Thursday, December 17, 2009

Deep-sea Volcano Video

Deep-sea Volcano Video just released:



(Courtesy NSF, NOAA, AIVL/WHOI)

Oceanographers using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason discovered and recorded the first video and still images of a deep-sea volcano actively erupting molten lava on the seafloor.

Jason, designed and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the National Deep Submergence Facility, utilized a prototype, high-definition still and video camera to capture the powerful event nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Mayon Volcano Alert

20,000 evacuated as Mayon Volcano oozes lava



MANILA, Philippines -- Alert level 3 remained hoisted over Mayon Volcano as of Tuesday because of its highly restive state, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

In a bulletin released by the agency on Tuesday, it said the alert level meant the enforcement of a six-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ) around the volcano.

In addition, a seven-kilometer extended danger zone on the southeast flank of the volcano is also off-limits.

These areas, Phivolcs said, “should be free from human activity because of sudden explosions that may generate hazardous volcanic flows.”

“In addition, areas in the southeast that are outside the seven kilometer danger zone but within eight kilometers of the crater should be on extra alert for increased volcanic activity,” the agency said.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Reading Ice Core Lesson Plans

Here's a wonderful lesson plan where the teacher makes simulated ice core samples for the students to study:

Frozen in Time: Ice Cores by Jan French


Click here for the Pdf lesson, complete with ice core instructions and student worksheet.



Click here
for PBS "Stories in the Ice."



Click here
for National Ice Core Laboratory.



Click here
for another Pdf lesson in which the students model their own ice cores using play dough and other substances. Then their cores are exchanges and studied. Very kewl!



Click here
for a nice "movie" of the life of a snowflake, showing how a glacier forms in layers from snow. Click here for accompanying lesson.

Reading Iceland Ice Cores

An interview with Vasilii Petrenko, who is working in Greenland where cores are being taken from the Greenland ice sheet. They are studying trapped air in the ice to learn about its composition--especially its CO2 content and the clues that it might provide about climate change.


Monday, November 23, 2009

Top Ten Hurricanes and Earthquakes


Tornado that touched down Aug 20, 2006
between Bennett and Watkin, Colorado

Estimated Insured Losses for the Top 10
Historical Hurricanes Based on Current Exposures

Source: strategicrisk.co.uk

Date/Event name/2009 Insured Loss

  1. September 18, 1926 Miami Hurricane - $101 billion
  2. August 24, 1992 Hurricane Andrew - $57 billion
  3. September 17, 1947 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane - $55 billion
  4. September 17, 1928 Great Okeechobee Hurricane - $51 billion
  5. August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina - $42 billion
  6. September 9, 1900 Galveston Hurricane of 1900 - $40 billion
  7. September 21, 1938 The Great New England Hurricane - $38 billion
  8. September 9, 1965 Hurricane Betsy - $36 billion
  9. September 10, 1960 Hurricane Donna - $31 billion
  10. September 5, 1950 Hurricane Easy - $21 billion
Estimated Insured Losses for the Top 10
Historical Earthquakes Based on Current Exposures

Date/Event name/Magnitude/2009 Insured Loss
  1. February 7, 1812 New Madrid, MO - 7.7 $100 billion
  2. April 18, 1906 San Francisco, CA - 7.8 $96 billion
  3. August 31, 1886 Charleston, SC - 7.3 $37 billion
  4. June 1, 1838 San Francisco, CA - 7.4 $27 billion
  5. January 17, 1994 Northridge, CA - 6.7 $21 billion
  6. October 21, 1868 Hayward, CA - 7.0 $21 billion
  7. January 9, 1857 Fort Tejon, CA - 7.9 $8 billion
  8. October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta, CA - 6.3 $6 billion
  9. March 10, 1933 Long Beach, CA - 6.4 $5 billion
  10. July 1, 1911 Calaveras, CA - 6.4 $4 billion
Click here for similar disaster list in slide show format from Live Science.com.

Monday, November 16, 2009

2000 Leonid Meteor Shower

Great Vodcast from BBC about this year's Leonid Meteor Shower:



This year's Leonid Meteor Shower will occur on November 17th.

Encourage your students to watch!

Click here for details.

Click here for how to observe.

Click here for a fun Fact Sheet about Leonid Meteor Showers.

Find out how light pollution has changed the way we view the night sky.

Go to StarDate Online for short video.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Tennesee Rockslide Video

Great video caught by video news crew:


Show today at the beginning of each class or this coming Monday as a "rocking" good way to start the week, especially if you are teaching EROSION!

Close Call Asteroid



"A newly discovered asteroid designated 2009 VA, which is only about 7 meters in size, passed about 2 Earth radii (14,000 km) from the Earth's surface Nov. 6 at around 16:30 EST. This is the third-closest known (non-impacting) Earth approach on record for a cataloged asteroid."

Click here
for the article.

Video on asteroids and comets:


Video about asteroids and asteroid belt:


CAUTION: I would caution you about discussing this topic with your students. Be sure you are prepared for some of them reacting strongly to this! They seem quite grown-up at the middle-school level, but many still carry a child within and may get "creeped out" by this type of scenario.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Hurricane Ida



Hurricane Ida has been bearing down on the southern United States through the Gulf of Mexico. It has currently been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, and it's hoped it will bring only rain to the projected area.

Here's a great link with many visuals to show your students!

Click here for blank chart of the Atlantic Basin.

Weather.com
has a nice video center.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Human Impact on Climate



Arctic Lake Sediments Yield 200,000 Years of Climate Change Data
Analysis Supports a Human Impact on Climate

"The possibility that climate change might simply be a natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time is dimming, according to evidence in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published in October, 2009."

Click here for details.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

ScienceFriday.com



SCIENCE FRIDAY!

Another great resource for teachers.

Click here for Science Friday - Making Science User-Friendly.

Lots of MP3s you can download and listen to with your students. There are suggestions how how to use this resource.

Also lots of Videos which would be fun to watch, too!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

EARTH SCIENCE WEEK 2009


Did you remember this is EARTH SCIENCE WEEK?

This year's theme is Climate. Here's a nice Climate Activity if you need something to pay homage to Earth Science week but can't spend too much time on it because of curriculum demands.

Dangerous Atmosphere:
"How much of a danger does severe weather pose for the area where you live?"

Would work quite well if you have a big screen projection system. Do the research together with each student recording the information in a chart.

Then do a quick discussion, ending with safety tips for each type of danger in your area.

Have each student make a button with a safety tip and wear it this week. Or they could make an Earth Science Week button!

Friday, October 9, 2009

No Moon Crash Photos???


NASA photo

Interesting...

No good photos of the crash plume are available.

Click here for a good article on just this occurrence, or non-occurrence, from Yahoo News.

Might be an interesting discussion with your students about the unexpected results of an experiment. How we all make assumptions and then wonder what happened when it doesn't work out that way. How this is actually how many important scientific discoveries occur. Not in a planned experiment, but in the ANOMALY that shows us the truth.

NASA Probe crashes into Moon!!!

On purpose!

And Why? "NASA hopes the impact will kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS probe find the presence of water in the moon's soil." --CNN Report

And Why does that matter? "NASA has said it believes water on the moon could be a valuable resource in the agency's quest to explore the solar system."--CNN Report.

While your students were still sleeping or standing on the corner waiting for their bus, the Great Moon Bombing occurred. Scientists across the country, both amateur and professional, watched the live action.

Here's a NASA animation:



Here's a video that shows before, during, and after impact. No really good photos yet. Hoping to find some later today:



Click here
for the latest news reports.

Click here for the LCROSS page at NASA's site.

What fun!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Earthquakes Continue in South Pacific

Santa Cruz Islands Earthquake



"Another large earthquake in the Vanuatu region. This 7.7 earthquake occurred near the Santa Cruz Islands on Thursday, October 08, 2009 at 9:18 AM local time. It was located on the boundary between the Australia and Pacific plates. A tsunami watch was issued but canceled."

Click here for details.


Vanuatu Earthquake



"A 7.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Torres Islands, Vanuatu area on Thursday, October 08, 2009 at 09:03 AM local time. The earthquake occurred near the boundary between the Australia and Pacific plates."

Click here for details.



CNN Reports on South Pacific Earthquakes



Click here for details.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

USGS Podcast on Samoa/Sumatra Earthquakes



"Two large earthquakes have hit the Pacific. Harley Benz, Scientist-in-Charge at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center, talks about the quakes' damage, their relationship to one another, and what USGS scientists are doing in the aftermath."

Click here for USGS Podcast about the earthquakes.

Click here for more CoreCasts.

Click here for CoreFacts - a shorter version of a CoreCast.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Hazard in the New Madrid Seismic Zone



"There is broad agreement in the scientific community that a continuing concern exists for a major destructive earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone. Many structures in Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., and other communities in the central Mississippi River Valley region are vulnerable and at risk from severe ground shaking."

Click here
for the details.

Click here for the new August 2009 Fact Sheet.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Can a Large Earthquake Trigger Global Seismic Activity?


Indonesian Quake 9/30/09

In case you've been wondering just that as multiple Ring of Fire Earthquakes occur this week:

Click here for a World Map of this week's Earthquakes.

"U.S. seismologists have found evidence that the massive 2004 earthquake that triggered killer tsunamis throughout the Indian Ocean weakened at least a portion of California's famed San Andreas Fault. The results, which appeared in the journal Nature, suggest that the Earth's largest earthquakes can weaken fault zones worldwide and may trigger periods of increased global seismic activity."

Click here for details.

Click here for another article on how large quakes trigger more smaller quakes.

AND AS ALWAYS! I hope you are having your students chart worldwide earthquakes and volcanic eruptions during your school year! Take a few moments once a week to chart the week's tectonic activity. This one activity can unify many of your Earth Science course objectives!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

IN THE NEWS:

Earthquakes with related Tsunamis in the Pacific Ring of Fire area. Here's a YouTube Fox News Update:



It's important to note that loss of life is now being reported.

Click here to read more about it in the New York Times.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Water on the Moon



"NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the MOON. Instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed water molecules in amounts that are greater than predicted, but still relatively small."

Click here to read the rest of the NASA press release.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Georgia Flooding Photos



It is not every day a major Interstate highway gets closed by flooding in Georgia. Interstate 20 was closed west of Atlanta for around two days because of Sweetwater Creek flowing over it.

Click here to see many more photos!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Southeastern US Rainfall

Southeastern Rainfall Map for September 14–21, 2009





"Several storms over the southeastern United States left behind acres of standing water and multiple deaths in September 2009. The governor of Georgia declared a state of emergency in the state’s 17 counties hardest hit by the floods, CNN reported. Deaths in Georgia alone totaled 7 by the morning of September 22, 2009, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution."

Have your students contrast the above map to this Average Rainfall Map:



The TRICK is that there are different units on each map! See if any of your students catch that! If not, hint that they need to look closer! Provide them with a conversion factor: 1 mm = 0.039 inches.

Then have them add the inches to the mm SE US Rainfall Map. Example: 300 mm = 11.8 mm. Then how much different is the one map from the other?

AH-HA! The bottom map shows a yearly average! See if any of your students catches that. If not, hint that there is still something wrong! Perhaps look for a monthly average chart online? Divide the total by 12 for average monthly?

BUT look closely at the title! This is only for one week! What is the usual/average/typical rainfall for one week? How can we find that? NOW can you contrast the maps???



WHAT FUN it is to teach your students to THINK!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Greenland's Melting Glaciers

Visit Greenland through this CNN video to learn about how Greenland’s glaciers are rapidly melting and contributing to sea level rise.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Black Point Lava Flow in northern Arizona



"The otherworldly footprint of black basaltic lava creates a striking landscape at Black Point Lava Flow in northern Arizona, seen in this photograph taken from the International Space Station."

I highly recommend the site where this photo resides: NASA's Earth Observatory which has an Image of the Day. Great Earth Science Photos, worthy of being shown daily during your bellwork time, perhaps!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

LA County Wild Fires as viewed from Satellite



Wildfires burned north of the city of Los Angeles County on August 29, 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image around 2:20 p.m. local time (21:20 UTC) the same day. Red outlines show hotspots where MODIS detected high surface temperatures associated with fires, and the hotspots roughly correspond with fires described by California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. A department bulletin, issued August 30, 2009, stated that the Station fire was 5 percent contained, affected 35,200 acres, had destroyed 3 residences, and threatened 10,000 more. As of August 30, the Morris fire, affecting 2,168 acres, was 95 percent contained.

Get Ready for Earth Science Week!



With school starting, now is the time to start planning for Earth Science Week which will be observed this year between October 11th and 17th, sponsored by the American Geological Institute.

The theme is “Understanding Climate” and you can learn more at their website.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Tracking Hurricane Jimena



Every Earth Science teacher should have their students track a hurricane a few times in their career. Especially one poised to hit the North American continent. The following links will get you started. Basically you need a source for the location of Jimena as it nears the Baja California peninsula and you need a map for them to plot its course.

Click here for a blank tracking map
. You might have them draw in a few more lat/long lines.

Go here for the locations to map. Click on various dates and times. Location is usually near the top. Lots of other interesting facts such as wind speed, etc.



Here's the path so far:

HURRICANE JIMENA PATH

FRI AUG 28 2009
AT 800 PM PDT...0300 UTC...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION
THIRTEEN-E WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 13.8 NORTH...LONGITUDE
101.9 WEST

Saturday August 29, 2009
1: 0300 UTC TROPICAL DEPRESSION CENTER LOCATED NEAR 13.8N 101.9W
2: 0900 UTC TROPICAL STORM CENTER LOCATED NEAR 14.1N 102.3W
3: 1300 UTC TROPICAL STORM CENTER LOCATED NEAR 14.2N 102.8W
4: 1500 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 14.3N 103.2W
5: 2100 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 15.1N 104.2W

Sunday August 30, 2009
6: 0300 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 15.8N 105.1W
7: 0900 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 16.0N 105.7W
8: 1500 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 16.3N 106.3W
9: 2100 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 16.6N 106.8W

Monday August 31, 2009
10: 0300 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 17.0N 107.2W
11: 0900 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 17.5N 107.9W
12: 1500 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 18.0N 108.3W
13: 2100 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 18.5N 109.2W

Tuesday September 1, 2009
14: 0300 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 19.4N 109.6W
15: 0900 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 20.2N 110.1W
16: 1500 UTC HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 21.0N 110.7W

Monday, August 31, 2009

Twitter for Teachers


Check out this site for ideas on ways to use Twitter as a Teacher.

More later on how the whole concept of Twitter can be used by teachers!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Seattle Earthquake Video

From CNN:

Monday, August 24, 2009

Monday, August 3, 2009

Strong Gulf of CA Earthquake

How strong? 6.9, which is a HUGE quake by any standard.


Click the image for details.

Don't forget to go to the Did You Feel It? webpage of the USGS!

This shows what people felt in terms of both Richter and Mercalli scales.

Have your students record some recent ones and then use a Mercalli Scale to record what types of things they could have noticed in their area. Record on a Map.

Teachable moment! Grab it!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Tranquility Base

Did you know that Neil Armstrong never publicly stated how he FELT about being the first human on the moon? This song was written from that perspective. Great footage of the Moon Landing!


"Forty years ago on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module and onto the surface of the moon. As the first man to walk across the lunar surface, one would expect Armstrong to have a lot of profound thoughts about it all. Curiously, he's never talked about how he felt, satisfied to discuss the event only in engineering terms.

I thought that was pretty strange, and one night under a bright moon, all the questions I had for Armstrong arranged themselves into a song. With the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing coming up, I headed into Eric Fritsch's East Nashville studio and recorded Tranquility Base, with Mike Webb (keyboards), Fred Eltringham (drums), Eric Fritsch (electric guitar, bass, organ), and Charlie Rauh (electric guitar).


Tranquility Base is streaming on the Red Beet Records website and is available for download on iTunes. The video is the creation of another fine East Nashvillian, Stacie Huckaba, who managed to get some very cool footage from NASA. You're welcome to forward it, embed it, share it with your mom."

Monday, July 20, 2009

Solar Eclipse - July 22, 2009



Wednesday will be another big day in Astronomy: a Solar Eclipse with a path of totality that crosses over China. The eclipse will last more than six minutes - the longest for several hundred years - and won't be surpassed until 2132.

Here are some sites worth checking out:
  1. Live Cast from Japan - be watching if you are teaching summer school!
  2. Exploratorium has a nice video about Eclipse Chasers.
  3. Try This from Exploratorium.
  4. NASA's Eclipse Page. So far I haven't been able to get on this one! Too busy!
  5. July 22, 2009 Solar Eclipse Wikipedia Entry.
Email me if you want to see my Solar Eclipse PowerPoint. Too big to upload to my site.

Here's one from Exploratorium of a Solar Eclipse in Turkey in 2006. Bailey's Beads and Diamond Ring are mentioned in this video.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Apollo 40th Anniversary!



It will be a very special day tomorrow. The 40th Anniversary of the first humans to land on the moon. Check out NASA for some wonderful activities, videos, etc. And even if you don't have a class this summer, collect a few ideas while visiting the site and include them in your Earth Science or Astronomy or whatever! class this fall.

We remember where we were when Neil Armstrong landed, if we are old enough, that is! Check out the restored video showing this momentous occasion.

Here's one narrated by Walter Cronkite. It really catches the suspense of that moment. Worth showing your students!

Happy Anniversary!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Interactive Science Notebooks


Head on over to the great new blog of one of my Science Teacher Buddies. She's doing some great pre-planning this summer on how to set up her notebook for middle school science students in the new Interactive (left side-right side) Notebook.

I never got this going because I didn't know how to get past the normal format of right side for teacher-input and left-side for student-outgo. Just didn't sound feasible to me.

She's doing something different and I really LIKE her ideas!

Way to go, Liz!

Click here to visit the Middle School Science blog.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Grains of Sand Reveal Possible Fifth State of Matter



“You walk on the beach, and the sand supports your weight. Pick up a handful, and it runs through your fingers, like a liquid. But you can’t walk on water,” said Jaeger. “In the top of an hourglass, sand is this strange solid. It’s at the verge of being a solid; it flows through the middle as something like a liquid, and then it’s a solid again,” he said.

Click here to read more.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

USGS FreeTeaching Packets



The USGS has several teaching packets available for download at this site. Topics include such things as maps, caves, climate change, volcanoes. Worth a peek!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Minerals Slide Show


Photo from:
www.richardwestonstudio.com/images.html


Beautiful close-up photos of some of the strangest minerals in the world in a slide show. Breathtaking. Click here.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Film About Our Planet: HOME

HOME is a full-length film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, being shown on YouTube. The movie shows Earth’s beauty with breathtaking aerial footage, and discusses the impact humans have had on the planet. Below is a short trailer.



You could show parts on several days. Or choose parts to show. Definitely has a theme worthy of showing to an Earth Science class. You decide what your own students can handle. Could even be shown without sound while your students work on an Introduction to Earth Science assignment! (Scroll to the bottom of the page.)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Formation of Earth's Mantle


"By using a super-computer to virtually squeeze and heat iron-bearing minerals under conditions that would have existed when the Earth crystallized from an ocean of magma to its solid form 4.5 billion years ago, two UC Davis geochemists have produced the first picture of how different isotopes of iron were initially distributed in the solid Earth."

Monday, June 15, 2009

Element #112 added to Periodic Table

Ununbium
Symbol: Uub
Atomic Number: 112
Atomic Mass: (277.0) amu
Melting Point: Unknown
Boiling Point: Unknown
Number of Protons/Electrons: 112
Number of Neutrons: 165
Classification: Transition Metal
Crystal Structure: Unknown
Density @ 293 K: Unknown
Color: Unknown




I consider this pretty BIG NEWS! The element Ununbium has been added to the Periodic Table! What fun!

Ununbium is not its "real" name. Check this site out for keys to the naming of newly discovered and as yet "unnamed" elements. Scientists argue so much over who first "discovered" the heavier elements, so they give them a scientific name so we can call them something. Then they let the scientists duke it out till someone is declared the winner and gets naming rights.

BBC Article about Uub.

Friday, June 12, 2009

New Sensors along San Andreas Fault



A series of 17 earthquake sensors will soon be installed along the southern portion of the San Andreas Fault. The intent of this $670,000 project is to detect vibrations and transmit warning signals to cell phones, computers and other communication devices.
Click here for details.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth



"The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth hosts the best and most complete online collection of astronaut photographs of the Earth."

Nothing fancy. No slideshows or PPTs. Just gorgeous photos of Earth taken by astronauts.

Here is the main page.

Here is the archive page where photos are grouped according to some kewl titles, such as Cities at Night, The Art of Science, Auroras Dancing in the Night.

Also a fun Where in the World? Image Quiz.

Search for Photos:
They have a nice search feature at the top of the main page. So if you needed a photo for a certain PPT, enter something in the search form and see what comes up!

Also here:
Where is the ISS?

Also Collections (see top of main page):
Mission Highlights
Earth from Space
Cities Collection
Whole Earth
IPY
Weekly Top 10.

To see Education Collection
Go from Collections
to Education:
Earth Systems from Space
How to Find Mt. Everest
Canyons, Craters, and Drifting Dunes

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Research suggests winds dying down across US

"The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming — the very problem wind power seeks to address."

Click here for details on this story.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Quatenary Period Wins Out

"Pending an almost certain ratification by the ultimate authority--the International Commission on Stratigraphy --the Quaternary will officially take over the past 2.6 million years of the geologic time scale, when humans took up tools and the world began slipping in and out of the ice ages."

Click here to read details.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

VORTEX2 Finally Catches a Tornado

Vortex2 finally catches a tornado after four weeks on the road!







New Report Sets Forth Principles of Earth Science Literacy

Earth's rocks and other materials provide a record of its history. Our solar system formed from a vast cloud of gas and dust 4.6 billion years ago. Earth's crust has two distinct types: continental and oceanic.

These and other concepts are the major ideas of Earth science that all citizens should know, according to a newly released report--Earth Science Literacy Principles: The Big Ideas and Supporting Concepts of Earth Science--funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Earth Science Literacy Initiative (ESLI).

New Solar Power Plant near Phoenix



Wind and Solar Power really CAN be in our future!
Actually, they're in our present!
Click here for the story.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A Car that runs on AIR??!!



Are you kidding me? How fun is this?!

Visit site based in France and watch kewl video!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

New Online Science Magazine in Video Format!



From the National Science Foundation. You can watch full screen in HD video. Wonderful. First edition is Astronomy-related. Download the full version so you can save it to show your students next year!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Hurricanes - Disturbing New Trend

Hurricanes aren't where they should be.

NSF Website on Climate Change



Climate Change is being added to school district or state science benchmarks across the nation. The National Science Foundation website is a good place to start.

Click here to begin.

Click here to download their Climate Change Report.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Big Science Projects on the Edge of Doability



Check out this slide show! Show your students what their future in Science could be!

And while you are watching these slides, have your students sing out with what branch of Earth Science each slide represents! And it's NOT always astronomy! There are underlying fields of science on every slide. See if they can figure them out!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Galaxy Flashcards and Lesson

If your students can figure something out by themselves, let them.














Too often, teachers give a lecture and take all the fun out of the process of discovery.

Teaching about Hubble's classification system for galaxies is a good example.

Instead of giving the Galaxy Lecture or the Worksheet about galaxies, do this activity instead:

1. Give each small group a set of cards with photos of the different types of galaxies. Have them "play" with them, moving them around on the table. After they are somewhat familiar with the cards, you'll notice they naturally start separating the cards into groups. Encourage any group to do this if they don't start on their own. Once they have them separated, ask them to make labels for each group. (Give them blank squares for labels.) Don't offer any suggestions. Many will know some of the names, such as Spiral, etc. Just let them know it's okay to use the correct term if they know one.
2. Have each group share their system. You might have different arrangements and it would be good to discuss the differences. Just make sure they all know they did a good job! No wrong answers!
3. Then show them Hubble's Classification System! Hand them the Hubble Tuning Fork card. Have them rearrange their cards using the Fork card as a guide. Give them the correct terms and have them redo their labels. An extra pat on the back for those who came close!
4. Fun time to show a PowerPoint on Galaxies, or a YouTube clip. For BONUS POINTS, they could number a piece of paper and record the name and type of galaxy for each slide. Or you could make this required.

By the end of this lesson, your students show be able to identify the type of Galaxy when given a picture of a galaxy.

NOTE: Email Marcia for a Dropbox download of my complete Galaxies Lesson!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Hubble Photo Montage from CNN



CNN has put together a beautiful Hubble photo slide show on Galaxies. This can be shown once moving through the slides fast, then go slide by slide using the arrows, viewing the captions (click "View Captions.") Can be projected full screen without ads. Make sure you turn up the sound! Fun music accompanies the photos. REALLY NICE!

Click here to go directly the the CNN Hubble Slide Show.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Star Trek: Real or Not?



Capitalize on the latest Star Trek movie, which many of your students have probably seen. Show this series of slides from MSNBC that cover 10 sci-fi wonders. Are they Fact or Fiction?

Click here for the slide show.

Have your students take out a piece of paper and fold in thirds, hot dog-bun style. List the 10 Innovations down the left column, skipping a line each time. Put Fact and Fiction at the top of the other two columns. Then show the slide show. They can either check the correct column for a basic required 10 points, or add words in the correct column to show why that innovation is a reality or not. Make that worth 15-20 points.

Ten Innovations:

  1. Teleportation
  2. Tricorder
  3. Deflector Shield
  4. PHaSER
  5. Holodeck
  6. Tractor Beam
  7. Communicator
  8. Universal Translator
  9. Cloaking Device
  10. Warp Drive
What fun!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

World Stress Map

Neat world stress map available as a Pdf Poster. Great visual of major earthquake zones, volcanic regions, and best of all, where mountains are forming as well! See the stress in the US in the eastern and western mountain regions.

Click here to download the World Stress Map.