NSDL is the nation's online portal for education and research on learning in
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Highlights
May 13, 1908: The origin of the National Conservation Commission
On May 13, 1908, a three-day Conference of Governors opened at the White House, called by President Theodore Roosevelt to consider the problems of conservation. It was attended by the governors of the states and territories, the members of the Supreme Court and the Cabinet, scientists, and various national leaders. They adopted a declaration supporting conservation. One result was The National Conservation Commission, which prepared the first inventory of the natural resources of the United States with chairmen for water, forests, lands, and minerals. NSDL has a wealth of high quality digital resources to help teachers teach about conservation of natural resources in a way that also addresses students’ development of 21st Century Skills. Backyard Conservation, from DLESE, suggests hands-on outdoor activities to apply agricultural conservation practices to house or schools backyards. The Middle School Portal offers The Drought Causes Conservation, a 10-day multidisciplinary project in which students use the web for visualizations and research, do journaling and graphs and formulate plans around water conservation. Also for middle school and older students, in the Lab 1: Plenty of Fish in the Sea? from the Teach the Earth collection, students use image processing software to create an animation of global marine biodiversity maps spanning four decades. For advanced high school and undergraduate students, Biodiversity and Conservation is a comprehensive introductory e-book to these topics, it includes illustrations, photos, charts, and hundreds of hyperlinks. Principles of Wildlife Conservation is a distance education for college credit course from the Oregon State University. Among teacher professional development sources, the ICEE collection on NSDL in iTunesU makes available 12 lectures by global warming scientists and educators.
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