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.

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.

This Earth Exploration Toolbook chapter guides users through the process of locating and graphing data that has been collected by students who participate in the GLOBE Program. Users access the online GLOBE graphing tool and produce a graph comparing four Earth system variables over two complete years. Data include Maximum Air Temperature, Soil Moisture (at depths of both 10 cm and 90 cm), and Rainfall ... Full description.

This activity prepares you to launch an investigation of the relationship between precipitation and streamflow for a local watershed. It can enrich a study of the water cycle. Following the step-by-step instructions in a case study you will locate, download, format, and finally graph one year of Web-based data for these two variables. The graph highlights the details of this often complex precipitation-streamflow ... Full description.

In this activity, users download and graph modeled climate data to explore variability in climate change. Most people know that climate changes are predicted over the next hundred years, but they may not be aware that these changes are likely to vary from region to region. Using data from the University of New Hampshire's Earth Science Information Partner, a digital library of Earth Science data, ... Full description.

This activity of the Earth Exploration Toolbook walks users through a technique for documenting change in before-and-after sets of satellite images. The technique can be used for any set of time-series images that are spatially registered to show the exact same area at the same scale. In the chapter, users examine three Landsat images of the Pearl River delta in southeastern China. In the images, ... Full description.

This is a comprehensive site that looks at many components of dams, including construction, destruction, and other issues. Access is organized into three levels by grade level. Information on cracks, case histories of the building and problems associated with some well known dams, and some real and imagined scenarios are included. Full description.

This is a well constructed curriculum module dealing with the water cycle. In this module, students first carry out a number of activities that demonstrate the concepts of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and soil moisture and runoff. The students then construct a terrarium as a way to observe the water cycle as a whole. Immediately following this, students use the Internet to acquire real ... Full description.

This computer-based lesson provides information on ocean currents, circulation and atmospheric influences. Several sections cover "drift" studies, including the famous Nike Tennis Shoe study. Each segment provides relevant information and gives students questions to answer. Incorrect responses result in more information. This unit is part of an on-line course in general oceanography offered at San ... Full description.

This lesson teaches how clouds form and how air pressure and air temperature affect their formation. The lesson is delivered in the story of Mike Breezy, Air Detective, who tries to solve the "The Cloud Case". His friend, Professor Less, gives both Mike and the students the facts about clouds. An experiment (Cloud in a bottle) follows the story that gives students the chance to see the principles ... Full description.