NASA scientist, Neil Gehrels, serves as your guide to this online lesson on gamma ray tools, which focuses on advances in detector technologies since the 1980s that have enabled us to capture and image high-energy phenomena. Dr. Gehrels explains different methods for detecting and imaging high-energy particles, how they work, and the advantages and disadvantages of each, using examples and imagery from NASA missions.

This lesson applies the science and math of the rotation of a sphere to water and wind movements on Earth. Students are introduced to convection, the Trade Winds and the Coriolis Force. Using an online visualizer, students generate trajectories and then analyze course patterns and latitudinal changes in strength. Note that this is lesson two of five on the Ocean Motion website. Each lesson investigates ocean surface circulation using satellite and model data and can be done independently. See Related URL's for links to the Ocean Motion Website that provide science background information, data resources, teacher material, student guides and a lesson matrix.

In this problem-based learning activity, students will examine opposing views on the Amazon Rainforest and will take a position on land-use and species conservation in one of the last areas of biodiversity on Earth. This activity is part of Exploring the Environment.

In this activity, students analyze the results of an experiment, conduct research, and describe the potential importance of positive and negative feedbacks in governing the response of the Earth system. Teacher background information, assessment suggestions, and a scoring rubric are included.This is Activity 5 of the learning module, Global Balance, part of the lesson series, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. Completing A Sense of Balance: Activity 1 in this module is a prerequisite to complete this investigation.

In this problem-based learning (PBL) activity, students take on the role of a student research scientist and explore the role of solar energy in determining climate. Students conduct experiments to determine the role of albedo in surface warming by investigating the temperature of a variety of surfaces in the environment. The activity should be conducted on a sunny day. Materials required for the investigation include thermometers and paper cups. The lesson is supported by teacher notes, answer key, glossary and an appendix with information about using PBL in the classroom. This is the first of three activities in Investigating the Climate System: Energy, a Balancing Act.

This is a lesson plan for an activity that explores time zone math. Learners will translate their local time to times in other zones around the world and work with the concept of Universal Time, specifically in reference to the reporting, description and analysis of solar flares and coronal mass ejections. This is activity 10 from Exploring Magnetism Guide 3: Magnetic Mysteries of the Aurora educator guide.

These guides showcase education and public outreach resources from across more than 20 NASA astrophysics missions and programs. The twelve guides - one for each month - contain a science topic, an interpretive story, a sky object to view with finding charts, hands-on activities, and connections to NASA science. The guides are modular, so that educators can use the portions that are the most useful for their audiences/events. Following is the theme for each month: January - Betelgeuse, February - Orion Nebula, March - Pleiades, April - Pollux; May - Hubble Deep Field, June - Hercules Cluster, July - Ring Nebula & Veil Nebula, August - The Search for Habitable Worlds, September - Milky Way Galaxy, October - Upsilon Andromedae, November - Andromeda Galaxy, and December - Crab Nebula.

In this activity, students examine a pair of satellite images of the ocean and determine whether there is a relationship between the height of ocean waves and the sea level. Data from the two images are plotted side by side and students discuss the reasons for their findings. The resource includes the images and a student worksheet. 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.

In this activity, learners will use satellite images of the San Francisco Bay Area to evaluate urban development in an earthquake-prone region. They will prepare an executive summary of their findings that incorporates diagrams or images. Links to the satellite images are provided. This activity is part of Event-Based Science: Remote-Sensing Activities.

In this activity, students analyze regions of sea ice using data and ImageJ software. They measure ice mass and calculate effective albedo, and plot changes in solar energy and water/ice cover percentages. This is part 4 of a four-part activity on polar science. Data access information is provided in the attached appendix. This activity is one of several learning activities connected with the 2007 GLOBE Earth system poster.

In this activity, student teams learn about research design and design a controlled experiment exploring the relationship between a hypothetical planet, an energy source, and distance. They analyze the data and derive an equation to describe the observations. Includes student data sheets, a teacher's guide, and a tutorial on how to use the spreadsheet program Excel. This is Activity A in module 3, titled "Using Mathematic Models to Investigate Planetary Habitability," of the resource, Earth Climate Course: What Determines a Planet's Climate? The course aims to help students to develop an understanding of our environment as a system of human and natural processes that result in changes that occur over various space and time scales.

In this activity, students build a simple computer model to determine the black body surface temperature of planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Experiments altering the luminosity and distance to the light source will allow students to determine the energy reaching the object and its black body temperature. The activity builds on student outcomes from activity A, "Finding a Mathematical Description of a Physical Relationship." It also supports inquiry into a real-world problem, the effect of urban heat islands and deforestation on climate. Includes a teacher's guide, student worksheets, and an Excel tutorial. This is Activity B of module 3, titled "Using Mathematic Models to Investigate Planetary Habitability," of the resource, Earth Climate Course: What Determines a Planet's Climate? The course aims to help students to develop an understanding of our environment as a system of human and natural processes that result in changes that occur over various space and time scales.

Students explore how mathematical descriptions of the physical environment can be fine-tuned through testing using data. In this activity, student teams obtain satellite data measuring the Earth's albedo, and then input this data into a spreadsheet-based radiation balance model, GEEBITT. They validate their results against published the published albedo value of the Earth, and conduct similar comparisons Mercury, Venus and Mars. The resource includes an Excel spreadsheet tutorial, an investigation, student data sheets and a teacher's guide. Students apply their understanding to the real life problem of urban heat islands and deforestation. The activity links builds on student outcomes from activities A and B: "Finding a Mathematical Description of a Physical Relationship," and "Making a Simple Mathematical Model." This is Activity C in module 3, Using Mathematical Models to Investigate Planetary Habitability, of the resource, Earth Climate Course: What Determines a Planet's Climate? The course aims to help students to develop an understanding of our environment as a system of human and natural processes that result in changes that occur over various space and time scales.

This is a lesson about elemental spectra. Learners will compare known elemental spectra with spectra of Titan and Saturn‰Ûªs rings from a spectrometer aboard the NASA Cassini spacecraft. They identify the elements visible in the planetary and lunar spectra. The activity is part of Project Spectra, a science and engineering program for middle-high school students, focusing on how light is used to explore the Solar System.

This is an activity about the phases of Venus and the planet‰Ûªs variance in angular size as seen from Earth. Learners will use an online program such as Solar System Live to determine Venus‰Ûªs distance from Earth for one half of its cycle. This activity requires access to the Solar System Update software and a computer with Internet access. This is Solar System Activity 6 in a larger resource, Space Update.

This is an activity about vectors and velocity. It outlines the addition and subtraction of vectors, and introduces the application of trigonometry to describing vectors. The resource is designed to support student analysis of THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) Magnetometer line-plot data. Learners will complete worksheets consisting of problem sets that allow them to work with vector data in magnetic fields. This is activity 15 from Exploring Magnetism: Earth's Magnetic Personality.

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.

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.

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.

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.