ARKive

There is little more fascinating than the overwhelming variety of life on our planet. This variety is represented in dazzling detail by a team of wildlife photographers, filmmakers, conservationists, and scientists who have partnered with wildlife charity Wildscreen to create "an awe-inspiring record of life on Earth." Visitors to the site can browse a library of images, videos, and information about over 15,000 species, from extinct to vulnerable. ARKive also allows users to browse by place and conservation status, for those users who are interested in finding out about endangered species close to home. The Educate tab provides materials for teachers, all of which are sorted into appropriate age categories. Finally, a Fun section adds a little levity to an otherwise very serious topic, offering a blog, activities, games, quizzes, and other options for those who enjoy learning through play.

http://www.arkive.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

USGS Science Resources for Undergraduate Education

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has brought together a unique blend of materials designed to complement and enhance the experiences of teachers and students seeking to understand the wide world of geology and other sciences including biology and ecology. These items are designed for use in collegiate settings, and each resource is here marked by a symbol that indicates the type of resource, such as a data set, teaching module, or classroom activity. Visitors can scroll through the thematic areas, which include Amphibians, Climate Change, and Maps and Geospatial Data. The Land Use History and Changing Landscapes area is a real pip, and it includes a document on the land use history of North America and a link to "Urban Growth in American Cities," an online publication that illustrates the spatial history of urban growth in 16 areas around the United States.

http://education.usgs.gov/undergraduate.html

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/  

National Geographic Education Collections

The National Geographic Education website has a number of sections dedicated to different areas within the natural sciences including animals, climate change, ecosystems, engineering, oceans, migration and weather. On the site, visitors can dive in via the Latest Updates or browse the features. Visitors can use the filters on the site to look over the resources by Type, Grades & Ages, Intended Audience, and Subjects.

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/topics/

Insects

Arctiid Moth

Anyone interested in entomology will find the images, descriptions, and activities here to be most edifying. Visitors can click on Class: Insecta for classroom activities that profile butterfly and moth wing patterns, and a delightful collection of insects as they appear on stamps from countries all over the world. The Entophiles area features over 150 images of insect macrophotography combined with detailed descriptions. The Ants, Bees & Wasps area is remarkable; visitors shouldn't miss the thread-waisted wasp or the formicid ants. The site also contains select issues of the Cultural Entomology digest, which includes articles like "The Insects of M.C. Escher" and "Butterflies of Ancient Mexico."

http://www.insects.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Wallace Online

A searchable collection of the writings of British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which provides access to a collection of primary documents that will help raise awareness of Wallace's contributions to science, particularly in the fields of evolutionary biology and biogeography. Featuring scanned images of Wallace's 22 books/book chapters and more than 900 articles, the website allows researchers to view all of Wallace's original published works as well as transcripts of the texts.Images and specimens are also included.

http://wallace-online.org/

Edgar: Climate Change Impact on the Distribution of Australian Bird Species

Developed by a team at JCU's eResearch Centre, Edgar is a website where visitors can explore the future impact of climate change on Australian birds. Edgar shows locations where a bird species has been observed and uses this information to calculate and display how well the climate across Australia suits that species. Edgar can also show an animation of how the suitable climate for a species may change into the future. 
Birdwatchers and other experts can improve the accuracy of Edgar's projections by classifying observations. 
http://spatialecology.jcu.edu.au/Edgar/

Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology

Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE) is a peer-reviewed web-based collection of ecological educational materials. It is "a resource for busy ecology faculty who are looking for new ways to reach their students, or who perhaps want to learn more about teaching and learning." Each of the volumes here contains Experiments, Issues, and Teaching. In the Experiments area, visitors can find resources for laboratory settings, while the Issues section features classroom exercises and web-based materials. On the site's homepage, visitors will find the All Volumes link, which will allow them to look over all the resources dating back to 2004. The field experiments area includes resources such as "Using Steam Leaf Packs to Explore Community Assembly" and "Biodiversity Responses Across a Gradient of Human Influence."

http://tiee.esa.org/index.html

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

ECOS: Science for Sustainability

"Since 1974, ECOS has reported on sustainability issues from a scientific perspective for Australia’s national scientific research agency, CSIRO. ECOS is published by CSIRO Publishing.

Through well-researched features and news updates on current issues and relevant research, ECOS serves as a forum for:

• invigorating discussion on the environment and sustainability
• raising awareness of ecological principles, and
• explaining the benefits of sustainability developments.

ECOS is widely read in the workplace, government departments, universities, schools, libraries and environment centres around Australia."

 http://www.ecosmagazine.com/ 


This journal can also be found by searching ejournals by title at the JCU library website.

The New York Academy of Sciences Environmental Sciences and Sustainability Link

The New York Academy of Sciences Environmental Sciences and Sustainability link has a variety of articles relevant to this topic. For example, the article entitled "Flood-Resilient Waterfront Development in New York City: Bridging Flood Insurance, Building Codes, and Flood Zoning" from the annals, is about creating waterfront developments that are resilient to floods, and thus able to account for climate change trends. There are also multiple podcasts that visitors can listen and learn from, such as the 20-minute "The Secret Lives of Bees" podcast, which discusses the 200 species of bees that live in New York City and the Great Pollinator Project. The podcast "Between Earth and Sky" will be of interest to visitors who are fascinated by trees, as veteran forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni explains the connection she has found between humans and trees.

http://www.nyas.org/Topic.aspx?tid=a43f6ad6-0e70-49ce-9f03-afb7b87de3e5

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2011.http://scout.wisc.edu/

Centre for Bioscience ImageBank

"This resource consists of freely available images contributed by academics, researchers, Learned Societies, industry and individuals with rights cleared for educational purposes.

Users are able to search for images based on keywords or browse within a wide range of bioscience subject areas. Images are then 'downloadable' along with informative descriptive text provided by the contributor. All images undergo a validation process by Centre for Bioscience staff with good subject knowledge. ImageBank also offers reviews of, and links to existing bioscience image databases"

http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/imagebank/

Australian National Herbarium

http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/herbarium/

The "About Us" section provides definitions and explains how specimens are used and stored and it is a nice prelude to the rest of the site. Since the Herbarium is not open to the public, the digitization of the Herbarium collections is important, particularly for botanists. Those persons interested in "Photographs of Plants" will find them under the "Botanical Information" category. There, visitors can search for plants by "genus", "species" or "family". It is noted how much of the digitization of each collection is complete. Visitors unfamiliar with botanical names of plants can find photographs using a "common name" database.

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2011. http://scout.wisc.edu/