This is an activity to help students visualize the relationship of motion, time and space as it relates to objects orbiting the earth. They will be able to track the path of an orbiting object on a globe, plot the path of an orbiting object on a flat world map, and explain that an object orbiting earth on a plane will produce a flight path which appears as wavy lines on the earths surface. Full description.

In this activity students first work in small groups and look through books to find three interesting facts about dinosaurs. Groups report their facts to the rest of the class while the teacher uses students' responses to create a semantic map. Students are shown the difference between the lizard and the dinosaur. On the included worksheet students will color only the animals that are dinosaurs. When ... Full description.

This page offers a list of materials and directions for a demonstration that allows the student to observe Rayleigh scattering of light, and to understand what makes the sky appear to be blue. A link leads to an explanation of the observed phenomena. Full description.

This interactive feature provides younger students with basic information about Mars. Topics include the length of the Martian day, the size of the planet relative to Earth, and its gravity and atmosphere. There are also features on the search for life on Mars and what forms it might take, as well as a downloadable activity in which students conduct an 'interview' with the planet and provide the answers. ... Full description.

These activities illustrate the order of rocks in a sequence and tells us about the relative timing of their formation. Students use layers of colored sand and colored paper to simulate the sequencing involved in the formation of rock layers. At the end of the activities students should understand that rocks lower in a sequence are usually older than ones that are higher up (superposition). They should ... Full description.

This interactive, animated graphic helps explain the water cycle to younger students. The animation, with sound, explains the various parts of the water cycle and show how water moves from one part to another. Full description.

This activity introduces students to the magnetosphere, which shields the Earth from plasma streaming from the Sun (the solar wind). They will use a bar magnet and iron filings to construct a model that shows how Earth's magnetic field interacts with the solar wind, deflecting the plasma away. A materials list, instructions, and culminating activities are provided. Full description.

By placing the cursor on a part of this interactive model of the Earth, students can get information about that part. This includes the inner and outer core, the mantle, crust, and atmosphere. There is also a section called More Earth Fun with four activities. The first is a set of instructions to make an edible Earth. The second contains an Earth time line and the third is a quiz about matching a ... Full description.

This lesson is the first of a two-part series on the science of hurricanes and the kinds of technology being used to identify and track them. In this segment, students examine different scientific aspects of hurricanes, all in an effort to begin to understand the nature of motion, particularly how changes in speed or direction of motion are caused by forces. Full description.

This site presents four topics and seventeen activities all related to the solar system. In this chapter students will investigate the nature of the objects in our Solar System, their behavior, and their associated phenomena. This is chapter five of the online book called Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground, an exploration into astronomy as a classroom tool for learning how to theorize, experiment, ... Full description.