Astra's Star Gate [http://www.en.com/users/cygnus/]
This is a very interesting site that has information on a variety of topics relating to astronomy (including Mayan astronomy). One especially nice aspect of the site is its focus on women and science. It could be incorporated into units on science, history and multiculturalism. It also offers links to related sites.

Carl Hayden Bee Research Center [http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/]
This USDA site provides a lot of information about bees, as you might have guessed. One of its sections is the "Internet Classroom". This area features articles on bee communication ("dancing"), how bees see, pollination, etc. Although the topics are listed as "K-12" they seem directly useful only to advanced students. Teachers may be able to take the information and create lessons based on them, but there are no ready-made lesson plans offered. However, the "Classroom" pages could be very useful to advanced high school students, homeschoolers, or anyone with a particular interest in bees. One part of the site is the "Nature Explorer" section. One page details researcher Steve Buchmann's trip to the Monarch Butterfly's Mexican winter home, and provides some truly stunning photos. A great resource for teaching kids about butterflies AND about what a "real-life" entomologist does.

The Butterfly Zone [http://www.butterflies.com]
The Butterfly Zone is one of quite a few sites devoted to butterfly culture and butterfly gardening. This site offers advice on designing gardens to attract butterflies; information about many of the butterfly species found in North America; and a Florida butterfly gardener's personal month-by-month journal. The site also offers for sale seeds, plants and other items related to butterfly gardening.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology [http://www.ornith.cornell.edu/MAIN.HTML]
Even though the Cornell Lab of Ornithology takes great pains in pointing out that it is a "membership" organization for the study, appreciation and conservation of birds, their site does offer a number of free resources. I particularly like the "Citizen Science" projects that CLO sponsors. For schools with outdoor classrooms, the "Classroom FeederWatch" program offers elementary and middle school students an opportunity to participate in an interdisciplinary science research project in partnership with CLO scientists. There is also a backyard "FeederWatch" program for families with feeders at home. Urban schools may enjoy participating in the Lab's "Project PigeonWatch", which is trying to determine why pigeons are the only species of wild bird that have such variety of plumage colors and patterns. The site offers many other birding resources in addition to the Citizen Science projects.

EE-Link [http://nceet.snre.umich.edu/]
EE-Link is a massive clearinghouse of information about the environment. It offers a huge collection of hotlinks to information on projects, classroom activities, funding and literature related to all aspects of environmental education. This is probably the most comprehensive environmental education resource available on the Web and offers unlimited potential to teachers.

The Ethnobotany Cafe [http://countrylife.net/ethnobotany/]
A great resource for ethnobotany and all sorts of information about herbs. It provides a lot of information about herbal medicines. Use this site in lessons about science, history and multiculturalism. One great feature is the excellent bulletin board where you can post questions and have extremely knowledgable people provide answers to all your herb related questions.

EnviroNet [http://earth.simmons.edu/]
An extraordinary site for teachers interested in joining others via the Internet for classroom environmental research projects.

EurekAlert! [http://www.eurekalert.org/]
This site offers information about the very latest developments in the scientific community. Some articles relate to environmental sciences, many do not. It could be useful for some research projects or as a starting point for discussions ranging from "How will this affect our future?" to "What ethical considerations might arise from this innovation?" It will obviously be much more useful for advanced students and their teachers.

The Evergreen Foundation [http://www.evergreen.ca/]
The Evergreen Foundation is a Canadian nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and restoring natural areas in urban environments through education and community action groups. Their School Ground Naturalization program is designed to give teachers, parents, communities and students the tools to transform their school grounds into healthier learning environments. This is an extremely well-developed and useful web site, and provides a wealth of information that will be useful to anyone interested in creating and using outdoor classrooms. The site is useful to individuals outside of Canada as well as those in Canada. The Evergreen Foundation also sponsors the Outdoor Classroom list_serv.

Georgia Wildlife Federation [http://www.gwf.org/]
The Georgia Wildlife Federation is an American nonprofit organization and is associated with the National Wildlife Federation. The Georgia chapter has put together many resources relating to their Schoolyard Habitat and Backyard Habitat programs, including design information and teacher kits. Their web site is under construction, but it already contains a helpful "Backyard Wildlife Habitat Planning Guide", as well as information about how to order some other resources, including the schoolyard habitats video they produced, a habitat newsletter, and "National Wildlife Week" teacher kits (much of this information is also available on the National Wildlife Federation web site at [http://www.nwf.org/], which is described below. Their Schoolyard Habitat Planning Guide is being reformatted, apparently for inclusion in the web site as well, although as of 1/10/97 it is not yet online.

Green Brick Road [http://www.gbr.org/]
The Green Brick Road is a Canadian nonprofit organization the specializes in resources and information for students and teachers of global and environmental education. GBR offers an outstanding array of publications for sale, including the Learning Through Landscapes titles, which are amount the best resources in the world for integrating curriculum through a discovery garden or outdoor classroom. The GBR site is still under construction, but a lot of material is already available on-line, including good descriptions of the titles they offer for sale. On-line purchase is not yet available, but you can use the descriptions to select the titles you are interested in, the call the "800" number listed on the screen to place your order.

Internet Directory for Botany [http://herb.biol.uregina.ca/liu/bio/idb.shtml]
An enormous site with links to virtually every online resource available that relates in any way to botany. Some categories include: "Arboreta and Botanical Gardens", "Botanical Societies", "Botanical Museums, Herbaria, Natural History Museums", "Conservation and Threatened Plants", "Economic Botany, Ethnobotany", "Gardening", and others. Search functions are available. Mirror sites are available throughout the world. An Alphabetical Listing is also available.

Journey North [http://www.ties.k12.mn.us/~jnorth]
Journey North, an Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project, is an internet-based program (located in Minnesota) through which students track migration and seasonal events. The program actively engages students in hands-on investigations through the school year, and helps them understand that their local environment is part of a much larger natural system. One project tracts the migration of the monarch butterfly south to Mexico in the winter and north into the U.S. and Canada in the spring and summer. For another project, students throughout North America planted tulip gardens according to certain specifications. This spring, they will document the march of spring across the continent as they track the progress of the tulip gardens. Journey North projects include activities in science, math, geography, history, art and language. Lesson plans and detailed activities instructions make this an extremely helpful instructional resource for teachers.

The Amazing Story of Kudzu: Love It, Or Hate It . . . It Grows On You [http://www.sa.ua.edu/cptr/kudzu.htm]
If you're not from the American South, you may never have heard of Kudzu, but anyone from this part of the world is undoubtedly familiar with this Japanese vine that has overwhelmed more than seven million acres. Originally introduced to help control erosion and as animal forage, Kudzu soon became "The Vine that Ate the South." This wonderful site talks about the history of Kudzu as well as how some people use the vine and how others are trying to eradicate it. Although there are no lesson plans, this site relates to botany, history, sociology, folklore, and home economics. A really great, fun site.

Learning Through Landscapes
LTL may be the "granddaddy" of organizations dedicated to promoting the educational potential of school grounds. They have done tremendous amounts of research and have written many books detailing how to use school grounds for teaching everything from science to language. Their publications are available through Green Brick Road, which is described in the Commercial Resources listing. Unfortunately, LTL has not yet created a web site, and, apparently, none is currently planned. Contact them by e-mail or snail mail.

The Movium Centre
[http://www.slu.se/movium/engel.html]

National Gardening Association Kids & Classrooms [http://www.garden.org/edu/]
Information about the GrowLab program, which is an indoor garden-based science program of the National Gardening Association (sponsored by the National Science Foundation). The site also provides information about NGA's "Youth Garden Grant Program", which has provided support to many school and community youth gardening programs in the form of supplies. There are also online articles relating to garden-based learning, an e-mail network of growing classrooms, and a catalog of items to purchase.

National Wildlife Federation [http://www.nwf.org/]
The National Wildlife Federation is an American nonprofit organization that sponsors backyard wildlife and schoolyard habitat programs, in addition to a wide array of other environmental programs. NWF has a well-established schoolyard nature program that has lots of information. The web page for their habitat programs [http://www.nwf.org/nwf/prog/habitats/] provides some general information about elements that should be included in the design of wildlife habitats, and links to other resources that can provide more information about how to construct (or where to buy) specific elements (such as ponds, birdhouses, etc.). You can also access on-line applications for certification of your backyard or schoolyard habitat (complete with personalized certificate). The page also offers articles from NWF publications that discuss habitat elements and offer some how-to information.

The Natural History of Genes [http://raven.umnh.utah.edu/]
This site provides information for hands-on genetic science curriculum, including activities for k-12 students, such as creating a herbarium to document local plant life. It is an excellent site that emphasizes the importance of maintaining biodiversity through conservation.

Project Learning Tree [http://eelink.umich.edu/plt.html]
PLT is an award-winning interdisciplinary environmental education program designed for educators working with students from pre-k through grade 12. The PLT curriculum centers around five major themes: diversity, interrelationships, systems, structure and scale, and patterns of change. In order to obtain the PLT curriculum guides, you must attend a day-long workshop. There are PLT coordinators in every state, and they can give you information about when workshops will be held near you. PLT is one of the most frequently used environmental education programs in the US, and is backed by years of experience.

Project Wet [http://eelink.umich.edu/WET/wet1.html]
The goal of Project WET is to facilitate and promote awareness, appreciation, knowledge, and stewardship of water resources through the development and dissemination of classroom-ready teaching aids and through the establishment of state and internationally sponsored Project WET programs. The Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide is available to all formal and nonformal educators through workshops provided by state Project WET coordinators or trained facilitators.

Project WILD [http://eelink.umich.edu/wild/]

Seeds of Change Garden [http://horizon.nmsu.edu/garden/welcome.html]
The Seeds of Change site is a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution's Natural Partners Initiative and New Mexico State University's College of Agriculture and Home Economics. This page is a tremendous resource for linking social studies and multicultural education with hands-on activities in a discovery garden or outdoor classroom. The site offers many hands-on activities for a Seeds of Change Garden that emphasizes the rich diversity that can result from cultural exchange. The site uses garden activities to explore how the world changed after Columbus sailed to the New World. Through planting a garden with Old World, New World, and "Exchange" plants, and through other [great] activities, children will learn about diversity, agriculture, commerce and the history of our world.

Skolans Uterum [http://www.uterum.se/] For English Language Pages [http://www.slu.se/uterum/schoolgrounds/eng2.phtml]
Skolans Uterum is a Swedish organization promoting the educational uses of school grounds. Their beautiful web site (created in conjunction with Movium) is primarily in Swedish, although several pages are provided in English. Anyone who can translate Swedish into English, please send us an e-mail and let me know what is available on this site, so I can update this entry. In the meantime, visit this site just to take a look. Students in schools with outdoor classrooms in the US (and elsewhere) may be interested in looking at this site to see what is going on relating to outdoor classrooms in a part of the world with which they are not very familiar.

SYEFEST (SchoolYard Ecology for Elementary School Teachers)

SNAPnet [http://www.stolaf.edu/other/snap/SNAPnet.html]
SNAPnet is a project that connects schools participating in Minnesota's School Nature Area Project via the Internet. SNAP schools gather and share environmental data that they collect in their nature areas. Although the site deals exclusively with the Minnesota program, it offers ideas and links that will be helpful to individuals in other areas as well. SNAPnet serves as an example of the potential for combining outdoor classrooms with instructional technology. SNAPnet also sponsors the SNAP list_serv.

Views of the Solar System [http://www-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/mirrors/solar/homepage.htm]
This site is an hypertext educational tour that contains images and information about the Sun, planets, the Moon, asteroids, comets and meteoroids found within our solar system. It contains over 220 pages of information and over 950 high-res images and animations. Unusual terms are defined in a glossery, and a History of Space Exploration provides information about rocket history, early astronauts, space missions, etc. A great astronomy resource, and a high traffic site (more than half a million hits a year). Mirror sites.

University of Florida Entomology and Nematology Resources for Teaching Entomology [http://gnv.ifas.ufl.edu/~entweb/ teach.htm]
This page is devoted to providing information relating to the teaching of Entomology at all institutional levels. Topics include relevant literature (in the form of bibliographies) and other information deemed useful with regards to teaching Entomology. The site offers a well-developed bibliographies of entomology resources for K-8, 7-12, and advanced students. It also offers the Book of Insect Records. Unfortunately, this information is only offered in a format suitable for advanced students.

A World Community of Old Trees [http://www.nyu.edu/projects/julian/index.html]
This is a wonderful site that combines art, science, literature and history into an interactive k-12 project focusing on the study of trees. The site features a "Tree Gallery" and "Tree Museum" that offer on-line looks at the tree as a focus of artistic expression. A growing hub of the site is its "Tree Talk" page, which offers links to on-line information about historic trees around the world. The heart of the site, however, at least as far as k-12 education is concerned, is a gallery of student art and poetry inspired by trees. The project description provides detailed instructions for children to follow in collecting data about a remarkable tree in their own neighborhood. The kids are then asked to create a drawing or poem about the tree and forward it to the site for inclusion in the project. Some fantastic work has been submited by students from throughout the U.S. and around the world.

Worm World (New Jersey Online's Yucky Site) [http://www.nj.com/yucky/worm/]
Worm World is Wonderful! This is a great site that gives kids (and adults) all kinds of information about worms. One section is dedicated to "Worms as Recyclers" and talks about how to create a worm bin. Another gives a simple biology lesson on worms ("Body Parts"). There is an "Art Gallery" for contributed worm drawings and poetry, and a "Fun Arcade" for worm jokes, stories and facts. You can order a worm bin through the "Gift Shop" and multimedia interviews with worms. Another link takes you to information about Mary Appelhof, the "Worm Woman", who knows more about worms than anyone else in America. A great resource for K-5 teachers and homeschoolers. And fun for adults too!