A variety of curricular resources, including activities related to renewable fuels, environmental and economic impact of renewable fuels, clearn air curriculum, and more.

A favorite movie, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” provides the backdrop scenario for students to discover how harnessing the sun’s energy provides unlimited power for many purposes, including the operation of thousands of satellites in orbit today and communication over long distances. In the movie, E.T., an alien life form, is stranded on Earth and befriends Elliott, the little boy who rescues him. As E.T. becomes gravely ill, Elliott realizes that E.T. needs to return home in order to survive. To arrange for transport, E.T. must “phone home.” Teams engage in an interactive quest to answer the question: E.T. phone home—fact or fiction? They must discover four clues in order to unlock four padlocks on a box that contains the answer. This requires them to watch a one-minute online video, complete a crossword puzzle, scan three QR codes for articles to read, and put together a cut-apart puzzle with an invisible ink clue. They watch short online movie excerpt videos to kick off and wrap up the activity.

Students first learn about the complexities of Earth's climate system and the different factors contributing to Earth's energy balance. Then, students categorize the factors that influence climate as warming or cooling factors. Finally, students design art pieces to depict the science behind Earth's climate system and share these artistic creations with families and communities.

DATA: Soltrex Online Data. TOOL: Microsoft Excel. SUMMARY: Examine solar energy generation; explore websites that monitor and report solar energy production from panels at many different locations; and consider how much of a school's or home's energy needs could be supplied by solar power.

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Our earth is a very special place and it is important to keep it clean and maintain its condition so all species can live on it.  Energy plays a big role in helping our earth stay safe.  Before we discuss what harms the earth, you must know vocabulary dealing with the earth and energy.  In this seminar you will get a list of vocabulary dealing with those words and look into discoveries that have helped the earth.ACTFL StandardsCommunication: Interpretive Communication, Presentational CommunicationConnections: Making ConnectionsLearning TargetI can understand the main idea and a few supporting facts about a scientific discovery from a summarized description.Habits of MindGathering data through all sensesCritical Thinking SkillInvestigation

This interactive activity from the Adler Planetarium explains the reasons for the seasons. Featured is a game in which Earth must be properly placed in its orbit in order to send Max, the host, to different parts of the world during particular seasons.

This demonstration uses an "earthquake machine" constructed from bricks, sand paper, and a winch, to simulate the buildup of elastic strain energy prior to a seismic event and the release of that energy during an earthquake.

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Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students build spreadsheets to tabulate and graph seismic wave amplitude and energy release to explore the logarithmic scale of earthquake magnitude.

Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students build spreadsheets to tabulate and graph seismic wave amplitude and energy release to explore the logarithmic scale of earthquake magnitude.

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Students learn how engineers characterize earthquakes through seismic data. Then, acting as engineers, they use real-world seismograph data and a tutorial/simulation accessed through the Earthquakes Living Lab to locate earthquake epicenters via triangulation and determine earthquake magnitudes. Student pairs examine seismic waves, S waves and P waves recorded on seismograms, measuring the key S-P interval. Students then determine the maximum S wave amplitudes in order to determine earthquake magnitude, a measure of the amount of energy released. Students consider how engineers might use and implement seismic data in their design work. A worksheet serves as a student guide for the activity.

Students perform a lab to explore how the color of materials at Earth's surface affect the amount of warming. Topics covered include developing a hypothesis, collecting data, and making interpretations to explain why dark-colored materials become hotter.

Hands-on laboratory activity that allows students to investigate the effects of distance and angle on the input of solar radiation at Earth's surface, the role played by albedo, the heat capacity of land and water, and how these cause the seasons. Students predict radiative heating based on simple geometry and experiment to test their hypotheses.

Students will begin this inquiry-based lesson by accessing their prior knowledge of the positive and negative effects of the sun's energy. Students will be introduced to the concept of space weather, including cosmic radiation and coronal mass ejections, by watching a video clip from the National Science Foundation. Students will use a dipole bar magnet and iron filings to develop a model of Earth's magnetic field. Students will apply their experience from this inquiry to explain how Earth's magnetic field can protect us from space weather. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

This lesson provides information about Earth's magnetic field and how this field impacts different items.

In this activity students explore the Earth's radiation budget using Earth radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data archived at the IRI/LDEO Climate Data Library (more info) .

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Students will explore their outdoor space to construct a definition of the word “food”. Students will makeobservations of the ways in which organisms get energy necessary for survival. As a culminating activity,students will create their own meal menu and provide an explanation of why they chose to include each item intheir meal

How many calories are in your favorite foods? How much exercise would you have to do to burn off these calories? What is the relationship between calories and weight? Explore these issues by choosing diet and exercise and keeping an eye on your weight.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Looking at these two figures, does one of the solid black circles appear larger than the other? What about these apples? If the apple or the circle on the right looks bigger, your eyes have been fooled by an optical illusion. One that may help fight obesity. Inspired by these illusions, researchers have recently developed a portion-control plate as a means to promote smaller meal sizes. A new study published in the journal, BMC Obesity, evaluates the success of this plate. The World Heath Organization has officially declared obesity to be a global epidemic, with 38% of women and nearly as many men affected world-wide. An important reason for this is an increase in energy intake without the corresponding energy expenditure, and large portion sizes have been implicated as a key player in creating this imbalance. Unfortunately, many people find it a difficult task to learn healthy portion sizes and consistently consume the proper amount of food for every meal..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In the board game "EcoVenture," resources play a crucial role in shaping players' decisions and strategies as they aim to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here's a brief description of the types of resources in the game:Water:Represents the sustainable use and management of water resources. Players may encounter decisions related to water conservation, clean water access, and responsible usage.Energy:Focuses on renewable and sustainable energy sources. Players make choices related to energy production, consumption, and the impact on the environment.Agriculture:Reflects sustainable farming and food production practices. Players may need to consider aspects such as organic farming, crop diversity, and responsible land use.Biodiversity:Addresses the preservation of ecosystems and wildlife. Players make decisions related to habitat protection, conservation efforts, and sustainable practices to support biodiversity.Other Natural Resources:Depending on the game's design, additional resource cards might represent minerals, forests, or other natural elements. Decisions could involve responsible extraction, reforestation, or conservation.