Based on the popular fortune-telling game, this printable interactive craft and game familiarizes learners with cloud vocabulary and varying degrees of cloud cover.

After reading the accompanying background information, students create an ice core using a tennis ball container and an assortment of dyes and craft supplies. Students measure the thickness and determine the age of each layer. As an extension... (View More) activity, students write a story about their ice core. (View Less)

In this activity students investigate cloud opacity, including transparent, translucent, and opaque cloud characteristics. The activity is a companion resource to an episode of the PBS series, SciGirls. The episode, titled "SkyGirls," featured NASA... (View More) female scientists and a citizen science projects for students. (View Less)

A collection of nine atmospheric science and geography activities that guide students in developing the skills used to analyze GLOBE environmental data. GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide, hands-on,... (View More) K-12 school-based science education program. (View Less)

A Hovmuller plot is a diagram that visibly displays data patterns from a selected latitude or longitude over a time period. Through a storyline and several samples, students are introduced to a Hovmuller plot of temperature data along a longitude in... (View More) the eastern United States. Students then create salinity and precipitation plots using data from the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server. (View Less)

This unit consists of five activities, all of which focus on the response of plant life-cycle events to climate change. Students participate in discussions, field observations, data collection and analyses, plant identification, seed dispersal... (View More) comparisons, and graphing and analyses of plant phenology (timing of life-cycle events). Project BudBurst, a citizen science project which studies the impact of climate change on phenology, is integrated into this unit. The unit is one of four under the Chicago Botanic Garden curriculum entitled, "Climate Change in My Backyard." (View Less)

This unit consists of four activities. Students begin by examining temperature cycles (current, recent and historical) then add in factors such as carbon dioxide, precipitation and cloud cover to discover regional and global differences in the... (View More) effects of climate change. The unit is one of four under the Chicago Botanic Garden curriculum entitled, "Climate Change in My Backyard." (View Less)

This unit focuses on the impacts of climate change on humans. Students participate in activities using "Character Cards" (included with the unit). The cards introduce fictitious citizens who describe the local economic, social and political factors... (View More) that impact their country's climate change issues/responses. A second activity in the unit has students research, discuss and present their findings on the impacts of climate change - first at the global level then narrowed to a country, region and/or state level. In addition, students examine how their own energy and food choices impact climate change and then propose ideas to reduce their carbon footprint. The unit is one of four under the Chicago Botanic Garden curriculum entitled, "Climate Change in My Backyard." (View Less)

This curriculum uses an inquiry-based Earth system science approach, and leverages Project BudBurst, a citizen science phenology project, to engage students in authentic research on plant and ecosystem responses to climate change. Students collect... (View More) local data then analyze that data in the context of NASA regional and global data sets and satellite imagery to understand their data in personal, regional, and global contexts. The curriculum is divided into four units: The Earth as a System; Identifying the key changing conditions of the Earth system; Earth system responses to natural and human induced changes; and Predicting the consequences of changes for human civilization. Each unit consists of several activities with accompanying teacher answer sheets. (View Less)

This unit focuses on the impacts of climate change on humans. Students participate in activities using "Character Cards" (included with the unit). The cards introduce fictitious citizens who describe the local economic, social and political factors... (View More) that impact their country's climate change issues/responses. In addition, students examine how their own energy and food choices impact climate change and then propose ideas to reduce their carbon footprint. The unit is one of four under the Chicago Botanic Garden curriculum entitled, "Climate Change in My Backyard." (View Less)