Collecting and Examining Life Web Links
Our writers recommended these independent websites as background information and content supplements for Collecting and Examining Life lessons.
Brine Shrimp in the Great Salt Lake
An excellent, illustrated article about the ecology and life history of brine shrimp from the Great Salt Lake.
All About Snails
This website offers extensive background information on land and pond snails in a format that is easy to navigate.It also includes links to other snail related activites that are appropraite for younger students. (http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Snails/)
Welcome to Snail City
A kid-friendly website that provides information about snails and their habitat. (http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/)
Snails, Slugs and Worms
Provides background teacher information about snails, slugs, and worms. (http://www.gardensafari.net/english/snails.htm)
Apple Snails
This website is an excellent resource to use for background information about the apple snail, a common aquatic snail that is sold in many pet stores. (http://www.applesnail.net/)
Fresh Water Snails
You can find extensive information about a variety of freshwater snails on this excellent website. (http://www.weichtiere.at/english/gastropoda/freshwater.html)
eNature.com
The eNature web site offers online field guides to plants and animals, including local guides and habitat guides. It also supports teachers by providing a form for creating an ongoing classroom species list.
Insecta Inspecta World
For students with a strong interest in insects, this site provides a good source of additional information.
Project FeederWatch
Project Feeder Watch provides an opportunity for your class to submit observations about the birds that visit your class feeder from November through April. By joining ($15 fee), you will receive an instruction booklet, a handbook, a subscription to the newsletter, a colorful wall calendar, a bird identification poster, and more.
The Yukkiest Site on the Internet
Wendell the Worm, host of the “Yuckiest site on the Internet,” welcomes visitors to “Worm World.” A Teacher
What is a Flower?
Produced by an elementary classroom on the ThinkQuest web site, this link to “What is a Flower?” provides clear drawings and child-friendly cartoons that illustrate some basic topics about flowers.
Singing Insects of North America
This is an awesome site with recordings of all sorts of insects – including several species of crickets.
ARKive Education
ARKive’s free fun-packed teaching resources cover a range of key science and biology subjects including: adaptation, food chains, Darwin and natural selection, classification, identification, conservation and biodiversity. (http://www.arkive.org/education/resources)
WildEarth.TV … it’s in your nature
In this website you will find several ‘windows’ into our wild and beautiful earth. Safari.tv takes you on a LIVE presenter led safari at Djuma in South Africa twice per day. PixController provides you with a glimpse into the wild Pennsylvanian woods. Hancock Wildlife Foundation are experts at sharing wild Canadian wildlife like bald eagles, salmon and even bears. HornbyEagles.com curate one of the worlds most famous and popular wildlife webcams watching a pair of bald eagles near Vancouver Island. Operation Migration are an amazing group of people that are busy saving the endangeredwhooping crane, watch them LIVE as they migrate across America. whooping crane, watch them LIVE as they migrate across America. (http://www.wildearth.tv/home)
Faunapolis | Can’t we all just get along?
Faunapolis is a place where you can share interesting photos and stories about animals that live in this new kind of jungle we call town, city, or even backyard. If you have a photo of an animal and need to find its species, this is the place to post that picture and get help. These creatures are learning to live with us, and new symbiotic relations between them and us are creating an entirely different ecosystem. Will we ever be able to coexist? (faunapolis.org)
Welcome to the Animal Science Image Gallery
This site is designed to provide images, animations, and video for classroom and outreach learning. To supplement the visual information, each file has a description and metadata including the origins and ownership for the image. (http://anscigallery.nal.usda.gov/)
Build Your Own Caterpillar
What does a caterpillar need in order to fit into its environment and survive in the Costa Rican rain forest? Build a specialized caterpillar that fits the scene and at the end of the activity, you can print out your creations! (http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/explorer/ecosystems/be_an_explorer/map/form_caterpillars.htm)
Endangered Ecosystems: Build a Food Web
In this activity, children will investigate some of the animals in the Mexican ecosystem.Figure out who are the predators and who are their prey and build your own food web. At the end of this activity, children can print a Food Web Certificate of Achievement! (http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/explorer/ecosystems/be_an_explorer/map/form_wildcats.htm)
Animal Games for Kids – Kids Corner
A great child-friendly website that offers a variety of animal games to reinforce what children have learned in the classroom. Game topics include: animal classification, producers and consumers, food chain, animal diet, endangered animals, and animal characteristics. (http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/gamesforkids.htm)
Brookfield Zoo: In Search of the Ways of Knowing Trail
This interactive site takes children on a wonderful adventure through the Ituri Forest in Africa. Along the way, children learn about the different that can be found in this diverse environment. (http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/pagegen/wok/index.html)
National Wildlife Week
Children, young and old, will love learning about animals as they turn investigator and conduct animal research, dig up details about worms, go on a BioBlitz and watch Webcam broadcasts from zoos and aquariums around the U.S. and the world. Take a look at this great variety of attention-grabbing resources from Thinkfinity! (http://www.thinkfinity.org/?q=national-wildlife-week)
Search for Your Favorite Animals — National Geographic Kids
Children can click on a photograph of a variety of different animals to learn about a particular animal through fact sheets, videos, images, and maps. They even have the option of printing a collectors card with a picture and facts about the selected organism. (http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature)
Animal Videos, Photos, Facts –National Geographic Kids
This website offers numerous photographs, videos, and background information on a wide range of animals. Animals & Nature Stories — National Geographic Kids (CEL)kids.nationalgeographic.com/…animalsnature Children and teachers can use this website to read stories about a variety of interesting animals. (http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals)
WolfQuest
An immersive, 3D wildlife simulation game, WolfQuest challenges players to learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park. (http://www.wolfquest.org/)
San Diego Zoo’s Kid Territory
An interactive website with games, activities, videos, and information about the animals at the San Diego Zoo. (http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/)
National Geographic: CritterCam and WildCam
National Geographic’s Crittercam is a research tool designed to be worn by wild animals. It combines video and audio recording with collection of environmental data such as depth, temperature, and acceleration.National Geographic’s WildCam program is a conservation initiative that uses the Internet to connect people to Earth’s last remaining wild places. Using streaming video technology, WildCam Africa brings viewers from all over the world to the remote Pete’s Pond in Botswana where animals go about their daily lives. And because it’s live, you never know what may happen next! (http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/crittercam-wildcam/)
Animals – Wildlife – Kids Coloring Pages – Animal Fact Guide
Here at Animal Fact Guide you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about the animalsroaming our planet on our Animal Facts page. You can also download free coloring pages, word searches, mazes, and desktop wallpapers on our Fun Stuff page or check out cool animal videos, photos, and news on our Wildlife Blog (http://www.animalfactguide.com/index.php)
ZooBorns
This website shows the newest and cutest exotic baby animals from zoos around the world. (http://www.zooborns.com/)
The Big Picture: Scenes from the Zoo
Check out these amazing photos! This website shares photographs from zoos and aquariums around the world from the past couple of months. (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/04/scenes_from_the_zoo.html)
Animal Database By KidsBiology.com
Learn about hundreds of different animals offered on this website. (http://www.kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php)
World Wildlife Fund
This website includes animal games, free E-cards, wallpaper, and photos. (http://www.worldwildlife.org/how/fun/index.html)
Animal Diversity Web
Browse this website to learn more about each Animal kingdom. Subtopics include background information, pictures, specimens, sounds, and classification. (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html)
Infrared Zoo Gallery
Infrared light shows the heat radiated by the world around us. On this website, you can view animals with a thermal infrared camera, to actually “see” the differences between warm and cold-blooded animals. Infrared also allows us to study how well feathers, fur and blubber insulate animals. (coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/…ir_zoo)
Welcome to ZipcodeZoo
ZipcodeZoo works to bring the natural world to armchair, amateur, and professional naturalists who want to learn more about the plants and animals in their local environment. (zipcodezoo.com)
FETCH! Link-O-Vision
In this fun, interactive game, children are given clues about different animals and have to decide which clues match which animal. May be too advanced for younger children, depending on reading level, but it can be a teacher directed game. (http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/linkovision/game.html)