Science

Grade 8 Living Environment

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VITAL NY State Test Prep

RESOURCE	GRADE LEVEL	MEDIA TYPE
All in the Family In this Evolution Web feature, test your skills at judging who's who on the tree of life while you learn about the tools and methods of cladistics.	6-12	Interactive
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	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	Document
Ancient Farmers of the Amazon This video segment from Evolution: "Evolutionary Arms Race" tells the story of the leafcutter ant and the fungus it farms -- an example of mutually beneficial symbiosis.	6-12	Video
Animal Classification Game Learn about classes of animals and test your ability to identify animals as mammals, birds, reptiles and more in this interactive activity adapted from Sheppard Software.	4-8	Interactive
Antarctic Food Web Game In this interactive game adapted from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, build a food web that illustrates the flow of energy in an Antarctic ecosystem and the relationships between predators and prey.	5-8	Interactive
Asexual Reproducers This video segment explores the benefits and pitfalls of cloning as a means of reproduction. From Evolution: "Why Sex?"	6-8	Video
Blood Flow and Thermoregulation In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Alberta, learn about the ways your body can regulate its temperature.	7-12	Interactive
Body Control Center Throughout the day, your nervous system monitors and makes endless adjustments to your body's basic systems -- all to keep you alive. This interactive feature illustrates the complexity of such a task.	6-8	Interactive
Body Needs This interactive feature from the NOVA "Dying to Be Thin" Web site describes the nutritional needs of the body and how to meet them.	3-8	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	Interactive
Capturing Carbon In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, a scientist, inspired by his daughter's science fair project, develops a synthetic "tree" to remove excess carbon dioxide from the air.	6-12	Video
Cell Differentiation In this video segment from The Secret of Life school video, "Sex and the Single Gene" follow as a single fertilized egg cell divides, differentiates, and assembles into the tissues and organs of a new organism.	6-12	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	Interactive
Cell Membrane: Just Passing Through This interactive feature describes some of the most important structures and functions of the cell membrane.	6-12	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	Interactive
Common Past, Different Paths This time-lapse microphotography of developing embryos shows the common ancestry of all vertebrates. Footage from NOVA: "Odyssey of Life."	K-8	Video
Continental Divide: The Breakup of Pangaea Examine geological evidence found in fossils, rock deposits, and ancient mountains that supports the theory of continental drift in this interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium.	6-12	Interactive
Duckweed These images of duckweed (Lemna spp.) illustrate the basic anatomy and environment of these fast-growing plants.	9-12	Image
Energy Flow This feature, adapted from Interactive NOVA: "Earth," follows the path of energy as it is transferred via the food chain from one type of organism to another.	K-5	Interactive
Fever! This video describes the role of the brain in regulating body temperature and how sometimes fever is employed to fight off infection.	6-8	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	Video
Genetics: Tour of the Basics In this interactive activity from the University of Utah, identify different kinds of genetic traits and how they are passed on from generation to generation. View examples of simple and complex trait inheritance.	6-12	Interactive
Genetic Tool Kit The shared set of genes for body segments, possessed by all animals, are discussed in this video segment from Evolution: "Great Transformations."	6-12	Video
How Cancer Cells Grow and Divide This animation from NOVA: "Battle in the War on Cancer: Breast Cancer" describes how oncogenes cause cancer and how cancerous cells can spread throughout the body.	6-12	Video
How Cancer Grows Follow the growth of a carcinoma from initial mutation to widespread metastasis in this feature from the NOVA: "Cancer Warrior" Web site.	6-12	Interactive
How Cells Divide: Mitosis vs. Meiosis How exactly does meiosis mix and halve chromosomes? Find out through this feature from NOVA: "18 Ways to Make a Baby," which provides a step-by-step, side-by-side comparison of meiosis and mitosis.	6-12	Interactive
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	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	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	Image
Life Before Oxygen This Interactive NOVA: "Earth" video segment looks at ancient organisms that lived anaerobically, the origins of photosynthesis, and the new forms of life this process made possible.	3-12	Video
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	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	Interactive
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	Video
Mendel's Laws of Genetic Inheritance This interactive activity, adapted from the Dolan DNA Learning Center, uses Punnett squares to illustrate Mendel's laws of inheritance and how a particular gene combination results in a 3-to-1 ratio of dominant-to-recessive traits.	6-12	Interactive
Metamorphosis: Change of Plans All animals develop and grow over time. The animals in this video segment, however, undergo very dramatic changes on their way to adulthood -- a developmental process known as metamorphosis.	K-5	Video
Mitosis This video segment, adapted from the Interactive Secret of Life videodisc, explains the stages of mitosis, the process of dividing equally a cell's massive jumble of DNA just prior to cell division.	6-12	Video
Photosynthesis This video segment from Interactive NOVA: "Earth" looks at photosynthesis, the chemical process plants use to make their own food.	3-12	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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
Single-Celled Organisms This video segment explores the astounding diversity of the world's smallest life forms: single-celled organisms.	6-12	Video
Snapshot of U.S. Energy Use This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE looks at American energy consumption and the resulting production of greenhouse gases.	3-12	Video
Some Genes Are Dominant This interactive activity, adapted from the Dolan DNA Learning Center, illustrates how Gregor Mendel used pure-bred yellow and green peas to show that some genes are dominant and others are recessive.	6-12	Interactive
Where Do You Get Your Energy? In this interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium, explore how our cells harvest energy from food.	7-10	Interactive