NASA
Launch Altitude Tracker
Using PVC pipe and aquarium tubing, build an altitude tracker. Pupils then use the altitude tracker, along with a tangent table, to calculate the altitude of a launched rocket using the included data collection sheet.
Curated OER
High Mountain Retreat
Students explore and analyze atmospheric conditions for a high mountain retreat. They examine the relationship between altitude, atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity at a particular location. In addition, they write reports...
Space Awareness
Valleys Deep and Mountains High
Sometimes the best view is from the farthest distance. Satellite imaging makes it possible to create altitude maps from far above the earth. A three-part activity has your young scientists play the role of the satellite and then use...
Curated OER
Temperature and the Earth's Atmosphere
Earth science super stars visit the National Earth Science Teachers Association's interactive website to glean information on the layers of the atmosphere. Data tables are provided for them to record what is collected. This assignment...
National Geographic
Altitude: What's in the Air?
Introuduce your scientists to the differences in air at varying altitudes with a colorful explanatory graph. After some discussion, they view unbelievable footage of mountain-climbing Leo Houlding and a narrative about how he might do...
Curated OER
Surviving Extremes
Students examine the potential health dangers of mountain climbing in high altitudes and deep-sea diving. They write a health and safety column for a fictional magazine about extreme outdoor sports that explains the risks involved in...
Curated OER
Mountaineering: How Our Bodies Acclimatize
In this mountaineering and acclimatization worksheet, high schoolers read about the changes that take place in the blood as the body acclimatizes to high altitude. They answer three critical thinking questions about acclimatization.
Curated OER
Mountains
Mountains are described and some of the more famous listed along with their altitudes. Climate, glaciers, and avalanches are also covered. Because there is a copious amount of text on each slide, this would be best used by assigning...
Concord Consortium
Look High and Low
From the highest high to the lowest low here's a resource that won't fall flat. Given data on the area and the highest and lowest elevations of each of the 50 states, learners decide which states are the least flat and the most flat. Of...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
Mask of the Black God
Finally, an astronomy lesson for the high schooler! Explorers are able to read star maps for finding objects in the night sky by determining celestial coordinates. In particular, they locate the Pleiades and read about a Navajo legend...
Curated OER
Determining the Altitude of Iridium Flares
Students examine what iridium flares are and when they occur. For this iridium flare lesson students complete an activity to see how far overhead Iridium satellites are.
Curated OER
Plotting Temperature and Altitude
students convert the temperature readings from degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit. they predict and create a graph of what the graph of altitude (x-axis) versus temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (y-axis) might look like.
Curated OER
I Can't Take the Pressure!
Students explore the concept of air pressure. Using candy or cookie wafers to model how air pressure changes with altitude, they conduct an aluminum can crushing experiment, compare the magnitude to gravitational force per unit area,...
Curated OER
Measuring the Sun's Position
In this sun instructional activity, students measure the altitude of the sun and the azimuth of the sun to determine the sun's position five times a day for a week. They answer questions about their results.
Serendip
Homeostasis and Negative Feedback – Concepts and Breathing Experiments
More asthma attacks happen at higher altitudes, but why? Scholars complete worksheets, learning about homeostasis and feedback related to breathing. Then, they work in small groups to experiment with breathing in limited amounts of...
Curated OER
Analysis of Atmospheric Conditions for a High Mountain Retreat
Students examine the relationship between altitude, atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity at a particular location. They practice science and math in real world applications. They write reports detailing their scientific...
Curated OER
Design Your Own Imaginary Continent
In this continent activity, students design their own continent and include latitudes, mountain ranged, river, wind patterns, and temperature highs and lows. They also include a variety of cities in specified locations.
Curated OER
Altitude Locator
High schoolers use protractors, strings, and straws to construct a device used to determine the height of tall objects. In this applied geometry lesson, students use common objects to construct a tangent height guide. They use principles...
Curated OER
Book Excerpt from "The 23rd Cycle"
In this solar storms worksheet, students read an excerpt from the book "The 23rd Cycle: Learning to Live with a Stormy Star". Students answer 7 questions about the effects of solar storms on radiation exposure, health risk of airline...
NASA
S’COOL Cloud Identification Chart
If you've ever wondered why clouds sometimes look so different, look no further than a classroom poster about cloud identification. It features pictures of clouds at high, mid, and low levels of altitude, as well as the name of each and...
Curated OER
Physics Lab Rockets
Young scholars construct and test balloon rockets and a model rocket. In this rocket science lesson, students use an inquiry-based method to master balloon rockets and have a shoot-off with the goal of attaining the highest altitude....
Curated OER
Actual Airflow vs. Ideal Airflow: Stalls
Students use 3-D modeling techniques to observe the characteristic signature of the stall condition apparent on an airfoil at high angles of attack. They use FoilSim to compare the above with ideal airflow.
Curated OER
Gas Law Homework Problem Set
In this chemistry worksheet, students determine the mass of the gas when filling a bicycle tire with nitrogen. Then they determine the volume of a balloon when at specific altitudes. Students also determine the partial pressure of oxygen...
Curated OER
The Science of Lance Armstrong
Live Strong! High schoolers will discuss some of the reasons behind Lance Armstrong's success in cycling and chart those reasons into four categories: Physiology, Psychology, Equipment, Training/Strategy. They will then choose one sport...