How Plants Grow
Key concept: Germination and Life Cycle of Plants
Will the seeds we planted and watered germinate? What about those we put in the dark cabinet? What about those in the refrigerator? Those important questions are asked and answered as our enthusuastic youngsters conduct a controlled experiment to find out how seeds germinate, look inside a lima bean to see what seeds are really like, and follow a plant’s life cycle from seed to seed again. The video depicts a hands-on approach that your class can view and discuss by itself, or use to precede and follow similar activities that you conduct.

How Plants Get Food
Key concept: Getting Nutrients and Photosynthesis
Carbon Dioxide – Oxygen – Chlorophyll – Photosynthesis. Big words and a big idea. But this video explains and uses them in a bright, entertaining way to help every student in your class recognize them and the fundamentals of how plants make their own food. And they’ll find out why the process is so important to the rest of the world.

What is Pollination? (A Sticky Question)
Key concept: Interactions Between Plants and Animals
If you tell a youngster about pollination, and maybe show a few still photos, will he or she understand? Perhaps. But show the real thing happening, and then let that youngster actually do it—and you’ve taught a lesson that he or she will never forget. Watch as our eight-year-olds pollinate plants—and observe from close up bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds at work.

How Seeds Get Here…and There
Key concept: Seed Dispersal
How did that weed get in the garden? Why do dandelions pop up in different places? How do plants spread from one place to another, even where there are miles of water in between? Seeds can’t walk, or swim, or fly—or can they? Come with us on a fascinating field trip as our eight-year-olds discover how seeds move. One finds that even he carries a few hitch-hickers. Another flies through the air on a dandelion seed. And they all take part in the “great seed chase.”

How Plants Live in Different Places
Key concept: Plant Adaptations
Most plants need light, air, water, and soil to grow. But what about plants that live in places where those things are hard to get—like deserts or rainforests? In this video, our eight-year-olds explore both of these habitats and discover adaptations such as most desert plants having either very small leaves or no leaves at all, prickly spines, and a waxy feel, and rainforest plants having buttresses, prop or stilt roots, climbing over others, and having drip-tip leaves.

Plants and Life on Earth
Key concept: The Role of Plants in the Environment
Our eight-year-olds build a graphic illustration of our environment in a unique way. They put together a giant jigsaw puzzle, with each piece depicting an element of the environment. The result is an information-filled video that explains in an entertaining way the importance of plants in our life.

Down on the Forest Floor
Key concept: How Organisms Adapt to Changing Seasons
How does the forest floor get a new carpet every year? Why do spring wild flowers come up so early, and disappear so quickly? This video answers these and other fascinating questions as our group of eight-year-olds explores the forest floor. They learn that the forest is a constantly changing habitat, and to survive, the organisms that live in it must constantly change also.

Life in the City Habitat
Key concept: How Organisms Survive in the City
While cities and towns were built for people to live in, a number of other organisms have come to share their space. Some like cats, dogs, squirrels, trees, shrubs, and other plants are easy to find and observe. But many others, such as falcons, nighthawks, chimney swifts, and bats live in the city also, but you have to know where to look.

The Puzzle of the Rotten Log
Key concept: Decomposition and Decomposers
The puzzle: “Trees have been living and dying for thousands of years, so why isn’t the earth covered with dead trees?” The video follows the youngsters through the woods as they discover the pieces to the puzzle, and learn about decomposition, decomposers, and nature’s recycling system.

The Secret of the Pond
Key concept: The Food Chain
A lively group of eight-year-olds visits a pond and discovers a number of interesting and unique life forms, and one of the oldest secrets in the world—the food chain. The video combines the natural curiosity of real children with computer animation and lively music to deliver a captivating view of the Pond Habitat.

The Story of the Woodland Stream
Key concept: The Water Cycle
Where does the water in streams, rivers and lakes come from? Where does it go? What kind of effects does the water have on the earth and its inhabitants? Good questions. Important questions. And our group of eight-year-olds has a lot of fun finding the answers, as they explore a woodland stream with their friend, Jim. From the stream, the children learn the basic facts about the water cycle and erosion.

What’s In Your Backyard?
Key concept: Exciting Discoveries Can Be Made Anywhere
Our enthusiastic eight-year-olds find that investigation and discovery can be a lot of fun—and you don’t have to travel to some far off location for the experience. Exciting facts about birds, insects, plants, and animals can be found in locations as close as your own backyard.

Exploring the Temperate Deciduous Forest
The team begins by mapping the forests of the world. In the very same week in March, the kids take an “electronic trip” to a schol in Washington, Vermont, and to another in Austin, Texas. What do you think they found at these two locations in the Temperate Deciduous Forest? Snow in one state, and blossoms in another? In a lab experiment, the kids remove chlorophyll from a green leaf, which helps them understand why leaves change color in the fall. They take a trip to the zoo and find that the Temperate Deciduous Forest has some animals that migrate, some that hibernate, and others that keep active all winter.

Exploring the Desert
The student research team takes an electronic trip to the North American desert—the Great Basin, the Sonoran, the Mojave, and the Chihuahuan. They find out what it’s like there from kids in four real elementary schools, each located in one of those deserts. Students learn where deserts are located and why they’re found there. Rainshadows are also illustrated. As the team gathers its research, it conducts experiments on plants with Team Leader Roderick. The kids see how animals such as the sidewinder rattlesnake have adapted to the hot and dry environment.

Exploring the Grassland
Christine and Sam investigate a large prairie after it has burned. They learn that grasslands receive more rainfall than deserts, but less than forests. Team Leader Roderick points out that fire is one of the ways the grasslands are maintained. Lightning often ignites the dry grasses. In prairie restoration programs, fields are intentionally set on fire. In the season following fire, the tops of prairie plants grow bigger and more seeds are on the plant. Animals are recognized as vital to the health of the grasslands too. The kids discover that the grazing herds common to the prairie keep woody seedlings from becoming trees and shrubs. The find that burrowing animals help rejuvenate the rich soil.

Exploring the Rainforests
Did you know that there are two kinds of rainforests? Team Leader Robyn and Sarah visit the Temperate Rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Upon their return to St. Louis, they discover that their friends have been busy researching Tropical Rainforests. By comparing the data each has collected and investigating tropical plants, team members are able to make comparisons of the two distinctly different rainforests. In a lab experiment, team members analyze the decomposition rate of leaves in both rainforests.

Exploring the Tundra
Team Leader Tyler flies to a native Alaskan village where the caribou make their annual migration. He is met by local students who help him investigate life found at the top of the glove. Meanwhile, team members back in St. Louis contact other schools in the Arctic Tundra. They find that very few trees grow in the tundra because roots cannot penetrate the permafrost. Everyone discovers, too, that plants and animals have many identifiable adaptations which allow them to live in such a harsh environment.

Exploring the Taiga
Team Leader Tyler visits the Hayden family living on Lake Minchumina in the Alaskan interior. Their log lodge is 100 miles from the nearest road. Fortunately, Jack Hayden is a bush pilot and Tyler is able to get a fantastic glimpse of the taiga as they fly together over the vast coniferous forest. He investigates bogs and muskegs too. Back at home base, team members compare leaves from coniferous trees with those from broad leaf trees. Using microscopes, the kids discover that a secret lies within the cells. Later, during a hike, they find out why so many trees with needles are found in the taiga.

Exploring Ponds & Lakes
The kids take a road trip with Robyn to investigate a pond. They test for water temperature and dissolved oxygen level and carefully collect pond critters for examination back in the lab. They study the relationship between their data and the life in the pond. They learn more about the water cycle and contact a school near the shores of Lake Michigan to find out how a lake is different from a pond.

Exploring Rivers & Streams
The student researchers float down the mighty Mississippi River, collecting data on temperature, velocity, and turbidity. They learn how these abiotic factors affect the plant and animal life in both rivers and streams. They compare clear stream water with muddy river water. The concepts of confluence, delta, and mouth are explained. Reports from team leaders on location in Belize and school kids in Kentucky and the Amazon are included.

Exploring Wetlands
The student researchers learn about the crucial role wetlands play as a stopping place for migrating birds. They discover that wetlands—marshes, swamps, and bogs—are natural water filters. The kids rendezvous with peers living near the Florida Everglades, paddle through a swamp in southern Missouri, and check in with Team Leaders Stacey and Tyler, who are exploring a gigantic marsh in Central America. There’s a flight over Alaska, too, where Tyler surveys bogs from the air.

Exploring Temperate Oceans
The team begins with an investigation of several abiotic factors of marine ecosystems. They concentrate their study on currents and salinity, “El Niño”, and how ocean temperatures affect climate. They discover certain organisms have adapted to life in the shallow waters and others to the deep, dark sea. Team Leader Tyler discusses adaptations seen on a trip along the Pacific coast as well as organisms on display in aquariums. Stacey tells of adaptations along the Atlantic.

Exploring Tropical Oceans
Reports from the tropics! Stacey is on location in the Bay Islands of Honduras; Robyn, on the coast of Belize. Both are in Central America to explore the largest coral reef in North America. They find many interesting creatures as they dive below the waves and examine life in and around the reefs, as well as the mangrove cayes. They learn about several symbiotic relationships found in these warm waters. There’s e-mail, too, from a school in Australia, home of the largest barrier reef in the world.

Exploring Shorelines
The kids learn what causes tides and waves and how the rivers meet the seas. They investigate rocky shores, sandy shores, estuaries, salt marshes, and mud flats. Team Leader Stacey travels to Bald Head Island, a barrier island off the coast of North Carolina. She also visits a beach at night and finds a big loggerhead turtle laying eggs in the sand. Tyler is on location in California and reports on life in tide pools and other rocky shore environments.