Wilson Alwyn Bentley (1865-1931), famous for his photomicrographs of snow crystals, prepared sets of glass lantern slides of dew, frost and ice crystals. Many of these sets found their way to colleges and universities around the United States. The University of Wisconsin's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences donated their collection to the Schwerdtfeger Library in 2000. Shortly after, the ... Full description.

The Gulf of Maine Aquarium hosts this two-part activity. The focus is on seasonal changes in the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Part 1 uses an atlas and satellite imagery to examine the geography of the region and the changing boundaries of the ice sheet. Part 2 tracks annual changes in sea ice. There is an animation page showing changes in ice cover around Antarctica during 1991, and links ... Full description.

The New Millennium Observatory (NeMO) is a seafloor observatory off the coast of Oregon, which studies the relationships between submarine volcanic events and the chemistry and distribution of hydrothermal vents and the biologic communities that depend on them. The research activities at NeMO provide an extraordinary educational opportunity, both from the daily reports from expeditions at sea and ... Full description.

This site provides an overview of the earth's atmospheric greenhouse effect by briefly exploring the atmospheres of nearby planets and discussing the greenhouse gases of our atmosphere. Information at this site helps students to understand that the greenhouse effect is what makes this planet suitable for life as we know it and that the earth's atmosphere contains trace gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide, ... Full description.

Virtual Earthquake is an interactive web-based program designed to introduce the concepts of how an earthquake epicenter is located and how the Richter magnitude of an earthquake is determined. Virtual Earthquake shows the recordings of an earthquake's seismic waves detected by instruments far away from the earthquake. The instrument recording the seismic waves is called a seismograph and the recording ... Full description.

NOAA's Paleoclimatology Program is working with scientists from around the world to study past climate in hopes of achieving a better understanding of the Earth's present and future climate. This site was developed to help educate, inform and highlight the importance of paleoclimate research; as well as to show how paleoclimate research relates to global warming and other important issues of climate ... Full description.

The PALEOMAP Project illustrates the plate tectonic development of the ocean basins and continents, as well as the changing distribution of land and sea during the past 1100 million years. The reconstruction of paleoclimates is also discussed. Maps are viewed as animations where the time component can be user-manipulated. Included are a variety of background materials which supplement the animations. ... Full description.

Discovering Plate Boundaries is based on 5 world maps containing earthquake, volcano, topography, satellite gravity, and seafloor age data. The novel aspect of the exercise is the "jigsaw" manner in which student groups access the maps and use them to discover, classify, and describe plate boundary types. The exercise is based only on observation and description, which makes it useful at a wide variety ... Full description.

This site, The Nine Planets, is an overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system. Each page has text and images; some have sounds and movies. Data for each planet includes orbit, diameter, mass, motions, composition, albedo, number of satellites, and visits by probes from Earth. Links to solar system data, a discovery chronology, ... Full description.

This applet simulates what happens inside a house when the temperature and dew point change outside. The user of this applet has control over the outdoor values of the two thermometers (one for temperature and one for dew point). The relative humidity meter will instantly display the value for the outside. The user will learn that as the outdoor values are changed, the indoor environment is slower ... Full description.