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.

TerraFly is an interactive tool that allows for visualization and manipulation of spatial data. Accessed via a standard Web browser or customized CD-ROM versions, and independent of a users' level of expertise, this system allows the integration of remotely sensed data with digital data while a user is seamlessly flying over and viewing the resulting imagery. Data currently available includes land, ... 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 site covers the four main types of faults (not including growth faults): the normal fault, reverse fault, transcurrent (strike-slip) fault, and thrust fault. Animations show the type of movement for each different type of fault. There is a section on the initial stage of a landform, containing a diagram of a graben and horst system. Also included are photographs of fault scarps along Hebgen Lake, ... Full description.

This activity teaches students how bathymetric maps (topographic maps of underwater landforms) are made by using sonar. Students use a simulated sonar exercise to map something they cannot see and then see how close they were to the actual shape. They produce a bathymetric map and answer questions about this process. 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.

This National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website allows students to investigate biomes and then test their knowledge by completing missions. The site provides basic data about each biome such as temperature, precipitation, vegetation, location, description and links. Biomes discussed include coniferous forest, temperate deciduous forest, desert, grassland, rainforest, shrubland and ... Full description.

This lesson introduces students to planetary research. Using some of the most famous and interesting images of the Solar System, students learn to focus on details by studying uncaptioned images. They increase their knowledge of the planets and their features by comparing their observations to those of real researchers. Students organize their findings to infer a key difference between inner and outer ... 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.

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.