This is an inquiry activity that, while based on a local area (the San Francisco Bay), could be adapted to the teacher's/student's local area. Students perform an experiment in which they observe how water pollution is absorbed into plants. The site contains a teacher's guide and printable student worksheet. Full description.

In this activity, students play the roles of detectives investigating the loss of a city's water supply by evaporation. They will design an experiment to see whether heat or wind causes the greater loss of water, conduct the experiment, and write a report detailing their findings. Full description.

This activity consists of two parts in which students investigate heat transfer by radiation and by conduction. In the first part, students design and conduct an experiment to test the effect of color on an object's ability to radiate energy (heat). In the second part, they investigate the transfer of energy from a hotter object to a cooler one, in this case, containers of hot and cold water. In both ... Full description.

This activity will help students to have a better understanding of the basic principles used to determine the age of rocks and fossils. It consists of several parts: to have students determine relative age of a geologically complex area, to familiarize students with the concept of half-life in radioactive decay, to have students see that individual runs of statistical processes are less predictable ... Full description.

This experiment helps students understand that ultraviolet (UV) radiation is present in natural outdoor light and that the intensity of the light varies with season and time of day. After completing this activity, students will be able to demonstrate that UV radiation can be blocked or filtered by various substances. The page contains detailed background material, learning goals, alignment to national ... Full description.

This activity has students observe how ozone can damage rubber bands and through a comparison, they will be able to determine the relative ozone levels for different locations. After completing this activity students will understand that tropospheric ozone is often called bad ozone because it breaks down certain materials, be able to explain that concentrations of ozone are not uniform, and demonstrate ... Full description.

In this lab activity using M&M candy, students will explore the concepts of radioactive decay and dating. Students generate a radioactive decay table to simplify the math, use their data to plot a decay graph, develop the concept of half-life, and then use the graph to find the age of a mummified seal in Wright Valley, Antarctica. In a follow-up exercise, students will solve a mysterious Arctic ... Full description.

This activity helps students to understand the many roles that polar sea ice plays in the systems that maintain our planet, by first helping them to understand the process of the formation of ice in oceanic regimes. Students will use an inquiry based lab experience relating salt content to the ability of water to freeze in order to begin this study. Specifically, they will design an experiment to ... Full description.

In this lab activity, students explore how organisms are able to survive the extreme environmental conditions found in the Polar regions. Students will design experiments using Tardigrades and rotifers to expand their knowledge and understanding of normal behavior followed by experiments to explore anhydrobiosis. Full description.

In this activity, students will design experiments to gain some understanding of the feeding rates of Rotifers and/or Tardigrades (charismatic microfauna). These organisms are the largest found in Lake Hoare in the Taylor Valley, making them the top predator in the food chain of this lake ecosystem. The rate of feeding and the amount of food available may determine population size. Students will use ... Full description.