In this lesson, students explore the importance of albedo (or reflectivity) to penguins and the surfaces they inhabit and learn how penguin colonies may be mapped using satellites.

The goal of this module is to explore some of the factors that might be associated with an individual's level of concern about the environment and global warming. Crosstabulations, frequency distributions, and bar charts will be used.

There is a lot of science to discover in your backyard! Check out this collection of activities to learn about wind, animals, plants and more.

The term "global average temperature" is defined and its importance in monitoring climate change is discussed. A supplemental column makes the analogy between Earth’s temperature and human vital signs. This lesson is part of the Climate Kids website, a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.

Wildfires are occurring more frequently and increasing in size in the western US; in this lesson students will explore this concept by analyzing environmental data to find patterns and practice communicating their findings.

Explore a NetLogo model of populations of rabbits, grass, and weeds. First, adjust the model to start with a different rabbit population size. Then adjust model variables, such as how fast the plants or weeds grow, to get more grass than weeds. Change the amount of energy the grass or weeds provide to the rabbits and the food preference. Use line graphs to monitor the effects of changes you make to the model, and determine which settings affect the proportion of grass to weeds when rabbits eat both.

Elementary grade students investigate heat transfer in this activity to design and build a solar oven, then test its effectiveness using a temperature sensor. It blends the hands-on activity with digital graphing tools that allow kids to easily plot and share their data. Included in the package are illustrated procedures and extension activities. Note Requirements: This lesson requires a "VernierGo" temperature sensing device, available for ~ $40. This item is part of the Concord Consortium, a nonprofit research and development organization dedicated to transforming education through technology. The Consortium develops digital learning innovations for science, mathematics, and engineering.

Explore how populations change over time in a NetLogo model of sheep and grass. Experiment with the initial number of sheep, the sheep birthrate, the amount of energy sheep gain from the grass, and the rate at which the grass re-grows. Remove sheep that have a particular trait (better teeth) from the population, then watch what happens to the sheep teeth trait in the population as a whole. Consider conflicting selection pressures to make predictions about other instances of natural selection.

Data sets and graphs on energy production, use, dependency, and efficiency are compiled through following key World Development Indicators.

In this lesson, students identify the sun as the source of energy and understand how energy flows through an ecosystem.

In this MS/HS unit supported by NASA, students engage with online interactives, authentic datasets, and citizen science protocols to construct models and explanations for the unit driving question, "How do landscapes recover after a wildfire?"

Build your own miniature "greenhouse" out of a plastic container and plastic wrap, and fill it with different things such as dirt and sand to observe the effect this has on temperature. Monitor the temperature using temperature probes and digitally plot the data on the graphs provided in the activity.

Explore how the Earth's atmosphere affects the energy balance between incoming and outgoing radiation. Using an interactive model, adjust realistic parameters such as how many clouds are present or how much carbon dioxide is in the air, and watch how these factors affect the global temperature.

Make your own miniature greenhouse and measure the light levels at different "times of day"--modeled by changing the angle of a lamp on the greenhouse--using a light sensor. Next, investigate the temperature in your greenhouse with and without a cover. Learn how a greenhouse works and how you can regulate the temperature in your model greenhouse.

The HEART Force curriculum builds understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

In this interactive game, students work in three ���zone response teams��� to solve community challenges that arise during the course of a wildfire event by using available individual and community resources.

This activity encourages students to collect data to answer questions, explore the roles of individual macroinvertebrates in aquatic ecosystems, and think about the health of aquatic ecosystems relative to the macroinvertebrates found.

In this lesson, students investigate the life history characteristics of different Antarctic penguin species and identify the changes that their populations have experienced.

List of countries with their annual methane emissions. The data are from 2005. The data are given in total annual emissions, thus must be compared with economic activity, geographic and most importantly, population data to be relevant.

This lesson is focused on the short-term cycling of carbon and is designed to put the processes of photosynthesis and respiration within a global perspective.