Hey, teachers and educators!! Don't forget to check out the advanced overview for some quick-start birding lessons in your classroom plus the lesson plans below.
Did you know that more than 45 million people in the United States are birders? That means one out of seven people you meet enjoy searching for and identifying these important feathery animals.
Why are birds so important you may ask? Well first of all, they help grow and protect many crops that you eat during your mealtimes. Two thousand bird species and other animals help pollinate 90% of plants and 75% of crops around the world. Birds also eat 20 quadrillion plant-eating insects each year that destroy crops like corn, apples, strawberries, and lettuce. Not only do birds help us eat and grow, but their ability to fly at incredible heights, speeds, and distances inspired us to build airplanes. It is no wonder since the peregrine falcon can dive up to 200 miles per hour while the Ruppel’s griffon vulture can fly 37,000 feet off the ground. That is higher than the world’s tallest mountains, the Himalayan Mountains. Lastly, since birds are sensitive to changes in temperature, moisture, and oxygen in their environmental surroundings, birds can be indicators of climate change. Counting the number of species and individual birds in an area assists scientists in gauging the health of the environment. The higher the variety and amount of birds, the better. (of course not in all cases? Could be overpopulation, crowding effects)(scientists may record shifts in nesting or migration behaviors too)
Scientists are now predicting that almost half of our North American birds are at risk of extinction within the next 100 years. Currently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed 90 bird species as endangered, or in other words, near extinction. You may be wondering why so many birds are in trouble. There are multiple reasons accounting for this threat, such as the expansion of cities, pollution, or clearing of forests. However, one of the largest threats to bird survival is habitat loss. Habitats are like your house: they provide food, water, shelter, and space for the bird. And today, birds are losing their homes due to human impacts. For example, humans have converted 290 million acres of native grasslands into agricultural fields within North America. These rolling hills of grasses and flowers are one of the most rapidly disappearing habitats in the western hemisphere and are home to many bird species, such as a “ricebird” called the bobolink. With fewer and fewer grasslands to breed and live in within the last 40 years, our bobolink populations have decreased by 50 percent.
So what can we do to keep or regain habitat for birds? Organizations of people across the country aim to reduce the threat of habitat loss by building sanctuaries or conservancies. These sanctuaries and conservancies are refuges for birds because they protect, manage, and restore habitats that birds depend upon. Thinks of these places as hotels. When birds are in need of a new home, looking for places to find a partner and raise a family, or searching for a place to rest while traveling south for the winter, a bird will ‘check in’ to one of these hotels. Here, a bird may visit family and friends, eat lots of natural food, drink clean water, swim in the pool, and sleep in a safe space. Sounds fun, right?
Additionally, every bird species is unique and requires certain characteristics in their habitat. Therefore, a ‘hotel’ staff must work hard and long to create and maintain a sanctuary or conservancy that provides a vast array of habitats for as many bird and wildlife species as possible. For instance, you may find habitats ranging from tallgrass prairies and oak savannahs to mature hardwood forests and temperate rainforests to open wetlands and coastal beaches in a conservancy or sanctuary.
But sanctuaries and conservancies cannot build themselves. Watch these two videos and learn how avian stewards like you can help sanctuaries and conservancies reach to the skies and create quality habitat for birds.
Our educational partner, American Transmission Company (ATC), supported the video content above. To learn more about their pollinator program, check out the link below. Also, look out for ATC's new bird identification field guide! Book copies may be purchased at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Greenbay, Wisconsin.
This page offers a chance for you to see the entire Emmy-winning film in HD. It also provides link to the classroom educational films and lesson activities related to this production. Simply click on the link below to explore some of the classroom educational films, lessons and resources on river restoration.
Throughout this website you'll also find over 100 classroom educational films on science, nature and the environment, all with free companion lesson activities or discussion guides to empower students with peer-driven learning in school. Teachers will find abundant background and other supporting educational resources.
As you'll see, the story of the Ottaway is told through the hearts of minds of over 30 various stakeholders, as they confront the challenges of turning back the hands of time by removing the three upper dams and modifying a fourth to once again connecting the region’s major coldwater river with the waters of Lake Michigan. This film weaves together strong Native American values, the complexity of a changing society, and the unspoken voices of nature’s population of “environmental citizens” whose lives are interwoven with… the rebirth of the Ottaway.
With funding support from the Grand Traverse Band of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, this documentary film also offers a blueprint on how communities across Michigan can navigate the challenges of dealing with the state’s 2500 outdated dams that face similar fates as those near Traverse City.
Over two years in the making, this film was produced by Dan Bertalan, an Emmy-winning documentary producer with deep roots in Michigan and environmental justice. This film recently won an Emmy from the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The film was broadcast via CMU Public Television and public television affiliates across Michigan. Also, the Outdoor Writer’s Association of America awarded the film honors as the top Conservation Documentary in their national awards.
Plans are already underway for a sequel documentary as the final chapter of the river unfolds with the building of a state-of-the-art selective fish passage that will once again connect spawning fish from the Great Lakes with historic waters they haven’t been able to reach in over 100 years.
Have you ever wondered where the fuels that power our vehicles comes from? Or, have you thought about how they turn syrupy black crude into the clear gasoline and fuels that drive our society? Well, ponder no more. You're about to get a serious introduction to the science and technology of refining and transporting hydrocarbons.
There are two ways to learn here: You can simply watch this "Emmy-winning" video above or read more of the background information below. Doing both can double-up on your smart meter. As a side note, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was so impressed with this production, that they awarded it with the Emmy for the top Youth Educational Program-Series in the Midwest. Woo-who! A big shout-out to our ITO youth scientists shown here with their well-deserved Emmy at the awards ceremony in Chicago. See the video to the right.
Before we get started however, let's consider your previous knowledge base about the petroleum industry. Chances are you've likely "learned" more about the oil industry from the news than from hard science sources. One of the rules of being a scientist is knowing how to evaluate potential bias of your information sources (including us). And news by it's very nature focuses on negative events cast in extreme situations. So it's little surprise that the news about the oil industry is sometimes presented in a negative light. Oil spills make for dramatic news stories, yet we seldom if ever hear about how the industry plays a vital role in powering almost every segment of our industrial society. Without it, we'd pretty much grind to a halt. Consider that as you begin "refining" your own critical thinking by exploring the science and technology here that begins to decode refining and transporting the fuels that make our modern lives possible.
Let's start by digging into the science behind the formation of crude oil. Did you know that crude oil was formed from the decomposed body parts of ancient marine organisms? We're talking real tiny stuff here like algae and other microscopic organisms such as zooplankton. Nope, there's no dinosaur juice or ancient forests in that formed oil.
One of the keys to this ancient marine life eventually becoming oil is being trapped in a sediment layer. This layer also had to be free from oxygen in an “anaerobic” environment to prevent scavengers from eating them. As more accumulating sediment layers buried their body parts deeper, pressure and heat essentially “cooked” their organic matter into hydrocarbons. And that's how crude oil was formed. Despite the common misconception, an "oil reservoir" in the ground isn't a giant cave in the earth filled with oil. Instead, the oil in a reservoir rock is located in the tiny interconnected pore spaces in the rock. In fact, some rocks such as sandstone, can have up to 30% porosity, or interconnected pores spaces for oil to occupy and flow through. See for yourself sometime by filling a cup with sand, then slowly pouring about a half cup of water into it before it overflows. The water seeped into the 50% "porosity".
Once a reservoir is drilled into and the crude produced, it needs to be refined. Crude oil straight from a well by itself isn't useful for much of anything. Oh sure, it will burn, or mess up your clothes. But it sure won't fly a jet or run in your vehicle. Rather than try to explain the whole process, you're better off watching the video above as you join our science team as they explore the entire process at Pine Bend Refinery, one of the most complex refineries in North America. As you'll see in the video, with the help of Flint Hills Resources engineers, they reveal the chemistry behind crude oil and touch on why it's vital to so many aspects of our lives.
As you'll see, one of the early phases of refining is the process of "fractional distillation" where they "cook" off the various hydrocarbon fuel "fractions". Yeah, it sounds confusing. But watch the video for a refined picture of how it all works. You’ll also get to see how the refinery’s very own version of mission control operates this complex refinery that's the size of a small city. You'll also learn how refinery experts use physics and technology in the refining process to remove impurities such as sulfur. They also use combinations of catalysts along with heat and pressure to enhance chemical reactions.
What do Legos have in common with oil refining? As you'll see in the video, they help conceptualize the refining process of “cracking” longer, heavier hydrocarbon chains of molecules into shorter chains that make up various fuels such as gasoline and jet fuel.
As you'll also see, it's pretty hard not to notice the steam coming out of some of the refinery towers. We know that steam comes from water and that fresh water is a precious resource. So our hosts also live up to their name of Into the Outdoors by getting to the bottom of how Flint Hills Resources manages, recycles and protects the water resources they use.
All these refined fuels eventually need to get from the refinery to the industries and businesses that use them, right? We sure can fill up our cars at the refinery. So pipelines offer the safest and most reliable method of transporting those fuels to all the various distribution points in society. That's why our team decodes all the pipeline connections, with the help of various engineers while exploring the physics behind transporting fuels via pipelines. Because pipelines span huge distances across all kinds of environments, our video team also digs into the technology engineers use to monitor pipeline integrity to prevent leaks and how they repair pipelines that need attention.
To dive deeper into all this the science and technology, watch the video above as your primer on the topic, then expand your learning by sharing the Discussion Guide (coming soon) with your teacher and classroom for some serious peer-driven learning.
And to learn more about refining and transporting petroleum products, visit the links of the educational partners that supported this episode.