White Killer Whale Spotted For First Time in Wild
“There she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!” By now, Captain Ahab is stirring in his grave at reports of a white killer whale—or orca—spotted off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia. But this isn’t the fictitious white sperm whale of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. It’s the first sighting of an all-white adult orca in the wild. The white whale—appropriately nicknamed Iceberg—was spotted by Russian scientists and students during a research cruise in the wild and windy waters of the Russian Far East. It appears to be healthy and is living in its pod. Orcas, by...
read moreMini Unit Plan: Rachel Carson
At the end of this high school science unit, students should understand Rachel Carson’s role as founder of the modern environmental movement. They will also examine difficulties she faced being a woman speaking out against the established scientific community. They should also understand the importance of her book, Silent Spring, in exposing the pervasiveness of the environmental pollution present at the time. Students should be able to put Carson’s work into context by understanding previous environmental movements, including John Muir and Roosevelt’s WPA, and the changes that occurred in...
read moreEnvironmental Issues in the Tarkine Region of Tasmania, Australia
Deforestation and the Role of Indigenous Peoples in Sustainable Forest Management (Excerpt from graduate school position paper. June 4, 2004) Proposed Solutions: Strong Foundation for Improvement As seen previously, Australia developed extensive and detailed policy statements and legislation to deal with the issue of deforestation in the country, including a Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) that specifically focuses on the Tarkine Region in Tasmania. This legislation, partially an outgrowth of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, focuses on developing sustainable forest practices that...
read moreUnit Plan: The Local State Park
In this high school science lesson, students learn about the ecosystem of a local park. By studying the interrelationships among organisms living within the park, students gain an understanding of the complexity of the ecosystem. Because the park is also used by people, students will examine how human activities affect the organisms. With this in mind, they will look at how land-use policies are created and what it means to balance the needs of the organisms with the needs of people wanting to use the park. Unit(s) of Study Ecosystems, Land-Use and Public Policy Previous Unit(s): Ecosystems,...
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Stop Waiting – Read the New Short Story Now
