FILTER RESULTS
Add/remove filters to refine your search
Browse results: Human Influence on Ecology
| RESOURCE | GRADE LEVEL | MEDIA TYPE |
|---|---|---|
Acid Mine Drainage and PrecipitatesIn this video, environmental scientists measure the pH of water to detect acid mine drainage from an abandoned coal mine and then demonstrate how metals present in acid drainage fall out of solution as precipitates when a basic substance is added to the water. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Controlling Water Run-off
This video shows how the environmentally friendly design of the Visitor Center at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville slows down water run-off and helps to control non-point-source water pollution, conserve water, and prevent soil erosion
Accessibility features: Caption |
4-12 |
Video |
Environmental Impact of Acid Mine DrainageThis video shows how acid mine drainage from an abandoned coal mine has affected Wildcat Branch in Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest. Because the creek has a very acidic pH of 2.9, most organisms cannot survive there, and Wildcat Branch is essentially dead. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Reusing Wastewater
This video demonstrates how peat filtration beds at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky purify and conserve wastewater and eliminate one cause of non-point-source water pollution.
Accessibility features: Caption |
4-12 |
Video |
The Geology of CoalIn this video, a geologist describes how coal, a sedimentary rock, was formed when organic materials piled up in swamps millions of years ago. Over time, heat and pressure transformed the buried materials into forms of coal that cause acid mine drainage when exposed to oxygen. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
High-Sulfur Coal and Acidic WaterIn this video, a geologist measures the pH of water after high-sulfur coal from a Kentucky coal mine has been added to it. This test demonstrates that the sulfate salts found on the coal’s surface cause the water to become much more acidic. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Rain Gardens
This video shows how a rain garden at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky slows down the flow of water from the forest’s parking lot and helps prevent soil erosion.
Accessibility features: Caption |
4-12 |
Video |
Mycoremediation
This video explores the process of mycoremediation: planting fungi such as oyster mushrooms to mitigate non-point-source water pollution caused by oil, gasoline, and other toxic substances.
Accessibility features: Caption |
4-12 |
Video |
Restoring Lower Rock CreekThis brief video describes how Lower Rock Creek’s location between two National Wild and Scenic Rivers caused Kentucky environmentalists to choose the creek as a target for acid mine drainage remediation. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Acid Mine Drainage RemediationIn this video, an environmental technologist visits an abandoned coal mine in Kentucky to talk about how a remediation system (a series of settling ponds and treatment cells) is neutralizing the acid drainage flowing from the mine and keeping it from damaging a creek downstream. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Applying the Scientific Method
This video provides a real-life example of the scientific method: testing hypotheses about which plants will grow most successfully on a green roof in Kentucky.
Accessibility features: Caption |
4-12 |
Video |
Results of Acid Mine Drainage RemediationIn this video, a biologist visits Rock Creek in Pulaski County, Kentucky to show how acid mine drainage remediation has increased the stream’s pH from acidic levels to almost neutral. Although the ecosystem has not been completely restored, many species have returned to Rock Creek. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Stream RestorationThis video explores how Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky has restored a channelized or straightened stream to its original meandering path, thereby improving the stream’s water quality and creating a better habitat for wildlife. Accessibility features: Caption |
4-12 |
Video |
Aquatic InsectsIn this brief video, a biologist talks about the macroinvertebrates (typically aquatic insects) that form the basis of food webs in healthy Kentucky streams. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Detached Wetlands
This video depicts a detached wetland, a small pool that forms beside a shallow meandering stream when it overflows its banks. These wetlands are important breeding grounds for the invertebrates that live in and beside streams
Accessibility features: Caption |
4-12 |
Video |
Adopting Sustainable Food PracticesHear 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. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Agricultural Runoff and the Gulf of Mexico Dead ZoneThis video segment adapted from Big River: A King Corn Companion shows how agricultural chemicals from the Midwest that travel downstream in water runoff create a vast marine "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Alaska Native Teens Help ResearchersIn 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. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Amphibian Research This short video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K explains how frogs help biologists study problems in the environment. Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript |
4-6 |
Video |
An Alaska Native Community Helps SealsThis 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. Accessibility features: Caption |
3-12 |
Video |
An Ancient Legend Teaches Climate Change AdaptationToday’s unsustainable use of natural resources is compared to the legend of the giant Uab, in this video adapted from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. Accessibility features: Caption |
3-8 |
Video |
Atrazine Affects the Water SupplyIn this video segment featuring live-action animation, adapted from Big River: A King Corn Companion, see how the agricultural pesticide atrazine impacts both crops and human health. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Bhopal, 25 Years LaterThis audio segment from PRI's The World Science Podcast revisits a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, where a 1984 gas leak caused as many as 8,000 deaths. Accessibility features: Caption |
9-12 |
Audio |
Bhopal’s Unlikely Legacy This audio segment from PRI's The World Science Podcast explores how the 1984 gas leak in a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India has increased public awareness about toxic threats, and has been a catalyst for new legislation here in the United States. Accessibility features: Caption |
9-12 |
Audio |
Building the Alaska Oil PipelineThis 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 |
6-12 |
Video |
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 |
6-12 |
Video |
Chemical Risks to a FetusLearn about the risks environmental contaminants pose for a developing fetus, in this video adapted from Contaminated Without Consent. Accessibility features: Caption |
9-12 |
Video |
Chemist and Biologist Catherine DrennanIn this video produced for Teachers' Domain, learn about MIT professor Cathy Drennan's research into microorganisms that remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere. Accessibility features: Caption |
9-12 |
Video |
Chicken Waste and Water PollutionIn this video segment adapted from FRONTLINE: “Poisoned Waters,” learn how unregulated waste from large-scale chicken farms contributes to water pollution. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Climate Change Threatens Pacific ParadiseLearn how climate change has impacted food and freshwater resources on the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea, in these two videos adapted from UNU-IAS Traditional Knowledge Initiative and Pacific Black Box, Inc. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Conserving a Unique Ecosystem in MicronesiaLearn about the steps that the people of Kosrae, Micronesia, are taking to protect their natural resources, in this video adapted from the Micronesia Conservation Trust. Accessibility features: Caption |
9-12 |
Video |
Contaminants in the Arctic Food Chain The levels of contaminants found in particular animals vary widely depending on where they fit into the Arctic food chain, as described in this video segment adapted from LOKE Films and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.
Accessibility features: Caption |
5-12 |
Video |
Contaminants in the Arctic Human Population In this video segment adapted from LOKE Films and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, learn how human populations in the Arctic are affected by industrial contaminants in the food chain.
Accessibility features: Caption |
5-12 |
Video |
Contaminating the RockiesLearn how abandoned mines have been contaminating water supplies in the Rocky Mountains for decades in this video segment adapted from NOVA: "Poison in the Rockies." Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Converting to BiodieselMeet a college student whose class project to turn cooking grease into diesel fuel resulted in converting bus fleets to biodiesel, in this video from Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative. Accessibility features: Caption |
5-12 |
Video |
Desert BiomeThis video segment from NOVA: "A Desert Place" describes the physical characteristics and organisms that define the desert biome. Accessibility features: Audio Description, Caption, Transcript |
3-12 |
Video |
Dustin Madden: Science Teacher In this video profile produced for Teachers' Domain, meet teacher Dustin Madden, an Iñupiaq who hopes to inspire students to take an active role in protecting the natural environment by giving them a foundation in math and science. Accessibility features: Caption |
3-12 |
Video |
Ecology This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K defines ecology and ecosystems and explains how all living and non-living things in an ecosystem interact and depend on the energy of the sun. Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript |
4-6 |
Video |
The Effects of Pesticides on ChildrenFollow anthropologist Elizabeth Guillette as she studies the effects of pesticides on children in a farming community in Mexico, in this video segment adapted from Playing with Poison. Accessibility features: Caption |
9-12 |
Video |
Electronic GadgetsTwo kids learn some surprising facts about the parts in their computer game, in this animated video from LOOP SCOOPS. Accessibility features: Caption |
1-4 |
Video |
Endangered Species This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K explores the many reasons why animals become endangered or become extinct. Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript |
4-6 |
Video |
Endocrine Disruptor HypothesisScientists discuss whether or not endocrine disrupting chemicals, which may cause birth defects and other health concerns, should be controlled in the absence of conclusive proof, in this video segment adapted from FRONTLINE: "Fooling with Nature." Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Environmentalist Bill McKibben, 1990In this 1990 archival news footage from Cambridge Community Television, environmentalist Bill McKibben speaks about the possible effects of climate change at an Earth Day celebration in Cambridge, MA. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Environmental Justice: Opposing Industrial Hog FarmingLearn about the impact that large-scale hog farming has had on one minority community in North Carolina and how residents fought back to protect their water supply and property, in this video segment adapted from Earthkeeping: "Toxic Racism." Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Environmental Justice: Opposing a Toxic Waste IncineratorIn this video segment adapted from Earthkeeping: "Toxic Racism," learn how farm workers and farm owners formed a rare alliance in an effort to block the use of an incinerator in their Latino community by suing a major corporation for environmental discrimination. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Environmental Justice: Opposing a Toxic Waste LandfillThis video segment adapted from Earthkeeping: “Toxic Racism” talks about the early days of the environmental justice movement and how the health of minority communities can be compromised by the disproportionate numbers of hazardous waste facilities located there. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Environmental Justice in DallasFollow a Dallas community's fight to receive federal Superfund status to clean up the damage from a high-polluting lead smelter, in this video segment adapted from Earthkeeping: "Toxic Racism." Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Eradicating Malaria with DDTLearn about the role of the controversial chemical DDT in the worldwide malaria eradication program, and hear from an expert who advocates bringing it back, in this video segment adapted from Rx for Survival. Accessibility features: Caption |
9-12 |
Video |
Factory Farms and Organic AlternativesIn 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 |
6-12 |
Video |
Farm Nitrates in the Water SupplyLearn how nitrate runoff from farm fertilizers can negatively impact human health and how a water treatment plant is tackling the challenge, in this video excerpted from Big River. Accessibility features: Caption |
6-12 |
Video |
Loading...

















































