Subtopic: Living Systems

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Resource	Grade Level	Media Type
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.	5-8	Flash Interactive
Amazing Heart Facts This feature from the NOVA "Cut to the Heart" Web site highlights facts about the heart -- including its size and placement -- and will help you to understand the importance of this wondrous organ in our bodies.	6-8	HTML Document
Anglerfish This video segment from NOVA: "Animal Imposters" shows the lightning-fast strike of the anglerfish.	6-8	QuickTime Video
Animal Coverings 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.	K-5	JPEG Image
Animal Hearing This video segment discusses the physical adaptations that give several nocturnal animals a heightened sense of hearing. Footage from NOVA: "Mystery of the Senses: Hearing."	3-8	QuickTime Video
Animal Mouths This collection of images of six different creatures, including insects and carnivorous vertebrates, illustrates the wide range of mouth types that exist within the animal kingdom.	K-8	JPEG Image
Animal Mouth Structures Students observe several animals' mouth structures and explore how these structures help the animal obtain, handle, and eat food.	3-5	Lesson Plan
Biome in a Baggie This ZOOMSci video segment shows how to create self-contained environments and explore how plants grow under different conditions.	K-8	QuickTime Video
Bird Beak Gallery This collection of images of 10 different birds illustrates the diversity of bird beaks.	K-8	Flash Image
Bird Food There are almost as many types of bird beaks as there are types of food that birds like to eat. This collection of images shows a wide range of beaks and the types of foods handled by each.	K-8	Flash Image
Blood Vessels Help Tumors Grow In this video segment, adapted from NOVA, Dr. Judah Folkman uses the scientific method to discover how cancer cells induce the formation of new blood vessels, which in turn nourish those cancer cells.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Body Breakdowns This interactive feature from the NOVA "Surviving Denali" Web site details the variety of ways the body can fail while climbing a high-altitude peak.	6-8	HTML Interactive
Brain Geography Which part of your brain controls your ability to swallow? Your instinct to survive? And how do all the brain's parts function cooperatively? Find out with this interactive feature from the NOVA: "Coma" Web site.	6-8	HTML Interactive
Brain Trauma Find out how serious head concussions can be in this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Bubonic Plague In this video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey, learn about bubonic plague and how city officials in San Francisco tried to contain its spread in the early 1900s.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Carnivorous Plants of Cartwheel Bay In this video segment from NatureScene, explore Cartwheel Bay, a wetland in South Carolina, and learn about the variety of carnivorous plants native to this unique landform.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Cell Explorer Explore the parts of a virtual animal cell in this interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium. Learn about various cell structures and the roles they play in cell division, cellular respiration, and protein synthesis.	7-12	Flash Interactive
Cellular Service The goal of this interactive game is to keep a group of target cells healthy by using blood to deliver and take away various substances to and from the cells.	6-8	Flash Interactive
The Circulatory System Students explore the interrelationship of structure and function in the circulatory system.	6-8	Lesson Plan
Colorful Creatures For animals, bright, flashy coloration can serve as a warning or as an invitation. Either way, colorful skin, feathers, and scales yell, "Notice me!" This collection of images shows examples of some of the world's most colorful creatures.	K-5	JPEG Image
Cow's Eye Dissection In this interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium, watch videos of a cow eye dissection and see how an eye works.	6-12	Flash Interactive
A Cow’s Digestive System Learn how a cow eats and digests food in this video segment from Nature.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Deep-Sea Bestiary This document from the NOVA: "Into the Abyss" Web site describes the physical and behavioral traits of some of the least-known and most unlikely creatures on earth.	6-8	HTML Document
Diversity of Hardwoods at Congaree Swamp In this video segment from NatureScene, observe some methods of plant identification with regards to the diversity of hardwoods at the Congaree Swamp.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Drift Seeds And Drift Fruits: Seeds That Ride The Ocean Currents This essay from Wayne's Word explores seed dispersal by water and describes some of the physical adaptations that evolution has produced in the seeds and fruits that travel this way.	6-8	PDF Document
Duck Development This video segment from NOVA: "The Shape of Things" follows the growth of a duck embryo, from a single fertilized egg cell to a complex, hatching duckling.	6-8	QuickTime Video
Evolution of Camouflage This video segment from Evolution: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" illustrates the remarkable camouflage of a praying mantis against its leafy backdrop.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Fighting Back Help the immune system fight off an infection in this interactive feature from the NOVA: "Surviving AIDS" Web site.	6-8	Shockwave Interactive
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.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Floral Arrangements Explore a few of the ways plants pollinate each other in this video segment from Sexual Encounters of a Floral Kind.	6-12	QuickTime Video
From the Heart This video segment describes the basics of the circulatory system: how the heart pumps the blood that carries oxygen and nutrients throughout the body.	6-8	QuickTime Video
Germinator This ZOOMSci video segment teaches you how to germinate seeds in a plastic bag and helps you understand some of the factors that influence the germination process.	K-8	QuickTime Video
The Science Behind Appetite This video segment, adapted from NOVA, tells the story of a ballerina battling anorexia. It explains how serotonin regulates appetite, and presents some of the health risks that accompany the eating disorder.	5-12	QuickTime Video
How the Body Responds to Exercise In this video segment adapted from NOVA, follow novice runners as they train for a marathon, and discover how quickly the body responds to regular aerobic exercise.	6-12	QuickTime Video
How the Woodpecker Avoids a Headache This diagram from Rainbird Publishing describes the specialized physical characteristics that allow woodpeckers to create some of the most secure nests in the bird world.	6-8	GIF Image
Illuminating Photosynthesis This interactive feature from the NOVA: "Methuselah Tree" Web site details the process of photosynthesis and its role in the oxygen/carbon dioxide cycle.	3-12	Flash Interactive
Immune Cells in Action In this video segment from The Secret of Life Teaching Modules: "Nothing to Sneeze At: Viruses," watch as a virus attacks a cell, and learn how the immune system reacts to this onslaught.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Inside a Seed This image from Biology by Kenneth R. Miller and Joseph Levine illustrates the five most important parts of a seed: the seed coat, the endosperm, and the embryo's primary root, cotyledon, and embryonic leaves.	6-8	JPEG Image
Jaws and Teeth of Mammals This image from Biology by Kenneth R. Miller and Joseph Levine illustrates the relationship between structure and function by comparing the jaws and teeth of two animals with very different ways of life: the wolf and the horse.	6-8	JPEG Image
Life Cycle of a Seed Plant In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Alberta, learn about each step in the life cycle of a seed plant.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Life of a Tree In this interactive activity adapted from the National Arbor Day Foundation, take a sixty-two-year journey observing the inner layers, rings, and environmental factors that affect a tree's growth and life cycle.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Living vs. Nonliving Students explore the characteristics that distinguish living from nonliving things.	K-5	Lesson Plan
Maple Syrup This video from WPSU’s series Outside shows how to identify a sugar maple tree by its branches, twigs, buds, and bark, and explains how to produce maple syrup.	3-6	Flash Video
Map of the Human Heart See how the human heart moves blood through the body in this animated feature from the NOVA: "Cut to the Heart" Web site.	K-8	HTML Document
Masters of Disguise In the face of danger, what's a spineless animal to do? This video segment introduces the concept of camouflage -- how animals achieve it and how this form of disguise benefits both predators and prey. Footage from NOVA: "Animal Impostors."	K-12	QuickTime Video
Mouthparts and Digestion Students discover how the structure of an animal's mouthparts and digestive system gives clues to what the animal eats.	6-8	Lesson Plan
OPERATION: Heart Transplant Perform a virtual heart transplant in 19 easy steps with this interactive feature from the NOVA: "Electric Heart" Web site.	6-8	Shockwave Interactive
Pellagra In this video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey, learn about pellagra, a mysterious and deadly disease that affected populations living in the American South in the early 20^th century, and how a scientist experimented to find a cure.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Plants-in-Motion While we tend to think of plants as stationary, they are in constant, though very slow motion, as they respond to environmental factors. Watch plants move in time-lapse videos in this interactive activity adapted from Indiana University.	K-12	Flash Interactive
Plant Structure and Function Students learn how the structure of different plant parts relates to their function.	6-8	Lesson Plan
Primitive Insects of the Congaree Swamp In this video segment from NatureScene, observe dragonflies and mayflies near Cedar Creek at Congaree Swamp National Park.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Producing Penicillin In this video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey, follow two scientists and their Nobel Prize-winning efforts to cure bacterial infections using penicillin.	5-12	QuickTime Video
Redwoods at Redwood National Park This video segment from NatureScene describes the characteristics of redwood trees at Redwood National Park.	3-8	QuickTime Video
The Remarkable Cocklebur: Worldwide Hitchhiker & Nature's Velcro® This essay from Wayne's Word explores the "hitchhiking" method of seed dispersal, and how a closer look at one of these bur plants gave rise to an invention.	6-8	PDF Document
The Reproductive Role of Flowers In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn about the critical role of flowers in seed plant reproductive biology.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Reptiles of the Congaree Swamp In this video segment from NatureScene, discover some reptiles in the swamp forest ecosystem at Congaree Swamp National Park.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Root Systems of Trees at the Congaree Swamp Learn about root systems of trees in the Congaree Swamp National Park in this video segment from NatureScene.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Ruminants Why do cows chew their cud? This video segment from Secret of Life: "Accidents of Creation" describes the physical adaptations that have made ruminants some of the most important, and certainly the most efficient, plant eaters on earth.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Scientific Processes In this interactive activity adapted from NOVA, expand your understanding of the scientific process. Watch two videos featuring animations and interviews with scientists, and notice how the processes unfold and vary from one investigation to the other.	9-12	Flash Interactive
Secrets in the Salt This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW describes a team of scientists searching for evidence of ancient life within a salt deposit that formed 250 million years ago.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Seeds Away This collection of images shows several types of plant seeds, each with a different mechanism for dispersing from the parent plant.	6-8	JPEG Image
Shape of Things: Trees This video segment from NOVA: "The Shape of Things" describes the pervasiveness of branching systems, which are found in all multicellular organisms.	6-8	QuickTime Video
Snake Jaws: A Lesson in Evolution In this media-rich activity designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how animals' physical characteristics, such as jaw structure, are directly related to the function they perform when the animal interacts with its environment.	5-12	Student Activity
Sock Seeds In this ZOOMSci experiment, you're invited to walk through a grassy or weedy field in your stocking feet, then plant a sock and see what grows.	K-8	QuickTime Video
Unhinged! This video segment explores the integral relationship between structure and function in snakes.	6-8	QuickTime Video
Whale and Human Ears What do whale ears look like? You might be surprised! These two versions of this diagram -- one with the anatomical parts labeled and one that students can label themselves -- compare the anatomy of a whale ear to that of a human ear. From Marine Biology: Environment, Diversity, and Ecology by David Lerman	3-5	PDF Document

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Subtopic: Living Systems