The purpose of NASA's Earth Observatory is to provide a freely accessible publication on the Internet where the public can obtain new satellite imagery and scientific information about our home planet. The focus is on Earth's climate and environmental change. The site is divided into six main sections: Data and Images, Features, News, Reference, Missions, and Experiments. The Data and Images, Features, ... Full description.

This web based story tells of Tutangiaq (nicknamed 2T), a Canada Goose, who flies across the remote state of Alaska looking for his family. As he flies, he tells children about this fascinating 49th state of the US. Children learn how Alaska was purchased from the Russians, and other amazing facts about the state. They compare Alaska to other states that they may be living in or visiting. 2T takes ... Full description.

This web site is part of the National Snow and Ice Data Center's World Glacier Monitoring Service. The World Glacier Inventory contains information for over 67,000 glaciers throughout the world. Parameters within the inventory include: geographic location, area, length, orientation, elevation, and classification of morphological type and moraines. The inventory entries are based upon a single observation ... Full description.

This National Snow and Ice Data Center's site contains information for wide range of audiences from glaciologists to grade school students. Data and Science offers links to glacier research, projects, and glaciological organizations online. Another section offers glacier facts, questions and answers, a glossary, a photo gallery, bibliography and links to glacier information on the web. Recent global ... Full description.

This web page contains 23 multiple-choice practice exam questions on the topic glaciers and glaciation. It is part of the Principles of Earth Science course at the University of South Dakota. Users select an answer, then click to see if it is correct. Full description.

This undergraduate glacial geology course, from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, contains lecture notes and assignments. The lecture notes include topics such as ice temperature characteristics, mechanisms of ice flow, glacial mass balance, patterns and rates of flow, glacier morphology, erosion, debris, landforms, paleoenvironments, and ice age chronology. There are links within the ... Full description.

This slide show follows a snowflake through its life in a glacier. The path of the ice crystal is traced from its incorporation in the zone of accumulation, through the zone of ablation to its final departure, whether being calved as an iceberg or melting or sublimated. There is also information on the speed of the glacier and the difference between a cold and a warm glacier. Full description.

In this activity, students will explore the characteristics of ice and explain the influencing factors by using Internet connections to polar field experiences, making their own ice cores and taking a field trip for obtaining a local ice core. The students will practice scientific journaling to document their observations. They will assemble their findings, develop a poster of their ice core and explain ... Full description.

In this activity, students will discuss the potential correlation between the thickness of sea ice and the thickness of the snow cover. They will use graphing calculators to graph data acquired in the field about the thickness of sea ice and snow and then interpret the graphs to determine the relationship between snow thickness and sea ice thickness. Full description.

This activity helps students to understand the many roles that polar sea ice plays in the systems that maintain our planet, by first helping them to understand the process of the formation of ice in oceanic regimes. Students will use an inquiry based lab experience relating salt content to the ability of water to freeze in order to begin this study. Specifically, they will design an experiment to ... Full description.