Clouds comprise a wonderful focus for classroom study. They're ubiquitous, ever-changing, scientifically interesting and, most importantly for teachers, they're cheap. The material presented here includes sections on cloud formation, cloud types, cloud pictures, other cloud-related phenomena, and a glossary. Full description.

This activity is designed to teach students about the different classes of clouds, as well as how they are classified. Students will learn about classification by performing their own classification of clouds based on information given them by instructors. Students will also use infrared ATP images to study clouds by height, temperature, and appearance. Full description.

This site facilitates a classroom activity in which students create a hypothesis on cloud formation and then conduct online research to either validate or refute their initial hypothesis. The activity begins with a brief laboratory experiment that demonstrates cloud formation and asks students to generate a hypothesis on how clouds form. The activity then switches to students conducting Internet research. ... Full description.

This collection of imagery and visualizations is derived from the geosynchronous and polar orbiting environmental weather satellites administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service. Other sources include the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and The National Space ... Full description.

This site covers many of the components of cloud formation and cloud types. Although written for the high school level, the middle school student could grasp most of the concepts with the assistance from the teacher. Specific concepts covered include the importance of and mechanisms that produce rising air, cloud types, and ptyes of precipitation. There are nice graphics and images to support the ... Full description.

In this lesson, students learn about the limitations of weather forecasting and how consumer-driven weather forecasting companies attempt to meet the demand for accurate, long-term weather forecasting. The students then act as meteorologists, researching the weather patterns occurring in specific regions of the world and developing their own weather forecasts. Objectives, a materials list, procedures, ... Full description.

In this activity, students track a real winter storm, collect imagery and data, perform an analysis, and make predictions on the storm's path. They will summarize their findings by writing a press release for their local radio station or by producing a report with visuals and graphics for a television broadcast. Instructions for downloading and processing data, images, and weather reports are presented ... Full description.

This project gives students the opportunity to appreciate how difficult it is to predict the weather when making forecasts. By accessing an assortment of images and data, the students will be asked to forecast on a regular basis and determine the accuracy of the forecasts by comparing them with the actual observed data. Students will also complete specially constructed activities that introduce forecasting ... Full description.

This is a basic lesson on clouds. Very nice photos of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds are presented on the page as well as a description of all major cloud types and their associated weather. Two activities are presented. One invites the learner to create a cloud, while the other involves creating a collage of cloud images along with information about the weather associated with each cloud type. Full description.

This is a simpe Javascript program that allows users to calculate the reflection of solar radiation from various surface conditions on Earth. Full description.