This activity uses rain and flood events in the Midwest to engage students in an exploration of the collection, comparison, analysis and utilization of rainfall data. Students will access online precipitation data from both a ground-based station... (View More) (the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) network) and a satellite (the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)). Explicit instructions are provided to allow students to graph, map and analyze that data. Instructions are also provided for setting up a school-based rain gauge to gather local rainfall data for analysis. (View Less)

Students critically interpret graphical data and evaluate and discuss the difficulties inherent in interpreting and forecasting long and short term trends in this introductory climate change investigation. Graphs of data needed for this exercise are... (View More) included. This activity is part of the Ground Truth Studies Teacher Handbook, which provides more than 20 activities to build student understanding of global change and remote sensing, and includes background chapters for teachers, glossary, and appendices. (View Less)