The purpose of this activity is to discover why an instrument shelter is built the way it is. Students construct shelters that have varying properties and place them in the same location or place similar shelters in different locations and compare temperature data taken in each shelter. Students should predict what will happen for each of the different shelter designs or placements and perform the ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to explore soil and soil properties. Students discover the variability of soils, derive relationships among soils and the soil forming factors, and link the GLOBE Soil Investigation to the students. local environment. Students use soil samples from their homes to identify properties that characterize their soils. They compare and contrast their soils to those of their ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to further students' understanding of the causes of seasonal change using visualizations to compare the effects of incoming solar energy in the two hemispheres. The class reviews global visualizations of incoming sunlight and surface temperature and discusses seasonal change. Students use the visualizations to support inquiry on the differences in seasonal change in ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to observe plant green-down and report greendown data to help validate estimates of the end of the plant growing season. Students monitor the change in color of selected leaves of trees, shrubs or grasses. Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to develop an understanding of some of the relationships between soils of different types and water. Students will time the flow of water through soils with different properties and measure the amount of water held in these soils. They will also experiment with the filtering ability of soils by testing the pH of the water before and after it passes through the soil ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to measure near-surface soil temperatures. Students measure soil temperatures at 5 cm and 10 cm depths using a soil thermometer. Students will be able to perform a soil thermometer calibration, carry out soil temperature measurements accurately and precisely and record and report soil temperature data. Students will be able to relate soil temperature measurements to ... Full description.

The purpose of this activity is to explore the connections between cloud type, cloud cover, and weather and stimulate student interest in taking cloud type observations. Students observe cloud type and coverage and weather conditions over a five-day period and correlate these observations. Students make and test predictions using these observations. The intended outcome is that students learn to draw ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to understand that variations in landscape can affect soil properties. Students investigate variations in the soils around their school to discover that soil properties like moisture and temperature exhibit considerable variability across a single landscape. They also identify factors such as slope, shade, plants, compaction, which affect the appearance of soils and ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to introduce the different particle sizes of soils and the properties which each contributes to the soil character. Students make mud pies by adding water to the various soil components, letting them dry and observing the pie's characteristics. Students sift soil to remove organic materials and pebbles. They then sift the soil with smaller meshed sieves to separate ... Full description.

This site facilitates a classroom activity in which students create a hypothesis on cloud formation and then conduct online research to either validate or refute their initial hypothesis. The activity begins with a brief laboratory experiment that demonstrates cloud formation and asks students to generate a hypothesis on how clouds form. The activity then switches to students conducting Internet research. ... Full description.