Curated OER
Investigating the Climate System - Clouds
Here is a fabulous lesson on the Earth's radiant energy system. This amazing, 31-page document is chock-full of great activities, worksheets, lab sheets, quizzes, rubrics, and assessments. Learners model and explain cloud formation,...
Curated OER
World Wide Winds
High schoolers recognize that global winds move in specific directions in specific latitudes and describe that in a written form. They relate the motion of the wind belts to historical navigation.
Curated OER
Investigating the Climate System: Energy, A Balancing Act
Earth science explorers design an experiment to demonstrate that the albedo of a surface affects its temperature. They test to find out if moisture on the surface affects temperature. They discover whether or not concrete or asphalt heat...
Curated OER
Winds Go Spinning Around
Students simulate the Coriolis Effect to comprehend why winds in the Westerlies are prone to cyclonic and anti-cyclonic motion. They arrive at an explanation of processes that drive world wind patterns
Curated OER
Formation of Wind
Learners correctly sequence the steps leading to the formation of wind, and describe the cause and effect relationships involved in the formation of wind. This task assesses students' abilities to classify, generalize, infer, interpret...
Curated OER
Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System
Wow! What a lesson plan! Six terrific activities are described in great detail, in this 31-page document! Learners will model and explain cloud formation, sketch and identify certain cloud types, calculate and compare incoming and...
Curated OER
You Can Die Here
Students examine Death Valley including the amount of precipitation and winds that it gets. In this climate based lesson students explain the reasons for the amount of precipitation and windward patterns in Death Valley.
Curated OER
What Is El Niño?
Students access information at remote sites using telecommunications, identify impacts by reviewing past El Ni??o events, make and use scale drawings, maps, and maps symbols to find locations and describe relationships.
Curated OER
Cloud Observations using GLOBE Protocols
Students observe which of ten types of clouds are visible and how much of the sky is cloud covered. They see that by observing clouds, we can get information about temperature, moisture, and wind conditions in different places in the...
Curated OER
Fallout!
Students plot the locations of fallout from two disasters that polluted much of the world's air. They plot the ash fallout from the 1980 Mt. St. Helen's eruption to see what the wind patterns in the United States look like overall. Next...
Curated OER
Finding the Way
Students identify and research navigational tools used in deep sea explorations. They are introduced to a compass, the Global Positioning System and sonar technology and then describe their uses in underwater exploration.
Curated OER
Driving Currents
Learners conduct a variety of investigations to see how water, heat, and salinity affect the flow of the world's ocean currents,as well as, explore many factors that affect the flow of the world's ocean currents. They also describe in...
Curated OER
Sky and Cloud Windows
Students monitor the weather, clouds, and sky. In this weather lesson, students create a sky and cloud window to focus their sky observations. They write observations in a notebook and include the date, time, cloud cover, types of...
Curated OER
Current Interactions
Students design an experiment to see how wind, temperature, and salinity work together to influence ocean currents and present it in a report format. They explain to their classmates how experiment findings relate to ocean currents.
Curated OER
Atmospheric Cells
Students recognize that the sun is the source of energy driving atmosphere cells. They relate the motion of the atmospheric cells to mantle convection cells. Students recognize that the function of atmospheric cells is to move heat from...
Curated OER
Climate Patterns across the United States
Students articulate differences between climate and weather using examples in a written statement. Using climate data from across the country, they describe climate patterns for various parts of the United States on a map. Students...
Curated OER
Cold Fronts
High schoolers determine its' direction of movement, and list at least five weather conditions associated with the specific front, given animations of several atmospheric variables during a cold front passage. They list at least three...
Curated OER
Rain Shadows and Sea Breezes
Students plot the average rainfall for a variety of cities in the United States. Using the map, they work together to determine patterns on which toxicants are transported through the air. They determine the impacts of various weather...
Curated OER
Cooking with the Sun!
Students access prior knowledge of solar energy and understand that solar energy produces heat. In this solar cooker lesson, students complete grade appropriate experiments using the heat of the sun. Students complete a worksheet on...
Curated OER
Where Am I?
Sudents examine the types of instruments that can be used for marine navigation and position-finding. They practice using an astrolabe to solve trigonometric problems.
Curated OER
How Warm is the Water?
Students research how surface sea temperature changes throughout the year. They draw a time series of sea surface temperatures for each month of the year and a depth profile for a summer and winter month using an OceanExplorer Profiler...