The class will brainstorm, write, create, and produce a play in which they represent how all the Earth systems are interconnected. This play can be based on the Elementary GLOBE book "All About Earth: Our World on Stage" or on other student-generated topics representing interconnections of the Earth systems. The purpose of the play is to serve as a performance assessment providing students with the opportunity to display what they have learned about the Earth as a system in a creative manner. Through this activity, students will demonstrate their knowledge of how the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere and biosphere interact.

This article highlights lessons that help K-grade 5 students understand that animals and plants can only survive in certain environments.The lessons support the theme of an issue of the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The theme is "We Depend on Earth's Climate."

Gauge your students’ skills and teach them new ones in this fun, introductory woodworking project using found pallet lumber.  Valuable for assessing what skills students have, do not have, and how hard students work (tearing apart pallets), while providing planters that can be sold as a fundraiser.  Written by Boyd Bowder.

In this lesson, students will discover how to administer three different types of injections (Subcutaneous, Intramuscular, and Intravenous) though a hand-on activity. Students will use actual syringes and needles to administer medication to their animal (hamburger buns in a sandwich bag). Along with the injection lab students will learn the difference between medications and vaccinations, and why they are both important!

In this video, NOAA's Deke Arndt, Chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch at the National Climatic Data Center, recaps the temperature and precipitation data for the continental US in summer 2012. It describes how these conditions have led to drought and reduced crop yields.

La rápida expansión de la frontera agrícola como consecuencia desmesurada de la deforestación y cambios antropogénicos a nivel mundial, es un tema de preocupación por la comunidad científica internacional. Además, frente a una lucha contra el cambio climático por efecto de la ganadería, una de las principales estrategias para la mitigación de gases de efecto invernadero, lo constituyen alternativas sostenibles si uso de productos con alta huella de carbono, revalorizando, además, los recursos locales. En el caso de la zona norte de Ecuador, a pesar de los limitados atributos respecto a gradiente de fertilidad de los suelos, la cría de ganado ya sea de leche y/o doble propósito representa uno de los eslabones más fuertes dentro de la economía de las familias. Por lo tanto, es menester investigar alternativas de producción que nos permitan conservar los recursos naturales dada la fragilidad de estos ecosistemas megadiversos. Mediante este libro se plasma que el uso de sistemas ganaderos convencionales, degradan los recursos naturales con mermas significativas de la productividad, así como bajo réditos económicos. En consecuencia, la implementación de sistemas silvopastoriles como alternativa tecnológica de fácil instalación, es sin duda el camino para alcanzar sistemas ganaderos más eficientes, amigables con el medio ambiente, diversificando además los ingresos económicos de la población.

In this media-rich lesson, students learn how global warming is changing the Alaskan environment and examine the consequences of climate change on the region's human and wildlife inhabitants.

The marine environment is unique and requires technologies that can use sound to gather information since there is little light underwater. The sea-floor is characterized using underwater sound and acoustical systems. Current technological innovations are allowing scientists to further understand and apply information about animal locations and habitat. Remote sensing and exploration with underwater vehicles allows scientists to map and understand the sea floor, and in some cases, the water column. In this lesson, the students will be shown benthic habitat images produced by GIS. These imaged will lead to a class discussion on why habitat mapping is useful and how current technology works to make bathymetry mapping possible. The teacher will then ask inquiry-based questions to have students brainstorm about the importance of bathymetry mapping.

This poster, viewable online, highlights some of the impacts of a global-average temperature rise of 4 degrees C above the pre-industrial age climate.

Students are introduced to the concept of energy cycles by learning about the carbon cycle. They will learn how carbon atoms travel through the geological (ancient) carbon cycle and the biological/physical carbon cycle. Students will consider how human activities have disturbed the carbon cycle by emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They will discuss how engineers and scientists are working to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Lastly, students will consider how they can help the world through simple energy conservation measures.

This article provides links to web sites that describe the Arctic and Antarctica in terms of geography, climate, and ecosystems.

This activity allows students to figure out how they can negatively impact wildlife without trying.

The purpose of this resource is to observe plant green-up and report data that will be used by scientists to validate satellite estimates of the beginning of the plant growing season. Students monitor budburst and growth of leaves of selected trees, shrubs, or grasses. Species chosen should be native, deciduous, and dominant in your area.

In this activity, students investigate the shifting of three penguin communities in response to climate change.

This video from NASA explains the process by which gamma-ray flashes associated with storms produce matter/antimatter particle pairs.

This video features Dr. Gary Griggs, a scientist with the National Research Council, discussing predictions for sea-level rise on the West Coast states. The video includes effective visualizations and animations of the effects of plate tectonics and sea level rise on the West Coast.

Our agricultural system is made up of interconnected resources. The availability of these resources affects how much food we can produce. In this module, you will explore the resources that make up our agricultural system in order to answer the question: can we feed the growing population? Food production is faced with an ever-growing number of challenges. Growing enough food depends on the availability of resources such as arable land, sunlight, rain, and organic matter. Throughout this activity, you will explore land uses and soil quality through graphs of land use and crop production. You will run experiments with computational models to compare the effect of different management strategies on the land. You will not be able to answer the module's framing question at the end of the module, but you will be able to describe how humans can maintain and replenish important resources to be able to produce food long into the future.

Short Description:
History and Science of Cultivated Plants narrates how humans transitioned from foragers to farmers and have arrived at present-day industrial agriculture-based civilization. It entails myths, historical accounts, and scientific concepts to describe how human efforts have shaped and produced easier to grow, larger, tastier, and more nutritious fruits, vegetables, and grains from wild plants. Using examples of various economically and socially important crops central to human civilization, the book describes the origin of crop plants, the evolution of agricultural practices, fundamental concepts of natural selection vs. domestication, experimental and methodical plant breeding, and plant biotechnology. Data dashboard

Word Count: 48729

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)