Arkive's main feature is the extensive collection of videos and images of plants and animals. The videos and images are cataloged according to animal, plant, eco-region, and geo-political region. You can navigate the galleries by selecting one of the broad categories then choosing a subject within that broad category. For example, choose the Antarctica eco-region and then you can explore all of the images and videos about plants and animals found in that eco-region. Videos on Arkive can be downloaded to for your classroom use.
Arkive offers a dozen online games for kids. The games collection is a mix of quiz games and problem solving games. One of the games that I tried out is Animal Survival that required me to keep a Sand Lizard alive by correctly answering questions about Sand Lizards' daily lives.
Applications for Education
Arkive has a nice collection of free lesson plans based upon the images, videos, and games found on Arkive. The lesson plans include PowerPoint files, instruction sheets, and links to online resources as needed. The lesson plans are arranged according to student age from 5 to 18. The bulk of the free lesson plans are targeted for 7 to 14 year old students. Here's a sample of some of the topics covered in the free lesson plans: classification, adaptation, and observation.
