These images from the Smithsonian Institution depict Nancy Knowlton's work with snapping shrimp in Panama. Knowlton found that the closing of the isthmus -- dividing the Pacific Ocean from the Caribbean -- resulted in new species of shrimp.

Learn about the structure and function of living organisms by drawing an imaginary animal in the Take the Stage game show, ANIMAL SURVIVAL! Viewers become contestants on a game show and are challenged to draw an imaginary animal that could live and survive in either the desert, ocean, or the arctic tundra. When drawing the imaginary animal, the contestants write out two distinct structures and a function for each of the structures that help it survive. Learning Objective: Compare the structures and functions of different species that help them live and survive in a specific environment.

Learn about the physical characteristics of environments and act out the animals that live there!

You are the next contestant on the Take the Stage game show ANIMAL SURVIVAL where you will travel in a hot air balloon to the forest of North America, the savanna of Africa, and then take a submarine ride underwater in the ocean. To play the game, you will act out an animal that would live in each environment, and then write how the physical characteristics of each environment helps your animal survive.

Learning Objective: observe and describe the physical characteristics of environments and how they support populations and communities of plants and animals within an ecosystem.

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Artists are often particularly keen observers and precise recorders of the physical conditions of the natural world. As a result, paintings can be good resources for learning about ecology. Teachers can use this lesson to examine with students the interrelationship of geography, natural resources, and climate and their effects on daily life. It also addresses the roles students can take in caring for the environment. Students will look at paintings that represent cool temperate, warm temperate, and tropical climates.
In this lesson students will: Identify natural resources found in particular geographic areas; Discuss ways in which climate, natural resources, and geography affect daily life; Apply critical-thinking skills to consider the various choices artists have made in their representations of the natural world; Make personal connections to the theme by discussing ways they can be environmental stewards; Identify natural resources found in particular geographic areas; Discuss ways in which climate, natural resources, and geography affect daily life; Apply critical-thinking skills to consider the various choices artists have made in their representations of the natural world; Make personal connections to the theme by discussing ways they can be environmental stewards.

Learn about one town's conflict over the issue of spraying pesticides to combat disease-carrying insects, in this video segment from Greater Boston.

This article describes six collaborative and real data projects that engage elementary students in collecting and sharing local data and communicating with students across the country and world.

The levels of contaminants found in particular animals vary widely depending on where they fit into the Arctic food chain, as described in this video segment adapted from LOKE Films and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.

In this video segment adapted from LOKE Films and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, learn how human populations in the Arctic are affected by industrial contaminants in the food chain.

This video segment from NOVA: A Desert Place describes the physical characteristics and organisms that define the desert biome.

This video segment from Greater Boston examines whether environmental toxins may be to blame for a rare skin disease.

Students will learn local sources of energy in Utah and evaluate the environmental and economic cost of various forms of energy.

Earth science is the study of our home planet and all of its components: its lands, waters, atmosphere, and interior. In this book, some chapters are devoted to the processes that shape the lands and impact people. Other chapters depict the processes of the atmosphere and its relationship to the planet’s surface and all our living creatures. For as long as people have been on the planet, humans have had to live within Earth’s boundaries. Now human life is having a profound effect on the planet. Several chapters are devoted to the effect people have on the planet. Chapters at the end of the book will explore the universe beyond Earth: planets and their satellites, stars, galaxies, and beyond.

This activity demonstrates the effect of changes in the environment on the growth of plants. The plants are placed in environments such as high salinity, cold, heat, or drought and observe the different reactions (growth) of the plants to these conditions. Students discuss the desirability of breeding new types of plants that are better able to withstand these changes if they occur in the general environment. The objectives of this activity is to: 1. Plant, grow and maintain plants under different environmental treatment conditions. 2. Observe differences in plant growth between these treatments. 3. Compare the growth of treated plants with the growth of control plants

Students will understand the difference between conservation and energy efficiency, discover the importance of energy use in their lives and recognize behavioral and technological approaches to energy efficiency and conservation.

How do you make artwork that is conceptual? Artist Robb Godshaw uses technical means to move things that can’t be moved, or make visible things that aren’t normally visible. Watch as Godshaw scavenges electronic waste during an artist residency at SF Recology.

The significance of "Program #18: National Parks & Recreation" is discussed in this full program from the 22-part video series THE GEOGRAPHY OF UTAH, conceived and written by Albert L. Fisher, PhD (University of Utah) in the early 1980s. Program Eighteen is a video tour of Utah's spectacular national parks and recreation areas. Zion National Park, Bryce National Park, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches National Park, Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Dinosaur National Monument, and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are all visited. The controversy of land use and environmental preservation is considered in interviews with San Juan County Commissioner Cal Black and Benjamin Zerbey of the National Park Service. Rainbow Bridge National Monument and Canyonlands National Park are only two examples of the land use debate. The entire GEOGRAPHY OF UTAH series encompasses the political, cultural, historical and sociological geography of the state of Utah. It describes the activities, the land and the people. Much of the video material was videotaped on location throughout the state of Utah, giving the student and interested viewer valuable field trip experiences. You will find that even though the series was produced several decades ago, Utah's issues and its landforms have virtually remained the same, although many of the players have changed.

Learn about a study in which participants discovered contaminants in their homes, and how green chemistry may provide alternatives to such everyday toxins, in this video adapted from Contaminated Without Consent.

This is a lesson designed to help kindergarten students explore the ways humans affect their habitats.  Students will also connect those changes to the human needs that are being met better as a result of the changes.

Students will use a food web model to gather data and classify which roles (producer, consumer, and decomposer) each organism plays in this mountain ecosystem. In doing so, students will reason how energy and matter are impacted by the change taking place in this environment. Students will develop and use models to explain their thinking.
NHMU Research Quests are phenomena-based, online investigations asynchronously led by museum educators and scientists that are rooted in museum research and collections. Resources include teacher instructional guides, formative and summative assessments, and student notebooks. A free educator acount is required to access the materials.