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.

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 publication provides an introduction to the theory of plate tectonics. It was intended as a companion to the map entitled 'This Dynamic Planet', published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Smithsonian Institution. Topics include the history and development of the theory, lines of evidence, plate motions and interactions, hotspots, what drives plate motion, and extraterrestrial plate ... 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.

This information is designed to belie the misconception that the capacity of air to hold water vapor is temperature dependent and that air can become saturated with water vapor. The temperature of a cloud droplet or ice crystal will be nearly the same as that of the air, so people imagine that somehow the air was to blame. But, if the other gases of the air were removed, leaving everything else the ... Full description.

These science bulletins from the American Museum of Natural History feature news on space science, astronomy, and astrophysics topics with in-depth feature stories about cutting-edge developments, weekly images from observatories around the world and in space, and and 'Astro Viz', a visualization of astronomical or astrophysical phenomena. Each story features a link to an educators' guide and links ... Full description.

This activity explores the potential for climate variability and change to trigger more frequent occurrences of El Nino, and the impacts that could result. Designed to teach through scientific inquiry, the activity seeks to stimulate thought about the long-term impacts of a warmer planet. Through their participation in this activity, students will access information at remote sites using telecommunications, ... Full description.

The goal of the PALEOMAP Project is to illustrate 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. In the section on Earth history you can select any time period, read about that period, and see the plate distribution during that period. There is also a section on climate history where you can ... Full description.

The information on this site indicates that the life cycle of a glacier is more eventful than it appears. The site allows students to follow the journey of a single snowflake as it takes a ride through a glacier, a process that can take as much as 30,000 years to complete. It can be viewed as an interactive slide show or a single page of text and illustrations. Full description.