This film was taken by astronauts from five Space Shuttle missions with the IMAX camera, illustrating forces affecting Earth's ecological balance: volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and, ultimately, humankind. Experiments discussed in the videotape focus on infrared detection of atmospheric remnants from volcanic eruptions, ozone concentration levels, and incoming solar ultraviolet radiation with ... Full description.

: This ChemMAtters issue features the human side of NASA?s Aura mission with five articles that include interviews with Aura scientists and engineers. ChemMatters is a quarterly publication of the American Chemical Society (ACS) geared to a high school audience. The magazine is designed and written to demystify everyday chemistry. This special edition is the second of four special issues that focussed ... Full description.

This module focuses on the launch and propulsion of the Genesis spacecraft. Students will become familiar with how rockets are launched, learn how and why specific rockets are chosen for varying payloads, learn about the history of rocketry, and work with variables that might affect the performance of a launch vehicle. They will work in teams to test a single variable involved in launching a rocket ... Full description.

This module engages students in the use of a clean room and in the planning of assembly of solar collector wafers for the Genesis space mission. They will work in production design teams to explore how the Genesis spacecraft will collect bulk solar wind with the collector arrays and learn to work as a team in a restrictive environment. The module includes several activities with accompanying video ... Full description.

This lesson plan provides instructions for several activities for students to perform to study the relationship of temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and dew point in cloud formation. The lesson involves graphing of weather balloon data using a spreadsheet program. Full description.

This user-contributed tutorial provides detailed instructions on how to make Excel graphs of data that is imported from the Internet. The tutorial contains sample screen images to assist in performing each step. It involves importing a second set of data and adding it as another series on the original graph. The tutorial includes questions based on the atmospheric lapse rates plotted for two locations. ... Full description.

In this lesson plan students will learn the basics about how tornadoes are formed, and where and when they are most likely to occur. They will then study the current research on tornadoes and explore how scientists are trying to predict them. They will learn about the equipment storm chasers use to study tornadoes and will develop their own research plans. Full description.

In this activity, students download NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of the Martian polar ice caps in summer and winter. Using image processing techniques, students measure and compare various images of the changing Martian and Earth polar ice caps. By completing this activity, they will understand that the sizes of the polar ice caps on Earth and Mars depend on the lengths of the seasons. ... Full description.

This lesson plan uses NASA satellite data to contrast amounts of cloud coverage over different climate regions in Africa. It introduces the circulation pattern of Hadley Cells and the band of convergence and convection called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The lesson also discusses how frequent cloud cover and precipitation occur along the ITCZ and how climate affects the people living ... Full description.

This lesson plan uses NASA Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument percent coverage surface data with a world map to locate landmasses and bodies of water at the Earth's Equator. When using satellites to study Earth system processes, especially atmospheric processes, it is important to know what is the background that one is seeing on the Earth. This lesson provides an introduction ... Full description.