Acid Mine Drainage and Precipitates

In 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.

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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

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Environmental Impact of Acid Mine Drainage

This 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.

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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.

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The Geology of Coal

In 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.

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Recycling and Restoration

This video explains how Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky used recycled cypress from pickle vats to build its visitor center and then “paid back” nature by creating a cypress-tupelo swamp at one end of a lake on the park grounds.

Tunneling for Water: Digging the Tunnel and Prehistoric Water!

This video traces the construction of Louisville Water Company’s riverbank filtration system, including the unexpected discovery of a reservoir of prehistoric water.

High-Sulfur Coal and Acidic Water

In 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.

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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.

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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.

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Restoring Lower Rock Creek

This 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.

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Acid Mine Drainage Remediation

In 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.

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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.

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Results of Acid Mine Drainage Remediation

In 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.

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Stream Restoration

This 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.

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Aquatic Insects

In this brief video, a biologist talks about the macroinvertebrates (typically aquatic insects) that form the basis of food webs in healthy Kentucky streams.

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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

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About the Seasons

Children learn how seasonal weather changes affect everything, from the behavior of animals to the way we dress and play.

1964 Alaska Earthquake

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.

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20-Year Map of Global Rainfall

This visualization from NASA shows global rainfall patterns over a 22-year span. It incorporates data from a combination of remote-sensing and ground-based sources.

Acid Lake

Add acidity to a healthy lake and see what happens to the plants and animals in this interactive activity adapted from EcoKids.

Acids and Bases: Cabbage Juice Indicator

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.

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Acids and Bases: Making a Film Canister Rocket

In this video segment, ZOOM cast members mix different amounts of baking soda and vinegar to see which combination produces the most carbon dioxide for launching a film-canister rocket.

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Acids and Bases: Testing Rocket Cars

In this ZOOM video segment, cast members make bottle rocket cars using lemon juice and baking soda, and experiment with different ways of launching the cars.

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Acids and Bases: Testing Rockets

What happens when you mix baking soda and lemon juice? Watch the ZOOM cast launch a rocket using kitchen chemistry.

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Adopting Sustainable Food Practices

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.

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Aging Diamonds?

In this video from Nature, geological detectives use ancient diamonds to learn more about Earth's inner layers.

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Agricultural Runoff and the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

This 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.

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Agricultural Technology Student: Farming & GPS/GIS

Learn how agricultural technology is changing farming, and one student's life, in this video adapted from Pathways to Technology.

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Agricultural Technology Student: Water Management & GPS/GIS

See one adult student's experience attending community college, studying agricultural technology, and discovering career opportunities, in this video adapted from Pathways to Technology.

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Air Is Matter

This collection of still images presents different ways to visualize air, from billowing sails to windblown hair to tornadoes.

Air Power: Experimenting with Balloons

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members experiment with the amount of air expelled first from a balloon, then through a straw attached to it, and see how both affect a balloon's behavior.

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Air Quality Index

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.

Alaska Native Pilots

In this video adapted from Storyknife Productions, Alaska Native pilots share how they use traditional knowledge to read the landscape and predict the weather.

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Alaska Native Teens Help Researchers

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.

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Alaska Tsunami

In this video adapted from Alaska Sea Grant, discover why multiple tsunamis resulted from the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.

All in the Family

This video from the series Faces of America details the process of documenting family history and tracing lineage back through maternal and paternal lines.

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Allison Bolinger: Spacewalk Flight Controller and Trainer

In this video from Design Squad Nation, NASA spacewalk flight controller and trainer Allison Bolinger teaches astronauts how to work outside their spacecraft.

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Allopatric Speciation

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.

All Planet Sizes

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.

All Systems Are Go

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.

American Chestnut Tree

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.

Amphibian Research

This short video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K explains how frogs help biologists study problems in the environment.

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Amphibians

This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K points out what it means to be cold-blooded. A frog's life cycle is revealed as well as why it croaks, why it hibernates, and how it catches its prey.

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Amplitude

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.

An Alaska Native Community Helps Seals

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.

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Analyzing an Ecosystem

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.

An Ancient Legend Teaches Climate Change Adaptation

Today’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.

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Anglerfish

This video segment from NOVA: "Animal Imposters" shows the lightning-fast strike of the anglerfish.

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Animal Babies

This interactive slide show illustrates the variety of animal babies that exist on earth -- some completely independent and others deeply reliant on parental care.