This Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) site focuses on the science and impacts of global warming or climate change, and on actions that help address global warming. It features games, events, and links to other relevant sites for kids and educators, including activities on climate and weather and the greenhouse effect. 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.

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 Global Climate Animations site contains animations of the Earth's climate system for educational and research purposes. The animations show the climatology of the seasonal cycle for selected climate variables for the time period 1959-1997, based on data from the NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project. The individual frames in each animation show the map pattern of the long-term monthly averages ... Full description.

This site provides a brief overview of the earth's climate, which is generally defined as the average weather over a long period of time. The climate of a region is determined by both natural and anthropogenic (human-made) factors. The natural elements include the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere, while the human factors can include land and resource uses. Changes in any of these ... Full description.

These Java applets simulate warm and cold air advection in the United States. They allow users to vary different combinations of wind speed, simulation duration, wind direction, contour spacing in Ames, Iowa. Several of the applets also give the user an opportunity to estimate the final temperature. The results show how the temperature gradient would change over a matter of time given the wind speed ... Full description.

This Java applet simulates the energy intake of our atmosphere during the day and the loss of energy at night. Users can vary the intensity of the sun during the day. A tub of water fills up symbolically showing the energy intake of our atmosphere. At the end of the simulation students are asked to answer several questions. 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 unit includes classroom activities to help students understand global warming and its possible effects on human beings. Lessons in the unit provide students with opportunities to study global climate changes, discuss and debate the current arguments for and against global warming and the Greenhouse Effect, investigate the possibility of global warming and the Greenhouse Effect, and present their ... Full description.

Radiation Balance challenges students to "become a meteorologist" and make predictions about the relationships among ground cover, time of day, altitude and temperature. It is a simulation of radiation processes in the earth's atmosphere caused by solar, terrestrial, and atmospheric radiation transfer. Students analyze temperature data measured by a balloon (radiosonde) that they "launch" both in ... Full description.