Cephalopodcast

PBS is airing its tenth installment of Journey to Planet Earth series tomorrow. The show is hosted by Matt Damon, which is kind of annoying. Expect a disheartening survey of the many ills facing our planet’s oceans interspersed with optimistic words about mankind’s resourcefulness and the hope that technology and international cooperation will someday solve all these problems.

STATE OF THE OCEAN’S ANIMALS
Premiers March 28th, 2007 at 8pm on PBS
Check local listings

Nearly half the world’s marine animals may face extinction over the next twenty-five years. Global warming, over-fishing, and habitat destruction are emptying the world’s oceans. Join host Matt Damon as “State of the Ocean’s Animals” takes a hard look at the future of our watery natural world: the beauty, the incredible animals, and the dangers that threaten them.

Features scenes from the Pacific Northwest (whales, salmon and sea otters), Florida (sea level rise and its effect on loggerhead turtles), Japan (the slaughter of dolphins), China (shark fin trade), and the Antarctic (threats to Emperor Penguins).

• Journey to Planet Earth - State of the Ocean’s Animals
• Educational materials, including Teacher Guides.

[via CTURTLE]

Download a free PDF copy of the Anatomy of Sea Turtles by Jeanette Wyneken, Ph.D. Not for the squeamish if parasagittal dissections make you squick. It includes black and white illustrations by Dawn Witherington and color photographs.

…a fundamental background, reference photos of normal anatomy, and diagrams to guide novice or professional biologists, stranding personnel, and veterinarians. Species identification, standard dissection techniques, standard measurements, and basic anatomy are covered with a diverse audience in mind.

• Download the entire book in English [PDF, 25.6M]
• Download the entire book in Spanish [PDF, 27.4M]
• Download various sections.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is offering up free ocean science books and resource kits. No word on how long the offer will last.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with Turnstone Publishing Group and Steck-Vaughn Publishers, has produced a series of books on eight high-interest areas of ocean science. Thanks to a donation by Harcourt Achieve, we now offer this free resource.

These books explore the ocean from the scientist’s point of view: what makes them curious, how they approach their work, and how they go about answering questions about the ocean. All titles conform to national science teaching standards.

Available as:

• Classroom kits (while supplies last): 30 copies of one title, and a teacher’s resource binder including activities and supplies.
• or, book packages 40 books, (five copies of each title).

TITLES, Grades 6-8:

• Dive to the Deep Ocean–Voyages of Exploration and Discovery
• Ocean Detectives–Solving the Mysteries of the Sea
• Down to a Sunless Sea–The Strange World of Hydrothermal Vents
• Meteorite! The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

TITLES, Grades 4-6:

• The Mysterious Ocean Highway–Benjamin Franklin and the Gulf Stream
• Off to Sea–An Inside Look at a Research Cruise
• Follow that Fin! Studying Dolphin Behavior
• Arctic Investigations–Exploring the Frozen Ocean

• For the free offer visit the WHOI/SeaGrant website.
• For more info on the books, try this page.

Continuing with our tour of supplementary material made available by your local Sea Grant College Program, we turn to Louisana’s Marine Education Resource Center. Their SeaScope Aquatic Activities section offers the following PDF handouts for free:

• Squidology (squid_folio.pdf, 857KB)
• Looking for Ol’ Crusty (crawfish_folio.pdf, 790KB)
• Trailing the Snail (snail_folio.pdf, 779KB)
• Secrets of Sand (sand_folio.pdf, 816KB)
• Mosquitoes: Their Place on the Planet (mosquito_folio.pdf, 791KB)

SeaScope activity folios are written by teachers for teachers. They use the video microscope nicknamed “Scope-On-A-Rope” (SOAR) in science lessons on aquatic organisms.

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An interactive virtual squid dissection demo is available from another site, Froguts.com.

In May, 2001, 5th graders at Lunalilo School dissected a squid and posted a video documentary of their experience.

With the updates to iTunes 7, I noticed the EcoGeeks podcast promoted on the front page of the directory. It is a video podcast from the folks at TheWildclassroom.com. From their about page:

As an organisation built by a group of next generation scientists, The Wild Classroom and sister site Explore Biodiversity work to promote an interest in conservation, ecology and biology in a manner appealing to our youth and young at heart.

As they say in their intro video, they are passionate about science and sharing their enthusiasm with students. The production values on their shows are pretty good, almost to the point where I wondered if it was a creation of Discovery Communication. But as far as I can tell, it is an independent, grant-funded production that is free for educational use.

They offer companion lesson plans for educators and give permission to use their videos in the classroom. However, I could not find the exact terms of usage spelled out on their website (is this Creative Commons licensed?). They also need input from teachers to help determine future programming.

This is pretty exciting stuff, kind of like a next generation JASON Project but without the cruft.

The National Science Teacher Association has started a “new series of conversations with authors of NSTA Press® books.” The series is called Behind the Books and so far includes converstations with:

• Tomas Bunk (illustrator) and Arthur Eisenkraft (one of the authors) of Quantoons: Metaphysical Illustrations [mp3]
• Karen Rohrich Ansberry and Emily Morgan, authors of Picture-Perfect Science Lessons: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry [mp3]

They are nice productions. But I have one complaint. They are calling these things podcasts, however I do not think it means what they think it means. They have the audio files but I can’t find the RSS subscription file on their website or on iTunes. What’s up with that, NSTA? Where’s the syndication?

Science educators get all kinds of catalogs for cool science demos, gadgets and novelty items. Most come from standard industry scources. But occassionally I get catalogs from more eclectic sources and thought I would share a couple.

• MarineLab’s Leave Only Bubbles
  • Invertebrate replicas
• Acorn Naturalist
  • Scat replicas
  • Online Catalog
• Bone Clones
  • Walrus Skull with Tusks
• Skulls Unlimited

Steve Spangler also offers science supplies, and I just noticed he has a blog and a science podcast too.

So what kind of unusal resources have you found for science supplies? Write a comment and share, or send me an email at pulpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com.