The PALEOMAP Project illustrates 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. The reconstruction of paleoclimates is also discussed. Maps are viewed as animations where the time component can be user-manipulated. Included are a variety of background materials which supplement the animations. ... 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.

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.

This 2-3 week module, based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cassini mission to Saturn, uses the mission as a context for learning fundamental science/math concepts. It consists of six standards-based, constructivist lessons, enrichment activities, and supplemental material such as questions and answers, a glossary, and a chart of Cassini's position in the sky. Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to understand that physical factors - temperature and precipitation - limit the growth of vegetative ecosystems. Students observe and record seasonal changes in their local study site. They establish that these phenomena follow annual cycles and conclude the activity by creating displays that illustrate the repeating pattern associated with the appearance and disappearance ... Full description.

This page is part of a larger USGS project called Water Science for Schools. This section covers different water-use topics and categories of water-use. A Spanish translation is available. Full description.

The purpose of this activity is to learn how contour maps can be made by hand. Students plot data from GLOBE schools on a map with latitude and longitude lines and draw contours based on the values plotted. A suggested extension and how to use this activity as an assessment is included. Full description.

The purpose of this activity is to learn about visualizations by designing and drawing one. Students draw a visualization based either on their interests and ideas about the world or based on actual GLOBE data. They are asked to justify the design choices they make and to interpret the visualizations of their peers. Intended outcomes are that students learn to identify and communicate important patterns ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of a classification system. Students sort birds into three possible classes based on each bird's beak: carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. Students compare their answers with a given set of validation data. Full description.

Ocean Planet's six lesson plans are adapted from several themes in the Smithsonian Institution exhibition created to share with the public what recent research has revealed about the oceans and to encourage ocean conservation. "Sea Secrets" explores ocean geography; "Sea Connections" looks at the plants and animals that live in different marine ecosystems. "Ocean Market" identifies and values many ... Full description.