In this lesson plan students learn about the varying sizes of ocean waves, what causes the variation, and where to find giant waves. Students will learn the parts of a wave, and discuss wave height, wavelength, and wave period. They will experiment with creating waves on the National Geographic Wave Simulator and discuss how geography affects waves. Full description.

Web Weather for Kids offers hands-on classroom activities for students to learn about selected severe weather phenomena. Each activity has step-by-step instructions, materials lists, and guiding questions for students. A Teacher Tips page offers implementation strategies for teachers. Phenomena covered include the formation of thunderstorms, lightning, and tornados. Students explore the concepts of ... Full description.

This interactive site features games, animations, and teachers' materials intended to introduce younger students to climate change. There is information about what climate change is, the difference between weather and climate, and the greenhouse effect. There are also materials on the climate system, ancient climates, and how scientists investigate climate. Other topics include discussions of whether ... 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.

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 is a well constructed curriculum module dealing with the water cycle. In this module, students first carry out a number of activities that demonstrate the concepts of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and soil moisture and runoff. The students then construct a terrarium as a way to observe the water cycle as a whole. Immediately following this, students use the Internet to acquire real ... Full description.

This resource explores winter weather and frozen precipitation. The page on precipitation points out that snow and rain are both water and explains how the different forms of frozen precipitation (snow, sleet, freezing rain) occur. There is a page on cirrus clouds that explains their characterstics and how they may affect climate by reflecting solar radiation or reducing outgoing infrared energy from ... Full description.

This site provides a brief overview of processes and properties associated with global climate change and its rate of change, which is of current concern to scientists. The carbon cycle is discussed including its sources, sinks, and release agents along with the fact that it is critical to the biosphere and must continue cycling to support life on Earth. The information at this site should lead students ... Full description.

This section of the Windows to the Universe web site provides information and images about Earth's atmosphere including detailed information about the layers of Earth's atmosphere, the greenhouse effect, and weather. Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system pertaining to the Earth and Space sciences. The objective of this project is to develop an innovative and engaging web site ... Full description.

This section of the Windows to the Universe web site provides information and images about the Sun including detailed information about stars, the solar interior, sunspots, solar activity, the photosphere, the chromosphere, the corona, eclipses, the solar cycle, coronal mass ejection, and myths about the Sun. Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system pertaining to the Earth and Space ... Full description.