Operation Rubythroat: The Hummingbird Project

Everybody loves hummingbirds, and these tiny feathered dynamos can be used to help students learn about science, math, geography, culture, and virtually any academic discipline. Operation RubyThroat is an award-winning cross-disciplinary project in which participants in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Central America collaborate to study behavior and distribution of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). K-12 teachers and students especially are invited to participate in this Web-based project. The Operation RubyThroat Web site is the most comprehensive one available about hummingbird natural history and hummingbird banding and research. The project is an outreach initiative of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History near York, South Carolina, USA (http://www.hiltonpond.org).

Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History near York, South Carolina, is a non-profit organization whose Mission is "to conserve plants, animals, birds, and other natural components of the Piedmont Region of the eastern United States through observation, scientific study, and education for students of all ages." The Center is the most active bird banding site in the Carolinas. The Center's Web site includes informative text and photographs of flora and fauna that can be found in most habitats in the eastern U.S. Included are descriptions of the Center's long-term bird banding research projects (including hummingbirds) and "This Week at Hilton Pond," a fascinating pictorial account of natural changes through the seasons. Teachers, students, parents, birders, and conservationists will find this site to be a rich source of information about all sorts of nature topics.

Everyone knows that robots can do all sorts of things, but what inspires the engineers who build them? This episode of Scientific American Frontiers reveals the surprising answer -- Mother Nature! See the latest innovations in robotic science on Natural Born Robots (Show 1002), premiering Tuesday, November 2, 1999, at 8 p.m. ET on PBS! Resources, including Teacher's Guide, available.

Journey into ice-choked Antarctic waters and onto rugged Elephant and South Georgia Islands as we follow in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton. This legendary explorer's Endurance expedition is one of the greatest survival stories of all time. Join us "live" over more than four weeks as we make landfall, enter the pack ice, and negotiate some of world's roughest seas to film the scenes of Shackleton's remarkable journey for a NOVA program and NOVA Large Format Film slated to appear in 2001. Classroom Resources available.

The Mississippi: River of Song is a Smithsonian Institution series for public television and radio that explores the richness and vitality of American music at the close of the twentieth century. Through live performances and intimate discussions with musicians along the course of the Mississippi River, the series discovers the music that has flourished in the heart of the nation. Traveling from an Ojibwe powwow in northern Minnesota to the bandstands of New Orleans, the series builds a dynamic and complex portrait of music and the American community. PBS broadcast of the series is scheduled to begin January 6, 1999 (four consecutive Wednesday nights) with South Carolina Educational Television as the presenter. Resources, including Teacher's Guides, available.

Discover the powerful role of photography in the personal lives and public history of 20th century America. Read multimedia essays illustrated with photographs and video clips and access classroom resources including online activities, lesson plans and teacher's guides.

Learn how to reduce crime in your community with this site. Access a state-by-state guide to model crime prevention programs, participate in online opinion polls and discover solutions to the problems of teen violence, hate crimes and gangs.

Discover the vitality of contemporary poetry with this site that showcases poems and profiles of poets featured on the program. View video clips, read scrapbooks and works in progress, and access a teacher's guide and links to related sites.

NOAA's many educational activities are distributed across the agency. This site has been designed to help students, teachers, librarians and the general public access the many educational activities, publications, and booklets that have been produced.

PBS Online offers a special weekly newsletter just for educators!

Trace the creation of the Greek empire and discover the truth behind the legend of Alexander -- a young man who conquered the known world before he reached the age of 30 -- with this informative site. Read a series overview, meet the explorers who retraced Alexander's journey, and access a teacher's guide.

Images taken on Whale watching trips out of Cape Cod. Plus additional links.

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE "Surviving the Dust Bowl"

Relive the tragic 1930s transformation of the southern plains from bountiful farmlands to a barren dust bowl with this informative site. Listen to interviews with Dust Bowl survivors, peruse a photo essay featuring written excerpts from the memoirs of a survivor, access a teacher's guide and more.

Learning through Architecture

Explore ways to help young people understand what it takes to make buildings and communities work for the people who live in them with this companion site created by the Foundation for Architecture in collaboration with WHYY. Access selected classroom projects, a gallery of student work, lesson planning information and a forum providing opportunities for interaction among teachers, architects and students.

Echoes from the Ancients

You'll dig this site that steps 2,000 years back in time to follow the excavation of Yodefat, the world's only pristine first-century Galilean site.

NATURE: "Sperm Whales"

"Swimming With Whales," which takes you on an underwater journey to learn more about the habits, biology, and social structure of sperm whales.

Astronomy Resources

Links to Sci.Astro.Amateur newsgroup; Am. Astronomy Sopciety; Astronomy calendars; Sky & Telescope (back issues); Etc.

Links to Italian Museums and many more around the world.

The Educational Technology Journal.

5 teachers went on a 7-month, 16,000K bicycle adventure around the Mediterranean; check out their web site.

Claims (modestly) to be the webs most complete source for information on Hummers.

Useful links for U.S. History I & II

What's it like where you live?

USGS - Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. Help with identifying small flying creatures.

Education related materials

Activities, projects. resources, references, tools, etc

See pictures of Whooping Cranes migrating behind an ultra-light airplane and read daily travails of making the migrations in 1996 and 1997.

This is the gateway into the story of the Civil War as seen by the people of two communities in the Great Valley of the United States: Franklin County, Pennsylvania and Augusta County, Virginia. This project weaves together the histories of these two places, separated by a few hundred miles and the Mason-Dixon Line.

Under the Sea

Under the Sea offers EXCITING and educational programs on marine biology in the Northern Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Washington DC areas for kids of all ages!

(c) Copyright 1999, WHRO.