Users download and analyze satellite images showing the amount of ozone in the stratosphere. They interpret the images to identify the ozone "hole" that develops over Antarctica each summer, and compare its size from year to year. Using freely available image analysis software, ImageJ, users quantify the area of the Antarctic ozone hole each October from 1996 to 2004. Finally, they bring their measurements ... 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 clearinghouse-style site from the Environmental Literacy Councilprovides links to information, articles and educational materials on several environmental subjects, including water. The water-specific segment features information on topics ranging from hydroelectric power to eutrophication to rogue waves. The articles featured cover scientific and social aspects of water. The Teaching Water segment ... Full description.

This site provides an overview of the Earth's atmospheric greenhouse effect by briefly exploring the atmospheres of nearby planets and discussing the greenhouse gases of our atmosphere, such as, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide. Students will learn that the heat-trapping ability of a greenhouse is influenced by a number of factors, including the transparency of the greenhouse ... Full description.

In this lesson, students test for visible and invisible pollutants in the air and keep a journal of experimental results, procedures, and conclusions. Using simple materials, they will form groups to set up experiments around the school, keep records, research the history of acid rain, make a mural showing the acid rain cycle, and post a chart displaying the sources of visible pollutants. Full description.

Developed and maintained by the Jason Education Project at the Texas A&M University, this comprehensive site has educational information and activities on weather, foraminifera, coral reefs, satellites, El Nino, ice ages, fisheries, waves, icebergs and currents. A wealth of student and educator resources is available. Teacher resources include a crash-course in oceanography, a section on using ... Full description.

This is an interactive computer game which illustrates how human actions affect water quality within a community. Players take on the role of a city planner, and must make choices about recreational, agricultural, industrial, and residential development projects. The choices made by players will determine how much of a negative impact the project will have on the water and habitat within the community. ... Full description.

Students will make predictions by linking current scientific satellite data to concerns about global climate change. Using maps of sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean surface winds, students will learn how differential heating of Earth results in circulation patterns in the atmosphere and oceans that globally distribute the heat. Students will learn the relationship between the rotation of Earth ... Full description.

Scientists have recently been reporting that the average temperature of the Earth has been rising, usually referred to as 'global warming'. What is the evidence for this change? One piece of evidence could come from patterns of snow (on land) and ice (either sea ice floating on the oceans or glaciers on land) on the Earth - if the snow and ice are disappearing, it would indicate rising average temperatures. ... Full description.

In this chapter, users explore relationships between air quality and population density using the image visualization tool, Google Earth. Humans discovered long ago that burning fossil fuels was a convenient way to get power. In engines for automobiles and plants that generate electricity, huge volumes of oil, gas, and coal are burned every day. Where many people live together in concentrated areas, ... Full description.