In this demonstration, students explore the concept of greenhouse warming. They determine whether an increase in the amount of heat-trappping gases in the atmosphere can cause the temperature on Earth to rise. Students compare the relative heat retention in two experimental systems that are identical except for one being covered with plastic wrap. Materials required include two small aquarium tanks, plastic wrap, two clamp lamps with 60 watt bulbs, modeling clay, rocks and pebbles, and two thermometers. Teacher background information, student worksheets and a scoring rubric are included. This is Activity 1 of the module Too Many Blankets, part of the lesson series, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change.

In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about how humans get the resources we need to survive, even though those resources may come from a long way away.

In this activity, learners will use a hurricane tracking map, satellite images and weather maps to track a hurricane and predict its path. They will consider the meaning and appropriate use of a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning and how these impact public action. They will discuss the hurricane's path and their predictions in a simulated debriefing session and television appearance. Links to maps, data and images are provided. This activity is part of the Event-Based Science (EBS): Remote Sensing Activities.

This resource is a 4 x 6" lenticular card on NASA's HS3 (Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel) aircraft mission, which will overfly tropical storms and hurricanes using NASA's Global Hawk Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Northern Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico. These flights will improve our understanding of the processes that lead to the development of intense hurricanes. The mission will take place for one-month periods during the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Atlantic Basin hurricane seasons.

This 24 minute planetarium show teaches about meteors, meteorites, asteroids, and comets. The show was created for fulldome theaters, but is also available on DVD to be shown in flat version for TVs and computer monitors, and can be freely viewed online. It shows the effects of the Chixulub and Tungusta events, plus the Pallasite impact that resulted in the Brenham meteorite fall, and describes ways that asteroid hunters seek new objects in the solar system, and how ground penetrating radar is used to find meteorites that have survived to the Earth's surface. Narrated by astronaut Tom Jones, it also discusses ways that humans might try to deflect an asteroid or comet that is on a collision course with Earth. The show was created for informal science venues (digital planetariums); it is also useful as supplemental material for middle school science. Impact Earth is available for free if presented directly from the Space Update site (widescreen or fisheye views linked from YouTube). Otherwise, a DVD of the show can be purchased for $10.

This ChemMatters article provides a brief background on smog, then examines the causes of it, efforts to reduce it, and methods used to measure it. ChemMatters is an educational magazine for high school students.

In this self-paced tutorial, examine evidence of climate change from different parts of the Earth‰Ûªs system and consider what it means to live on a planet with a dynamically changing climate. The resource includes multimedia resources such as video clips of local impacts of climate change in the Arctic and Samoa, data visualization exercise featuring digital resources on climate.nasa.gov, and an interview with NASA climate scientist Dr. Gavin Schmidt, a discussion on teaching using data, and an interactive quiz. Introduction to the Earth's Dynamically Changing Climate is the first of a series of ten self-paced professional development modules providing opportunities for teachers to learn about climate change through first-hand data exploration. Activities and resources that can be employed in the classroom are featured.

Through an overview of some of the environmental challenges facing the growing and evolving country of China today, students learn about the effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution that China is struggling to curb with the help of engineers and scientists. This includes the sources of particulate matter 2.5 and carbon dioxide, and air pollution impacts on the health of people and the environment.

This article is about the isoperimetric theorem. It states the theorem, explains its history and uses examples and exercises to demonstrate it. The resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

In this video-based activity, students learn that sea level is an average measurement of the height of the ocean, and sea level changes with the seasons and over time. El Ni̱o and La Niṉa events are compared, demonstrating that sea height is a function of temperature.Summary background information, data and images supporting the activity are available on the Earth Update data site. To complete the activity, students will need to access the Space Update multimedia collection, which is available for download and purchase for use in the classroom.

This article describes key aspects of the nature of science by comparing the reactions to a sensational story between scientists and non-scientists. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

If you look out your window, you'll probably notice a bunch of things; houses, streets... hopefully a tree. But beyond that you'll see things like mountains, rivers, volcanoes... well, hopefully not a volcano. These are landforms and they come in different varieties. In this episode, Sabrina chats about how things like mountains, volcanoes, and plateaus come into being.

This example shows how Newton's laws of motion apply to aircraft carriers and introduces the lift equation: the amount of lift depends on the air density, the wind velocity, and the surface area of the wings. The problems stress the importance of units of measure. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

This online, interactive "Chutes and Ladders" type of game is for ages 7-9 and can be played with a friend or against the computer. As players land on squares, depending on the described action, they either "leap" frog ahead if they help the environment or butterfly "flutter" back if they do not. The website includes a short explanation of why we should care about frogs and butterflies, as well as some facts about some of the activities on the game board and why they are good or not good for the environment. A printable version of the board game is also available.

Today we're going to take a hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro so we can talk about how the geosphere changes based on many different things. On the same mountain we can travel through many different habitats like rain forests, savannas, and moorlands. Let's take a walk with Sabrina and see how!

This video takes use down into the ocean to see what habitats await us there. Yep, the ocean has layers and the types of things we encounter there change the deeper we go.

This is a hands-on lab activity about seawater density. After developing a hypothesis, learners will conduct a simple investigation of density. They will discuss changes in density observed and describe how salt affects the density of water. Background information, common student preconceptions, a glossary and more is included. This activity is part of the Aquarius Hands-on Laboratory Activities.

In this activity, students use the P and S wave data to locate speed of wave travel and derive the epicenter of an Earthquake. The resource includes a U.S. map, a graph, and seismic data. A drawing compass is required to complete the activity. The resource is part of the teacher's guide accompanying the video, NASA SCI Files: The Case of the Shaky Quake. Lesson objectives supported by the video, additional resources, teaching tips and an answer sheet are included in the teacher's guide.

Logarithms are very handy when dealing with numbers at different scales but they are also useful helping us average measurements of physical phenomena that have nonlinear behavior. In this example, students learn about cloud albedo and calculating cloud optical depth. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

This resource describes the physics behind the formation of clouds, and provides a demonstration of those principles using a beaker, ice, a match, hot water, and a laser pointer. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.