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.
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5-8 |
Flash Interactive
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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.
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6-8 |
HTML Document
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Anglerfish
This video segment from NOVA: "Animal Imposters" shows the lightning-fast strike of the anglerfish.
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6-8 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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K-5 |
JPEG Image
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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."
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3-8 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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K-8 |
JPEG Image
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Animal Mouth Structures
Students observe several animals' mouth structures and explore
how these structures help the animal obtain, handle, and eat food.
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3-5 |
Lesson Plan
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Biome in a Baggie
This ZOOMSci video segment shows how to create self-contained environments and explore how plants grow under different conditions.
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K-8 |
QuickTime Video
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Bird Beak Gallery
This collection of images of 10 different birds illustrates the diversity of bird beaks.
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K-8 |
Flash Image
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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.
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K-8 |
Flash Image
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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.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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6-8 |
HTML Interactive
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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.
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6-8 |
HTML Interactive
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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.
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7-12 |
Flash Interactive
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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.
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6-8 |
Flash Interactive
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The Circulatory System
Students explore the interrelationship of structure and function in the circulatory system.
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6-8 |
Lesson Plan
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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.
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K-5 |
JPEG Image
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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.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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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.
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6-8 |
HTML Document
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6-8 |
PDF Document
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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.
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6-8 |
QuickTime Video
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Evolution of Camouflage
This video segment from Evolution: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" illustrates the remarkable camouflage of a praying mantis against its leafy backdrop.
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3-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Fighting Back
Help the immune system fight off an infection in this interactive feature from the NOVA: "Surviving AIDS" Web site.
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6-8 |
Shockwave Interactive
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Floral Arrangements
Explore a few of the ways plants pollinate each other in this video segment from Sexual Encounters of a Floral Kind.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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6-8 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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K-8 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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5-12 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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6-8 |
GIF Image
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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.
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3-12 |
Flash Interactive
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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.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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6-8 |
JPEG Image
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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.
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6-8 |
JPEG Image
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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.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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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.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Living vs. Nonliving
Students explore the chracteristics that distinguish living from nonliving things.
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K-5 |
Lesson Plan
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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.
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K-8 |
HTML Document
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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."
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K-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Mouthparts and Digestion
Students discover how the structure of an animal's mouthparts and digestive
system gives clues to what the animal eats.
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6-8 |
Lesson Plan
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OPERATION: Heart Transplant
Perform a virtual heart transplant in 19 easy steps with this interactive feature from the NOVA: "Electric Heart" Web site.
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6-8 |
Shockwave Interactive
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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.
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K-12 |
Flash Interactive
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6-8 |
Lesson Plan
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6-8 |
PDF Document
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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.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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9-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Seeds Away
This collection of images shows several types of plant seeds, each with a different mechanism for dispersing from the parent plant.
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6-8 |
JPEG Image
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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.
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6-8 |
QuickTime Video
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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.
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K-8 |
QuickTime Video
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Unhinged!
This video segment explores the integral relationship between structure and function in snakes.
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6-8 |
QuickTime Video
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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
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3-5 |
PDF Document
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