During the first of two landings in the Mars Exploration Rover mission, scientists and engineers were full of anticipation and anxiety the night that the rover 'Spirit' was due to land. Would the rover land safely and be able to complete its mission to find out about the geological history of the planet? This video segment shows the range of emotions experienced by NASA scientists and technicians ... Full description.

It is not easy to get to Mars. Dozens of past missions have failed, with only a handful even attempting to land on the planet's surface. However, in January 2004, careful planning paid off when the Mars Exploration Rover mission successfully landed two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. This video segment, adapted from a NOVA television broadcast, describes the history of Mars exploration, the many failed ... Full description.

This site serves as a gateway to three sections devoted to learning about tides and water levels: an online tutorial, an list of links to tidal resources, and formal lesson plans. The tutorial is an overview of the complex systems that govern the movement of tides and water levels. It is content rich, is presented in easy-to-understand language, and includes many illustrative and interactive graphics ... Full description.

This website contains the answers to over 50 questions relating the characteristics of typhoons, tropical cyclones, and hurricanes. It covers a wide variety of topics, from basic definitions to myths, names, winds, forecasting, and historical information. The answers to the questions contain charts, graphs, text, and illustrations for a thorough explanation. When appropriate, links are given for more ... Full description.

This slide show presents images which show the paleogeography of the southwestern United States from 1.8 billion years ago to 10 million years ago. The slide show was originally presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in 1997. Beginning in the Precambrian, it traces the paleogeographic evolution of the region through the Tertiary. Emphasis is on the Mesozoic where two ... Full description.

SEACOOS is a collaborative university partnership that collects, manages, and disseminates integrated regional ocean observations and information products for the coasts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Materials include data such as near real-time and time series ocean observations, modeling products, and ocean condition forecasts. Educational materials include the Virtual Hurricane ... Full description.

This site provides links to tours of National Parks, National Monuments, and Recreation Areas associated with major mountain building periods. The parks are divided into groups by mountain building events: Appalachian, Laramide, and others. Where appropriate, links are provided to park geology, maps, photographs, geologic research, related links, visitor information, multi-media, and teacher features ... Full description.

This National Park Service (NPS) site provides links to shoreline geology fieldnotes for National Parks, Monuments, and Recreation Areas. When appropriate, fieldnotes include visitor information, geology, maps, photographs, multimedia resources, geologic research, and teacher features (lessons for teaching geology with National Park examples). Some of the parks included on this site: Acadia National ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades 9-12. It focuses on the geological history of the Niagara Falls area, as well as the physical and geological processes that have formed this region. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, performing extensions, suggested readings, and vocabulary. There are videos available ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the Center for Educational Resources (CERES), a series of web-based astronomy lessons created by a team of master teachers, university faculty, and NASA researchers. In this activity, students view NASA images and movies of Venus, Earth, and Mars to deduce weather patterns and manipulate computer models to test competing hypotheses. This lesson contains expected outcomes ... Full description.