Friday, September 2, 2011

Earthquake in Alaska

"A major earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 has rocked remote portions of Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The USGS issued, then canceled, a tsunami warning for Alaska's Aleutian Islands. It also lowered the magnitude to 6.8."

Click here for more details.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Hurricane Irene heads for the United States coastline


Aug 26 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday warned Americans to take Hurricane Irene seriously and urged them to obey orders to evacuate from the path of what is likely to be an "extremely dangerous and costly" storm.

"All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said in a statement to reporters from the farm where he is vacationing on this island off the Boston coast.

Fifty-five million people are potentially in Hurricane Irene's path, from the Carolinas to Cape Cod on the U.S. East Coast, and tens of thousands are evacuating as cities including New York brace for the powerful storm to hit.
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Track Hurricane Irene with your students! 
Use this graph: http://tinyurl.com/3u9375a 
and this site for the data: http://tinyurl.com/4xu452m. (Put cursor over dot for coordinates.)
Or try this:


Friday, August 12, 2011

Full Moon May Washout Perseid Meteor Shower Tonight

Where to look!










Info from Stardate.com:
"Though the shower technically peaks at about 1 a.m. CDT on Saturday, August 13, prime viewing time begins when the constellation Perseus rises into fine view in the northeast around midnight on Friday, August 12. The full Moon will rise in early evening Friday and will be directly overhead after midnight, coinciding exactly with the predicted time of the shower’s peak intensity. The Moon’s brilliant light will overpower most of the meteors."


What a good viewing might look like.
Go here for more information!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

All Eyes on Vesta

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta on July 9, 2011. More details on the Dawn spacecraft mission here.

It's always a good idea to keep your students "up" on what spacecraft NASA currently has floating around "up there!" Check out the NASA website for a wealth of information on several current missions.

Example: The Final Mission of the Space Shuttle.

Go here for a search engine for educator materials for teachers, all grades!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

First & Last Shuttle Launches - Fun Perspective!

Check out the article that goes with this fun photo!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Geospatial Revolution



Geospatial technology is changing the modern society in every way, from personal trip planning to homeland security. Check out this great website with four videos and teacher resources.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Messenger's Mercury Photos

"MESSENGER has delivered its first image since entering orbit about Mercury on March 17. It was taken...by the Mercury Dual Imaging System as the spacecraft sailed high above Mercury’s south pole, and provides a glimpse of portions of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft. The image was acquired as part of the orbital commissioning phase of the MESSENGER mission. Continuous global mapping of Mercury will begin on April 4."

Click here to visit NASA's Mercury webpages.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The NASA Effect

From Tyson deGrasse Tyson
Director, Hyden Planetarium

Saturday, March 12, 2011

ASTOUNDING INFORMATION!



"The quake was a global-scale event, shifting the axis of the entire earth by four inches." Click here for details.

The earthquake moved the Japanese coast eight feet. Click here for more information.

Friday, March 11, 2011

8.9 Earthquake Hits Japan, Tsunami Warnings Issued for U.S.A.



Click here for details of Earthquake.

Click here for U.S. Tsunami Warning.












Did you feel it map:


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Shuttle Countdown Clock


Today is the last launch of the Discovery space shuttle. EVER.
Click here for the countdown clock.

From NASA:
"During space shuttle Discovery's final spaceflight, the STS-133 crew members will take important spare parts to the International Space Station along with the Express Logistics Carrier-4."

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

New Zeeland Earthquake



Click here for more details.
And here.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

New Teacher Resources

Welcome to SCINEWS!
"The purpose of SCINEWS is to provide middle and high school teachers timely, pre-packaged lessons on a science current event (such as an oil spill, earthquake, or shuttle launch) that are short (~15 min), easy to implement, and align to AZ state standards. Materials might include a slide show, videos, maps, photographs, or KML files for use in Google Earth. Each current event lesson has an associated PDF document that contains a brief overview of the event and lesson, as well as a map, photo(s), and AZ standards targeted. Although using current events in the classroom is not new, the goal here is to provide simple and short lessons that associate ‘textbook’ concepts with real events in the news while allowing for class discussion."

HINT from Marcia: Scroll down till you see the above image. There are currently 8 lessons that relate to recent "in the news" earth science-type world events, such as recent Kepler discoveries, Australian floods, Gulf Oil Spill.

Monday, February 7, 2011

New Melt Record for Greenland Ice Sheet



The video shows the same meltwater area in 2009 and 2010. Very dramatic difference!

Click here for more details.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Cyclone Yasi Hits Australia



Share with your students the power of a Category 5 Hurricane. Also a good time to share the different terminology: Cyclone not Hurricane, and its opposite rotation in the southern hemisphere.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Marcia's Teaching Ideas Newsletter

Marcia's Teaching Ideas Newsletter 
via #constantcontact

You can sign up for email delivery, if you like!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

New Extinction Theory


Check out this new theory for the Permian Extinction of almost all animals! Very interesting! What do YOU think?
http://geology.com/press-release/coal-fires-permian-extinction/

Friday, January 21, 2011

Customizable Mineral ID Chart!


Go here to download an excel file with a four-page mineral ID chart that you can customize to the minerals you choose.

http://geology.com/minerals/mineral-identification.shtml

Great idea!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Kizimen Volcano

Kizimen Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula is erupting! Show your students some great photos with captions in Russian (with English subtitles.) What fun!

Then go the the National Geographic's YouTube page and show some volcano videos! This one is beautiful! (Ads before video.)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Shifting Magnetic Poles


Interesting article in the Tampa Tribune: "The airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to repaint the numeric designators at each end and change taxiway signage to account for the shift in location of the Earth's magnetic north pole."
Click here for more information.



Use this interesting fact to teach a mini- or maxi-lesson on the Earth's Magnetic Poles!
Click here for a great Pdf crammed full of good teaching ideas!
Click here for a video of the Tampa Airports situation, explaining the 10 degree shift!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Basic Ground-Water Hydrology

To learn about basic ground water concepts you can download and print a free copy of USGS Water Supply Paper 2220, Basic Ground-Water Hydrology by Ralph Heath.