Video Details

Eye of the Cyclops: Adventures In Scientific Exploration

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Eye of the Cyclops features scientific explorations in the ecology of ponds, streams, forests, and backyards. A unique visual style places micro-adventurers with the organisms that inhabit these environments. Interacting with the organisms, the Cyclops crew makes fundamental discoveries about the nature of life. These adventures will excite students with the idea of conducting their own explorations with a hand lens or microscope.

Episodes:

• Backyard Biodiversity

  The microexplorers discover that gardens support a community that includes herbivorous and predatory insects, pollinating insects, and a giant earthworm. They get a look at the animal’s internal physiology.

  Length:	00:14:16
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

• Decomposers Everywhere

  Settling their craft into the bottom, the micro-explorers discover that the bottom ooze is populated by bacteria, the microbes that break down and recycle organic materials–an unforgettable visual introduction to the concept of organic decomposition.

  Length:	00:13:50
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

• Discovering A Forest Microcosm

  The microexplorers are channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing water.

  Length:	00:12:43
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

• Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis

  In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued, and its green secrets are revealed through experiments performed on board the Cyclops. The micro-explorers discover how algae start the food chains that ultimately sustain the fish, birds, amphibians, and mammals living in and around the pond.

  Length:	00:14:18
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

• Plankton Play

  Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers encounter the denizens of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers, and protists, organisms with unique adaptations for open water life.

  Length:	00:13:43
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

• Predators of the Shallow

  While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by Planaria, a flatworm, the tentacles of Hydra trap the Cyclops crew where they receive a hands-on lesson in the process of digestion.

  Length:	00:14:50
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

• Protozoans and Algae

  Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming by the observation ports. Through careful observation they discover how these amazing single cells feed, reproduce, and escape.

  Length:	00:14:48
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

• White Water Adventure

  Trying to return to their pond base, the microexplorers are channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing water even waterfalls.

  Length:	00:13:53
  Usage rights:	3/13/2006 to 2/28/2036

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