Scientists in The City - Resource List

The City

Resource List

General Topics

Cities as Superorganisms: "Large modern cities are astonishingly complex systems."
The 10 Most Enlightened Cities in America: "Communities ... dealing creatively with the challenges they face, places that can provide inspiration and practical ideas about how to improve life in your own hometown."
12 Gates to the City: "A dozen ways to build strong, livable, and sustainable urban areas."
Characteristics of an Ecosystem: "An ecosystem is a system where populations of species group together into communities and interact with each other and the abiotic environment."
Ecosystems, Biomes, and Watersheds: "...the meaning and applications of ecosystem and of the related terms watershed and biome."
Urban Ecosystems: "Cities of the future will embrace the ecology of the landscape, rather than set themselves apart."
The Neighborhood Works: Building Alternative Visions for the City: "We believe that the present and future of urban communities involve practical approaches to energy use, job creation, housing, development, food production and material use."
EPA Community Based Approaches to Environmental Protection: "Community-Based Environmental Protection (CBEP) integrates environmental management with human needs, considers long-term ecosystem health and highlights the positive correlations between economic prosperity and environmental well-being."
The Center for Urban Ecology: "...consists of a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and technicians dedicated to developing a better understanding of the ecology of landscapes that have been influenced by human activities."
National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat
National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat: "invites students, teachers, administrators, and the surrounding community to become involved in the life sustaining process of growing, caring for, and learning from a habitat on a school campus."
Through the Eyes of a Child: Children share their photographs of their neighborhoods in New York City.
Cadillac Desert: "...delve into the history of water use and misuse in the American West..."
Recycling Lesson Plans
School Nature Area Project
What Schools Can Do To Protect The Environment
Welcome to PA Counties Environmental Notebooks

Urban Ecology

EPA Student Center: From the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
EcoSearch: "...over 200 environmental sites that we have reviewed and rated."
Pesticides: "Humans have been fighting a constant battle with nature in an attempt to exterminate these pest species since the onset of the agricultural revolution."
Environmental Interests: Collection of websites.
Pollution Index: Collection of websites.
Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment: "Air is considered to be polluted if it contains substances which may have an adverse effect on the environment, human health or causes a nuisance in urban areas..."
Air Quality Lesson Plans/Activities: For Kindergarten through 8th grade.
Air Pollution from Motor Vehicles: "The motor vehicle engine emits many types of pollutants including nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulates, sulphur dioxide and lead."
Living Things: "If it's alive, it's in here."

Urban Gardens

Flower Delivery: Flower Resources, Life Cycle, Classification, and so much more! Plenty of great ideas for gardening with kids.
The Urban Forest: "Where giant cedars and hemlock once dominated, small ornamental trees and shrubs abound. Where bears and wolves once roamed, automobiles and commuter trains rule. These elements have redefined the region's natural landscape to an urban landscape."
Urban Agriculture Notes: "...concerns itself with all manner of subjects from rooftop gardens, to composting toilets, to air pollution and community development."
Urban Agriculture in Philadelphia: "The hundreds of garbage strewn vacant lots ... have stimulated citizens to create what has been called `the largest comprehensive urban greening program in North America.'"
Philadelphia Green: "... provides information, technical assistance and encouragement to help organize community groups who want to revitalize their neighborhood through plantings on vacant lots, in parks and along city streets."
KinderGardens: "An introduction to the many ways children can interact with plants and the outdoors."
School Gardens
School Gardens: "... teach children not only about plants, nature, and the outdoors, but other subjects as well. Gardens can teach children about history, economics, poetry, and math ..."
Strong Roots: "We thought an urban garden would help restore our community: just take kids, add water and dirt, grow food."
Urban Garden: "City gardening can be a challenge. There are few resources dedicated to getting the most from the limited spaces of a patio or deck garden."

Energy

Energy Factsheets: From air conditioner maintenance to weatherization programs...
Energy Hotlist: A list of web resources.
Energy Efficiency: "...encourage energy efficiency by providing basic facts on individual energy sources..."
Energy Quest: "Energy Education from the California Energy Commission."
Department of Energy Search: "...subject-specific directory that allows you to conduct a general search of Web sites that appear on DOE EREN, the official Web site of DOE EE/RE."
The Heat Island Project: "On warm summer days, the air in a city can be 6-8 degrees F hotter than the surrounding countryside. Scientists call these cities `Urban Heat Islands.'"
Cooling Our Cities: "Planting trees is an attractive strategy both for saving money through energy efficiency and for improving the quality of life in urban areas."
Energy Solutions for Cities and Counties: "... read success stories about how cities and counties are putting new energy efficiency and alternative energy measures into practice, reducing energy costs, and protecting the environment as well."
The Energy Story: "Energy lights our cities. Energy powers our vehicles, trains, planes and rockets. Energy warms our homes, cooks our food, plays our music, gives us pictures on television. Energy powers machinery in factories."

Transportation

Transportation Index: Hotlist of websites relating to transportation.
SEPTA: South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
Transportation's Effect on the Environment: "Air pollution is probably the most visible and pressing environmental consequence of our transportation system-and the one with which most people are familiar."
Surface Transportation Policy Project: "The resources you need to make your community more livable."
Pedestrian Paradise: "We thought the highway meant freedom, but it only led to dependence. The first step in kicking our car habit is to hoof it back to the city."
Central Artery Tunnel Project: "The Central Artery is the largest, most complex and technologically challenging highway project ever attempted in American history."
National Transportation Library: "... is a repository of materials from public and private organizations around the country."
Innovative Transportation Technologies: "... information about "unconventional" (therefore innovative) transportation technologies."
Beating the Traffic with Commuting Alternatives: "By encouraging commuting options, local governments can help reduce air pollution, fuel consumption, and traffic congestion. Minimizing these problems makes the community more appealing to businesses, residents, and visitors and boosts the local economy."
Car Free Cities: "The industrialized nations made a terrible mistake when they turned to the automobile as an instrument of improved urban mobility."
Historical Collection of Transport: Consider the history of transportation.
The Future of Transportation: From "Scientific American" magazine, a recent article on transportation alternatives.

Structures

What is Meant by Urban Infrastructure?: "As people began to civilize, literally to "gather in cities," they needed constructed facilities -- infrastructure."
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: "The list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was originally compiled around the second century BC."
The World's Tallest Buildings Page: "Traditional buildings over 1000 feet / 305 meters in height."
Tall Office Buildings: "The tall office building was made possible by three advances in the building trade."
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: "...studies and reports on all aspects of the planning, design, and construction of tall buildings."
Great Structures of the World: "...a virtual gallery of some of the world's greatest structures!"
The Skyscrapers Page: "...buildings and architects..."
The Bridges of Portland Oregon: "Bridges for both the Willamette River and the Columbia River..."
Architecture Websites: A wide-ranging collection.
Playground Physics: "... use the experience children have on the playground and relate that experience to basic physics concepts."
Clearinghouse for Bridge Information: Presented by the Clearinghouse for Infrastructure.
Build a Bridge: "You're a civil engineer. Four bridges need to go up. Only you can decide where they go...
Cyburbia: The Planning and Architecture Internet Resource Center: "... a comprehensive directory of Internet resources relevant to planning, architecture, urbanism and other topics related to the built environment."
Erving Elementary City Project: "... the students learn a brand new vocabulary and new concepts that help them to understand how a modern city functions and how it grows."
Cities Over Time: "... a group of cartographers, geographers, environmentalists and demographers have created a dynamic map that uses computer animation to show urban growth over time—in this case 200 years of development..."
Wood Products Catalogue: Presented by the Canadian Wood Council.
Build a Bridge: Presented by PBS...
Great Towers
New York Underground

Trash and Recycling


Welcome to Recycle City: "...explore how the city's residents recycle, reduce, and reuse waste."
Recycling Index: Everything you need to know about recycling.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: "...an alternative to throwing garbage into landfills, into our oceans, wetlands, and forests."
Rotten Truth (About Garbage): More than you'd ever need to know about garbage.

Teaching Toys

Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids: "Make toys at home with common household materials, often in only a few minutes, that demonstrate fascinating scientific principles."
Smile Program Physics Index: "...a collection of almost 200 single concept lessons."