible.

In this first video, Alison Sweeney talks about work that has been done in the Morse lab on Squid iridescence.

With your mouse, drag data points and their error bars, and watch the best-fit polynomial curve update instantly. You choose the type of fit: linear, quadratic, cubic, or quartic. The reduced chi-square statistic shows you when the fit is good. Or you can try to find the best fit by manually adjusting fit parameters.

With your mouse, drag data points and their error bars, and watch the best-fit polynomial curve update instantly. You choose the type of fit: linear, quadratic, cubic, or quartic. The reduced chi-square statistic shows you when the fit is good. Or you can try to find the best fit by manually adjusting fit parameters.

This resource folder provides an adaptation to the Food for All unit in the New Visions for Public Schools HS Biology Curriculum.  Included is a varation on the student workbook that allows more space for student work to be completed, and embeds readings and activites.  Included in the folder are Spanish Translations for sections of the unit.  Materials created by New Visions are shareable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.  More information can be found at: https://curriculum.newvisions.org/license-and-copyright-information/. 

This resource folder provides an adaptation to the Evolution of Sick Humans unit in the New Visions for Public Schools HS Biology Curriculum.  Included is a varation on the student workbook that allows more space for student work to be completed, and embeds readings and activites.  Included in the folder are Spanish Translations for sections of the unit.  Materials created by New Visions are shareable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.  More information can be found at: https://curriculum.newvisions.org/license-and-copyright-information/. 

This resource folder provides an adaptation to Unit 1 (Marathon Runner) in the New Visions for Public Schools HS Biology Curriculum.  Included is a varation on the student workbook that allows more space for student work to be completed, and embeds readings and activites.  Included in the folder are Spanish Translations for sections of the unit.  Materials created by New Visions are shareable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.  More information can be found at: https://curriculum.newvisions.org/license-and-copyright-information/. 

Meet the Data Decoders—a team of scientists at the Solís-Lemus Lab who use math and computers to interpret huge amounts of data from biological experiments.

Resources available for learning about this lab include:
• Interactive cards designed to introduce students to scientists in a more personal way
• A video with a personal story that explains why the lab's research matters in real life
• Questions to consider that will spark connection, reflection, and conversation
• An interactive video experience where you can ask questions of scientists in the lab and learn about their research
• An inquiry-based activity that focuses on doing science, using some of the same science practices that the lab uses
• An educator guide with information about standards alignment, curriculum connections, and tips for using the media resources

These resources are part of Meet the Lab, a collection of educational resources for middle school science classrooms.

Why do objects like wood float in water? Does it depend on size? Create a custom object to explore the effects of mass and volume on density. Can you discover the relationship? Use the scale to measure the mass of an object, then hold the object under water to measure its volume. Can you identify all the mystery objects?

Why do objects like wood float in water? Does it depend on size? Create a custom object to explore the effects of mass and volume on density. Can you discover the relationship? Use the scale to measure the mass of an object, then hold the object under water to measure its volume. Can you identify all the mystery objects?

This is an integration of science leaf observations with musical composition for early elementary students.

This activity is a lab where students will design an experiment dealing with one of the five senses. Students will collect data outside of class, write a formal lab write up as well as a group presentation on their findings.

This interdisciplinary course is a real-world collaborative multi-year project that connects various departments, courses, and independent study projects on a college campus. Using the client/consultant model, students from several departments and a wide range of environmental backgrounds come together to explore the design of an efficient future student house on campus. Over a couple of years, students research and test building designs, energy for heating and power, natural flows of available energy, natural ecosystem processes including living machines, and possible materials to use in the eventual construction of the eco-house. This SERC Starting Point site includes learning goals, context for use, teaching tips and materials, assessment, and references.

The Challenge Question of the Legacy Cycle draws the student into considering the engineering ingenuity of nature. It will force him to analyze, appreciate and understand the wisdom of these designs as the student team focuses on meeting each of the challenge's requirements. The student is asked, with his team members, to envision a sustainable design for a future guest village within the Saguaro National Park, outside of Tucson, Arizona. What issues need to be addressed to support the comforts of park visitors without compromising the natural resources or endangering the endemic species of the area? A deeper scope of application will reveal extensions of this design in the incorporation of urban planning and systems design. It also strengthens the concept of manufacturing and building without producing waste or pollution.

This video from Nature offers a description of desirable traits in beef and dairy cattle.

In this activity, students will investigate how much chlorophyll is in olive oil using a Varnier Spectrometer. Students will measure and analyze the visible light absorbance spectra of three standard olive oils obtained from any supermarket: extra virgin, regular, and light.