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.

This activity explores the potential impact of climate variability and change on one of Earth's increasingly vulnerable resources, forests. Although the activity is designed to tap specific skills and knowledge through scientific inquiry, its broader intent is to stimulate thought about the long-term impacts of a warmer planet. The scenario invites students to examine higher level issues of climate ... Full description.

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.

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.

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.

Visitors can access an alphabetic index to a large variety of fresh water-related materials on water quality, usage, laws and regulations, flooding, and ecosystems. Information resources include educational materials and a "Teachers' Corner" with booklets, activities, and fact sheets are available for teachers and are ranked according to educational level. This site is sponsored by Environment Canada, ... 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.

These activities explain the management of ground water resources using a balanced approach, focusing on interdependencies in the environment. All activities can be performed using readily available materials. Fact sheets, reference materials, and a glossary of terms are provided. The activities cover such topics as groundwater basics, movement of water in aquifers, recharge and discharge, how a well ... Full description.

This lesson is one in a series that brings the important stories of historic places into the classrooms across the country. It could be used in units on the early industrial period of American history and in courses on geography or science and technology. It will help students realize the role canals played in western expansion and in the evolution of transportation by focusing on the construction ... Full description.

This learning unit is designed to present a means to examine what factors influence the quality of water in the Chesapeake Bay: population increase, algal blooms, endangered species (shad, oysters and blue crabs), and different watersheds (such as the Susquehanna River Basin) draining into the Chesapeake Bay bringing nutrients and pollution. Students work in groups to take on the role of scientists, ... Full description.