Minerals 4 Kids contains four Web-based activities offered for K-12 Education by the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA). These activities are entitled: Minerals in Your House, Mineral Groups, Mineral Properties, and All About Crystals. Also included are links to Mineral Games, the Rock Cycle diagram that leads to descriptions of the three rock types, and Ask-A-Mineralogist that enables the user ... Full description.

This site focuses on the subject of volcanoes, including how volcanoes form, the destruction they can cause, effects of volcanoes on the environment, where active volcanoes are found, volcanoes of other planets, and the different volcano types. Designed as an electronic tour, it guides the user through different web sites and outlines teaching objectives, concepts covered, and new vocabulary. There ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades K-5. It focuses on three specific landforms: canyons, caves, and concretion. Students research one of these landforms as a team to create a visual display, illustrating how the landform formed and evolved to its present state. Included are objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, suggested ... Full description.

This experiment is designed to allow students to observe and understand chemical and physical weathering of simulated "rocks". They will place the materials in plastic bags, one wet and one dry, and store them for 3-4 days. At the end of the storage period, they will observe the contents of both bags and answer some questions about what they see. Full description.

This Classroom Connectors lesson plan discusses the factors which cause changes to the surface of the Earth. This includes identifying various types of landforms, geologic structures and movements, processes that form rocks, and understanding rock and soil cycles. The site provides goals, objectives, an outline, time required, materials, activities, and closure ideas for the lesson. The Classroom ... Full description.

Volcanoes in the Solar System is a Windows to the Universe Exploratour and provides information and images about shield volcanoes, cinder cones, ash, lava, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Io, and the Moon. 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 that spans the Earth ... Full description.

This interactive lesson on metamorphic rocks starts with a review of the rock cycle and goes on to describe the relationship between metamorphic rocks and their parent rock. The lesson then describes the agents of metamorphism (temperature, pressure, and chemical change) and moves into a discussion on contact, regional, and dynamic metamorphism. The remainder of the lesson consists of descriptions ... Full description.

This is the homepage of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) which is an international research program that explores the history and structure of the Earth as recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks. The site has links to various aspects of the program including information about its background and structure, ships and platforms, and expeditions. Other links lead to data and samples, how ... Full description.

NASA's Visible Earth is a searchable directory of images, visualizations, and animations of the Earth. The images are also listed under the following categories: agriculture, atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, human dimensions, hydrosphere, land surface, oceans, radiance or imagery, solid earth, locations, and satellites. Accompanying each image are credits, data about the image, the satellite it ... Full description.

The Carolina Coastal Science Web site is an innovative, inquiry-based science resource that utilizes the interactive technologies of a Web browser to explore science in coastal Carolina. Teachers and students can use this web site independently or as a class using a number of different teaching strategies, such as, open-ended inquiries, guided inquiries, independent research, and cooperative group ... Full description.