Photos

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All Grades

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Science

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T I F S K

Zebras are black animals with white stripes. This striking coloration is probably a form of camouflage. It helps zebras blend into the shadows of tall grasses. It also helps them blend in when they are in a herd. When clustered together, it is nearly impossible to tell one zebra from another, making it difficult for predators such as lions to stalk an individual animal.

Best For
Grades K-10 (Ages 5-16)

Subjects
Science

Appropriate For
I F S K

“Animal rain” happens when little critters get swept up in waterspouts and fall down with raindrops.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

The state of New York will open more than 21,000 additional acres of Adirondack parkland in October 2013. There is a vigorous local debate as to whether the land should be open to motorized vehicles, such as cars, boats, and personal watercraft.

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All Grades

Subjects
Language Arts, Arts

Appropriate For
T I F S K

This unusual photo was taken at a Butterfly Farm in Costa Rica of a collage of different butterfly wings, each with a naturally occurring letter of the english alphabet, or a number between one and nine.

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All Grades

Subjects
Arts, Geography, Social Studies, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

The acqua alta, or high tide, floods the Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. The aqua alta is usually most pronounced between autumn and spring. Like all tides, the aqua alta is governed by the gravitational pull of the moon. In addition, local wind patterns (called the sirocco and the bora) augment the tide.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

The American Alligator can grow to be 4.6 meters (15 feet) long.

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All Grades

Subjects
Arts, Geography, Social Studies

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Brig. Gen. William W. Averell led Union troops at the Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia, in 1863. Averell had attended West Point, the military academy in New York, with Fitzhugh Lee, who went on to become a brigadier general for the Confederate States of America. The two friends met on the battlefield at Kelly's Ford, with Lee's Confederate cavalry forcing Averell's troops to withdraw.

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All Grades

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Science

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T I F S K

Bees are pollen gatherers and pollinators. There are more than 20,000 species. Most are solitary, meaning they live in small groups with a single breeding female and her offspring. Pollen is gathered to feed the young; sometimes it is mixed with nectar to make a paste.

Best For
Grades K-12 (Ages 5-18)

Subjects
Geography, Social Studies, Informal Education

Appropriate For
T I F S K

New Orleans restaurant Cafe du Monde is famous for its beignets. The beignet (pronounced ben-YAY) is the official state doughnut of the state of Louisiana.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Seas have an enormous impact on the people who live near them. The Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world, is a sea that is part of the northeastern Indian Ocean. This sea has played a pivotal role in the histories of the nations that surround it, including India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Here, Hindu pilgrims bathe where the sacred Ganges River empties into the Bay of Bengal.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

The Bay of Bengal, part of the Indian Ocean, is the largest bay in the world. The tropical bay is home to dozens of popular tourist beaches—as well as tsunamis. As the Indian subcontinent continues to crash into Asia, the bay continues to be a site of tectonic activity.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Vehicles speed past Big Ben in London.

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All Grades

Subjects
Social Studies, Vocational Education, Geography, Health, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

In addition to pastoralists and farmers, Martins works to educate students and guides on the importance of Africa's insect pollinators. In 2011, Martins spent time training guides at the exclusive Grumeti reserve in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Here, a guide named Mishi meets a blister beetle. The orange coloring alerts predators to the beetle's stinging, toxic secretion. The secretion is valuable, however—a variation is used to treat warts.

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All Grades

Subjects
Mathematics, Science, Social Studies

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Much of the locavore movement is centered around farmers' markets, like this one in Hudson, Ohio. At farmers' markets, farmers and local food retailers can sell their fresh produce directly to buyers. The goods at farmers markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs are largely determined by the season and weather of the region.

Best For
Grades K-12+ (Ages 5+)

Subjects
Arts, Geography, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Sphagnum moss is the most common bog plant. This tiny plant stretches across poorly drained ponds, eventually choking them and forming a thick mat across the surface. Other low-lying bog plants include heather, reeds, and sedges.

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All Grades

Subjects
Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Flames from a bonfire indicate the direction of the wind.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Lagoons are shallow bodies of water separated from the ocean by sandbars, barrier islands, or coral reefs. The island of Bora Bora, part of French Polynesia in the South Pacific, is surrounded by a lagoon and a thick coral reef.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Sea level is the base level for measuring elevation and depth on Earth. These hotel bungalows in Bora Bora, French Polynesia, have stilts to take them inches above sea level. Because the ocean is one continuous body of water, its surface tends to seek the same level throughout the world. However, winds, ocean currents, river discharges, and variations in gravity and temperature prevent "sea level" from being truly level.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Health, Science

Appropriate For
T F S K

Bumblebees have flown up to 5,500 meters (18,000 feet) in the air. A flight this high would almost place a bee at the top of Mount Kilamanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

A herd of barren-ground caribou runs past a snow-covered forest in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Many kinds of animals have adapted to live in the cold, subarctic climate of the taiga.

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All Grades

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Arts, Social Studies, Health

Appropriate For
T I F S K

A colorful Havana woman enjoys an enormous cigar. The smokes are one of Cuba’s defining symbols—“Havanas” are renowned worldwide and have special cache among many aficionados in America, where their import remains illegal.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Health, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Caterpillars are the larval stage of moths and butterflies. They are mostly herbivores, and eat so much, so quickly, that they are often considered agricultural pests.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Catrinas are a specific type of calavera: well-dressed, wealthy women of the early 20th century. Here, a group of catrinas pose on Dia de los Muertos in Merida, Mexico.

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All Grades

Subjects
Mathematics, Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

The first U.S. Census was conducted in 1790. The census categorized the population of the new nation according to liberty, sex, and age: free white males age 16 and older, free white males under age 16, free white females, all other free people, and slaves.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Health, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

A Geiger counter measures radiation outside the Chernobyl (Ukraine) Nuclear Power Plant, which exploded in 1986. The explosion created a cloud of radioactive particles that fell to the ground, called fallout. The fallout drifted with the wind and entered the water cycle as rain. Radioactivity traced to Chernobyl fell as far away as Scotland and Ireland, although most fallout was detected in Belarus.

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All Grades

Subjects
Science, Health

Appropriate For
T I F S K

This chimpanzee, at a theme park in the Ozark Mountains, has been trained to interact safely with people, but is still kept on a leash for safety reasons. Chimpanzees are wild animals, and much stronger than people. Pet chimpanzees have attacked their owners, causing serious injury and sometimes death.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Cicadas are big, red-eyed, harmless insects that burrow underground and stay put for 17 years. (Yes, 17 years.) When millions emerge from their underground burrow, the buzzing "cicada-pocalypse" signals springtime on the East Coast. 

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Bright orange with three distinctive white bars, clown anemonefish are among the most recognizable of all reef-dwellers. They reach about 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) in length, and are named for the multicolored sea anemone in which they make their homes. Clownfish perform an elaborate dance with an anemone before taking up residence, gently touching its tentacles with different parts of their bodies until they are acclimated with the host.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Social Studies, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Waterways are highways in the depths of the Congo rain forest.

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All Grades

Subjects
Geography, Health, Science

Appropriate For
T I F S K

Corn, called maize outside the United States, is one of the most familiar types of grains. Grain is the harvested seed of grasses such as wheat, oats, rice, sorghum, millet, rye, and barley.