Online Resources for K-12 Students and Educators from ADBC
Welcome to our page for aggregating educational resources for K-12 students and educators from the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program!
If you use any of these resources please consider filling out this brief questionnaire.
What are you looking for?
Lesson Plans
| Project | Grade /Standards | Keywords | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middle School | |||
| iDigPaleo | MS-LS4-1,2 (NGSS) | fossils, paleo, insects | |
| iDigPaleo | MS-LS4-1 (NGSS) | fossils, paleo, ecosystems, insects | |
| iDigBio | MS-LS2-1,2,4,5 (NGSS) | ecosystems, co-occurrence, conservation, plants, birds |
Fantastic birds and where to find them (as part of the March 2016 Biodiversity Spotlight) |
| WeDigFLPlants | SC.912.CS-PC3.4 SC.912.N.1.4 (Florida) | citizen science, biodiversity, museum, herbarium, plants | Help behind-the-scenes at a museum as a citizen scientist |
| SERNEC |
NC Essential Standards for 6-8 |
citizen science, plants | Notes from Nature: interpreting nature's biodiversity |
| EPICC |
MS-L4-1,2 (NGSS) |
fossils, paleo, fieldwork, identification |
Virtual Field Experiences: what is a fossil? |
| EPICC | SEP 3 (NGSS) | fossils, paleo, museums, collecting, fieldwork |
Virtual Field Experiences: field to museum |
| EPICC | MS-ESS2-2 (NGSS) | geology, data, fieldwork | Virtual Field Experiences: explore geology Teacher guide Student guide |
| EPICC | MS-LS4-1,2 (NGSS) | paleo, geology, maps, fossils, fieldwork | Virtual Field Experiences: explore fossils Teacher guide Student guide |
| Digital Atlas of Ancient Life | LS4,5,7,8 ESS8 (NGSS) | paleo, fossils, marine, oceans, invertebrates | Oceans of Ohio (5E Lesson) |
| Digital Atlas of Ancient Life | LS4,5,7,8 (NGSS) | invasive species, native, extinction, survival, ecology, invertebrates | Survival game (5E Lesson) Supplemental cards |
| Digital Atlas of Ancient Life | ESS4,8 Ls4,6,8 (NGSS) | geologic time, earth systems | Geologic time (5E Lesson) Event Cards |
| High School | |||
| iDigPaleo | HS-LS4-1,5 (NGSS) | fossils, paleo, insects | |
| SERNEC | 9-12 | citizen science, plants |
"Using Notes from Nature", teacher instructions, student instructions, and a student activity sheet (Kari Harris, Jill Czerwonky, Travis Marsico) |
| BLUE | HS-LS4-4 (NGSS) | evolution, coevolution, pollinators, conservation, plants, bats | Angiosperm reproduction and coevolution ( current draft) |
| EPICC | HS-ESS2-2 | geology, data, fieldwork | Virtual Field Experiences: explore geology Teacher guide Student guide |
| EPICC | HS-LS4-5 | fossils, paleo, fieldwork, identification | Virtual Field Experiences: what is a fossil? Teacher guide Student guide |
| EPICC | HS-ESS2-2 | sediments, environmental history, geology, paleo | Virtual Field Experiences: explore sediments Teacher guide Student guide |
| EPICC | HS-LS4-5 | paleo, geology, maps, fossils, fieldwork | Virtual Field Experiences: explore fossils Teacher guide Student guide |
| iDigBio | HS-LS2-7, LS4-5 (NGSS) | ecosystems, co-occurrence, conservation, plants, birds | Fantastic birds and where to find them (as part of the March 2016 Biodiversity Spotlight). Offline and online versions available. |
Tutorials
- iDigBio basic search tutorial (Video) Created by Teresa Mayfield
- Searching for species with latitude and longitude data on iDigBio (PDF) Created by iDigBio
- GBIF search tutorial (Video) Created by Teresa Mayfield
- Create an arctos user account (Video) Created by Teresa Mayfield
- Arctos introduction for non-managers (Video) Created by Teresa Mayfield
- Uploading an observation to iNaturalist via the website (Video) Created by Erica Krimmel
- iNaturalist search tutorial (Video) Created by Teresa Mayfield
Videos
From iDigBio
Why Digitize? In this six minute video you can learn more about what is in natural history collections, what digitization is and how iDigBio is opening the door to the thousands of collections across the country.
iDigBio Delivers Digital Collections of Natural Specimens is a one minute video from the National Science Foundation explaining what iDigBio does with graduate student, Adania Flemming, at the National Science and Engineering Fair.
From WeDigFlPlants
Library of Scientific Plant Samples: Step Inside an Herbarium An introduction to herbaria
Crowd-sourced Herbarium Data Transcription How you can help herbaria:
These videos were created to compliment a lesson entitled Help Behind-the-Scenes at a Museum as a Citizen Scientist.
Websites and Applications
iDigPaleoiDigPaleo is an educational portal created to link fossil and extant insect data. The portal has many unique features including measuring and annotation tools, and browsing features. There are several example lesson plans already available.
- Climate creations using dragonflies (draft)
- Compare ancient and modern insect ecosystems (draft)
- Constructing a Carboniferous dragonfly model (draft)
Digital Atlas of Ancient LifeDigital Atlases for fossil identification:
- Ordovician (Cincinnati Region)
- Pennsylvanian (Midcontinent U.S.)
- Cretaceous (Western Interior Seaway)
- Neogene (Southeastern U.S>)
You can access these through a browser or an app for iPad and iPhone.
You can find all of their educational materials here
Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life
Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life is a free online "textbook" about paleontology. Available chapters:
Notes from Nature Notes from nature is an online transcription platform where anyone can help museum digitize their historical biodiversity data! While transcribing you can build your own collection and earn unique badges for work within and across expeditions. Several groups have created lessons and activities using this project including SERNEC and WeDigFLPlants.
EPICC Virtual Field Experiences
Virtual fieldwork experiences (VFEs) allow you to explore a field site as a scientist, using photographs, maps, and other visualizations and data to figure out how a place came to be the way it is today. This website contains links to explore classic fossil-rich sites in an area of Central California known as Kettleman Hills.
Teachers can find an introduction to VFEs at the “For Educators” link.
Libraries of LifeLibraries of Life is a free app, and educational website that uses augmented reality to bring biodiversity alive through specimen cards. Download the app for Android or iPhone and visit the website to download the specimen cards and find related educational activities.
Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections, or WeDigBio, is a 4-day event that engages participants online and onsite in digitizing natural history collections. Onsite events are hosted by museums, herbaria, universities, and other institutions and enable face to face meetups where participants engage with local collections.
For a curated list of outside biodiversity resources visit here.
