The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture in the Classroom Web site(last mentioned in the October 27, 1999 Scout Report for Science & Engineering) has recently been updated. One of the current features, Listening to the Prairie - Farming in Nature's Image, is a useful resource which has many lesson plans and classroom activities for all grades and can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat...

The Animal Grossology Activities listed in this document are tied closely to an exhibition of the same name at the Da Vinci Science Center. Originally part of the Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the center is now an independent non-profit with exhibits and programs that make science fun and accessible for learners of all ages. In a nod to Sylvia Branzei's popular children's books,...

This extensive collection of activities from the American Museum of Natural History offers middle school students "an exciting and creative context for involving students in the scientific process while introducing them to the rich diversity and beauty of their local ecosystem." Lesson plans, Web-based interactive activities, useful Web links, profiles of AMNH scientists and staff, and other...

Produced by Dr. Leif Saul, a biology teacher and Web site/ game developer, Biology in Motion has two new interactive education activities. Organize-It introduces an alternative way to test biological understanding by organizing concepts hierarchically. This exercise intends to "remedy some of the shortcomings of the traditional multiple-choice quiz." Users can choose self-tests from a variety of...

This interdisciplinary survey course was created by Lehigh University with a grant provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The topics covered by this course include infectious diseases, cancer, genome-based medicine, stem cells, and bioinformatics. On the site, visitors can read about the background of this project and also check out the course syllabus. Moving on, visitors can click on...

The Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) has developed this online project to allow students around the world to compare the organisms found in water samples they collect from local ponds. This year's project will run from March 15 - June 1. Classes will develop a hypothesis, collect data to be shared with other participants, analyze the shared data, and complete a final...

Dr. Dennis O'Neal of Palomar College designed this site to introduce students to a tutorial on the Classification of Living Things. Topics addressed at this site include the Linnaen system of classification, amount of species in our world, the importance of biological diversity, the history of classification, and the relevancy of classification in the present day. There are links to the Main Menu,...

Educators may appreciate Countryside Classroom, where they will find over three hundred free teaching resources centered around "themes of food, farming, and the natural environment." Countryside Classroom is a UK-based educational resource portal managed by the nonprofit LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) Education on behalf of over thirty partner organizations. Their collection of...

Based at Harvard University, the Cyberbridge program is designed to help high school students transition into the first year of life sciences courses at Harvard. Even if you aren't going to Harvard in the fall, the materials will prove useful to others as well. The materials are divided into five topical areas, including "Mendel's Laws" and "Mitosis and Meiosis". Visitors can click on each...

Just about anywhere you look in the natural sciences you'll find a cycle of some description. From cells to individuals to populations and beyond, cyclical patterns exist on every scale. The following collection of Web sites follows on this theme: The first site (1) is an excellent, animated introduction to the cell cycle from Cells Alive! Users can also get a closer look at the stages of mitosis...