This interactive diagram allows the user to follow a drop of water from the source through the treatment process. Water may be treated differently in different communities depending on the quality of the water which enters the plant. Groundwater is water located under ground and typically requires less treatment than water from lakes, rivers, and streams. Users are invited to click on each treatment ... Full description.

Students participating in this lesson will collect, observe, and record particulates from the air to contrast visible and invisible air pollution. They then complete a simulation of the damage due to acid rain to illustrate invisible pollution. The lesson plan provides essential elements, objective, focus, a list of materials, background information, procedure, and ideas for enrichment. Full description.

Flowing water from rivers and streams is a valuable and plentiful energy resource that people learned to use centuries ago to operate the machinery that was important to their livelihoods. This page features diagrams (some animated) that show the three main principles of water; various types of water wheels; and the modern hydroelectric turbine. There are also animations of various types of mills ... Full description.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kids Science News Network (NASA's KSNN) builds upon children's natural curiosity to introduce younger students to the world of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and NASA. KSNN uses animated characters (for grades K-2) and web and video technology (for grades 3-5) to help children understand the everyday phenomena of our world, to correct ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to introduce students to the importance of soil. In the first activity, students generate a list of why soils are important. In the second activity, students are asked to describe the five factors that form a unique soil profile and to explore these concepts. In the third activity, students are shown a demonstration of how much soil there is on Earth that is available ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to familiarize students with the importance of perspective and various scales of remotely sensed data. Students create a 3-D model of an area and develop a classification system for the landforms in their model. The maps can then be used to answer certain questions about the environment. Full description.

This portal offers an alphabetical selection of links to materials on a variety of sea creatures, especially whales. Topics include research reports, expedition records, maps, datasets, movies, and sound recordings for several species of whales, seals, porpoises, and turtles. Full description.

The site offers an interactive discussion of different vantage points associated with dam building. It describes some of the engineering and environmental issues that go into the process of selecting a site for building a dam and the conditions necessary for electrical generation. Links to classroom and family activities are organized by grade level. Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to use a land cover type map to make environmentally sound decisions. Full description.

This Classroom Connectors lesson plan discusses how fossil fuels are obtained from the Earth, the effect this has on the environment, means of restoring the environment after surface mining, and the effect of energy use on the environment. The site provides goals, objectives, an outline, time required, materials, activities, and closure ideas for the lesson. The Classroom Connectors address content ... Full description.