The purpose of this lesson is to examine the role of technology in identifying and tracking hurricanes. It is the second in a two-part series on the science of hurricanes and the kinds of technology being used to identify and track them. Students broaden their study by exploring how technology and science are used today to identify, measure, and track powerful tropical storms to better warn and secure ... Full description.

Students are introduced to general space science with information about astronauts, space probes, space travel, the Hubble Space Telescope, space suits, and the Columbia Shuttle accident. Biographies of important scientists and astronauts are included, and vocabulary crossword puzzles, maps, logic riddles, and coloring pages extend learning. Each page offers links to a glossary of important terms. ... Full description.

This lesson will help students gain experience in asking questions and conducting inquiry by exploring the separation of colors in water and other solvents; and to communicate and share findings of student investigations. The lesson uses a technique called paper chromatography, which is demonstrated using water, ink, and a coffee filter. Scientists use chromatography frequently to separate and identify ... Full description.

This activity will help students to recognize that there is a lot of water in the world, but that not very much of it can be used for our drinking water and other water supply needs. They will see that ground water is a very small percentage of the Earth's water, and understand how important it is that we take care of our ground water. Full description.

In this internet activity, students use search engines to build a list of facts about Earth science that fascinate them. After building the list, students will choose and rank their top ten amazing facts and answer some questions about them. Full description.

In this activity students explore earthquake hazards and damage to buildings by constructing model buildings and subjecting the buildings to ground vibration (shaking similar to earthquake vibrations) on a small shake table. After the initial testing, instructors can illustrate specific design issue problems with model buildings that were successful by modifying them with a specific weakness. Poor ... Full description.

In this lesson students are provided background information about telescopes. In addition the site presents an activity in which students study the properties of lenses and build a simple refracting telescope. They are instructed to add optical telescope, refracting telescope, objective lens, and eyepiece to a vocabulary list. The site contains the first in a series of six lessons in astronomy. Full description.

Through this activity, students will gain an understanding of how scientists use instruments to collect and measure information, and understand how instruments can be adapted to collect information about items in space that cannot always be seen. They will construct a model to collect information (sunlight, in this case) and use it as an example to see how the Neutral Atom Imager aboard the IMAGE ... Full description.

In this activity, students will recognize that body design affects balance by building models of dinosaur body types, using straws and marshmallows. There is background information, procedure, and a lab investigation with questions in this activity. Full description.

This site describes the machines and remote sensing devices designed to explore the deep ocean. Items covered include the bathysphere developed in the early 1930s by William Beebe and Otis Barton; the bathyscaph designed by Belgian scientist Auguste Piccard (1884-1962); the Alvin submersible which was first designed in 1964 and named for its creator; and the Johnson Sea Link, a nine-ton, 23-foot long ... Full description.