Quest > Home. Discover Life. Natural Inquirer >> A middle school science education journal. Critter Catalog. Here is information about many common animals found in Michigan, and a few that live in other places. You could find many of these animals in or around your schoolyard. Remember that this is just a little bit of animal biodiversity. There are many many other kinds of animals in other places.
If you want to learn about animals that don't live in southeast Michigan, you can go to the Animal Diversity Web. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish are all vertebrates - they have a "spinal column" made up of many bones. While vertebrates are more familiar to most people, there are many, many more species of invertebrates. In Michigan alone there are over 20,000 species, mostly insects, but also snails, clams, worms, arachnids, crustaceans, and other creatures. For simplicity's sake, we have presented six main groups of invertebrates, distinguished by the number of legs they have.
BUILDING BIG: Home Page. Explore large structures and what it takes to build them with BUILDING BIG™, a five-part PBS television series and Web site from WGBH Boston. Here are the main features of the site: Bridges, Domes, Skyscrapers, Dams, and Tunnels. The Labs Try your hand at our interactive engineering labs. The Challenges Take on the challenges of building big. Wonders of the World Databank Explore our databank of big structures. Local Wonders Investigate big structures near you. Who Builds Big? About the Series Learn more about the shows, and see a chat with David Macaulay. Educators' Guide How to use the Web site, with hands-on activities. Shop Building Big DVDs and books from David Macaulay available at ShopPBS.org.
Site Tour Learn more about the features in this site. Site Map The whole site at a glance. Web Credits Feedback Help. Plants & History. Ever since Early Man rubbed two sticks together to make fire, plants have played a vital role in the history of mankind. The cultivation of grain changed nomads into village dwellers, wooden boats allowed civilisations to explore new lands, and precious spices were used from earliest times to trade between nations.
Later on, it was Christopher Columbus’s search for new spice routes that led to his discovery of the Americas and their colonisation by Europeans. Plants have been used as medicines, but also as instruments of death. The famous Greek philosopher Socrates drank hemlock when sentenced to death in ancient Athens. The Roman emperor Claudius was murdered using a plate of lethal mushrooms. A plant allegedly even influenced the laws of physics! Our understanding of the way that gravity works came about because Isaac Newton saw that apple fall in 1665! Plants have had far-reaching effects on many civilisations, the impact of which we still feel today. Home | Earth: The Operators' Manual.