This activity demonstrates optical properties of water: that different constituents in water affect the transmission, absorption, and scattering of different colors in the visible light spectrum. Inexpensive, off-the-shelf components are used to... (View More) build a light sensor and source, creating a simple spectrophotometer that can measure light absorption. In the second part of this activity, principles of ocean color remote sensing are applied to measure reflectance. Using components that are clearly visible allows students to configure them in different ways. Playing with the instrument design gives students a practical understanding of spectrophotometers, in-water optics, and remote sensing. As an extension of this concept, students are encouraged to think about how ocean color is used to estimate the concentration of chlorophyll to infer phytoplankton abundance, colored dissolved organic matter, and suspended sediments. (View Less)

This activity includes a presentation with links to videos about scientists and engineers working with NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (from the Faces of GPM series), as well as other STEM careers videos, followed by a number of... (View More) links to online career resources. It is designed to be used by students working at their own pace, choosing which videos and links they are interested in watching and exploring, but could also be used with a larger group. As part of the activity, students identify personal skills and abilities related to career interests and develop a career goal. Includes a student capture sheet with guiding questions. (View Less)

Emphasizing the synergies between science and engineering, these video clips highlight the research of professional ocean scientists and engineers in various disciplines. The clips are accompanied by additional relevant content including images,... (View More) data visualizations, graphs, animations, and other information. Content has been organized into more than a dozen thematic areas such as Solving Old Problems with New Technology and Small Scale Observations and Large Scale Ideas. All content has been aligned with science and engineering practices from the Next Generation Science Standards, including "asking questions and solving problems" and "planning and carrying out investigations," providing applicable resources for teachers who want to provide role models of effective practice for their students. (View Less)

This set of three videos illustrates how math is used in satellite data analysis. NASA climate scientist Claire Parkinson explains how the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice covers are measured from satellite data and how math is used to determine trends... (View More) in the data. In the first video, she leads viewers from satellite data collection through obtaining a time series of monthly Arctic and Antarctic average sea ice extents for November 1978-December 2016. In the second video, she begins with the time series from the first video, removes the seasonal cycle by calculating yearly averages, and proceeds to calculate the slopes of the lines to get trends in the data, revealing decreasing sea ice coverage in the Arctic and increasing sea ice coverage in the Antarctic. In the third video, she uses a more advanced technique to remove the seasonal cycle and shows that the trends are close to the same, whichever method is used. She emphasizes the power of math and that the techniques shown for satellite sea ice data can also be applied to a wide range of data sets. Note: See Related & Supplemental Resources for the maps and data files (1978-2016) that will allow you to do the calculations shown in the video. These also include data for different regions of the Arctic and Antarctic, enabling learners to do additional calculations beyond those shown in the videos. (View Less)

This ChemMatters article provides a history of the study of ozone, a description of an experimental simulation called "The World Avoided," a brief introduction to the chemistry of ozone, an explanation of how ozone is measured, and the difference... (View More) between "good" ozone in the stratosphere vs "bad" ozone in the troposhere. ChemMatters is an educational magazine published by the American Chemical Society. (View Less)

This two-sided poster presents images and information about ozone. The front features a series of color Earth images; each image reflects total ozone readings taken every October from 1979 to 2012. The poster back contains information about ozone... (View More) under the following headings: What is Ozone?, Chemistry of the Ozone Layer, Measuring Ozone in the Earth's Atmosphere, Timeline of Stratospheric Ozone Depletion and Observations, How the Ozone Hole Forms, and A World Avoided. In addition, the back contains two activities: Visualizing the Ozone Hole and a Color by Number worksheet. (View Less)

Air traffic (and therefore airplane contrails) was halted nationwide for nearly three days following September 11, 2001. Students will investigate whether that stoppage resulted in any changes to cloud cover, temperature and/or radiation. Using the... (View More) MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS), students gather satellite data on each of the three atmospheric parameters around that time frame. Working in teams, they read, compare and discuss two accompanying articles, then use the data from the LAS to create a PowerPoint presentation contending whether it was the lack of contrails or simply natural weather patterns at the time that was responsible for the increase in the range of temperatures. This lesson uses student- and citizen science-friendly microsets of authentic NASA Earth system science data from the MY NASA DATA project. It includes detailed procedures, analysis questions, teacher notes, related links, background information, lesson extensions, and a list of related AP Environmental Science topics. (View Less)

This activity examines the relationship between carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and chlorophyll-a measurements in a watershed. Students analyze and compare two Excel plots-one showing carbon dioxide data values from the Keeling Curve and the... (View More) other showing satellite data of chlorophyll-a concentrations. This lesson uses student- and citizen science-friendly microsets of authentic NASA Earth system science data from the MY NASA DATA project. It includes detailed procedures, analysis questions, teacher notes, related links, background information, lesson extensions, and a list of related AP Environmental Science topics. (View Less)

This ChemMatters article provides a brief background on smog, then examines the causes of it, efforts to reduce it, and methods used to measure it. ChemMatters is an educational magazine for high school students.

Using the 5E instructional model, students discover the value of using color maps to visualize data. The activity requires students to create a color map of the ozone hole from Dobson data values derived from the Aura satellite. Students then... (View More) interpret that map and compare and evaluate different color scales. Note that this is the Spanish version of Exploring Color Maps: Using Stratospheric Ozone Data. (View Less)