This website features the most complete set of astronaut photography of Earth from the beginning of human spaceflight in the 1960s to the digital photographs being downlinked daily from the International Space Station. The underlying database includes over 430,000 records in 2002, with new data added daily. The pages are maintained by the data source at NASA's Johnson Space Center and include search ... Full description.

This site presents a take-home web-based project for introductory geology students. The exercise has the students interpreting the sedimentary geology (lithology and fossils) of the Grand Canyon to create a geological history for the region. It is an open-ended exercise with no absolutely correct answer; it involves students acting as scientists - that is, the way real scientists think and combine ... Full description.

The Global Climate Animations site contains animations of the Earth's climate system for educational and research purposes. The animations show the climatology of the seasonal cycle for selected climate variables for the time period 1959-1997, based on data from the NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project. The individual frames in each animation show the map pattern of the long-term monthly averages ... Full description.

In this investigation, students examine Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. After becoming familiar with a bathymetric/topographic map of the area, students select a transect along the seafloor to study some of the geological, biological, and physical features that are present. In this activity students use a bathymetric/topographic map as a tool for recognizing geobiological features of the sanctuary, ... Full description.

Window To My Environment (WME) is a web-based tool that provides access to a wide range of federal, state, and local information about environmental conditions and features in an area of your choice. By entering your zip code or city/town and state WME will provide an interactive map that shows the location of regulated facilities, monitoring sites, water bodies, population density, and perspective ... Full description.

Researchers have identified approximately 140 individual impact craters on Earth. These craters probably represent only about 25 percent of those to be found. Assuming an equal rate of impact around the globe, many more craters remain to be discovered, particularly in remote land regions of our planet and in the oceans. This activity uses satellite images of several craters on the earth to study impact ... Full description.

This activity will help students understand how NASA scientists are discovering evidence of impact craters on Earth through satellite images and technology, which enables them to see landforms that we cannot see with our eyes alone. Earth and all the other planets and moons of our Solar System have been continuously pelted by asteroids and comets ever since their formation. On Earth though, wind and ... Full description.

Students will use NASA satellite data to study temperature and snow-ice coverage in the South Beaufort Sea, Alaska. The data can be used to correlate with USGS ground tracking of polar bears, and to relate this to global change, sea ice changes, and polar bear migration. The data can be used to draw conclusions surrounding any migration patterns in the region. Full description.

In this lesson, students will examine authentic NASA satellite data to explore how hurricanes extract heat energy from the ocean surface. They will practice finding data via the Internet and make line plots and data maps. Students will understand how hurricanes gain energy from the ocean surface. They will form a hypothesis, compare data parameters and draw conclusions. Full description.

In this lesson, students will investigate the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and chlorophyll-a measurements in a local watershed. They will compare two data sets to find correlations and explain the importance of carbon dioxide and photosynthetic plants in the carbon cycle. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to relate global climate change to local effects. Full description.