Breaking Down Barriers
Supporting Community Engagement and Effective Science Communication
Due to the spread of coronavirus, millions of parents and guardians are finding themselves having to take on the role of parent and teacher this spring.
March 26, 2020
Activity Kit
In this activity, participants will learn about the evolution of dog domestication, as well as crop domestication, in this hands-on, carnival-themed game. Watch wolves change into dogs before your very eyes! Taste ancient food that predates domestication! Explore our archaeological test pit!
March 19, 2020
Article
Due to the spread of coronavirus, millions of parents and guardians are finding themselves having to take on the role of parent and teacher this spring.
March 13, 2020
Activity Kit
Designed primarily for learners ages eight and older, To Lose A Tooth presents an evolutionary puzzle focused on human teeth. Participants will explore how natural selection, sexual selection, gene flow, and isolation result in genetic diversity.
February 13, 2020
Article
It took less than five minutes to destroy my YouTube recommendations.
January 7, 2020
Activity Kit
Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, birds, oh my! Explore the evolution of flight with a phylogenetic tree of prehistoric and living creatures. Use character-trait observations and DNA sequences as evidence to re-create the tree and solve the mystery.
December 5, 2019
Activity Kit
In Case of Cellulose dives into the digestive tracts of four species - human, panda, horse and cow; and explores how cellulose is digested differently.
October 21, 2019
Activity Kit
Misconceptions about evolution are addressed in Geology Park as participants must travel a scaled model of deep time. In addition to exploring the radiations of important phylogenetic groups, participants can also collect data useful in reconstructing the past.
October 18, 2019
Article
Mammals exhibit remarkable variety in their sense of hearing; from elephants communicating with infrasonic sounds to bats navigating their environment through echolocation calls at ultrasonic frequencies, many non-human mammals hear outside the typical human hearing range.
September 27, 2019
Activity Kit
This project uses Climatograms to determine change in precipitation over the last 100 years, using Pittsburgh, PA as a reference point. Participants pick a time point and build the precipitation for that year using counting cubes.
September 27, 2019
Activity Kit
The activity, Climate Change on File: Trees as Environmental Secretaries, by NCSE Graduate Student Outreach Fellow Taryn Dunivant describes many environmental conditions that trees rely on and face and how they become recorded in their wood.
September 5, 2019
Activity Kit
Choose from three modular activities, developed by NCSE Graduate Student Outreach Fellow Meera Sethi, to achieve linked learning goals. In the first, historic vs. contemporary photos of the same glaciers dramatically illustrate the retreat of mountain ice.
September 4, 2019
Activity Kit
"Star Grazing" is about understanding the impacts of rising temperatures on the nutrient cycle of marine life.