http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/

Created by Enchanted Learning, this kid-friendly Biome-Habitats website introduces children to many of the earth's biomes. Although the site provides basic information about many different biomes, the main emphasis is on the animals that live in each habitat. From the homepage, site visitors can link to almost twenty separate biome / habitat sites including Desert, Cave, Savanna, and Coral Reef-just too name a few. Each site presents a brief introduction covering general characteristics, such as plant life and climate, and then provides links to many separate animal pages ranging from grasshoppers to eagles. The animal pages feature nice diagrams (that can be printed out for coloring) and basic information about anatomy, diet and more. The Biome-Habitats homepage also contains a simple chart listing differences between biomes including elements such as amount of water, temperature range, and soil quality. (Note: While the site asks for a $20 / year donation, it is free to use and requires no registration or fee). [NL]

http://www.troy.k12.ny.us/thsbiology/skinny/skinny.html

The Skinny is an impressive biology website that was created by Joe DiBari and Jeremy Warden of Troy High School (located in New York). The Skinny site presents "a collection of reviews for all the major topics in Biology." The homepage links to pages containing varying amounts of information about topics such as Ecology, Enzymes, Evolution, and Mitosis -- just too name a few. Many of the subject pages contain a variety of high-quality images including photos, diagrams, and animated graphics. The site also links to numerous online labs such as an Osmosis Lab, Muscle Lab, Seed Lab, Plant Growth Lab, and many more. [NL]

http://livingchildren.com/knee/

Created by COSI, this comprehensive and very interactive Virtual Knee Surgery Exhibit invites the site visitor to become a surgeon and guides them through all the phases of a knee surgery. At different phases the site visitor-turned-surgeon chooses between tools like a scalpel, mallet, and patellar jig, to perform various tasks such as shaping the femur, leg incision, drilling of bones, and range of motion tests. Site visitors must also answer multiple choice questions throughout the surgery regarding anesthesia, methods of closing the incision, and more. The virtual surgery is in an animated cartoon-type format but, for the adventurous, the site also offers real surgery photos of different parts of the operation. The site includes subtitles and an activity site map that allows users to skip to certain surgical segments. [NL]

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1996/hitomi_bird.html

Hosted by Access Excellence at the National Health Museum, the Backyard Birding -- Research Project was created by Monte Vista high school teacher Stan Hitomi. This hands-on project is targeted towards high school-aged life science and biology students and can be adapted to run from between two months to an entire year. The project emphasizes research, cooperative learning, and community outreach skills as students construct bird feeders, maintain a journal, design a research project, and communicate findings via multi-media poster presentations. The site provides a project outline including information on background, materials needed, project instructions, data analysis, and more. [NL]

http://www.learnnc.org/learnnc/lessonp.nsf/docunid/A362BCF25FC7D77D8525679B006318DF?opendocument

Hosted by The North Carolina Teachers' Network, this website features A' Planting We Will Go, a lesson plan created for first grade students by long-time elementary school teacher Karol Schriber. Based on Eric Carle's book, The Tiny Seed, this lesson introduces students to factors that influence seed germination and plant growth. The four-week lesson familiarizes students with the basic anatomy and functions of plants as well as allowing them to observe plant growth under a variety of environmental conditions. At the end of the lesson, students also have a nice Mother's Day gift to take home. The website includes sections on Teachers' Goals / Objectives, Material / Resources Needed, Activities, and more. Additionally, for teachers from North Carolina, the site contains a North Carolina Curriculum Alignment section. [NL]

http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/animalinstincts/

Hosted by DiscoverySchool.com's Lesson Plans Library, this Animal Instincts lesson plan was created for fifth and sixth graders by Virginia elementary school teacher Jessie Kraft. The lesson teaches students about differences between instincts and learned behavior, the role instincts play in survival, and the relationship between environment and behavior. The site contains sections on Objectives, Materials, Discussion Questions, Evaluation, and more. Additionally, the site includes academic standards and benchmarks, links to other related sites, and a neat vocabulary list that links to audio clips pronouncing each word and using it in a sentence. This Animal Instincts lesson requires two class periods and is available in a Rich Text Format printable version. [NL]

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1994/ward_walk.html

Hosted by the Access Excellence at the National Health Museum, this website features A Walk Through the Gut, a lesson created for high school students by educator VivianLee Ward. This hands-on lesson promotes cooperative learning by directing students to work together as they simulate and analyze the passage of food through the digestive system. Ms. Ward designed this one-hour life sciences lesson for special education and special needs students as well. The site includes short sections on Materials, Procedure / Description of Lesson, Group Questions, and more. [NL]

http://www.field-guides.com/sci/bake/index.htm

Do you enjoy the smell of freshly baked bread? Featured as part of the Tramline Virtual Field Trip series, this website, created by educator Eduardo Peirano, treats students to a Baking Bread Field Trip. This educational field trip "utilizes Internet resources to introduce the principles, tools, and techniques of bread making. It is designed for elementary school children in grades 4-6 but is appropriate for students of many ages." Field Trip Stops connect to different websites providing information on Wheat, Milling, Facts About Bread, Baking Ingredients, and more. This site also offers a Teacher's Resources page that contains additional internet resource links and information for bread baking activities, cooking conversion tables, nutrition activities, and more. Site visitors can link to other Tramline field trips from this site as well. (Note: The link to the Wild Yeast? AKA Sourdough Stop is not operational at present.) [NL]