This site, from the Miami Museum of Science, provides an overview of the basic scientific concepts behind a hurricane. A collection of projects allows students to build their own weather station. These include making a psychrometer to measure air humidity, wind spirals, chimes, a wind scale tool to measure wind speed, a wind scale streamer to measure wind direction, and a barometer and air pressure ... Full description.

This lesson plan will explore the hydrologic cycle and the journey water makes to our glass. Upon completing this lesson, students should know and understand the components of the hydrosphere of Earth, especially the surface and subsurface features, and should be able to prepare a diagram to illustrate the path of their drinking water from the place of precipitation to the tap. Full description.

In this activity, students will learn how to read a Celsius-scale thermometer, associate weather conditions and seasons with Celsius temperature ranges, and keep a record of temperature. Students will read the Celsius temperature each day and discuss how given temperatures "feel". They record the temperature by using a string of beads and a chart. Full description.

This activity and demonstration teaches the concept of parallax (the apparent movement of an object caused by a change in the viewer's position) and relates the concept to a real-world astronomical event, ­the discovery of Pluto. It employs the Blink Comparator, an online simulation illustrating the technique used by Clyde Tombaugh to discover the ninth planet on February 18, 1930. Full description.

This series of activities and experiments demonstrates the importance of feedbacks and the balance of mass and energy in governing the response of any system to change. Energy balance and the factors that cause change (feedbacks) are the keys to understanding climate change, and therefore the keys to understanding the effects of rising levels of greenhouse gases on the environment. Although these ... Full description.

In this module, students 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 Time Data from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington which they can then use to describe ... Full description.

This Classroom Connectors lesson plan discusses how weather predictions are made by meteorologists and the function of certain weather instruments. The site provides goals, objectives, an outline, time required, materials, activities, and closure ideas for the lesson. The Classroom Connectors address content with an activity approach while incorporating themes necessary to raise the activity to a ... Full description.

This activity uses role-playing to demonstrate the connection of the planets to the sun, a very abstract concept for primary age children. Students will make models to represent the planets in comparative size, use their models to demonstrate revolution and rotation of the planets around the sun, and learn the definitions of the terms "revolution", "rotation", and "orbit". Full description.

This activity is designed to help students fully understand our planet's relationship to the Sun. Students will make predictions and measure shadows over a period of time to observe that the length of a shadow (and the angle of the Sun's rays to the Earth) changes each week. They should conclude from their data that the position of the Earth relative to the Sun changes with the seasons. Full description.

This demonstration introduces the concept of water phases and cycling to younger students through observation, drawing, and writing. They will be able to explain how the Earth's water supply is recycled, form a hypothesis as to how/why the water cycle works, and use writing and drawing to explain how the cycle works. Full description.