This tutorial on the three types of energy transfer (radiation, convection, and conduction) describes the different kinds of energy, insulators, conductors, R-values (resistance to heat transfer), and the use of straw-bale walls. Example data and a video clip on straw-bale wall experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are included. There are classroom project ideas such as: how different animals ... Full description.

A joint effort of NOAA Research and the College of Education at the University of South Alabama, this site seeks to provide middle school science students and teachers with research and investigation experiences using on-line resources. It contains activities pertaining to ocean currents (their properties and influence on weather and sea life). Students gather data from other websites, apply the data ... Full description.

This activity has students perform a simplified method of aqueous electrolysis to split water into its two chemical elements using electric current from a battery. Students also learn that in the proposed Mars chemical plant, the Sabatier reaction combines carbon dioxide with hydrogen to produce methane (which forms the basis for methanol rocket fuel) and water. After water (H2O) is obtained, it can ... Full description.

This Amazing Space science lesson teaches students about the electromagnetic spectrum and how its interpretation enables scientists to gather information about the universe. Computer activities help to explain the wave-energy relationship, and the color-wavelength-temperature relationship. Each section includes questions, 'brain teasers', and reference material for teachers. Full description.

This site is a joint effort of NOAA Research and the College of Education at the University of South Alabama. The goal of the site is to provide middle school science students and teachers with research and investigation experiences using on-line resources. In this unit students explore what El Nino is, where it is located, how it is created, and weather changes that El Nino causes. Students analyze ... Full description.

In this lesson, learners use WebImage, a Web-based customized version of ImageJ, to investigate changes in snow cover and sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere over a period of 24 years. The images are obtained from satellite measurements of visible and microwave radiation. The lesson follows from Snow and Ice: A Hemispherical View. Full description.

In this lesson, students use a Web-based customized version of ImageJ to examine images of atmospheric ozone levels over the South Pole to determine the months of lowest ozone levels and changes in ozone levels since 1979. Some of the causes for the decline in ozone are introduced. Full description.

Launched by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the "All About Sea Ice" website is designed as an introduction to sea ice: what it is, how it forms, how it is studied, how it affected historical expeditions in the polar regions, and what role it plays in the global climate. The site contains over 80 pages of information on sea ice, including a glossary of sea ice terms and links to more information. ... Full description.

In this activity, students will investigate various aspects of the behavior of light. First, they will use diffraction gratings to view the colors or spectrum produced by visible light, then hold the diffraction grating in front of different light sources and record the colors that they see. They will examine common materials to determine whether they are transparent, translucent, or opaque and use ... Full description.

In this activity students use boxes with a marble and an unknown cardboard target shape inside, and must infer what the shape is based on the movement of the marble. This black box activity is analogous to inferences scientists must make about the amount of dark matter in the universe based on motions of galaxies and stars. Full description.