iTunes University Features Aquatic Science Videos
Videos by famed nature film producer Randall Maxwell accompany the new Texas Aquatic Science textbook and Teacher Guide. These videos are now available on iTunes University. Videos take the viewer through each chapter of Texas Aquatic Science.
Visit the videos on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/texas-aquatic-science/id738433069?mt=10
Video list:
Chapter 1. Water is Life
Water has properties that make it essential to life. And although the earth is known as “the water planet,” it has limited quantities of available freshwater.
Chapter 2. The Ultimate Recyclable: Water
The earth’s water is one, finite supply that moves from streams to lakes to oceans, flowing underground, freezing on mountaintops and forming the clouds we see in the sky.
Chapter 3. What’s Your Watershed Address?
Everyone lives in a watershed. Everything that happens on the land affects the water in that watershed.
Chapter 4. Living in Water
All aquatic species, including fish and other aquatic animals, are uniquely adapted to life in or around water.
Chapter 5. From Sun to Sunfish
Aquatic habitats are communities in which complex interactions take place among populations and individual organisms as they compete for limited resources in an interdependent web of relationships.
Chapter 6. Texas Aquatic Ecosystems
Ecosystems are complex interdependent webs of relationships between living and nonliving things. Texas has six kinds of aquatic ecosystem supporting significant biodiversity.
Chapter 7. Aquifers and Springs
Springs have attracted humans to settle nearby where water is abundant, but careful use is necessary to balance the recharge of aquifers with the use by people.
Chapter 8. Streams and Rivers
Texas streams and rivers support diverse ecosystems that are dependent upon the size and flow of water.
Chapter 9. Lakes and Ponds
Lakes and ponds provide habitat for many plants, insects, fish, birds and other wildlife, much of our drinking water and important economic and recreational opportunities for Texans.
Chapter 10. Wetlands
Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, and home to many specially adapted plant and wildlife species.
Chapter 11. Estuaries and Bays
Texas bays and estuaries provide vital ecosystems and nursery habitat for many important Gulf species, feeding and resting places for migrating birds, and billions of dollars to the Texas economy.
Chapter 12. Oceans: The Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is one of the most productive waters in the world, and it is among the most threatened by human actions and neglect.
Chapter 13. Fishing for Conservation
Understanding fish and fishing is key to understanding Texas’ aquatic ecosystems, and helps millions of Texans enjoy, appreciate, and conserve our precious aquatic resources.
Chapter 14. Water for People and the Environment
One of the greatest challenges facing Texas is balancing the water needs of people with the needs of our environment.
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Texas Aquatic Science was authored, adapted, and edited by Rudolph Rosen, Ph.D., who also designed the Texas Aquatic Science web site. Sandra Johnson, Ph.D. served as educational consultant and authored the accompanying Teacher Guide. Videos were produced by Randall Maxwell. Nancy Herron, Outreach and Education Director for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, provided leadership direction and review of the text and scripts, and Caleb Harris, TPWD aquatic education specialist, provided primary review of the educational content. Wes Tunnell, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Harte Research Institute provided special assistance on marine ecosystem science.
Texas Aquatic Science is a cooperative education project sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife, The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. Texas Aquatic Science Project Directors are Rudolph Rosen and Nancy Herron. Texas Aquatic Science was modeled after the Missouri Department of Conservation‘s (MDC) curriculum, Conserving Missouri’s Aquatic Ecosystems. Special thanks go to funding partners, the Ewing Halsell Foundation, San Antonio and the Sport Fish Restoration Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.