The purpose of this resource is to develop a classification system for a set of objects and learn about hierarchical classification systems. Any set of objects, such as insects or rocks, may be used as well.

This article highlights lessons that help K-grade 5 students understand that animals and plants can only survive in certain environments.The lessons support the theme of an issue of the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The theme is "We Depend on Earth's Climate."

Three types of climate proxies -- tree rings, fossils, and ice cores -- are the subjects of lessons that will help K-5 students understand that Earth's climate has been different in the past and that scientists can reveal its history. This article is from the science lessons column of the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The magazine is structured around the seven essential principles of climate literacy and identifies age-appropriate resources for young learners.

Concepts underlying the first of the Essential Principles of the Climate Sciences are aligned with topics typically taught in the elementary grades. This article identifies lessons that will help elementary students develop an understanding of how Sun's light warms Earth and how variations in daylight hours are associated with seasonal change. This article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle.

This activity is a active learning activity where students will observe and represent the layers of the Earth from the core to the lithosphere.

With two simple classroom experiments and easy-to-read text, this original story is designed to introduce young learners to the greenhouse effect. The author provides different versions of the story for grades K-2 and 3-5, as well as different formats for differentiated instruction. The free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle focuses on principles of climate literacy that are appropriate for young learners.

This website was designed to replace a traditional textbook in a 100-level General Science/Earth Science class. Open Educational Resources are listed to for each subject and accompanying homework assignments are based on assigned readings. Learning Objectives and Additional Useful Resources are also listed for each subject. Login with a Google account is required to access this document and enable instructors to track student responses.

This is a hands-on lab activity about seawater density. After developing a hypothesis, learners will conduct a simple investigation of density. They will discuss changes in density observed and describe how salt affects the density of water. Background information, common student preconceptions, a glossary and more is included. This activity is part of the Aquarius Hands-on Laboratory Activities.

The earth’s atmosphere may seem thick when compared to something like your height—but it’s surprisingly thin when compared to the earth’s radius. Here, you can find out exactly how thin, using strips of plastic to model the correctly scaled thickness of the atmosphere on a globe.

Logarithms are very handy when dealing with numbers at different scales but they are also useful helping us average measurements of physical phenomena that have nonlinear behavior. In this example, students learn about cloud albedo and calculating cloud optical depth. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

This exercise was designed to address student misconceptions about why the Moon exhibits phases. Using a sketchbook, digital camera, or flex cam, a student sits at the center of a darkened room illuminated by a single light source in a stationary position. Stools are set up surrounding the student in the center and other students take those positions, always keeping their faces toward the center. The center student sketches or take pictures of the faces at each of the positions. Substituting a sphere (such as a ball) for the students' faces provides an even more vivid illustration of the shadowing of the sphere and connects directly to the rationale for lunar phases.

To inform and empower the public on the complex issue of climate change, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a Climate Portal, an online home for timely, science-based information about the causes and consequences of climate change—and what can be done to address it. Whether you are new to climate change or ready for a deeper exploration, the MIT Climate Portal offers a virtual place to ground your knowledge and ask your questions of experts. It also highlights MIT’s latest climate change research and initiatives for action.
The MIT Climate Portal is managed by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, with support from the MIT Office of the Vice President for Research.

This resource describes the physics behind the formation of clouds, and provides a demonstration of those principles using a beaker, ice, a match, hot water, and a laser pointer. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

In this adapted ZOOM video segment, cast members get hands-on in the recycling process by using old newspapers to make new paper.

In this short demo/activity, a balloon with baking soda in it is stretched over the mouth of a flask or bottle containing vinegar. The balloon is tipped so that the baking soda falls into the vinegar, and the reaction creates carbon dioxide, which inflates the balloon. The activity is part of the children's book, The Air We Breathe.

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members make a seismometer and experiment with different ways to make it register movement.

This activity introduces Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and poses questions that help students answer questions that require spatial data. Students examine questions about communities and populations from local to state to national scales. Six GIS, math and mapping activities are identified in this resource. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

Students will create micro-landforms outside in order to mimic landforms and generate maps.

The objective of this course is to develop an understanding of principles of marine isotope geochemistry, its systematics, and its application to the study of the behavior and history of the oceans within the earth system. The emphasis is on developing the underlying concepts and theory as well as proficiency in working with practical isotope systems. The course is divided into four sections: nuclear systematics, Earth formation and evolution, stable isotopes, and applications to the ocean system.

This article explores how statistics can be interpreted in different ways to yield different conclusions. It describes the outcome and discussion of two class activities. In the first, the results are interpreted to "show" that taking a group rather than an individual perspective is ultimately beneficial to the individual. In the second, a variation is added "showing" that telling the truth is better that lying. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.