Background Information for Environments,
Habitats, and Ecosystems
 
On this page, you'll find links that fellow
teachers and KSN staff have recommended. These
links are tools to help guide your background
research on the topics covered within your kit.
habitat
study | ecosystems
biomes | watersheds | acid rain | waste
management
Habitat Study
Schoolyard Habitats
To address the growing problem of habitat loss in the
wild, the National Wildlife Federation created the
Schoolyard Habitats program, helping teachers and students
create wildlife habitat on their own school grounds. This
site offers step-by-step instructions for turning your
school campus into a hands-on, habitat-based learning
site.
eNature.com: Online Field Guide
This site offers a
searchable database for identifying more than 4,000 plant
and animal species of North America. All content is from the
National Audubon Society Field Guides, Regional Guides,
Nature Guides, and Birds Interactive CD-ROM.
Floridata
An online plant
photo resource, Floridata could be very useful in helping to
identify unknown plants, or to find out more about known
plants.
Animal Diversity Web
Enter the animal of your choice, and receive detailed
information about its biological classification, geographic
range, physical characteristics, natural history, food
habits, behavior, habitat, and more.
Insect
Zoo
Created by the
Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History and
Mississippi State University, this site features accessible
information about insects and spiders for teachers and
students, with links to dozens of other useful insect sites.
Soil Type Chart
If
you're investigating soil in an outdoor habitat, this handy
flow chart will help you figure out what type of soil you
have.
Related kits: Animal Studies, Ecosystems,
Environments, Habitats
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Ecosystems
Neighborhoods: Ecosystems, Biomes, and
Habitats
This user-friendly resource produced by The
Franklin Institute integrates explanations and
links about habitats and ecosystems.
Introduction to the Ecosystem Concept
This heavily
hyperlinked description of ecosystems may be
useful to teachers seeking a thorough
understanding of ecosystems, and for detailed
definitions of key terms.
Ecosystems and Habitats
Created by the World Resources
Institute, this site is chock-full of background
information, and could be useful to the teacher
who seeks comprehensive ecosystems content.
EPA
Environmental Education Center
The EPA designed this
incredibly rich site to familiarize teachers with
a host of environmental issues, including
ecosystems, conservation, recycling, pollution,
human health, and much more.
EPA Student
Center
A
companion of the above site, but geared towards
students rather than educators, this site offers a
feast of information and ideas about the
environment. It would be especially useful for
middle school level students.
Related kits: All kits
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Biomes
What's It Like Where You Live?
This pretty site offers comprehensive information
about different biomes for teachers and students,
highlighting kids' explorations.
Biomes
This site offers detailed information about the various world
biomes, with great student-friendly information about how creatures and palnts are differently abled and suit their environments.
Alaska's Cold Desert
The site, produced by the Bureau of Land Management,
contains some useful "For the Classroom" resources designed
to help students understand the science of this
biome.
Journey into Amazonia
These classroom resources from PSB provide a great deal
of useful content about the Amazon ecosystem, including
lesson ideas with standards correlations, background
information, links, procedures, extension suggestions, and
assessment recommendations.
Related kits: Animal Studies, Ecosystems,
Environments, Habitats
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Watersheds
Surf Your Watershed
Along with lots of information about watersheds, this
site from the EPA allows users to find out about the health
of their local watershed, as well as any other watershed in
the state.
Know Your Watershed
The "Know Your Watershed" site provides teacher-level
definitions, explanations, and guides for project initiation
and management. There is also a web-based tutorial that
teaches the fundamentals of water quality
investigation.
Watershed Information Network
Watershed Information Network offers a lot of basic
information about watersheds and may prompt some ideas for
classroom discussions.
Related kits: Ecosystems, Environments, Habitats,
There Is No Away
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Acid Rain
Acid Rain
The EPA has created this site for kids to explain what acid rain is, what causes it, why it's harmful, and what can be done about it.
Acid
Rain: Info and Experiments
Beakman explains
acid rain, and provides an easy and fun way to test
rainwater for acidity.
Related kits: Ecosystems, Environments, Habitats
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Waste Management
Garbage
With
straight facts about how much waste people produce and what
can be done about it, this site would be a great reference
for Insight's There Is No Away and a good supplement for
other more general ecosystem studies.
Recycle
City
Visit Recycle
City and see how the people of Dumptown turned their town
around. This site is a source of fun and great kid-friendly
information about recycling, re-use, and responsible waste
management.
Related kits: Ecosystems, Environments, Habitats,
There Is No Away
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