Intended for use after viewing the Science on a Sphere film "Water Falls," this lesson deepens student's understanding of global precipitation measurement. Students will explore NASA satellite data gathered during Hurricane Sandy to learn how that... (View More) data was essential in helping scientists forecast its path and precipitation amounts. All background information, student worksheets and images/photographs/data are included in these downloadable sections: Teacher’s Guide, Student Capture Sheet, Assessment and PowerPoint Presentation. (View Less)

This 16-page booklet illustrates multiple NASA sources that allow educators to incorporate real Earth science data and images in their teaching and programs. Sample resources as well as firsthand accounts of how these are being used in the classroom... (View More) or informal education setting are included. (View Less)

This worksheet introduces students to the Aura satellite and its Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). Students are asked to visit the Aura website and examine OMI data visualizations to learn about emissions of atmospheric gases such as sulfur... (View More) dioxide, nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide. Students gain experience interpreting OMI data visualizations and are asked to consider implications for climate and human health. (View Less)

The Picture Post Network involves individuals, schools, organizations and communities in a systematic monitoring project of their local environment, especially vegetation health. Digital photographs - taken from the same location and positioned in... (View More) the same direction and orientation - allow individuals, schools, organizations, communities and scientists to monitor a variety of environmental parameters, including plant health, growth, and phenology; erosion and deposition; water levels; and cloud and canopy cover. Participants study change over time in their local area, view NASA satellite imagery on the same days as the pictures, and contribute towards improving their own communities. The website provides instructions for participating, including planning and installing a picture post, monitoring projects, and taking and uploading pictures, and a repository of images. Picture Posts may be added by anyone interested in monitoring a particular location. Currently, Picture Posts sites are active at science centers, schoolyards and gardens, local parks, and nature reserves. (View Less)

This poster includes an energy budget diagram on the front depicting our best understanding of energy flows into and away from the Earth. It is based on the work of many scientists over more than 100 years, with the most recent measurements from... (View More) NASA'S Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite instrument, which provide high accuracy data of Earth's reflected solar and emitted infrared radiation fluxes. (View Less)

This is a lesson about the vertical dimension of the atmosphere and includes four activities. Activity 1 Introduces concepts related to distance, including length and height and units of measurement. Students are asked to make comparisons of... (View More) distances. In activity 2, students learn about the vertical profile of the atmosphere. They work with a graph and plot the heights of objects and the layers of the atmosphere: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. In activity 3, students learn about other forms of visual displays using satellite imagery. They compare images of the same weather feature, a hurricane, using two different images from MODIS and CALIPSO. One image is looking down on the hurricane from space, the other looks through the hurricane to display a profile of the hurricane. Activity 4 reinforces the concept of the vertical nature of the atmosphere. Students will take a CALIPSO satellite image that shows a profile of the atmosphere and use this information to plot mountains and clouds on their own graph of the atmosphere. The recommended order for the activities is to complete the first two activities on day one, and the second two activities on day two. Each day will require approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. (View Less)

In this activity, student teams explore the connections between parts of the Earth system by examining a time series of environmental data maps. They observe that the environment is the result of the interplay among many processes that take place on... (View More) varying time and spatial scales, by looking at different six different variables during a single month: insolation, surface temperature, cloud fraction, aerosols, precipitation and biosphere (surface vegetation). This is one of six interrelated learning activities in the student activity guide associated with the GLOBE Earth System Poster, Exploring Connections in Year 2007. A series of assessment and extension activities are included. GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide, hands-on, K-12 school-based science education program. GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide, hands-on, K-12 school-based science education program. (View Less)

In this activity, student teams explore connections between parts of the Earth system, by examining a time series of environmental data maps. By examining scientific visualizations of a data pair in two time slices, they will see that the... (View More) environment is the result of the interplay among many processes that take place on varying time and spatial scales. This is one of six interrelated learning activities associated with the GLOBE Earth System Poster, Exploring Connections in Year 2007, which also includes a series of assessment and extension activities. GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide, hands-on, K-12 school-based science education program. (View Less)