This introduction lesson is designed to improve students' vocabulary skills and understanding of earthquakes. The pre-game vocabulary activity will allow students to define terms related to earthquakes using prior knowledge. This will allow the students to see what they will be covering and will activate any prior knowledge. During game play, students will be able to improve their definition of the different terms as well as understanding the basics of earthquakes. The post-game activity will allow your students and yourself the opportunity to see how the students' scientific vocabulary has grown. Attribution: University of Wisconsin using The Yard Games added on May, 28, 2019. License is Custom License. To get to the original, click Earthquake.

This book offers an introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum using examples of data from a variety of NASA missions and satellite technologies. The 84 problem sets included allow students to explore the concepts of waves, wavelength, frequency, and speed; the Doppler Shift; light; and the energy carried by photons in various bands of the spectrum. Extensive background information is provided which describes the nature of electromagnetic radiation.

The forests of North America have seen plenty of change in a pretty short period of time, at least geologically speaking. Up until about 18,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered Canada and much of the eastern United States. When temperatures climbed and the ice sheet retreated, forests gradually reemerged. But how? Did pockets of trees find refuge in sheltered areas during the Ice Age? Or were all tree species pushed to the southern tier of the United States, only to spread north again after the ice disappeared? Scientists still debate the topic, but one thing is clear: today’s forests in the eastern United States bear little resemblance to post-glacial forests. Starting with European colonial settlers and marching through four centuries of development, drought, and fire, the tree cover of North America became fragmented.

In this activity, students use authentic Arctic climate data to explore albedo and its relationship to seasonal snowmelt as a self-reinforcing feedback mechanism, which is then applied to large scale global climate change.

This activity introduces students to the Arctic and Arctic climate. Through a virtual exploration of the geography of the Arctic students become familiar with the region. They are then introduced to meteorological parameters that Arctic research teams use.

This is an activity about the solar activity cycle. Learners will construct a graph to identify a pattern of the number of observed sunspots and the number of coronal mass ejections emitted by the Sun over a fifteen year time span. A graphing calculator is recommended, but not required, for this activity. This is the second activity in the Solar Storms and You: Exploring the Wind from the Sun educator guide.

The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

The geologic timeline activity is a hands-on experience that will have your students create a geologic timeline. Students will complete this after notes on the geologic timeline have been given as a reinforcement activity. Students love the ability to get on the floor and create a timeline.

This is a set of four, one-page problems about the distance craft travel on Mars. Learners will use the Pythagorean Theorem to determine distance between a series of hypothetical exploration sites within Gale Crater on Mars. Options are presented so that students may learn about the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission through a NASA press release or by viewing a NASA eClips video [6 min.]. This activity is part of the Space Math multi-media modules that integrate NASA press releases, NASA archival video, and mathematics problems targeted at specific math standards commonly encountered in middle school.

GeoSleuth Murder Mystery
U.S. Geologic Service Educator Lesson Plans

LINK: https://www.usgs.gov/science-support/osqi/yes/resources-teachers/school-yard-geology

Lesson Overview

This murder mystery introduces both the nature of scientific inquiry and important geologic concepts in a very student-friendly, accessible manner. Geology is a lot like detective work. The power of this exercise is that it exposes students to the main goals of geology and even some of the fundamental principles in a setting that they can understand -- a murder mystery. After the class explores the murder mystery, the teacher then shows a range of geologic photos that relate to features in the mystery.

Learning Outcomes
Geologists reconstruct the sequence of events that shaped the present-day landscape by making observations.
Observations are different from interpretations.
Observations are descriptions of things we see. Interpretations are stories about what happened that are based on the observations.
Events that happened in the past are similar to events that we observe today. They follow the same laws of physics.

Materials
Presentation (either as overhead transparency or computer projector). The activity is based around the GeoSleuth murder mystery drawing, shown on the lesson link provided.

Materials have two options:

1. Recommended: Download a prepared presentation complete with the image, supplementary geologic images, and a teacher's guide.

2. Presentation: Powerpoint or Acrobat PDF ~ 3 MB; Teacher's Guide: Acrobat PDF, 1 MB Use the image provided and show on a projector or print it on transparency.

Procedures
1. Have students look at the photo for 1 minute silently by themselves.

2. Ask students to list observations about the image. Write them down on the board as students give them. Be very clear about the difference between observations and interpretation and don't write any interpretations on the board.

3. When you have collected all the observations, ask the class if everyone agrees with these observations.

4. Now the fun begins. Ask for students to volunteer their interpretation about the sequence of events that happened.

5. Let chaos reign for a few minutes as students argue competing theories.

6. Summarize the different interpretations, highlighting the geologic principles that each theory depends upon (shown below).

7. Show the geologic images from the Powerpoint presentation.

8. Put the murder mystery image up and go over the geologic principles again.

9. End class without giving them an answer about what really happened.

Closing the Lesson
It's key to end the activity by returning to the GeoSleuth murder mystery photo. You should not, however, give students a definitive answer to the mystery. That's part of the nature of science -- there is never a right answer. There is only a "best answer," meaning one that is most consistent with the observations and most likely to be true. Different scientists often disagree about which answer is best, even when looking at the same data. This is because data are often incomplete or have large uncertainty.

Homework/Exension
Students can write their own murder mystery, carefully trying to integrate clues that will give the reader evidence of the sequence of events leading up to the murder.

GeoSleuth Murder Mystery
U.S. Geologic Service Educator Lesson Plans

LINK: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

Lesson Overview

This murder mystery introduces both the nature of scientific inquiry and important geologic concepts in a very student-friendly, accessible manner. Geology is a lot like detective work. The power of this exercise is that it exposes students to the main goals of geology and even some of the fundamental principles in a setting that they can understand -- a murder mystery. After the class explores the murder mystery, the teacher then shows a range of geologic photos that relate to features in the mystery.

Learning Outcomes
Geologists reconstruct the sequence of events that shaped the present-day landscape by making observations.
Observations are different from interpretations.
Observations are descriptions of things we see. Interpretations are stories about what happened that are based on the observations.
Events that happened in the past are similar to events that we observe today. They follow the same laws of physics.

Materials
Presentation (either as overhead transparency or computer projector). The activity is based around the GeoSleuth murder mystery drawing, shown on the lesson link provided.

Materials have two options:

1. Recommended: Download a prepared presentation complete with the image, supplementary geologic images, and a teacher's guide.

2. Presentation: Powerpoint or Acrobat PDF ~ 3 MB; Teacher's Guide: Acrobat PDF, 1 MB Use the image provided and show on a projector or print it on transparency.

Procedures
1. Have students look at the photo for 1 minute silently by themselves.

2. Ask students to list observations about the image. Write them down on the board as students give them. Be very clear about the difference between observations and interpretation and don't write any interpretations on the board.

3. When you have collected all the observations, ask the class if everyone agrees with these observations.

4. Now the fun begins. Ask for students to volunteer their interpretation about the sequence of events that happened.

5. Let chaos reign for a few minutes as students argue competing theories.

6. Summarize the different interpretations, highlighting the geologic principles that each theory depends upon (shown below).

7. Show the geologic images from the Powerpoint presentation.

8. Put the murder mystery image up and go over the geologic principles again.

9. End class without giving them an answer about what really happened.

Closing the Lesson
It's key to end the activity by returning to the GeoSleuth murder mystery photo. You should not, however, give students a definitive answer to the mystery. That's part of the nature of science -- there is never a right answer. There is only a "best answer," meaning one that is most consistent with the observations and most likely to be true. Different scientists often disagree about which answer is best, even when looking at the same data. This is because data are often incomplete or have large uncertainty.

Homework/Exension
Students can write their own murder mystery, carefully trying to integrate clues that will give the reader evidence of the sequence of events leading up to the murder.

Students will learn about NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), Earth's van Allen Radiation Belts, and space weather through reading a NASA press release and viewing a NASA eClips video segment. Then students will use simple linear functions to examine the scale of the radiation belts and the strength of Earth's magnetic field. This activity is part of the Space Math multimedia modules that integrate NASA press releases, NASA archival video, and mathematics problems targeted at specific math standards commonly encountered in middle school textbooks. The modules cover specific math topics at multiple levels of difficulty with real-world data and use the 5E instructional sequence.

Move the sun, earth, moon and space station to see how it affects their gravitational forces and orbital paths. Visualize the sizes and distances between different heavenly bodies, and turn off gravity to see what would happen without it!

This activity is designed to help students understand the classification system of stars on the H-R diagram. This activity will practice graphing skills and interpretation skills. Students will be able to answer attached questions regarding the H-R diagram.

This activity is designed to help students understand the classification system of stars on the H-R diagram. This activity will practice graphing skills and interpretation skills. Students will be able to answer attached questions regarding the H-R diagram.

This activity is designed to help students understand the classification system of stars on the H-R diagram. This activity will practice graphing skills and interpretation skills. Students will be able to answer attached questions regarding the H-R diagram.

In this lesson, students will consider how weather forecasting can play an important part in their daily lives. They will learn about the history of weather forecasting — from old weather proverbs to modern forecasting equipment — and how improvements in weather technology have saved lives by providing advance warning of natural hazards.