This two-part activity provides information on seasonal changes in the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. In Part 1, students use an atlas and satellite imagery to examine the geography of the region and identify seasonal changes in the boundaries of the ice sheet. In Part 2, they will collect a series of images of the Antarctic ice sheet covering a period of several years, draw the boundaries ... Full description.

Scientists have studied the physical properties of clouds and have developed instruments onboard satellites to characterize the types of clouds they see below. Some satellites have instruments that allow them to measure rainfall as well. For this lesson, students will hypothesize what types of clouds they believe will create the most precipitation (rainfall) over Nashville, TN. Students use the Live ... Full description.

Discovering Plate Boundaries is based on 5 world maps containing earthquake, volcano, topography, satellite gravity, and seafloor age data. The novel aspect of the exercise is the "jigsaw" manner in which student groups access the maps and use them to discover, classify, and describe plate boundary types. The exercise is based only on observation and description, which makes it useful at a wide variety ... Full description.

The S'COOL (Student Cloud Observations On Line) Web site provides information on the project and how to participate, as well as classroom materials and resources. S'COOL is a component of NASA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project. CERES is an instrument onboard several NASA satellites that measures the amount of energy reflected and emitted by clouds. S'COOL participants ... Full description.

This Internet-based collaborative project will allow students to share information about water usage with other students from around the country and the world. Based on data collected by their household members and their classmates, students will determine the average amount of water used by one person in a day. They will compare this to the average amount of water used per person per day in other ... Full description.

The New Millennium Observatory (NeMO) is a seafloor observatory off the coast of Oregon, which studies the relationships between submarine volcanic events and the chemistry and distribution of hydrothermal vents and the biologic communities that depend on them. The research activities at NeMO provide an extraordinary educational opportunity, both from the daily reports from expeditions at sea and ... 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.

Students participate in two interactive exercises designed to help the user learn about river processes like discharge, flooding, and flood frequency. Each activity requires a person to make careful observations and measurements, do simple calculations, and answer questions about his or her work. A Certificate of Completion is available for printing at the end of each activity. Full description.

This site provides information on the many aspects of the study of the sea surface from space. Measuring the ocean surface topography provides information for studying global ocean circulation and the oceans heat budget. Regular scanning of the ocean surface to maintain a database of ocean surface topography can help predict short-term changes in weather and longer-term patterns of climate. Educational ... Full description.

This lesson uses NASA satellite data to correlate cloud cover over Africa to the solar declination. The student will access NASA data using the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server and import the data into Excel spreadsheet software. The student will identify the relationship between solar declination and the four seasons and relate seasonal solar radiation patterns to cloud formation. The four seasons ... Full description.