The activities in this unit are intended to spark interest in responsible land use and sustainable human settlements on the Moon. They include Lunar Land Use, Life Support Systems, and Lunar Biosphere. These activities require teamwork, research, and development of model systems. Students will perform such activities as presenting proposals for developments on the Moon in a competition for approval ... Full description.

This site offers an introduction to minerals, crystals and gems. Lesson plans involve creating a classroom exhibit and investigating rocks and minerals, watching crystals grow, and looking for minerals and mineral products (including a mineral scavenger hunt). There is also a section on Smithsonian resources, including teaching aids, books, and websites. Full description.

This activity is designed to help students learn about how important it is to take care of our land and protect it from pollution. They will discover that an arbitrary line on a map will not keep wildlife such as grizzly bears, wolves, or birds from leaving a protected area in search of food or force wildlife not to follow a traditional migration pattern. They will also realize that neither exotic ... Full description.

This site uses a question and answer format to provide detailed information about acid rain. It presents information about the causes of acid rain, including data on each of the contributing factors, focusing on both sulfur and nitrogen compounds, and an explanation of the difference between target load and critical load. Other sections have information about the effect of acid rain on water, forests, ... Full description.

This is the kid's page of the European Space Agency (ESA). It contains an extensive selection of materials for younger students. The lab section contains activties, animations, and interactive maps. The fun section features games, an art gallery, quiz, coloring book, and downloads. The news section features articles on ESA's current activities. The site is available in English, German, French, Spanish, ... Full description.

In this activity, students learn about and simulate some of the potential impacts of land development on wolves and their habitat. They recognize that loss of habitat is the most critical problem facing wolves today. In addition to background information and activity procedures, the site contains a link to more information on the timber wolf. Full description.

This site contains figures and tables that describe the progress of a typical hurricane season in terms of the total number of tropical systems and hurricanes produced throughout the year in the Atlantic and East Pacific basins. The figures have curves which represent the average cumulative production of all named tropical systems, all hurricanes, and those hurricanes which were Category 3 or stronger ... Full description.

This resource introduces students to an example of a salt-water ecosystem. The first section, 'A Sea of Questions', is a question-and-answer feature that looks at a tropical mangrove ecosystem. The second section is in interactive feature, 'Too Many Examples?', which allows students to examine the flora and fauna of a mangrove swamp. Ichthyologist Ian Harrison explains the process of sampling and ... Full description.

These suggestions for activities allow students to learn about acid deposition in new and interactive ways, both in and out of the classroom. The suggestions are for individuals and small groups, the class as a whole, or for field trips. Students may contact local experts about acid rain issues, investigate the energy sources used to generate electricity by their local power companies, collect cartoons ... Full description.

This article, entitled Earth: All Stressed Out, dicusses the reasons for crustal movement, the different types of faults and seismic waves, and an explanation of how the damage is caused. The article includes several animations that support the explanations, plus a video taken during a destructive California earthquake. There are also three sidebars that support the article. They are Learning from ... Full description.