This module provides three activities that explore the potential impact of climate variability and change on Earth's most abundant resource, water. Although each activity is designed to tap specific skills and knowledge to yield scientific results, the broader intent is to stimulate thought about the long-term impacts of a warmer planet. Through participation in these activities, students will observe ... Full description.

The GREEN program provides ideas and information related to creating a watershed-based educational project and is geared toward taking action to protect watersheds. There are exercises and action steps for various aspects of watershed management including monitoring, analysis, research, policy issues and background information. The site allows groups to enter their watershed monitoring or action project ... Full description.

This activity explores understanding the greenhouse effect through a lab experiment. The effect on the atmosphere is included too. Full description.

In this lesson, students define and classify the various ways in which numbers are used in forecasting and coping with the effects of a hurricane. This is followed up with an opportunity for research to compare and contrast these numbers as they apply to Hurricane Floyd and other recent hurricanes. There are also directions on how students can graph their findings. Full description.

This site presents average ice conditions estimated using satellite passive microwave data for the most recent month available, as well as snapshots of trends and anomalies that compare these recent conditions with the mean for the month. Full description.

Users download and analyze MODIS imagery from 2001 and 2003 to quantify the shrinking of the Aral Sea. The chapter steps users through downloading, installing, and measuring with ImageJ, a freely available image analysis program. Users employ the software to set the spatial calibration of an image, then select and measure distances directly from the image. Measurement results are reported in real-world ... 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 help students better understand percent cloud cover and to take more accurate cloud cover observations. Working in pairs or small groups, students use construction paper to simulate cloud cover. They estimate the percentage of cloud cover represented by torn pieces of paper on a contrasting background and assign a cloud cover classification to the simulations created ... Full description.

The purpose of this activity is to measure relative humidity using both a sling psychrometer and a digital hygrometer. Intended outcomes are that students learn to quantify humidity and that there is a limit to the amount of water vapor that the air can hold. Students gain insight into why rain drops and snow flakes form and why there is precipitation. Supporting background materials for both student ... Full description.