This a great place to learn how they explore for under water life from the mini sub to the incredible pictures.
Everyone will enjoy this web experience.

This is a great lesson for explaining to children the effects of water/oceans on the weather. Living on the Gulf Coast kids always think of the ocean as a place that only brings in hurricanes. With the information provided it has opened their eyes to concepts that adults sometimes take for granted. I found the information about early trade routes very interesting, I never really thought about early explorers not having motors for the ships they were traveling on, they used the currents and that is why it took longer to travel from one location to another.

As a homeschooling family, we are always working on projects/resources together. Everyone in our family loved doing this. From the youngest to the oldest! I am very impressed with this. We ALL learned something from it. Thank you so much!

I was extremely impressed with this source about worm watching. My son had a blast watching the worms and learning about why we need them and the importance the roles of every creature, even worms has on our planet.

As a homeschool mom, this resource was very helpful and easy to use. My child enjoyed studying worms and the good they do for our soil. I think the more we know about how all things work together in our environment the better we will teach our children to take better care of it! This is a good resource to begin to understand how important the smaller things in life are and how they relate to us.

My daughter learned from this same curriculum in her 1st grade class. She was much more interested in the subject as a whole because she got to participate in planting, watering and watching her sunflower grow. A year later she still has her sunflower and can still tell me all about it.

What a great idea to teacher children about sunflowers. The teaching supplements are great. I try and do a project every year with my children and we will be doing sunflowers next summer!!

This is a wonderful resource. It makes learning about sunflowers fun. It gives step by step instructions for growing sunflowers. I think I enjoyed this as much as the children.

I thought this activity was very effective. The children enjoyed making the web and it provided the perfect forum to talk and listen to each other! We were able to do this activity outside where we could feel the grass, hear the birds, and get a true experience of nature!

As an educator at a local Audubon Center, I was able to incorporate the information and activities into our Pond Probe program. We included the terminology (omnivorous, herbivorous) into the pond lesson and added the Web of Life game as a culmination to our pond activity. As our web radiated out from the 'sun' the students were able to get a clear picture of how all creatures are dependent on each other.

This resources is an interactive, hands-on activity to engage students in learning about food webs, interdependency, needs and the sun. The activity is excellent and there is a lot of background information provide to best teach these concepts.

We came across this when we were looking up information on Pandas. We got to see Tai Shan getting cozy with his mommy. The kids just thought it was a riot. So now when we want to know more about animals we have a chance to see them move around in real time hundreds of miles away. What an educational and fun experience it is. Thank you National Zoo for this opportunity to let us view your wild collection.

The webcams are such a good way to watch the animal interactions, to watch the young ones grow such as tia shan. i have viewed him almost daily since day one and i feel as though i have grown right along with him.

I really like everything I saw on the animal cam. My son thought it was a neat way to view other animals that we do not normally see. I will recommend this site to other homeschoolers.

The interactive conservation walks are great for lower school students to learn about the world around them. Information about the ph levels of soil, seasonal changes of trees, and frogs in the woods are all topics that help young students appreciate their environment.

I used this resource (specifically the one on seasonal changes in the temperate forest) in my elementary classroom. I set up the virtual field trip on a computer and my students were able to visit it if they finished work early or during down time. They loved it! The animation is colorful and interesting and really holds their interest. I like all of the information; it is written in a way that is accessible to my young students, but still covers a ton. This resource also features a quiz, real world photos of the material covered, and outside links for the teacher. Love it!

A Walk in the Forest is a wonderful way for children and adults alike to learn practical ways of investigating and how to pay attention to details in everyday life. This interactive lesson/game teaches the basics of soil analysis and WHY certain trees grow in specific areas and types of soil. This is a wonderful tool to use as a science lab, or educational summer fun. This lesson has excited me to take advantage of walks and hikes with my own children. If we pay attention to what is around us, we can learn so much!

Thanks

Good activity that includes every student being involved and able to contribute. The only problem may be the use of popcorn since my 6th graders always want to sample any food item (despite its location on the ground).

A powerful lesson on a weather pattern changing event is directly related to changes in the marine food web and the impact of the food web change on people who live near the Pacific Ocean. Statements made are based upon data presented with hot links. Students are lead step by step through a process that transforms an intimidating data set into a meaningful graph. I can’t believe my fortune, finding this complete lesson between my environmental science unit and my weather unit!

I used much of this information to journal birds with 6th grade visual art students. Each chose a bird indigenous to Ohio to journal and sketch. We looked at John Jame Audubon and Genevieve Estelle Jones' work. Our art told a story of the bird, it's habitat, food and habits.

This resource is really well-designed for students of all ages who want to keep a nature journal as part of a class project. There are great ideas here on keeping a nature journal using Smithsonian archives, with topics ranging from birds to tigers. Experienced scientists and explorers share their ideas for how to enliven the journal (include found objects such as feathers). Although designed for middle schoolers, the idea can be implemented at all levels from Kindergarten through college with a little tweaking. Nicely done!

The Smithsonian's educational resources are such a joy to us. We began nature journaling not too long ago and my son and I have learned so much. We did a lesson on birds and my son and I can now spot different types of birds that we see. We added bird songs to the lesson, so now when we hear a bird, we can also identify it before we see it. What a wonderful resource! Thank you, Smithsonian!

Wow! This is an incredible resource for my homeschooling children. I was very impressed with the varied information on each animal. The details were very educational from interactive photos to audio clips.

This site is a wonderful resource for my 5th graders. Every year we complete a research project on North American animals and their habitats. This site helps students find the information they need while accommodating multiple learning abilities.

Both my students and I loved using this for my Biology class. A quick and easy source useful for teaching North American mammals, whether you are looking for specific species or a family.
I found its teacher's resource link especially helpful for creating lesson plans.

Print out the animal fact sheets and put them in a notebook to be read time and time again. Great resource.

I love this resource for small mammal information. I am especially excited to have access to the camera footage. I have bookmarked this for future use. Thank you for the great resource.

This is a great extension resource. I would also consider using this as an extra credit assignment.

This lesson helps illustrate the interdependence and complexity of food chains and webs. The activity gives learners concrete examples of how living organisms depend on one another and the importance of healthy ecosystems. Our learners gained a greater understanding of the complexity of food webs.

I used this lesson in my classroom and found it to be an excellent way to demonstrate the interdependence of plants and animals.

The instructions and materials provided allowed me to use the lesson easily with my group of 20 - 24 inclusion students.

I have passed on the link to this lesson to many other teachers.

This is a great activity that will really engage students. I love the idea of having the kids be the animals and have them connect themselves with yarn. It also makes a great bulletin board after you have completed the exercise. Using the pictures and the yarn, it can create a great visual that students can use as a reference.

My students used this resource in conjunction with social studies and science. They loved the hands on experience that this project allowed and made something boring to them fun.

I will be also teaching this as a 4H lesson. Thank you for putting all of this together in one place. I will be coupling this lesson with the book Dust Bowl. Thanks!!

Excellent resource, fast and easy to demonstrate, clear results. As a further extension (if time permits), also demonstrate using another box with grass (live grass, not clippings) since many farmers now plant certain grasses or clovers while the ground "rests."

"Dinosaurs" is a fantastic resource for budding paleontologists! The text is informative -- we were able to find the answer to just about every question the kids could formulate. The younger dino enthusiasts found the interactive fossil digs especially interesting. If you are planning a field trip to the museum, this resource provides great pre- or post- visit information and activities, but it also stands on its own as a learning tool.

The dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian is truly an amazing thing to see. The fossils towering over us was a incredible experience. The children and I learned a great deal about the history involved in dinosaurs. I never knew there were so many dinosaurs that had existed in the past. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. The sights and sounds really made us feel we were back in the prehistoric age.

This article was very informative! There were many interesting facts about the bones themselves. The article was written well and the extra information boxes were filled with cool facts! All the work that goes into the exhibit is really amazing!

I am finishing my teaching degree and I had a class recently related to this. This resource covers everything from that class in a concise, clean, way that left me thoroughly impressed. I would definitely suggest this to other instructors who wish to educate their students on the basics of Planet Earth's history.

Nice solid color differentiation; Wish there would be more to see and more to do. My kids liked the ease of changing time periods and seeing the images.

This is a wonderful resource. You can download the quiz and curriculum guide for free, and you can order additional materials.

The online exhibition allows the class to read, research, examine, and discover new ideas on the subject of animal environment and the oceanic community of people and animal ecosystems.

This was fascinating to this urban class of students who did not know what a squid was and how it looked.

We also learned about various products used by us on a daily basis that have an element of the OCEAN FLAVOR in them. My students and I are drawing pictures of the taningia and the giant squid to show their difference in appearance and in size. This is great because it allows students to attach their image of the squid and the ocean environment with what they saw and what they learned from the site.

Both sites will also encourage student writings and making comparisons and contrasts.

This webpage starts off pretty mildly (the main page) but then gives lots of good and interesting information. It is probably best for older students who are interested in topics like this or as an addition to an exciting challenge or unit plan. I happen to love information about the giant squid so I loved this webpage but it may not be everyone. Good information!

This is a good activity which encourages children to take a closer look at the food that they eat. By examining each ingredient - exploring how it is produced and where it comes from, kids can learn more about a fascinating subject as well as become more informed and intelligent consumers. This is sorely needed in a time when people know little beyond the concept of the supermarket.

Brings together knowledge of ingredients with knowledge of crop production in different areas!

Thank you for such a great resource. I am starting my unit on plants and I like the way you interrelated the subject matter of plants and animals.

I used part of this resource to integrate into a project. My 7th graders were interested and engaged once they realized their connection to pollinators. I intend on using most of the materials in my classroom next year. Well Done Smithsonian! Thank you!

Great real-world introduction to marine biology. Wish I could have seen it when I was in school.

This looks like a really cool project! I think my 5th grade students would enjoy it so much. I could use it with them in their study of taxonomy, classification, preservation of species, and habitat conservation. Ever since my trip to Alaska I have developed a tremendous love for whales and would love to get my kids interested and on board. Thanks.

I used the video clip of the TED award about ocean life and its endangerment in my classes. I like the fact that I can control which parts of the video clip I want my students to watch. I was able to select which sections of the 18 minute video which would have been too long. Excellent information for a broad range of age groups.