Earth Science Week 2009

Earth Science Week this year will be October 12 - 18, 2009. Not too early to start planning!

“Understanding Climate,” the theme of Earth Science Week 2009, will promote scientific understanding of a timely, vital topic: Earth’s climate.

Click here to visit the Earth Science Week website. You can sign up for a newsletter, order materials to celebrate Earth Science Week, and even check out a great list of Teaching Climate links. NOTE: They don't have 2009 Materials up yet, but 2008 Materials might be worth check out, too!

Don't forget, Marcia's Science Teaching Ideas website also has some great ideas for Teaching Climate!

Redoubt Webcam

Redoubt's WebCams are lots of fun to visit. Especially on a day like today when a small plume is apparent but not blocking our view. Click here for the 2nd Redoubt Webcam. This one is farther away--not quite as dramatic.

A great Bellwork Idea would be to visit a currently-erupting volcano's webcam every day for a week and have them make a sketch of what they see and write five observations or changes.

You could visit the webcam site ahead of time and make a sketch of the volcano's outline to add to a paper with five areas for five weekday sketches and observations.

What fun!

Redoubt's Still Erupting!

Redoubt eruption, 3/28/2009 by Tricia Joy Sadler.

Redoubt is still at it!

Be sure to keep your students aware of this! Even though it seems far away from most of the continental US, it's actually quite important as many international flights have had to be diverted because of the enormous ash clouds.

From the AVO website:
"The last large explosive eruption occurred at 7:23pm on Saturday, March 28 (Image above). Since then there have been several smaller ash-steam bursts, but these have produced only minor amounts of ash and plume heights have been generally below 25,000 feet. Any ash fall was likely confined to the immediate vicinity of the volcano."

Tornado Season is here

Raising awareness during Tornado Season is especially important if you are teaching an Earth Science course or a Weather course or unit.

Here is a great Activity! It involves mapping the number of tornadoes that have occurred in each state for a period of 40 years. Then coming up with a consensus for a set of five Categories with which to color the map. Finally there are several questions to answer.

I would suggest putting your students to work and then start projecting some YouTube videos or other videos for them to watch as them record and color.

WARNING: I have not previewed these videos for language or too much intensity. Be careful what you show your students!






Middle School students can get quite frightened so be sure to reassure them by discussing safety rules.

Click here for the Tornado Activity.

Glacier Melting Videos

The Extreme Ice Survey has a collection of videos that document the retreat of numerous glaciers. These were produced by taking sequential photographs from the same location.

Be sure to point out that the advancing is done in winter and the retreating in summer. The retreating edge front line shows quite a dramatic change in just a few short years.

AK-03 Columbia Glacier from Cliff from Extreme Ice Survey on Vimeo.


AK-05 Mendenhall Glacier from Extreme Ice Survey on Vimeo.