This lesson plan details an activity designed to put students in the role of scientists in analyzing the geological processes that occur on terrestrial planets - i.e. Earth and Mars. Students will use images from NASA?s Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera onboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft to evaluate the geologic history and present conditions on Mars. This activity will enable students ... Full description.

This lesson offers students an introduction to river ecology and the effects of human activity on watersheds. They will learn the basics of river ecology; research how dams affect the environment; and study a specific watershed in the United States. Assessment materials, extension activities, and links to related sites are inlcuded. Full description.

Students participating in this lab activity will construct a simulated aquifer in the classroom. The aquifer is constructed from readily available materials, and instructions, data sheets, vocabulary, and diagrams are provided. This simple model is intended for student inquiry into groundwater systems. Students are instructed to try things (within the context of the model), observe what happens, and ... Full description.

In this lesson, students download cloud and surface data from the NASA CERES S-COOL website student observation database, then develop and compare graphs to explore the relationships between surface temperature, pressure, and humidity. Students then investigate possible patterns in cloud-types and the surface conditions for several locations on a particular date of their choice from the S-COOL data. ... Full description.

Many claims have been made about the evidence for or against global warming, yet whether the interpretation of the data points leans towards fact or fiction, a more descriptive term to use is global climate change. The most hard-hit area where global climate change is apparent is within the Arctic Circle. In this lesson, students will explore data from the Arctic, develop relationships between parameters ... Full description.

This resource gives an impression of how immense our Universe is by starting with an image of the Earth and then zooming out to the furthest visible reaches of the Universe. Its goal is to show astronomical distances without scientific notation. Instead, it focuses on the large number of zeros that are in astronomical distances when we measure them with a familiar unit like the kilometer. The number ... Full description.

Snow and ice are both precipitation, that is, the processes that remove water from clouds. Clouds, regions of the atmosphere with high relative humidity, are made of droplets of water and perhaps bits of ice. Even though water is much denser than air, these droplets and ice crystals are small enough to be suspended by random upward air motion. When these droplets or crystals join together, gravity ... Full description.

This lesson is designed to help students gain knowledge in using the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS) to specify and download a microset of data, then to use the data to compare the ozone levels of selected regions around the world. Students locate and identify geographical regions using latitude and longitude; then, in groups, students create and analyze graphs of ozone levels for the identified ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to learn about latitude and longitude while developing math skills. Students begin by asking the simple question: 'Where Am I?' Then they learn about the magnetic Earth and the use of compasses and angles. Students also learn about the difference between relative and absolute locations. Throughout this activity, students practice using a variety of math skills. Full description.

This resource includes a classroom activity, background information and a set of temperature and surface pressure data from the Pathfinder Lander. Students analyze data on temperature and pressure graphs from the first 30 days of the Pathfinder Mission to determine whether water could have existed under these conditions. A set of 15 images is also available, which can be reproduced on a photocopier ... Full description.