EOL for Students and Educators

 

The Encyclopedia of Life can be a powerful and engaging learning resource for students and educators alike. Discover opportunities for how you can use EOL’s resources below, then explore EOL Learning and Education Group pages and resources for more ideas.

Students can:

  • Become a member to enjoy full access to EOL’s capabilities and tools. It is free and easy to join.
  • Browse and search taxon pages to learn about a specific organism or discover something new. All information, maps and multimedia are available for reuse. Learn how to cite EOL. 
  • Contribute to EOL and help build this global biodiversity initiative. Upper elementary, secondary, undergraduates, and graduate students are all contributing to EOL right now. Participate by uploading images or creating species pages as part of a class project, special assignment, science fair project, or use EOL content to create a conference poster.
  • Learn more by visiting Explore Biodiversity and access EOL Tools and Activities. Use these resources to organize a BioBlitz (a survey of local organisms), create a field guide, or take a species quiz.
  • Explore the diversity of life by listening to our podcast series, One Species at a Time.  Each episode is a five minute story that explores a different plant, animal or microorganism.

Educators Can:

  • Become a member to enjoy full access to EOL. It is free and easy to join.
  • Use EOL podcasts in the classroom. Explore the diversity of life with students through lively five minute episodes about plants, animals and microorganisms.
  • Incorporate content from EOL species pages into teaching tools and lessons. All of the information on EOL is available under Open Access and Creative Commons licenses. Each object carries its own license information, so you can choose the content that works best for you. When you find content you like, copy it directly from EOL and you’re ready to go.
  • Use Communities and Collections as teaching tools. Educators can build an EOL community or collection around a curriculum theme, such as “Big Cats of Africa” or “Important Crops of Colonial America.” See “Darwin’s Finches” as an example collection.
  • Encourage students to contribute to EOL , or get involved through a citizen science project. For ideas to use inside the classroom or out, explore activities and projects that utilize EOL in formal and informal education.
  • Create a custom field guide for your class. The Field Guide tool enables the creation of a customizable field guide, allowing you to include just the information from EOL specific to your educational needs. Guides can be viewed online or printed. A “Field Journal” print option includes a space for students to make observations and notes.
  • Access EOL Tools and Activities including podcasts, quizzes, information resources, and a glossary of biodiversity terms.
  • Use Education LifeDesks (Beta) content management tools for undergraduate or graduate biology courses to create and manage species pages that can be published to the Encyclopedia of Life. Professors serve as curators of student contributions as part of a class project. Go to EOL Undergraduate Initiative page to learn more.
  • Share pictures of a BioBlitz or species inventory activity in action. Upload images of people, places or species in the EOL BioBlitz Flickr Group.