Think Garden: Soil Composition

This video explains why soil is more than just dirt. Learn how to tell if soil is rich and healthy or lacking in nutrients, which nutrients are essential, and what happens if plants lack these nutrients. Also find out how to improve soil, and find out what compost is, and how to use it.

Building the Alaska Oil Pipeline

This video segment adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE tells the story of how environmentalists, Alaska Native peoples, and engineers concerned about the effects of permafrost challenged plans for the Alaska oil pipeline.

Accessibility features: Caption

Changing Arctic Landscape

In this video adapted from the Arctic Athabaskan Council, learn how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the landscape, triggering a host of effects such as permafrost thawing and insect infestations.

Accessibility features: Caption

The Cumberland Gap Tunnel

This KET video chronicles the incredible engineering effort that built the tunnel through Cumberland Mountain as well as the challenges posed by the geological composition of the area.

Dating Lava Flows on Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaiʻi

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists search for carbonized remains of plants preserved in lava flows to find out how long it has taken rain forests on Hawaiʻi to regenerate after a volcanic eruption.

Accessibility features: Audio Description, Caption

Diatoms Measure Climate Change

In this video segment adapted from NOVA: "Becoming Human," learn what the analysis of fossilized microscopic algae in sediment tells us about rapid changes in climate in Africa's past.

Accessibility features: Caption

Earth Water Filter

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members try to make the most effective water filter. They experiment with filtering dirty, salty water through different combinations of sand, gravel, and a cotton bandana.

Accessibility features: Caption

Factory Farms and Organic Alternatives

In this video adapted from the series Race to Save the Planet, learn how agricultural pesticides can help increase the amount of food produced, but can also damage soil and wildlife in the process. See how organic farming addresses some of these challenges.

Accessibility features: Caption

Flood Plain and Higher Ground Habitats

This video segment from NatureScene features the area of the Congaree Swamp where the high ground and the flood plain meet. Learn how a few feet of difference in elevation on a floodplain can yield drastic changes in what you’ll find living there.

Accessibility features: Caption

How Caves Form

This interactive activity from NOVA Online shows four different ways in which caves are formed: by rainwater, waves, lava, and bacteria.

How Did Life Emerge Here?

This video segment adapted from NOVA describes the emergence of life on the islands of Hawaiʻi from a barren volcanic platform under the ocean waves to the rich explosion of life that covers the many climate zones of the islands today.

Accessibility features: Audio Description, Caption

Hurricanes: New Orleans Under Threat

This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW exposes how decades of development and geography combined to make the potential damage from a hurricane uniquely devastating in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Accessibility features: Caption

Karst Topography and Mammoth Cave

This video from KET shows karst topography in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky, illustrating how caverns and sinkholes are formed from water dissolving limestone underground.

Losing Permafrost in Alaska

In this video segment adapted from Spanner Films, learn how Alaska Native communities that rely on hunting and fishing are threatened by rising temperatures and melting permafrost.

Accessibility features: Caption

Melting Permafrost

In this video adapted from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, see melting permafrost and hear Alaska Native peoples and Western scientists discuss its impact on Inuit culture and resources.

Accessibility features: Caption

Natural Regions of Kentucky

This interactive introduces students to the diverse natural regions of Kentucky.

Organic Farming: Conserving Topsoil

Against the backdrop of the devastating 1930's Dust Bowl, this video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA profiles an organic farmer and the techniques he uses to conserve topsoil.

Accessibility features: Caption

Soil Microbes and Global Warming

In this video adapted from KUAC-TV and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, discover how warmer winters in Alaska may cause soil microbes to release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

Accessibility features: Caption

Soils Around the World

Not all soils are the same. This interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain features photographs of the 12 major soil types and maps that highlight their distribution around the world.

Water Conservation: Israel

This video segment adapted from Last Oasis shows how Israel has attempted to meet the challenge of providing enough water for agricultural needs. Featured are two methods: recycled water and drip irrigation.

Accessibility features: Caption