Ryan Belida        http://www.insectsafari.com

This is a science website that has many different kinds of activities that you can do to learn about bugs.  The website has links to learn about small and large insect life cycles.  There are games you can play, for example "Name that Bug".  In one of the links it tells you all about the
characterists of insects, and arthropods.  Also the site has the involvement of insects in the ecosystem and food chain.  This site relates
to Grade 2 level.

Life Sciences
2. Plants and animals have predictable life cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind and that the offspring resemble their parents and one another.

b. Students know the sequential stages of life cycles are different for different animals, such as butterflies, frogs, and mice.

This CD presents particle physics in a fairly visually interesting fashion, but it basically a series of presentations in sequential screens. It starts with the basic structure of the atom and then proceeds into more complex structure, including quarks, leptons, matter and antimatter, and so on. There is a fairly small amount of material presented on each screen, with some trivia quizzes and recall quizzes interspersed. It seems like a reasonable way to present this subject if it could be projected on a screen for the entire class to see.

The standards it could be used to address include:
8th grade - structure of matter: 3a structure of atom
Chemistry - atomic and molecular structure - 1e
Chemistry - nuclear processes - 11a and 11g
Interestingly enough, the physics standards do not include particle physics, and most of the material on this CD is in greater depth than is covered by the standards.

"The Magic School Bus Explores the World of Animals" is a wonderful educational CD packed with endless hours of fun and exciting information, games, activities, pictures and movie clips for children between the ages of 6 and 10 who are interested in exploring the world of science and animals.  The highly interactive CD allows children to go on an adventure around the world with other students learning all about animals and their habitats along the way.  This CD covers many California standards for Life Sciences in grades K-4.

The standards covered are:
Kindergarten
Different types of plants and animals inhabit the earth. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals (e.g., seed-bearing plants, birds, fish, insects).
b. Students know stories sometimes give plants and animals attributes they do not really have.
c. Students know how to identify major structures of common plants and animals (e.g., stems, leaves, roots, arms, wings, legs).

First Grade
Students know different plants and animals inhabit different kinds of environments and have external features that help them thrive in different kinds of places.
Students know both plants and animals need water, animals need food, and plants need light.
Students know animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants or even other animals for shelter and nesting.
Students know how to infer what animals eat from the shapes of their teeth (e.g., sharp teeth: eats meat; flat teeth: eats plants).

Second Grade:
Students know that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind and that the offspring resemble their parents and one another.
Students know the sequential stages of life cycles are different for different animals, such as butterflies, frogs, and mice.
Students know there is variation among individuals of one kind within a population.

Third Grade:
Students know plants and animals have structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.
Students know examples of diverse life forms in different environments, such as oceans, deserts, tundra, forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
Students know living things cause changes in the environment in which they live: some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, and some are beneficial.

Fourth Grade:
Students know many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, and animals depend on plants for food and shelter.
Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:

How the CD fits these standards:
The CD goes into a lot of detail on many species of animals, tells how they relate to other animals and their environments.  It goes into detail about the food they eat, and the environment that is required for life.  Students get to explore the habitats of the swamp, artic tundra, mountains, islands, savannah, rain forest, desert, and ocean.  The classroom contains many exhibits and reports about the animals, where they live, how they function in their environment, fun facts and information on their young.  Examples of some of the activities are matching wild animals with domestic relatives and putting a bunch of bones together to make the skeleton of an animal.  There are trivia games and matching games and many more about animals and their environment.  Students can do experiments and make posters to learn additional facts on these topics.

CA Science Content Standards-Life Sciences that are met by this CD:
Grade One
2. Plants and animals meet their needs in different ways. As a basis for understanding this concept:
 c. Students know animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants or even other animals for shelter and nesting.
Third Grade
3. Adaptations in physical structure or behavior may improve an organism's chance for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:
 b. Students know examples of diverse life forms in different environments, such as oceans, deserts, tundra, forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
Fourth Grade
3. Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:
 c. Students know many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, and animals depend on plants for food and shelter.

The educational CD I am reviewing is The Magic School Bus: Explores the World of Animals.  This CD is aimed at teaching 6-10 year olds about the different animals that inhabit our world.  I think this is an excellent CD for children.  It is fantastically illustrated with many things to keep the child entertained.  This CD addresses the California Science Standards for kindergarten through fourth grade.  It does so by allowing the child to investigate different habitats and locate the animal that is out of place.  The CD also has a variety of games for the child to play, which will teach them such things as:  food chains, types of teeth and the foods eaten by these teeth, and habitats. The standards that were addressed are:

Kindergarten:  Life Science:  Different types of plants and animals inhabit the earth.
Investigation and Experimentation:  Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigation.  Students will compare and sort objects by one physical attribute.
First Grade:  Life Science:  Student knows different plants and animals inhabit different kinds of environments and have external features that help them thrive in different kinds of places.  Students know how to infer what animals eat from the shapes of their teeth.
Second Grade:  Life Science:  Plants and animals have predictable life cycles.
Investigation and Experimentation:  Compare and sort common objects according to two or more physical attributes.
Third Grade:  Life Science:  Students know examples of diverse life forms in different environments, such as oceans, deserts, tundra, forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
Fourth Grade:  Life Science:  Students know producers and consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers) are related in food chains and food webs and may compete with each other for resources in an ecosystem.

DESCRIPTION OF CD-ROM:
This is an interactive CD-Rom, which explains not only the anatomy of the human body, but the physiological aspects as well.  In order to
study a particular body part or system, you can click on that part and it will not only highlight the area, but will explain what it is and
what it does.  There is also an educational section to the disk in which a person actually comes on the screen and teaches you about a particular system.  You can also print out colored diagrams of body systems and their descriptions as needed.  This program really gets down to the specifics when it comes to the human body and because of its heavy emphasis on illustrations, students not only read, but they listen and observe instruction concerning anything they want or need to know about the human body.

STANDARDS BEING ADRESSED:
This CD-Rom is aligned with 7th grade, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th science content standards.  Some of those standards are as follows.  In the 7th grade, the structure and function in living systems standard talks about, students learning organ systems function and anatomy (5 a-g).  Grades  9th-12th standards present in this CD are physiology standards (9 a-I) found under Biological/Life science-Cell Biology in the Science Content Standards.  This disk can be very useful to students studying not only the human body, but also comparative studies looking at homologous structures among different organisms in the Animal kingdom.

The sophistication of the scientists in this preview CD and the different areas they addressed implies they will address everything in the standards, how in-depth and at what level is not clear, but it appears it will be at a high level.  I think advanced and AP classes would benefit most from this series.  Investigation and experimentation would probably be the best fit for this series as the scientists look like they will be discussing their personal views and adventures in the scientific world.

This CD is a preview of a new video series for middle & high school students.  It is printed on the CD that it will be available in the fall of 2002 on DVD or VHS.  The label identifies this as an NSTA, National Science Teachers Association educational tool.
 After trying to get my desktop CD player to recognize the disk, I tried it on my laptop, which has a DVD player.  I had to load a Quick time player to see video footage.  There were no specific instructions, and that was a bit frustrating.  There was a huge title page and 1/6 of the screen displayed the video of different modern scientists talking about science.  It looks like someone got to interview some interesting scientists.

 I went to the NSTA website which was on the label and looked around for the title of the CD.  I did not see it. I also did a search under products and found "No products in selected department/sub-department"

This software is intended to teach students the principles of atomic fusion by involving them in a fictitious scenario where they are to be trained in the operation of a fusion reactor that will provide power to a town.   The material is appropriate for physics and chemistry students at the high school level (i.e., 9th-12th grade).

The software addresses the following California science standards for those grades:
  Physics
5. "Electric and magnetic phenomena are related and have many practical applications."  Many subpoints are addressed, particularly:
h. "Students know changing magnetic fields produce electric fields, thereby inducing currents…"
i. "Students know plasmas…contain ions or free electrons or both and conduct electricity.
j. "Students know electric and magnetic fields contain energy and act as vector force fields."

Chemistry
11. "Nuclear processes are those in which an atomic nucleus changes, including…nuclear fusion."

The material is also applicable to the standards pertaining to thermodynamics under both the Physics and Chemistry subheadings, as well as to the standards pertaining to Atomic and Molecular Structure under the Chemistry subheading.

Kevin Voeller      Chime based 3D modeling of Biological Molecules, University of Massachusetts, Amherst  http://www.umass.edu/microbio/chime/

This is a review of the educational web site at http://www.umass.edu/microbio/chime/.  This web site is in my opinion an excellent tool in helping students understand some of the material required be the grade 9-12 state standard in biology.  This web site can help students explore the genetics, and molecular cell portions of this standard, by showing in great detail the three-dimensional structure of DNA, RNA, Proteins, and other biological molecules.

 The web site uses new Internet software called CHIME that allows students to interact with molecules, so that they may see and manipulate these molecules in three dimensions.  The site links to many other site using this same software such as "Protein Explorer" which goes into more detail about proteins, and protein structure.   The site also offers small animations of the molecules that can highlight the different portions of each of the molecules.

 I highly recommend this site to any educator teaching students about any of the molecules on the site.  It gives a stunning representation of a difficult subject to visualize on a two-dimensional blackboard.

This website matched the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade science standards.  This website addressed the Life Science standards for the third grade.  The standard addressed was 3a; Students know plants and animals have structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.

The website addressed the Life Science standards for the fifth grade.  The standard addressed was 2a; Students know how blood circulates through the heart chambers, lungs, and body and how carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) are exchanged in the lungs and tissues.  The standard also addressed 2b; Students know the sequential steps of digestion and the roles of teeth and the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and colon in the function of the digestive system.

The website addressed the Structure and Function in Living Systems standards for the seventh grade.  The standards addressed were 5a; Students know plants and animals have levels of organization for structure and function, including cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and the whole organism. The standard also addressed 5c; Students know how bones and muscles work together to provide a structural framework for movement.  The standard also addressed 5g; Students know how to relate the structures of the eye and ear to their functions.

The website also addressed the Physical Principles in Living Systems (Physical Science) standards for the seventh grade.  The standards addressed were 6h; Students know how to compare joints in the body (wrist, shoulder, thigh) with structures used in machines and simple devices (hinge, ball-and-socket, and sliding joints).  The standard also addressed 6j; Students know that contractions of the heart generate blood pressure and that heart valves prevent backflow of blood in the circulatory system.  The website also addressed the Physiology standards for grades nine through twelve.  The standards addressed were 9d; Students know the functions of the nervous system and the role of neurons in transmitting electrochemical impulses.  The standard also addressed 10a; Students know the role of the skin in providing nonspecific defenses against infection.  The website also addressed 10f; Students know the roles of phagocytes, B-lymphocytes, and T-lymphocytes in the immune system.

CD-ROM Highlights:  The following categories are highlighted by this CD-ROM…

• Expedition: Gulf of Mexico, EL Nino 1997, and Meet the Oceanographers
• Mission:  How we measure ocean topography, What’s on board (equipment), and Overview movie and information (accomplishments, pervious mission, and future plans).
• Guide: Climate, life, oceans, education standards, measurements, systems and interactions, process and change, scale and structure, human interactions and energy.

Targeted Grade Levels: The program guide of this CD-ROM suggests that students grades 2-12 will benefit from this CD-ROM.  I, however, found the material to be very high-level.  I think that the students that would benefit the most from it would be those in High School, or those with an adult present to guide and tutor.  The scientific information contained in this CD-ROM is vast and impressive.  I think individuals, even teachers, without a science background might struggle with the content.

Science Standards:  This CD-ROM offers content area and lesson plans supporting numerous science, geography, and math National Education Standards.  A 63 page document details these standards with links to sources in the CD-ROM.  Some of these standards include:
Science Standard  7,  Grades K-2
Knows that living things are found almost everywhere in the world and that distinct environments support the life of different types of plants and animals

Science Standard  7,  Grades 3-5
Knows that changes in the environment can have different effects on different organisms (e.g., some organisms move in, others move out; some organisms survive and reproduce, others die)

Science Standard  7,  Grades 6-8
Knows how an organism's ability to regulate its internal environment enables the organism to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment

Science Standard  7,  Grades 6-8
Knows that all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time make up a population, and all populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem

Science Standard  7,  Grades 6-8
Knows factors that affect the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support (e.g., available resources; abiotic factors such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition; disease; competition from other organisms within the ecosystem; predation)

Science Standard  7,  Grades 6-8
Knows relationships that exist among organisms in food chains and food webs

Science Standard  8,  Grades 3-5
Knows the organization of simple food chains and food webs (e.g., green plants make their own food with sunlight, water, and air; some animals eat the plants; some animals eat the animals that eat the plants)

7th Grade Evolution Standards:  3.  Evolution is a gradual process that accounts for diversity of species.
a. Causes
b. Darwin’s reasoning
c. Evidence
d. Branching Diagram
e. Extinction

9th-12th Grade Evolution Standards:  8.  Evolution is the result of genetic changes that occur in constantly changing environments.
a. Natural Selection
b. Diversity increases species survival
c. Genetic Drift
d. Isolation effects speciation
e. Analysis of fossil evidence

This is an excellent resource for Life science and Biology teachers.  The website focuses on teaching evolution from a hands-on, inquiry-based approach.  The site has a 40-page teacher’s guide, as well as a student section.  All lessons have a printable version and include readings, video clips, and activities.  The website offers an online course for teachers and an electronic evolution newsletter.  The newsletter has contacts for upcoming PBS Evolution workshops.

The program is broken into units including topics such as "The Nature of Science," Charles Darwin, Evidence, and "How Does Evolution Work?"   There is information concerning creationism as well.

The Website has a vast evolution library with many links to other activities, websites and readings.

Site Notes:
Excellent free site with great picture gallery, fast downloads and a broad range of articles that are not terribly esoteric or data analysis complex.  Would be a compelling site for both high school and middle school students both because of content and writing style.

Article Review:
Because of my professional background in both organic (PTFE) and inorganic (silicone) compounds I was drawn to this piece.  It seems that biomedical engineer Robert Langer and his former student Andreas Lendlein have found a way to combine polymers with different thermal properties.  They have married shape-memory polymers (invented in the 1950’s) with absorbable polymers (1960’s technology) that are suitable for human implantation.

In essence one of the two components will stay rigid at a given temperature while the other becomes flexible.  Polymers that become flexible at 98-99F, for instance, can be combined with other polymers to create devices that exhibit spring-like tendencies at normal body temperatures.  Potential applications for these compound combinations include angioplasty devices that go in like an uncoiled spring, then expand with exposure to body heat, expanding plastic surgery implants, self tightening sutures and drug delivery systems.

The article was written in a clear conversational style that would appeal to younger, non-technogeek audiences.  It is certainly not fodder for a typical MTV crowd and would be inappropriate for Ph.D. candidates.  I would encourage both middle and high school students to use this site as a source for both academic and entertainment science exploration.  Most articles (like this one) are short on data and mathematical analysis but are presented with both a style and a depth that will appeal to the genre.

The CD is recommended for grades 7-12

California Standards the CD addresses:

Grade 7   Earth and Life History #4 a, b, and f:  It shows how earth processes make large cumulative changes, that the history of life has been dramatically changed by volcanic eruptions, and that plate tectonics affects climate.
Grade 8   No standards are directly addressed
Grades 9-12   Earth Sciences #3 a-f: Dynamic Earth Processes ? demonstrates how plate tectonics change the pattern of land and sea by studying volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain range formation.  Although this CD would make a good introduction to all of the high school standard #3, the CD directly covers standards b, d, and f.  The following sections of the CD-Rom address these standards:
3b:  Introduction to Plate Boundaries
3d:  Plate Tectonics and Earth Quakes
3f:   Convergent Boundaries, Hot Spots and Plate Tectonics

Standards Covered:

· Students know that stars differ in their life cycles and that visual, radio, and x-ray telescopes may be used to collect data
that reveal those differences.
· Students know the evidence indicating that the planets are much closer to earth than the stars are.
· Students know the evidence for the existence of planets orbiting other stars.

Review:  I don't know if I, personally, would use this CD to teach a class or lesson about space science.  It seems it would take up a lot of time in class to go over the different parts of the program and that it would take away from the learning of the standard.  Would a teacher just give the students the CD and let them learn how to play on their own?  If not, how would the teacher monitor all that each student is doing while giving the instructions.  In the past, I remember teachers trying to teach high school or middle school students things to do on the computer and there were just too many times when students would play around more than pay attention to what the teacher is talking about.   I saw this even in college courses.

The parts I liked about the CD was the accessibility to the glossary and that you could easily click on a term to get the definition instead of having to look it up in the back of a book.  I always wondered what it would be like the have the text book on the pc; to be able to teach a class in the computer room, have everyone leave their books at home, and teach from the pc, only allowing them to use the mouse and not a keyboard.  A mouse is all you would need to read and follow along in the class.  That may assist in controlling the class room.  I always wondered why college students weren't given all their
information via CD-ROM.

I saw this "game" more like a test of reading comprehension than a game.  Maybe it was my initial impression of it being a game that bummed me out when I realized answering questions regarding what you read was all there was to the CD.

The review I am making is on the CD resource Prentice Hall, Resource Pro for Addison-Wesley Chemistry, that is a companion to the teacher’s edition of the class’s chemistry book. The initial display screen has a design and background of the chemistry textbook with an orange-reddish color and photographic images of beakers, flask, and graduate cylinders. This helps with connecting the software with the textbook. There are five options: The first is the tour guide section, which guides the users through the many features the program offers. I started by fast forwarding through the tour as I wanted a quick overview, but more importantly, I wanted to know how this program would help me in class immediately. I wanted to create lesson plans for my first chemistry class and so pressed on the lesson plan builder icon. The display screen in this section is presented well with two large entry boxes. The first on the left is empty and users fill this up by selecting from a number of different recommended topic discussions, teacher’s activities, and section exercises.  The selection is helpful and how it is organized on the right makes for a quick review of many of the important points for that chapter. A user could read an outline of a recommended experiment or demonstration and click a left arrow bottom to send it as an item for the day’s lesson plan. That item would show the title of the activity with an overview and also the estimated time for the activity. This last part is important because as a teacher you can organize a 55-minute class more accurately using the estimations. However, upon printing the lesson plan, the program displays only the outline of the activities with a general description of each activity. For example, a teacher reading an item on the lesson plan which shows an experiment would not have an explanation of that specific explanation, but a definition of the word "experiment". As users of this for classes, I had hoped that it would give me summary of the experiments, details, or safety reminders. Now for me to create the lesson plans, I develop the items differently by pressing, "create own lesson plan", rather than choose lesson plan for set items. Then, I choose the section of the resource library I am working on and set it to be available. Next, I press "new resources" which allows me to write in myself a description of the experiment or exercises. This allows me to put more helpful, detail, and specific content-related notes into my lesson plan while still using the template of that chapter’s sections.

This addresses the 10th and 11th chemistry standards. This CD is helpful because as mentioned earlier the recommended topics of discussion, exercises, experiments, and worksheets are all included and provides the users with an organized system to select areas of study and follow the standards.

I chose to review the educational CD that accompanied the 2003 edition of the book Geology by Stanley Chernicoff.  The book is a college level book intended for a survey course in geology; however the CD covers a great deal of the concepts featured in California’s science content standards for both 6th grade and high school level earth science.  The CD highlights the main areas of geology through interactive and animated figures that are accompanied by detailed explanations.

Grade six standards in the areas of Plate Tectonics and Earth’s Structure and Shaping Earth’s Surface are presented in the CD lessons with the exception of standard 1f, which pertains to California specific geology.  Lithospheric plate movement and plate tectonics are covered with several diagrams demonstrating the various plate boundaries and an interactive map allows continental landmass reconstruction over the past 150ma.  Earthquakes are also covered in detail showing how seismic waves are used in determining the composition of the earth’s interior.  There is also a simple activity that guides students through the calculations used to determine the epicenter of an earthquake.

The standards for grades nine through twelve covered on the CD include the topics listed above which fall in the standards category of Dynamic Earth Processes.  Also covered with some great pictures and thorough explanations are the different types of volcanoes and the properties of each.

Overall, despite that it is a supplement to a college level course, the CD provides some great explanations to the concepts mentioned above that could most likely be understood by high school students, and with the help of a teacher, by 6th grade students as well.  The pictorial depictions of the concepts are also helpful and would be a good instructional resource when viewed in class during lecture or laboratory

Brief Description of CD: This is a narrative CD produced in association with NASA.

Topics covered by this CD:

• How an airplane flies
• Principles of flight
• Airplane Design

2. Grade 3 Physical Science Standards
b. Students know sources of stored energy take many forms, such as food, fuel, and batteries.
c. Students know machines and living things convert stored energy to motion and heat.

Other purposes of CD
This CD contains an interactive section where students can test their knowledge. The CD also contains a resource center that has a glossary of Aeronautic terms, information on the history of Aeronautics, as well as related links.

Would I recommend the CD to others
The CD is well organized, entertaining, and explains the topics in simple terms. It could be used as a supplement to lecture material for lower grade-school children.

This educational CD is for grades 8th thru 12th and as described by the California Science standards. This CD covers the physical sciences area for 8th graders on the introduction of the concept of found in sections (1b, c) of the California standards. When it comes to the high school level (9-12 graders), the CD covers physics overall. For example, Newton’s laws (F=ma), forces, gravity and weightlessness are explained and shown. The students are allowed to also discover who were the prominent names in the making up of physics, in addition to the exciting workshops geared toward improving problem solving skills.  I wish this CD were around when I was in the above grades, because it gives the student to actually visualize the concept being presented. I strongly recommend that more teachers use this program for the age group it falls under. Not only can 8-12th graders benefit from this CD, but some college students as well.

The CD-ROM contains four different components: Teaching Resources Library, Laboratory Manuals, Correlation to Standard, and Computer Test Bank.
In the Teaching Resources Library it presents 3 subjects: Earth Science, Life Science, and Physical Science. When review each subject I notice that the science content in the CD-ROM aligns with the California Science Standards-Grades Nine Through Twelve. Users can find smaller units within each subject and other materials they need. For example, there are overview, worksheet, presenting information, problems, calculating, data tables, graphs, and answer key in each subunit. It seems like five textbooks (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Astronomy) coexist in the same place along with many helpful teaching tools. The index and the text are showed side by side on the screen, so the users can easily search throughout the content just by clicking on icon connecting to the side they want.

Once again, in the Laboratory Manuals "Science Explorer" presents materials that are consistent with the California Science Standards-Grades Nine Through Twelve. Besides lab procedure and safety manuals, each laboratory units also presents Laboratory Check up and Laboratory Skills. These sections helps users to develop invaluable skills, such as solve scientific problems by using quadratic equations, distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms, or identify sources of unavoidable experimental error.

In sum, "Science Explorer" is an excellent science educational CD-ROM not because its easily navigated features but also its good agreement with the Science Content Standards
in California.

 This site is an excellent site for all teachers and especially the new ones who are teaching or interested in teaching middle school science. It includes class materials, supplementary materials, and science activity books for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. The site has information for students and teachers in details. And it covers all the standards for all the grades. For example:

6th grade
PLATE TECTONICS AND EARTH’S STRUCTURE
SHAPING EARTH’S SURAFACE
HEAT
ENERGY IN THE EARTH SYSTEM
ECOLOGY
INVESTIGATION AND EXPERIMENTATION

7TH grade
 CELL BIOLOGY
GENETICS
EVOLUTION
EARTH AND LIFE HISTORY
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN LIVING SYSTEM
PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES IN LIVING SYSTEMS

8th grade
MOTION
FORCES
STRUCTURE OF MATTER
EARTH IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
REACTIONS
PERIODIC TABLE
DENSITY AND BOYANCY

 Students will learn in details about these topics in all three grades. Overall, I find this site to be very helpful for students and for teachers who are interested in getting some extra work or knowledge.

This educational software is appropriate for high school age kids, and is a useful component of environmental science.  As an interactive program, this software is designed to explore many of the issues of that affect coastal wetlands of Louisiana.  For example, the CD takes you on a tour of the Bataria-Terrebonne Estuarine Wetlands and describes the history of the erosion of this particular wetland; improper use of levees and the development of freeways and housing.  In addition, this
CD offers a fun interactive trivia component that engages children in the identification of animals native to the Louisiana Wetlands!
 

In applying the California Standards to this educational program, Explore Coastal Louisiana best addresses the following:
1.  Stability in an ecosystem is the balance between competing effects.  As a basis for understanding this concept:
A.  Students know biodiversity is the sum total of different kinds of organisms and is affects by alterations of habitats.
B.  Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting form changes in climate, human activity, introduction of nonnative species, or changes in population size.
C.  Students know how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources and organic matter in the ecosystem and how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.
2.  Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations.
A.  select and use appropriate tools and technology to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data.