This activity is a fun and easy way to understand the geology of an aquifer. Students will build an edible aquifer, and learn about confining layers, contamination, recharge and water tables. This demonstration is designed to illustrate the geologic formations in an aquifer, how pollution can get into groundwater, and how pumping can cause a decline in the water table. Students will notice how the ... Full description.

The purpose of this activity is to observe the type and cover of clouds including contrails. Students observe which of ten types of clouds and how many of three types of contrails are visible and how much of the sky is covered by clouds (other than contrails) and how much is covered by contrails. Intended outcomes are that students learn how to make estimates from observations and how to categorize ... 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.

The purpose of this activity is to introduce students to visualizations as a tool for scientific problem-solving, using elevation and temperature as an example. Students color in visualizations of elevation and temperature so that important patterns in the data become evident. The relationship between the two quantities is studied by using them to compute the lapse rate, the rate at which temperature ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to measure the salinity of the water at your hydrology site. Students use a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of the water sample, and use a thermometer to measure the temperature. With these two values, students will use tables to determine the salinity. Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to log soil data using a Davis soil moisture and temperature station. Soil moisture and temperature sensors are installed at multiple depths and a station is set up to measure and record measurements at 15 minute intervals. These measurements are transferred to your school.s computer and then submitted to GLOBE via email data entry. Gravimetric soil moisture measurements ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to continuously measure soil and air temperature at one site. Students install four temperature probes; three are placed in the soil at three different depths and one is placed in an instrument shelter. Students use a data logger to record readings from the probes every 15 minutes. Students transfer the data to their school computers for analysis and submission to the ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to learn how to estimate data results in order to minimize errors in reading or recording data. Students participate in a game in which they collect data using various instruments and calculations and then try to fool other data collection teams by exaggerating some of the data numbers. They do this activity first with data describing objects in the classroom, then ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to introduce students to gravemetric measurements - calculating the amount of water in a soil sample or other substance by weighting it before and after drying. Full description.