This experiment will help students to understand the role of plants in filtering the water moving through a watershed. Students will discover that soil and plants have something of a dual role in this process and, depending on whether materials are dissolved or suspended in the water, soils and plant roots can remove some or all of this material as the water moves down through soil. They also learn ... Full description.

"Pieces of Science" is an online gallery of sixteen educational resources related to a collection of historical science objects. These pages discuss the history of Ben Franklin and the lightning rod. There are references for additional information and links to lesson plans and student activities, both on and off-line. Full description.

This site provides instructions for students to make their own model mountain and then make a topographic map of the model. Materials and procedure are explained so younger students can follow the direction with minimum supervision. Full description.

On this website you will find links to current, forecast, and archived weather for use at home and in the classroom. In addition, there are more than fifty online examples demonstrating severe weather phenomena and the mechanisms for their formation. Links to photo galleries, animations, and demonstration applets on all topics of severe weather can be found in the left menu of each page. The severe ... Full description.

In this lab, students will learn how to take field notes as scientists do, using a simulated sediment core, constructed with edible items. Students will use metric notations to mark changes in the sediments, objects such as fossils and glacial pebbles in the core sample, and will select a spot to sample. They will use a small round cookie cutter to obtain a cylindrical sample of the core. The activity ... Full description.

This site presents biographical information and an interview with Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. The interview is a question-and-answer session that ranges from his childhood aspirations to modern techniques for sensing remote objects used by astronomers today. Full description.

This site contains information about and photographs of asteroids. Starting with the discovery of asteroids in 1801 by Guiseppe Piazzi when he accidentally discovered Ceres, it describes their location and appearance. There are several close-up photographs of Gaspra and well as Ida and her satellite Dactyl taken by the Galileo spacecraft. This site has a large index of photographs, many taken by NEAR ... Full description.

Information on this site about Saturn includes mean distance from the Sun, length of a year, rotation period, mean orbital velocity, inclination of axis, diameter, and number of observed satellites. The view from Earth shows how the appearance changes depending on the relative position in orbit. Pioneer at Saturn is one of the first spacecraft views of Saturn and was taken by Pioneer 11 three days ... Full description.

Facts on this site about Uranus include mean distance from Sun, length of year, rotation period, mean orbital velocity, inclination of axis, average temperature (day and night), diameter, and number of observed satellites. Uranus' axis of rotation is tilted nearly 98 degrees, almost perpendicular to its orbit. Consequently, the seasons and days on Uranus are strange. At times, the north pole points ... Full description.

Information on this site about Neptune includes mean distance from the Sun, length of a year, rotation period, mean orbital velocity, inclination of the axis, diameter, and number of observed satellites. Information about the eight moons of Neptune is given in tabular form and there is a photograph of geysers on Triton. Other photographs show the rings of Neptune and the blue clouds of its atmosphere, ... Full description.