Instructions are provided for constructing a terrarium. The analogy between the terrarium and Earth is also provided. This activity is part of the Climate Kids website, a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.
A landscaper explains, through an interview format, how it is possible to design and maintain yards and gardens that require very little water. The Climate Kids website is a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.
Learn how a family farm in Wisconsin functions and how it is impacted by climate change in this multimedia video produced by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
In this video segment adapted from NOVA: Becoming Human, learn how the analysis of rock layers and ocean sediments supports the theory that rapid climate change may have jump-started human evolution two million years ago.
The purpose of this resource is to have students observe their lilac plants and identify the five phenophases (first leaf, full or 95% leafed, first bloom, full bloom and end of bloom) for each lilac plant. During the growing season, students will observe their lilac plants and identify the five phenophases (first leaf, full or 95% leafed, first bloom, full bloom and end of bloom) for each lilac plant.
This flash animation for the song "Closer to Free" describes the Economic Freedom of the World index, provides a summary of countries with high and low values of the index, and highlights the importance of economic freedom in a country's standard of living.
Learn about cloud formations over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in this video from Nature.
This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service describes the many forces that affect shorelines, including tides, weathering, erosion, and deposition.
This professional development article identifies resources that show young learners (K-grade 5) how scientists study Earth's climate and make predictions. The online lessons either allow students to collect and analyze data or learn about tools and technologies that make data collection possible. The lessons are aligned with national content standards for science education. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which examines the recognized essential principles of climate literacy and the climate sciences for elementary teachers and their students.
This activity addresses climate change impacts that affect all states that are part of the Colorado River Basin and are dependent on its water. Students examine available data, the possible consequences of changes to various user groups, and suggest solutions to adapt to these changes.
This article describes common misconceptions about the Arctic and Antarctica and how to test and teach for student understanding.
This article discusses misconceptions about birds (and penguins in particular). It provides tools for formative assessment and ideas for teaching correct scientific concepts.
A set of three short writing assignments were designed to encourage students to think critically about the way that scientific research is reported by the popular media and the reasons that research may or may not be reported in a way that could be construed as misleading.
This assignment exposes students to data on economic growth and development as commonly measured by per capita GDP and the Human Development Index (HDI) for 100 countries of the world. There is a big debate about how good an indicator HDI is compared to GDP per capita as a measure of development.
Explore a NetLogo model of populations of rabbits, grass, and weeds. First, adjust the model to start with a different rabbit population size. Then adjust model variables, such as how fast the plants or weeds grow, to get more grass than weeds. Change the amount of energy the grass or weeds provide to the rabbits and the food preference. Use line graphs to monitor the effects of changes you make to the model, and determine which settings affect the proportion of grass to weeds when rabbits eat both.
The purpose of the resource is to produce a land cover type map from the digital file of a Landsat satellite image using MultiSpec software.
Explore how populations change over time in a NetLogo model of sheep and grass. Experiment with the initial number of sheep, the sheep birthrate, the amount of energy sheep gain from the grass, and the rate at which the grass re-grows. Remove sheep that have a particular trait (better teeth) from the population, then watch what happens to the sheep teeth trait in the population as a whole. Consider conflicting selection pressures to make predictions about other instances of natural selection.
Students apply economics, politics and sociology to better understand why cap and trade is the preferred political approach, but also why it's potentially problematic.
In this activity, you will read the book "Diary of a Worm" and then your students will create their own diary.
This article describes online artifact collections available through the Arctic Studies Center, a part of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The collection includes artifacts and background information about the peoples of Alaska and Northeast Siberia.