Biological Science

As suggested things biological are listed in these links. Working from insects to whales, you can also explore the human body.

General Biology, Minibeasts, Animals, Fish, Humans, Plants, Biodiversity

 
This site contains information, printable worksheet and puzzles related to all things alive. It is very child-friendly and the information is very accessible.
The study of life and living things, from microbes to giant redwoods: how do they function, adapt, and interconnect? This site has some fantastic links and downloadable materials, a must visit.
An online textbook this is a great use of the technology with some neat animations to explain what is happening. Perfect for the teacher who wants to know the how and why of life.
This site from the Franklin Institute looks at the whole gamut of life in the world we live in from individual organisms through the families they make up to popultions and the whole circle of life..
Part o the Science Connection Site, (which is well worth a visit), this site has lesson ideas related to mmany things biological. it has lessons on Neuroscience Activities, General Anatomy and Physiology Activities and Environmental Sciences and Animal Biology
Another fabulous online text which has some great images and clear and easily accessible information. Another must bookmark.
This site created by created by: Sir Robert Hitcham's Primary School in England is for children who wish to identify any group of plants or animals. In the form of a quiz you progress through the key to find out about your particular specimen.

 

Insects, Spiders and some things even smaller.
The Insectarium Of Victoria
http://www.insectarium.org/
 The Insectarium of Victoria and the Victorian Institute of Invertebrate Sciences provides a facility for the study of insects and related invertebrates. Whilst the website is really an ad for the venue, Bert Candusio who runs the Institute has big plans for more online content. Keep looking in. Also ask him how the insect care sheets are going.
Absolutely the best insect site I have found though sometimes a bit hard to move around because of the way it has grown. It does have an index that is very useful to find everything from basic information through to how to care for minibeasts in the classroom. The site also has excellent links and contains information on spiders as well. The site is British however. 
The Identification of Caterpillars of Australia
 http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/macleay/larvae/faqs/ident.html
 Some Caterpillars are easy to identify because they have some unique characteristic, but most are rather similar to each other. This taxonomy has some great images to check against.
Entomology Index of Internet Resources
 http://www.ent.iastate.edu/List/
An extensive list of links to other entomological, (insect sites from around the world).
The Bug Club is another English site that also has some useful care notes as well as quite good Bug ID page. 
This site has a number of interestingly different features including Quicktime movies. As well as having interesting information about insects it also details how insects go about protecting themselves.
A part of Yucky World this site looks particularly at Cockroaches and like other Yucky World sites is written specifically for kids who like the yuckier side of things.
A companion page to Yucky Bug World this time focussing on worms of all types including earthworms and their cousins including tapeworms and planaria. Great stuff.
 A  fine example of a school based research project, most of this work has been researched or written by children in Year 5A at Rochedale State School in Australia, (yeah). Just shows what the web can do for you, it even has a set of worksheets that will help children get the best out of the site, excellent.
Arachnology For Kids
http://www.arachnology.org/
Now part of thelarger Arachnology Org site take the Arachnology link and you will find a super set of links to an expanding range of spider based information for children ranging from Little Miss Muffet through lesson plans and on to amazing facts. Being continuously updated, it should be the first place to go for spider resources.
This site has a searchable collection images of many common insects

Using Live insect In the Elementary
Classroom
http://insected.arizona.edu/info.htm

 The information sheets provide helpful facts about the insects called for in the lesson plans that are also part of this site. Each insect's information sheet includes a section on identifying features, natural history, impacts on the ecosystem, and tips on collecting. Images of the insects in their different life stages are also included.
B U G A S A U R U S E X P L O R U S
http://www.bugsurvey.nsw.gov.au/index.html

Are you looking for great Aussie information about the bugs in our streams then B U G A S A U R U S E X P L O R U S is for you. Don't forget to check out The Buglopedia in the Stuff on Bugs link.

Interested in the development of insect flight and other aspects of their form, then this site is of interest
For the reader who is unfamiliar with the biology or ecology of insects, this primer will provide needed background information. More for adults than kids though.
Come along and explore the wonders of these often uniquely fascinating creatures in this Entomology Unit by 3rd Graders in Miss Gardiner's class at Hope Valley School in Rhode Island.
The Bugscope project is an educational outreach program for K-12 classrooms. The project enables classrooms to remotely operate a scanning electron microscope to image "bugs" at high magnification. The microscope is remotely controlled in real time from a classroom computer over the Internet using a web browser. You do have to make application to use the microscope. I haven't done so yet
Another Monarch butterfly site. Though again US based, the information is excellent, as are the electron microscope images.
Brisbane Insects and Spiders Home Page
http://www.geocities.com/pchew_brisbane/
 This site is set up to record and comment on insects and spiders that the Chew family have found in the local area in Brisbane. Though the main focus is Brisbane, the information and pictures are excellent. A must see.
Roch Defayette has been collecting insect since he was a little boy. In this site he shares his knowledge on just about everything needed to set up a collection. He does warn about overkill, because in a specific area, it could affect the population. Please do not kill damage specimen, they are good for reproduction.
Information sheet links that are easy to read on a range of common insects. They are meant for use with a publication.
Thinking Fountain Mould Pages
 http://www.smm.org/sln/tf/nav/
Something rather different, has information on safely growing your own moulds and the place of moulds in the bigger scheme of things. The Thinking Fountain is also interesting for anyone interested in Mind Maps. Have an explore of the broader Thinking Fountain site for other gems.

Some land based animals a bit bigger including some that might not be with us long.
The Electronic Zoo
 http://netvet.wustl.edu/e-zoo.htm
The first stop to find out about animals big and small. The site is huge and again constantly evolving but there is a Search Engine that will help direct your surfing. More for teachers rather than students.
This site is a companion site to the Australian ABC television series for juniors. It looks at Australian animals, their physical features, food, homes and environment and social groups.
Australian Animals
http://library.thinkquest.org/28994/animals.html
Another Thinkquest site that has some useful information about some of our indigenous Australian animals. The articles are arranged as the name suggests, alphabetically.
AMOL Australian Animals Fact Sheets
 http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/#fish
 An extensive set of fact sheets on all of the most popular Asutralian animals and many more. More suited to upper school children, the information is extensive and the images are great too.
A continually expanding list of all Aussie animals both land based as well as aquatic and in the air. It has some great information that middle to upper primary aged can easily access. It also has some great images.
You have been hired by the curator of the local zoo to help in setting up an Australian animal exhibit. You are expected to research 3 animals and find out the necessary information for him. This webquest from Diane Mentzer has lots of interesting links and is a neat way of assisting children to research.
Earth Sanctuaries
http://www.esl.com.au/
 Earth Sanctuaries is the private sector alternative to the National Parks system. Even if you don't agree with John Walmsley, this sirte has some excellent background notes on some endangered Aussie species
Australian Animals Endangered Species
http://library.trinity.wa.edu.au/subjects/
science/endangered.htm
A series of links to a number of different Australian endangered animals from Trinity College in Perth.. Includes links to most of the main threatened Australian animals.
The Leadbetter Possum Page
http://home.mira.net/~areadman/lead.htm
If you are a Victorian and you are going to look at endangered species then why not look at something indigenous.
Rolling Hills Refuge
http://www.rhrwildlife.com/education/conservation.html
The Rolling Hills Refuge is a foundation, dedicated to the conservation and propagation of rare and endangered species. The pages provide a well balanced discussion of how and why animals become endangered. Excellent information about a number of animals from all around the world.
Threatened Species Network
http://www.wwf.org.au/About_WWF_Australia/
How_we_work/In_the_field/TSN/index.php
This Australian website contains information about the hundreds of plants, animals and ecological communities threatened with extinction throughout Australia and most importantly, what you can do to help save them.
In the Wild
 http://www.ckmc.com/bagheera/
classroom/extinct/extinct.htm
Extinctions have been happening forever. This site looks at some of these so that we can better ensure that similar things don't happen in the future. A very useful site.

Some water based animals and their habitats
Ocean's Alive
 http://www.abc.net.au/oceans/alive.htm
Set up for the Year of the Ocean in 1998, this is a great Australian site. It is searchable which is just as well as it is fairly extensive. The Cool facts section is full of amazing facts and though the Q&A section isn't running now there is an archive of past Q&A's. The School links are also great.
The Dolphin Research Institute
 http://www.dolphinresearch.org.au/
Another Australian based site centred around Port Phillip Bay, the site is devoted to the well being of dolphins and the environment. Great info about dolphins with Q&A's too.
Seaworld
 http://www.seaworld.org/
A lot more than just information about marine animals, the Animal and Education sections are a real ragbag collection of information and activities. Well worth a visit but put aside a bit of time.
South Australian Whale Centre
 http://www.webmedia.com.au/whales/
whcent.html
These pages are maintained by the South Australian Whale Centre at Victor Harbor and  is a focus of all whale related activity across southern Australia. Scroll down to find some excellent information about all things cetaceous.
ExplorA Pond
 http://www.uen.org/utahlink/pond/
A fascinating idea and even more fascinating site. A great opportunity to join in a collaborative project around a local pond, but if you haven't got one of these you can play God with the Virtual Pond online. Also has great pond teaching ideas, check it out.
Some interesting links to other information about frogs. The Victorian Frog Group site if it is up is fascintaing.
At this online version of a major Exploratorium exhibit, you can still enjoy our frog articles, interactive exhibits and hands-on activities.
The Tide Pool Page
http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/projects/rocky/intro.html
This an excellent idea though because it is graphically intensive it takes a little time to load. Using actual photos it is just perfect for showing kids the in and outs of tidal pools without getting wet. Excellent site
Crustaceans of Southern Australia
http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/crust/
This site utilizes the resources of the Museum of Victoria in a gallery format that includes images as well as other information about the most common crustacea of Southern Australia including habitat and other aspects..
At this site you cans dive beneath the waves to examine the
larve, crustaceans, algae and other creatures that inhabit the sea. Some very nice microscopic images.
Ocean AdVENTure
http://library.thinkquest.org/18828/
On this adventure you can travel with to hydrothermal vents in the sunless depths of the world's oceans. In the form of an virtual dive you can discover some of Earth's most bizarre creatures thriving in one of its strangest habitats. Quite amazing really.
The tiny organisms found in pond water are fascinating subjects to study under the microscope. At the virtual pond dip you will be introduced tosome of the commoner types. Click the mouse over each organism to display its factfile, which also gives links to more detailed articles.

Oh of course there's humans too..
The Gross & Cool Body
 http://www.yucky.com/body/
Another facet of the Yucky World site, full of informative stuff, but presented in the way that young kids talk and in a format that should readily appeal to them. Check out belches and farts.
Better suited to the upper grades the Inner Body has a number of excellent animations along with images and descriptions. All major body systems are looked at including reproduction.
A Look Inside the Human Body 
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/amcgann/body/
A simpler way of presenting information about four major systems of the body this site also has a focus fact sheet that children can fill in as they move through the site. A really user friendly site that also is Aussie based.
A fascinating interactive presentation that uses Shockwave to accompany text in describing and depicting the main body systems.
Blending In But Staying Special
http://library.thinkquest.org/5777/
 Another School based site full of readily accessible information presented in a way that children will identify with. Another good one.
Human Skeleton Assembly Activity
 http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/
Shockwave/bones.html
Again using Shockwave this activity allows children to reconstruct online human skeleton. Lots of fun.
A rather extensive site with an enormous amount of information. Some of the experiments and games are really interesting though some of the information may be a little above kids understanding.
This is an excellent site but for one thing, it uses actual images of a young girl that some people may find distracting which would be a pity as the information about muscles is very good.
This site is a showcase for the Visible Heart™ project, a revolutionary educational tool for seeing how a real heart works from the inside. You can see a beating heart, all the valve actions, the contractions of atria and ventricles, and the architecture of the heart as it beats. The site uses Quick Time movies of an animated heart.
Want to know why you have a belly button, find out about everyday illnesses and injuries and want to know how to stay healthy then this quite appealing site is worth a look.
From the BBC this site looks at kids health both from the body's systems and how our feelings are formed. You can take a tour of the body, look at some facts related to the body and find out how to look after your body.
Part of the Kids Almanac maintained by infoplease these are a collection of no frills pages that lead on from looking at the human body through to consideration of how best to keep it healthy especially concentrating on food. Good current info especially the Body Count information.
HABITS OF THE HEART
http://www.smm.org/heart/
 From the Science Museum of Minnesota, this site has lessons and videos of what goes on inside our hearts and lungs though some of the content may not be for the squeamish.
Neuroscience for Kids has been created for all students and teachers who would like to learn about the nervous system. It contains information, lesson ideas and links to other resources. About the best thing nervous I have seen.
This is a great Shockwave drag and drop activity where children can place parts of the digestive system back in the body as well as find out more of the inside story. The link that shows what happens to different types of food is really great.
This site is about color blindness or, more correctly, color deficiency. Briefly, it describes the condition, causes, and effects. The primary purpose, however, is to furnish a set of color charts to aid the color blind in working with computer colors, most especially on the internet and in web sites.

Hey but don't forget plants
This site is part of site around trees and power lines. To see what a tree's made of, children can move their mouse over the picture.
Another mouse linked tree that explains the various parts of a tree.
Part of the must see Enchanted Learning site this aspect has some great printouts
Another part of the Hinkle Creek Elementary School site and another good one. This site looks at how plants grow and the different parts of a plant, how seeds travel and what bees do to help plants. You will also learn about plants and their relationship with animals.
What can kids learn from experimenting with a carrot? Go here for a rnage of simple experiments all to do with carrots.
One of the more kid-friendly sites about those often forgotten plants, the fungi. THis site has some neat ideas to try in the classroom as well as links to other things fungi, (some don't work unfortunately).
Part of a larger site this site has information on What Is A Tree? How Do You Tell A Tree Apart From Other Plants? What Are The Parts Of A Tree? Tree Survival Tactics. What Is A Forest?
What Are The Benefits Of Trees & Forests? amongst otherlinks.
The Great Plant Escape is an online adventure that looks at all aspects of plants and their growth. There is also an excellent teacher's guide that has an enormous amount of background information. Just surf in and go for it.
What Is An Australian Plant?
 http://www.anbg.gov.au/
PLANTFAM/AUST1A.HTM
A bit rusty on your Australian plant families, then check in here for some good simple line drawings and information regarding our indigenous species.
Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants 
 http://farrer.riv.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/
For even more information about Aussie plants, how to propagate and grow them, where to see them and how to recognise weeds then check in here.
Aboriginal Plant Use in
South-Eastern Australia
 http://www.anbg.gov.au/aborig.s.e.aust/
index.html
The indigenous plants of Australia were used extensively by the original inhabitants of the country. Check out these pages and you might be amazed at what is or was all around us.
This is a collection of Quicktime animations some of them might be useful to demonstrate aspects of plant growth especially as they can be replayed slowly if required.
Follow a year in the life of a deciduous tree or check out what makes a conifer what it is. This fascinating site can be downloaded so that you can view it when you want. Click on the ? icon at the top of the page, you'll be glad you did.
An absolutely fascinating way of looking at a forest, (pity it is an American based forest). You will need Shockwave and Quicktime and a good ISP service but it is worth the time.
 Sci4Kids is a series of stories about what scientists do at the US Agriculture Research Service. Geared to kids about 8 to 13 years old, it looks at current practice in agriculture. Very current.
The Bean Files is an online adventure focussing on Downsanup Downs a farm in the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia. Though the site is the basis for a competition that closed at the end of September 1999 the site is a great insight into the many facets of agriculture.

And where would we be without biodiversity?
The Biodiversity Center
 http://www.defenders.org/bio-cont.html
Though aimed at adults, this site has an excellent introduction to what is meant by the term biodiversity as well as discussion by leading scientists regarding issues centred around preserving biodiversity.
Part of Environment Australia, this site is a links site to a number of other pages dealing with a number of environmental issues. Follow the Biodiversity link and you will find links that discuss issues related to biodiversity. For kids try the Tour through Australia's Biodiversity link.
NRE Educational Resources
 http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/educatn/index.htm
The Victorian Government Department of Natural Resources and Environment has a number of links aimed at teachers and students particularly related to Victoria, both online and otherwise.
Conserving Australia'sBiological Diversity
http://ea.gov.au/education/publications/biodiversity/
 Published by the (old), Federal Department of Environment, Sport and Territories, this site has some interesting background materials as well as some suggested classroom activities that may be useful.
This site has some excellent materials related to food webs and the interrelationships between plants and animals. Some are online and others are ideas that can be used in the classroom. You can also order, via the site, what looks like an excellent kit that this site is set up to support. Give it a visit.
These four excellent guides came out of a lecture series entitled: "Living with Biodiversity: What You Can Really Do for the Environment" held at the American Museum of Natural History in 1998. They are written in common sense language and point to ways we all affect biodiversity in our everyday life.
International Biodiversity Observation Year 2001-2002
http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/IBOY/index2.html
 As the authors say, "Iboy is a window in time to explore the richness of life on Earth and its contribution to ecosystems and societies: a gift and a challenge to the new millennium." Take the Kids links for some great ideas.
Murder under the Microscope is an environmental murder mystery played via the Internet. The eco-game promotes awareness of catchment management issues. There is a registraion cost and registrations close in March.
Nature Conservation Council Media Releases Index
http://www.nccnsw.org.au/bushland/news/media/
Keep up with the latest in information regarding things biodiverse as it happens in Australia. The digest is updated regularly and can be viewed by subject and date.
Introduction to the Ecosystem Concept
http://www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/
physgeog/contents/9j.html
 This monograph that has a pretty easy to understand efinition of just what makes up an ecosystem and how they intreact to form the system.
This site is especially for children and includes some great little features such a virtual pond-dip. It ecxplore 3 ecosystems, grasslands, wooslands and ponds. The only problem is that the ecosystems are in England.