Learn about different types of radiometric dating, such as carbon dating. Understand how decay and half life work to enable radiometric dating to work. Play a game that tests your ability to match the percentage of the dating element that remains to the age of the object.

This poster illustrates and describes types of high-, low-, and mid-altitude clouds. Poster back has article and activity related to Earth's water cycle, as well as a cloud identification quiz and a water cycle crossword puzzle.

This winning entry in the museum's Young Naturalist Awards 1999 by Mary, a 13 year old student from New York, takes a look at how rocks and fossils provide much of Earth's history. Her essay discusses the great variety of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks found on the north shore of Long Island, how all three types were formed and the specific rocks she collected.

Students learn about soil properties and the effect biochar—charcoal used as a soil amendment—has on three soil types, sand, loam and clay. They test the soils’ water retention capability before and after the addition of biochar. During the activity, student teams prepare soil mixtures, make observations (including microscopic examinations), compare soil properties, conduct water retention tests, take and record measurements, and analyze their observations and data. They see how the physical properties of soils—color, texture, and particle size—can be indicators of nutrient content and water retention capabilities to support plant growth. From their findings, they consider biochar’s potential benefits for environmental and agricultural applications, especially in conditions of drought and depleted soils. An activity lab sheet is provided to guide experimental data collection and analysis.

Students write a short essay using relative age principles to describe a fictional set of geologic events and processes (specified in the exercise) that occur in a hypothetical area. The essay is used to develop a geologic profile, and then it is given to another student who is tasked with producing the correct geologic profile (as a quiz), based on the essay information. A teacher-designed rubric is used to score the quiz and to allow students to complete a self-evaluation of their learning.

This an inqiury based activity where students are asked to sequence events that have occurred to a block of wood and justify their answers.

This collection of 103 individual sets of math problems derives from images and data generated by NASA remote sensing technology. Whether used as a challenge activity, enrichment activity and/or a formative assessment, the problems allow students to engage in authentic applications of math. Each set consists of one page of math problems (one to six problems per page) and an accompanying answer key. Based on complexity, the problem sets are designated for two grade level groups: 6-8 and 9-12. Also included is an introduction to remote sensing, a matrix aligning the problem sets to specific math topics, and four problems for beginners (grades 3-5).

This reference list contains brief descriptions of and links to five Web sites that provide a broad range of remote-sensing resources.

This Remote Sensing reference list contains annotated links to free software for viewing remotely sensed data.

In this problem-based learning module, students focus on issues related to understanding the nature and transmission of the Rift Valley fever virus, a virus that causes the death of large numbers of livestock in Kenya and in much of sub-Saharan Africa, and can also infect humans. This module is part of Exploring the Environment.

This story can be used to teach that results must be checked against known facts to see if they're reasonable. It is designed as a follow up to "The Fall of the Ruler." 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.

Using a computer interactive tool, students investigate the changes in coastline that would result from a change in sea level, and suggest what factors could cause a rise in sea level. The activity asks students to reflect on outcomes of their investigations completed during the Ice Ages and Night Life activities, all of which are part of Space Update, a collection of resources and activities provided to teach about Earth and space. Summary background information, data and images supporting the activity are available on the Earth Update data site. To complete the activity, students will need to access the Space Update multimedia collection, which is available for download and purchase for use in the classroom.

Through five lessons, students are introduced to all facets of the rock cycle. Topics include rock and mineral types, material stresses and weathering, geologic time and fossil formation, the Earth's crust and tectonic plates, and soil formation and composition. Lessons are presented in the context of the related impact on humans in the form of roadway and tunnel design and construction, natural disasters, environmental site assessment for building structures, and measurement instrumentation and tools. Hands-on activities include experiencing tensional, compressional and shear material stress by using only hand force to break bars of soap; preparing Jeopardy-type trivia questions/answers for a class game that reinforces students' understanding of rocks and the rock cycle; creating "fossils" using melted chocolate; working within design constraints to design and build a model tunnel through a clay mountain; and soil sampling by creating tools, obtaining soil cores, documenting a soil profile log, and analyzing the findings to make engineering predictions.

In this exercise, sudents write a series of three stories that explain and/or illustrate rock-forming processes. As an alternative, they may write a single story that addresses the rock cycle. Describing these processes at a level appropriate for their target audience (second graders) requires an adequate understanding of the geologic processes involved and can reveal problems or misconceptions in the students' ideas of how rocks are formed. Teacher's notes and rubrics for teacher and peer review are provided.

In this exercise, students use U.S. Geological Survey and other websites to learn about the history of earthquakes in New York. Through their web research, they will learn what earthquakes are, how and where they occur, and the types of hazards associated with large quakes. They are encouraged to write a report summarizing their results.

This is a guided inquiry field investigation in an urban setting. This investigation focuses on making observations, recording information, asking questions, and identifying the types of rocks used on buildings in downtown St. Paul, MN.

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service profiles rocky coast environments and describes how various geologic features form.

In this paper and pencil exercise, students create graphs that describe the effect of a series of experiments using Daisy World, an energy balance model, that can be used to demonstrate concepts of equilibrium, homeostatis, and positive and negative feedbacks. Internet access and exploration with the actual Daisy World model is ideal, but not required. The resource is Activity 6 of the learning module, Global Balance, part of the lesson series Potential Impacts of Climate Variability and Change.

This project looks to combine the legacies of these three titans of American history, including Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt, to develop policy priorities and an action plan that will enable us to move beyond the false choice of economic growth or environmental security.

The topic of photosynthesis is a fundamental concept in biology, chemistry, and earth science. Educational studies have found that despite classroom presentations, most students retain their naive idea that a plant's mass is mostly derived from the soil, and not from the air. To call students' attention to this misconception, at the beginning of this lesson we will provide a surprising experimental result so that students will confront their mental mistake. Next, we will help students better envision photosynthesis by modeling where the atoms come from in this important process that produces food for the planet. This lesson can be completed in 50-60 minutes, with the students working on in-class activities during 20-25 minutes of the lesson. As a prerequisite, students need an introductory lesson on photosynthesis, something that includes the overall chemical equation. If students have already studied the intracellular photosynthetic process in detail, this video can still be very helpful because students often miss the big picture about photosynthesis. Materials needed include red, white and black LEGO bricks (described in downloadable hand-out) or strips of red, white and black paper plus paper clips (directions provided in downloadable hand-out). In addition to class discussions, the major in-class activity of this video involves the students' modeling with LEGO bricks or colored paper where the atoms come from in photosynthesis.