New Year, New Bread About this lesson People all over the world keep sourdough starters – and over 500 have shared theirs with us, as part of the global citizen science Sourdough Project. Now that we know which microbes make your starters unique, we have a new challenge for [...]
Sourdough for Science This project is appropriate for participants of all ages, and can be completed at home or in a classroom. Download Teacher Guide! About this activity Humans have baked bread for over 10,000 years. All over the world, different cultures bake their own unique [...]
Ant Picnic Grade levels K-5 or 6-12 2-3 hours Biology / Ecology Download Teacher Guide Welcome to Ant Picnic About this lesson Are ants always ruining your picnic? Have you ever noticed that some ants are [...]
The Chili Project An International project to survey the pollinators of chili plants. About this lesson We are interested in learning what insects are pollinating the flowers of chili plants. Participants in this project will photograph pollinators seen at flowers on chili plants so that scientists can finally identify what [...]
Discovering Extinct Ecosystems in the Classroom About this lesson Sharks are an extremely interesting group of animals to study and the abundance of their teeth in the fossil record make them excellent for studies of ancient ecology. We can also use their teeth as a tool for [...]
Invisible Pathogens Grades 8-12 Three hours Microbiology About this lesson In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to isolate fungal morphospecies by plating ants on agar gel. They will then be able to submit their findings to a scientist [...]
The Great Pumpkin Project The mystery of the missing bees and sick pumpkins and cucumbers About this lesson En Español We are documenting the insects and microbes that visit all cucurbit plants, including pumpkins (which are native to the Americas) and cucumbers (which are native to Asia). These plants are now [...]
A Diversity of Guts High School/University 1.5 hours per animal Anatomy About this lesson At the end of the dark ages, anatomy was taught as though everything that could be known was known. Scholars learned about what had been discovered rather [...]
Bee Germs Project All levels One hour Urban Ecology About this lesson The “Bee Germs” project is focusing on learning more about bees that live underground. We know very little about bees that make their homes underfoot; by learning more about [...]
Invasive Mosquito Project All levels 1-2 weeks Urban Ecology About this lesson In order to get a census of invasive mosquito populations, students are asked to collect eggs and send the eggs to the USDA. Doing so will give the USDA [...]
