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.
Okay, we admit that harnessing the biochemical reaction of yeasts converting the carbohydrates in corn mash into ethanol is pretty slick (as ancients discovered eons ago, though they didn't use fancy enzymes in the process).
And we suppose the ancient cultures may have used the leftover fermented mash to feed animals. But unlike ages ago, today's ethanol production facilities produce something called DDG or "dried distiller's grain" that is shipped around the world.
Before we get into what we do with the co-products of ethanol production, let's first get that ethanol into your fuel tank. The process is pretty straightforward. Once it's extracted, it's stored then shipped to terminals where it's blended with conventional hydrocarbon based fuels such as gasoline. One very cool reason they blend it is that ethanol actually increases the "octane" or combustion performance of fuels plus reduces burnt fuel emissions. That's one "two-for" in dealing with ethanol. Watch the video here to get the full story.
The second "two-for" is the co-products they produce from the by-products of the process. The first biggie is DDG (dried distiller's grain). It's a high-protein dried corn meal that is used primarily for animal feed for both livestock and poultry. It's gained such widespread use that it's shipped on freighters around the world and ultimately helps feed populations in distant lands such as the far-east nations.
And just when you thought you were done with the co-products, some engineer holds up a bottle of oil... distiller's corn oil that's a prime feed-stock that's used in making biodiesel. But that's another story for later on. Be sure to check out those biodiesel science videos and lesson under the Energy category.
To further decode the technology of ethanol and co-product production, have your teacher download the lesson activities below for hours of peer-driven learning in your classroom with your peeps. You can also learn lots more by reading the advanced information in the Learn More section below by clicking on the icon.
To learn about the production of biodiesel, another important biofuel, explore our videos and lessons ethanol. You’ll find them in the Energy Category on the Home page.
For fun, also take a moment and check out the jazzed ethanol industry careers video on the right. Then, click the link of our educational partner here to dig even deeper into the science of ethanol production.
Did you know that sturgeon have been around since the age of dinosaurs? No kidding - That’s a 150 million years! Discover this and more by watching the four parts of this science show and reading the information below. And to take this learning adventure into your classroom, have your teacher download the free Companion Discussion Guide at the bottom of this page so everyone can share in the fun of this inquiry based learning.
That makes sturgeon one of the rare remaining "living fossils" that still survive on Planet Earth. These huge fish are native to the Great Lakes region and had extensive and large populations in pre-settlement times. However, as settlement took place, people removed more fish than what the population could sustain because they are such a vulnerable fish species that take decades to reach maturity - plus they don’t spawn every year. In the late 1800s, dam construction on the Wolf River prevented the sturgeon from returning back to Menominee Tribal lands. That impacted both the fish and their cultural importance to the Menominee people. To help both the fish and preserve the cultural importance of the sturgeon to the Menominee Tribe, the Wisconsin DNR, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin have collaborated in a cooperative project to restore sturgeon to the upper Wolf River. This Into the Outdoors program and the related Serious Science videos and lesson guides explore the fascinating world of these living fossils and their relationship with us humans.
The four (4) parts to this Sturgeon Conservation episode of Into the Outdoors combined with the Classroom Discussion Guide below, will pack your brain with more fish science than a sturgeon has eggs! Well, almost. Share with your class. Everything here is free, fun and so interesting that you may want to become a scientist!
Plus, the educational partner noted below supported the video and companion lesson content here for all of us to learn from. They also offer other learning opportunities on their website. So click on their logo to discover more!
As you watch all four videos in this series on forming your high school bass fishing club, you might consider taking notes on all the things you learn about catching bass, aquatic biology, different aquatic ecosystems, electronics and relationships. And if you think that this starter list is impressive, just wait until you begin team fishing with your friends in either friendly competition or in real bass tournaments.
In this final segment, we'll explore some of those things you'll learn, then offer some advice on what to expect when your team actually enters a fishing tournament in the LEARN MORE section below.
If you can identify several physical differences between largemouth and smallmouth bass by watching our handful of classroom videos here, just imagine all you'll learn about bass as you continue to lean from fishing, catching and sharing your adventures with your club and other teams. And if you think about it, belonging to your bass fishing club will expand your knowledge of:
You can probably add a bunch more to this list of what you'll learn in your bass club. But the bottom line is that over time your bass fishing club can help you mature into a "professor of bass-ology" while building relationships that can last a lifetime.
To learn some tips on how you and your team can fish in bass tournaments, explore the LEARN MORE section below.
For all kinds of other helpful information and resources on how kids can learn where-to and how-to go fishing, explore our companion KidsFishing.US website. To discover more about becoming a future angler, visit our educational partners that helped make this video, webpage and lesson possible by clicking on their logos below.
And if you decide to fish, you really need to get serious about being a safe angler. So take the complete online boating and water safety course using the link below.
Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials
In Protecting Forests, Enhancing Lives two girls examine the perception that clear cutting forests is destroying the natural environment by visiting forests and professionals that work with production forests. What they find surprises them - the apparent destruction of clear cutting the trees is actually a method of forest regeneration and invigoration. They learn about the methods of several career foresters in their inquiry, and observe trees in all stages of growth, harvest, and transformation into wood products.
Learn more on this topic by exploring the links below:
Logging in the Great Lakes States
“Track that Product” lesson plan and kit for teachers from LEAF
Deforestation vs. Forest Management
The information in our video and on this page was made possible by our educational partners.
Anyone, anywhere can get started hunting with the right tools and guidance! Hunting anywhere is challenging, especially for an inexperienced hunter. In order to be successful, new hunters need to get certified in hunter education within their state. New hunters can also benefit from the guidance of a mentor, someone to teach, guide and help them as they get started.
You may be interested to know that hunting is also closely tied to sustainability and conservation efforts. Hunters play a huge role in restoring and protecting habitats for animals who live in an ecosystem, and modern hunters work to help balance wildlife populations.
In this Into the Outdoors episode and related Into the Outdoors @Home topic videos, we see that learning a new skill like hunting can lead to an incredible journey of personal discovery. We also learn the ways in which hunting and wildlife conservation efforts go hand in hand.
Find links to the Into the Outdoors @Home topic videos below. These custom learning videos are designed to share with your entire classroom. You’ll also find other educational content, including custom lesson activities that blend peer-driven learning and hands-on activities.
For more information and resources related to hunting and conservation, visit Hunter-ED.com
The information in our video and on this page was made possible by our educational partners.
