This is a lesson about the vertical dimension of the atmosphere and includes four activities. Activity 1 Introduces concepts related to distance, including length and height and units of measurement. Students are asked to make comparisons of distances. In activity 2, students learn about the vertical profile of the atmosphere. They work with a graph and plot the heights of objects and the layers of the atmosphere: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. In activity 3, students learn about other forms of visual displays using satellite imagery. They compare images of the same weather feature, a hurricane, using two different images from MODIS and CALIPSO. One image is looking down on the hurricane from space, the other looks through the hurricane to display a profile of the hurricane. Activity 4 reinforces the concept of the vertical nature of the atmosphere. Students will take a CALIPSO satellite image that shows a profile of the atmosphere and use this information to plot mountains and clouds on their own graph of the atmosphere. The recommended order for the activities is to complete the first two activities on day one, and the second two activities on day two. Each day will require approximately 1 to 1.5 hours.

Geared towards students in grade 6-8, this virtual field trip from the American Museum of Natural History explores how plate tectonics explains specific Earth formations.

This field trip includes a teachers guide, student worksheets and extension activities.

This webpage is part of NASA's Visible Earth, a searchable directory of images, visualizations, and animations of Earth. It features remotely sensed imagery of volcanic eruptions that display smoke plumes, lava flows, fires, and other eruptive features. Each image is accompanied by a caption describing the subject being illustrated and the satellite or instrument which captured the image. Files are in either TIFF, GIF, or JPEG formats.

This resource uses text, images, maps and a laboratory exercise to explain how differences in the temperature and salinity of ocean water cause the formation of deep-ocean currents. It is part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's "Ocean Surface Topography from Space" website. This material is also available on the "Visit to An Ocean Planet" CD-ROM.

Atmospheric scientists use computer models to forecast the position of a moving volcanic cloud, and remote sensing can identify its components, including gases and aerosols. This resource provides ideas for classroom investigation of these topics, and directions for a demonstration of light scattering by aerosols. The lesson ideas are 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.

Major volcanic eruptions alter the Earth's radiative balance, as volcanic ash and gas clouds absorb terrestrial radiation and scatter a significant amount of the incoming solar radiation, an effect known as "radiative forcing" that can last from two to three years following a volcanic eruption. This results in reduced temperatures in the troposphere, and changes in atmospheric circulation patterns. This site uses text, photographs, and links to related sites to describe volcano-induced climate change.

In this activity, students use satellite imagery to assess potential danger associated with selecting a new and safer location for the town of Villarrica, along with its corresponding communication and evacuation routes. Satellite imagery and a topographic map are included. 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.

This game is suitable for play both within and outside of the classroom, and although designed for children ages 9-13, it offers a fun, learning opportunity for the entire family. In addition to being a game, it is an eye-catching poster showing continents, oceans and all of the major ocean currents. On the reverse, there are black and white educational activities designed to be reproduced directly from the poster for use in the classroom.

EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
Do you have what it takes to be a Waste Avenger? This game will teach you how organic, plastic and paper waste can be recycled or composted as you try your hand at being an environmental superhero.

ABOUT THE SCIENCE
Reuse. Reduce. Recycle. These are now everyday household words for us all and every little bit we do, helps our environment. Every year, countries around the world are increasing the amount they recycle and even one person can decrease the waste footprint by reusing, reducing and recycling.
Nature, unlike humans, produces waste that is biodegradable. That is, the waste product has the ability to naturally break down. Biodegradation is nature’s way of recycling waste, and is often carried out by bacteria and microorganisms. Compost is a good example.
Unfortunately, humans produce waste at a much faster rate than what natural biodegradation can keep up with. As a result, landfills fill up quickly, and pollution of the air, water and soil can occur. On top of that, humans produce a significant amount of non biodegradable waste that continues to add to the waste problem.
Reduce, reuse and recycle are three great ways you can protect your environment and help control waste. The whole idea is to reduce the production of non-biodegradable materials, reuse the existing products and recycle products once they have served their purpose.
If your school does not yet recycle, set up a school program to recycle everyday items that would otherwise go into the trash. Paper, cardboard and even plastics are simple to sort out and a great place to start. Every little bit helps, so do your part in waste management because it is important for the health of the ecosystem.

EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
The challenge is simple: turn a type of waste into something useful. That's where biochar comes in! In this video, join Nicole as she learns all about the history of biochar, how to make it, and the many uses of biochar.

ABOUT THE SCIENCE
Soils throughout the world contain biochar: a charcoal produced from plant matter deposited and stored in the soil through natural events, such as forest and grassland fires. Biochar dates back at least 2000 years in the Amazon basin! Its purpose? To remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
For better plant growth, plants need better soil fertility – this is where biochar comes in! Biochar can improve almost any soil with its fertilizer qualities, due to the mineral content it contains. It increases water, fertilizer and nutrient retention. It also increases soil carbon, and improves soil fertility and soil tilth or health, as well as reducing the nutrient runoff or leaching.
As well, biochar creates niches for microbes to thrive, which leads to healthy crops! Microbes and plants work together and help keep away harmful bacteria. Did you know that biochar works great for water filters, growing plants in water without soil (like in hydroponics), and storing carbon, too?

In this demonstration, a plastic soft drink bottle is used to demonstrate properties of gases and liquids with respect to temperature and pressure. Calculations using the formula for the Ideal Gas Law are included. 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.

This lesson was developed to give participants an understanding of Earth's water cycle. In this one-hour long activity, students participate in a webquest to learn about the water cycle, and then build a mini-model of the water cycle to observe how water moves through Earth's four systems. The activity uses the 5E instructional model and is part of the "Survivor Earth" series of one-hour lessons.

This is a hands-on lab activity about the water cycle, specifically evaporation and condensation. Using materials such as clay, ice and a lamp, learners will observe the relationship between temperature and condensation and temperature and evaporation. They will then draw a diagram or a concept map of the water cycle. Background information, common preconceptions, a glossary and more is included. This activity is part of the Aquarius Hands-on Laboratory Activities.

So, what happens when there's not enough water? Well... not good things. Do we let homes have more water for showering and cooking? Or do we let farms have the water for growing crops? There aren't any easy solutions, but in this video Sabrina chats with us about how water scarcity can cause problems.

How can we fix water shortages? Well, we know that shortages are a problem and can cause fighting because water is a resource. When you limit a resource, things get scary. But, in this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about ways that we can help to fix problems like this.

In this problem-based learning module, students work in teams to examine a broad array of information related to water quality in Lower Wheeling Creek and the Wheeling Creek watersheds in Wheeling, West Virginia. This module is part of Exploring the Environment.

Why is my weather app sometimes wrong? Well it has a lot to do with wind. Jet Streams, air cells, the shape and movement of the Earth... there are a lot of things that make weather a little unpredictable. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks to us about how Ocean Currents actually work with Jet Streams to move weather around.

In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina gives us a real world example of how the Hydrosphere and Geosphere affect each other in the form of Weathering and Erosion. Think of Weathering as the force that makes a mess and Erosion as the force that cleans it up.

Weather and Climate... are they the same thing? No they are not. But they are both super important to how the geosphere is shaped. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats with us about the differences between Weather and Climate.

We know that the Earth is divided into four spheres (The Hydrosphere, the Biosphere, the Geosphere, and the Atmosphere). But, how do these different sphere interact with each other? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats with us about how two of the spheres do, in fact, work together.