Flowing water from rivers and streams is a valuable and plentiful energy resource that people learned to use centuries ago to operate the machinery that was important to their livelihoods. This page features diagrams (some animated) that show the three main principles of water; various types of water wheels; and the modern hydroelectric turbine. There are also animations of various types of mills ... Full description.

This is a multimedia interactive simulation that teaches students about emergency preparedness, disaster safety, and weather and storm science. In the simulation, students visit a Florida family and end up preparing for and riding out a hurricane which hits during the visit. Students can track the storm on a map, watch weather updates, prepare emergency supplies, and develop a disaster emergency plan. ... Full description.

The S'COOL Cloud Types Tutorial provides detailed information about how clouds receive their names and the importance of root words. The tutorial was designed to help students make accurate observations for the Students' Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) project. In addition to naming clouds, students will also learn to associate different clouds into height groupings. Interesting facts about all ... Full description.

Earth Systems Connections (ESC) is an elementary science, mathematics, and technology curriculum designed to help young children appreciate the significance and delicate nature of the natural environment by leading them to recognize the interconnected nature of the Earths systems, appreciate the technological tools that scientists use to conduct Earth system science, and recognize the extent to which ... Full description.

This collection of sounds contains recordings of five types of electromagnetic or radio emissions produced by the magnetosphere. The sounds are accompanied by written descriptions of how they are propagated and by spectrograms which provide a graphic display of their frequency distributions. Full description.

This resource offers four videos that explain Kepler's three laws of planetary motion. A brief introduction provides biographical information on Kepler. Links to a glossary are embedded in the text, and written descriptions of what is occurring in the videos are provided. Full description.

This thirties era US Government film from Kansas State University chronicles the boom and bust agriculture on the High Plains. The first section of the film is devoted to the establishment of mechanized agriculture and how it contributed to crop productivity gains. The final section of the film recounts bleak dust bowl conditions, including the migration of displaced farmers. Full description.

Some birds prefer percussion over song as a means to communicate. This radio broadcast discusses how woodpeckers might be using percussion to communicate. There are indications that each species makes a recognizable beat, and that they might even look for trees that make particular sounds. The clip is 2 minutes in length. Full description.

The Earth hums, emitting a tone too low for human ears to detect. Geophysicists have finally located the source of the noise. As this radio broadcast reports, it comes from the largest oceans during winter, apparently the result of powerful winter storms. The hum comes from the surface of the Earth rising and falling less than a millionth of a meter, vibrating once per 300 seconds. The clip is 3 minutes ... Full description.

Recordings on this site present 164 aftershocks as they were heard at one seismic recording station. They occurred after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 beneath and near New Zealand. All events are heard in rapid sequence, without the true time intervals between them. The main shock was at a depth of 30 kilometers, 10 kilometers below the interface between the subducting Pacific Plate and the ... Full description.