Colin Donihue

Another postdoc in the Losos lab, Kristin Winchell, just put together a list of online learning resources about lizards sprinkled all around the internet. I want to spread the word by reposting the link here. If you’re looking for classroom activities (or just some cool lizard info) definitely take a look.

In particular, there are a few lessons on the list about Anoles in Hurricanes. One of them is hosted through HHMI and is a course activity centered around the supplemental image from my (first) hurricanes paper.

There’s another hurricane resource that I had more of a hand in creating. It’s part of a terrific NSF program called “Data Nuggets” that develop lesson plans for science classrooms based on new research. Both of the lesson plans are titled “Hold on for your life” (part 1, part 2) and work the students through natural selection exercises using real data from my fieldwork in Turks and Caicos.

If hurricanes are feeling a little bleak right now, I’d also enthusiastically recommend videos from Day’s Edge productions. They have a series called “The Lizard’s Tale” that are really excellent.

Finally, if worksheets and videos aren’t quite interactive enough for you, I’d recommend Skype a Scientist. This terrific program pairs teachers and scientists to let students get a look at real live scientists and hear more about what they’re studying. I’ll be “Zooming” into several classrooms over the next couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to meeting some young scientists from all over.