The Darby Creek watershed encompasses an area of approximately 550 square miles in central Ohio. The Big and Little Darby Creeks are well known for their vast diversity and abundance of aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals. They are home to eighty-six species of fish, five of which are endangered. Forty-one species of freshwater mollusks live in these waters, eight of which are on the Ohio endangered ... Full description.

Solar cells have varying amounts of effectiveness depending on factors such as latitude and cloud coverage. For example, locations with more cloud coverage will produce less solar energy. By comparing the monthly averages of surface downward radiation in various locations around the United States, students can analyze areas that would be more or less beneficial to having solar panels per month. This ... Full description.

GIS enables students to geo-reference multiple data sets creating layers. This essentially becomes a vertical profile of data, information, photographs etc. that when viewed as a body of information can present a fairly comprehensive view of that location. Based on data associated with latitude and longitude, students now have the ability to examine geo-referenced data sets derived on Earth, and from ... Full description.

There are many factors that affect an area?s climate. By understanding these factors, someone could predict the average temperature, temperature range, and precipitation patterns of an area. They could also predict the type of vegetation likely to grow in an area based on these atmospheric conditions. In this activity, students will work in groups of three. Each group will be assigned one of six sets ... Full description.

Solar energy is radiant energy that is produced by the Sun. Every day the Sun radiates an enormous amount of energy. How much solar energy a place on Earth receives depends on several conditions. In this lesson, students will explore real NASA satellite data for energy from the Sun and cloud cover for their area to determine if they can harness this solar energy, a renewable energy source, by using ... Full description.

In this lesson, students will investigate the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and chlorophyll-a measurements in a local watershed. They will compare two data sets to find correlations and explain the importance of carbon dioxide and photosynthetic plants in the carbon cycle. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to relate global climate change to local effects. Full description.

The purpose of this lesson is to let students analyze atmospheric radiosonde data from a balloon launched at NASA Langley Research Center by teachers attending a workshop. Other resources are included to assist in interpreting the observations. Students are asked to explain in paragraph format their interpretation of the atmospheric conditions depicted by the data and the graph produced using the ... Full description.

This activity demonstrates how to import data from the Internet and make EXCEL graphs. The instructions included were provided by a classroom teacher who used these instructions with high school students. Following detailed, illustrated instructions, students will complete the activity by working with data from two cities: Little Rock, Arkansas and Miami, Florida. Since temperature generally decreases ... Full description.

This lesson uses NASA satellite data to contrast amounts of cloud coverage over different climate regions in Africa. An an outcome of the lesson, the student will be able to explain how Earth's major air circulations affect global weather patterns and relate local weather patterns to climate as well as identify different climate regions. Students will also describe conditions for cloud formation along ... Full description.

This easy but effective lesson uses NASA CERES satellite percent coverage surface data along with a world map and asks students to locate landmasses and bodies of water at Earth's Equator. Students will map locations using latitude and longitude coordinates. Using the microset of satellite data included with the lesson to investigate surface characteristics, students will apply percentage to determine ... Full description.