This USGS site contains very useful descriptions about many aspects of ground water. The major topics include Ground Water, How Ground Water Occurs, Quality of Ground Water, Appraising the Nation's Ground-Water Resources, and a Glossary. This is a non-technical site, designed for use by the general public. Several charts and diagrams are also included in this site. Full description.

This site offers activities for direct student interaction, for educators to use in the classroom and for experimentation at home. Student and educator activities focus on basic issues of groundwater, the water cycle, global water distribution, conservation and vocabulary. At home activities touch on aquifers, biodegradability and compost. Additional games, teaching tools and information on events ... Full description.

This site was designed to provide explanations of some basic cloud forms and access to detailed pictures of representative examples of each type. Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades 6-8. It focuses on glaciers and icebergs, specifically, glacial scraping and landforms left behind by glaciers, and information about icebergs in the oceans. Students do a lab simulating glacial scouring. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, extensions, suggested readings, ... Full description.

This description of the El Nino pattern in the eastern Pacific is from NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. In addition to text and diagrams, it provides three weather related activities for lab or classroom. Full description.

Our atmosphere is warmed by shortwave radiation received from the Sun. Some of the energy is reflected back to space depending on cloud cover and the surface characteristics of Earth. Some of the energy is absorbed by the surface, then re-emitted back to space as longwave radiation. As this occurs, clouds and atmospheric gases can reflect, absorb and re-emit this energy -- the so-called greenhouse ... Full description.

Students will examine data in several formats in order to determine the presence or absence of seasonal variability in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations. The dataset used in this lesson is monthly averages of NO2 as measured from NASA's EOS Aura spacecraft. Full description.

One of the most studied and important ocean currents of the world lies along the eastern coast of the United States and is called the Gulf Stream. It derives its name from its source region of warm water in the Gulf of Mexico. For the past two decades, scientists have been collecting sea surface temperature (SST) data from satellites, buoys and ships in the Gulf Stream and Atlantic Basin. In this ... Full description.

This Earth Exploration Toolbook chapter guides users through the process of locating and graphing data that has been collected by students who participate in the GLOBE Program. Users access the online GLOBE graphing tool and produce a graph comparing four Earth system variables over two complete years. Data include Maximum Air Temperature, Soil Moisture (at depths of both 10 cm and 90 cm), and Rainfall ... Full description.

The Antarctic ice sheet changes in size over the course of a year. When it is summer in the southern hemisphere, the ice sheet decreases in size. As the ice sheet melts, it releases fresh water into the ocean. In the southern winter (our summer), the ice refreezes, drawing fresh water out of the surrounding ocean, leaving the salt behind. These seasonal changes in the ice sheet are examined in this ... Full description.