Discover Resources
Browse curated homeschool resources from the community
How Does Heart Transplant Surgery Work Roni Shanoada
Your heart beats more than 100,000 times a day. In just a minute, it pumps over five liters of blood throughout your body. But unlike skin and bones, the heart has a limited ability to repair itself. So if this organ is severely damaged, there’s often only one medical solution: replacing it. Roni Shanoada explores how this complex and intricate procedure works.
Mysteries of Vernacular Clue Jessica Oreck
Clue or clew? Before the word clue became associated with mystery novels, it meant a ball of string or thread, a definition dating back to Greek mythology. Jessica Oreck unravels this mystery of the vernacular.
If You Re an Adult Mayfly You Ll Probably Die Before the End of This Video Luke M Jacobus
For most of the world’s 4,000 mayfly species, adulthood lasts roughly one day. And for some species, it’s only a matter of minutes. This isn’t because they’re all eaten up by predators. Rather, this abridged adulthood is a natural part of their life cycle. So, what role do these bugs play in their ecosystems? Luke M. Jacobus explores the stunningly short life span of the winged insects.
How Much Would it Cost to Buy the Sun Cella Wright
Daedalus hasn’t been the same since losing Icarus. Suddenly, he begins expressing interest in buying the Sun from Helios. Rumors say Daedalus is aspiring to destroy it to avenge Icarus — or channel its immense power towards other imprudent aims. He summons a divine accountant and asks: how much would it cost to buy the Sun? Cella Wright conducts a financial analysis of our star’s worth.
What on Earth is Spin Brian Jones
Why does the Earth spin? Does a basketball falling from a spinning merry-go-round fall in a curve, as it appears to, or in a straight line? How can speed be manipulated while spinning? In short, why is the spinning motion so special? Brian Jones details the dizzyingly wide array of ways that spinning affects our lives.
The Weird and Wonderful Metamorphosis of the Butterfly Franziska Bauer
In order to become a butterfly, a caterpillar’s body dissolves almost completely and is rebuilt from its own juices. Butterflies are just a few of the 800,000 insect species that transition from larvae to adults through complete metamorphosis. But how exactly does this process work? Franziska Bauer explains how these squishy larvae emerge as armored, aerodynamic, and nimble adults.
The Surprising and Invisible Signatures of Sea Creatures Kakani Katija
On land, animals leave footprints that tell us a lot about their size, form and capabilities. Marine organisms do this too, but these footprints are harder to see since water is translucent. Bioengineer Kakani Katija explains how she uses dyes, lasers and more to make them visible, so that she and her intrepid collaborators can understand more about how sea organisms move.
Could a Blind Eye Regenerate David Davila
We tend to think of blindness as something you're born with, but with certain genetic diseases, it can actually develop when you’re a kid, or even when you’re an adult. But could blind eyes possibly regenerate? David Davila explains how the zebrafish’s amazing regenerative retinas are causing scientists to investigate that very question.
The Bone Wars the Most Notorious Scientific Feud in History Lukas Rieppel
After the California Gold Rush of 1848, settlers streamed west to strike it rich. In addition to precious metals, they unearthed another treasure: dinosaur bones. Two wealthy scientists in particular— Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope— competed to uncover these prehistoric monsters. Lukas Rieppel digs into one of the most notorious scientific feuds in history, known as the Bone Wars.
Vultures the Acid Puking Plague Busting Heroes of the Ecosystem Kenny Coogan
In the African grasslands, a gazelle suffering from tuberculosis takes its last breath. The animal's corpse threatens to infect the water, but for the vulture, this isn't a problem: it's a feast. With a stomach of steel that can digest diseased meat and waste, vultures are essential to removing dangerous pathogens from ecosystems. Kenny Coogan explores the importance of the desert's cleanup crew.
David Mccandless the Beauty of Data Visualization
David McCandless turns complex data sets, like worldwide military spending, media buzz, and Facebook status updates, into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world.
Dark Matter the Matter We Can T See James Gillies
The Greeks had a simple and elegant formula for the universe: just earth, fire, wind, and water. Turns out there's more to it than that -- a lot more. Visible matter (and that goes beyond the four Greek elements) comprises only 4% of the universe. CERN scientist James Gillies tells us what accounts for the remaining 96% (dark matter and dark energy) and how we might go about detecting it.
The El Sistema Music Revolution Jose Antonio Abreu
Jose Antonio Abreu is the charismatic founder of a youth orchestra system that has transformed thousands of kids' lives in Venezuela. Here he shares his amazing story and unveils a TED Prize wish that could have a big impact in the US and beyond.
The Good and the Beautiful Weather and Water
The full-color course book guides the parent through each lesson in the Weather and Water science course. Hands-on activities, engaging videos, vocabulary words, beautiful illustrations and images, along with engaging information is found throughout the course. Once you gather any simple lesson supplies, the lessons ar
Why Didn T This 2 000 Year Old Body Decompose Carolyn Marshall
It may not appear very lively six feet underground, but a single teaspoon of soil contains more organisms than there are human beings on the planet. From bacteria and algae to fungi and protozoa, soils are home to one quarter of Earth’s biodiversity. And perhaps soil’s most important inhabitants are its microbes. Carolyn Marshall digs into how soil’s invisible helpers support all life on Earth.
Who Decides What s in the Dictionary Ilan Stavans
While the concept of a dictionary dates back to ancient civilizations, the first English dictionary wasn’t published until 1604. In the centuries that followed, many more dictionaries were written by individual authors who chose what to include or exclude, with most quickly becoming outdated. One 19th century lexicon had a different fate. Ilan Stavans digs into the history of Webster's Dictionary.
How Do We Know What Color Dinosaurs Were Len Bloch
The microraptor was a four-winged carnivorous dinosaur with iridescent black feathers. But if our information about this dinosaur comes from fossils, how can we be certain about its color? Len Bloch shows how making sense of the evidence requires careful examination of the fossil and a good understanding of the physics of light and color.
How Do We Study the Stars Yuan Sen Ting
Our best technology can send men to the Moon and probes to the edge of our solar system, but these distances are vanishingly small compared to the size of the universe. How then can we learn about the galaxies beyond our own? Yuan-Sen Ting takes us into deep space to show how astronomers study the stars beyond our reach.