I. EARTH SCIENCE

 

  1. Inquiry, Reflection, and Social Implications
  2. Earth Systems
  3. The Solid Earth
  4. The Fluid Earth
  5. Earth in Space and Time
 

 

Additional Sites for Earth Science

  1. Teaching Units / Lesson Plans
  2. Student Activities / Projects / Interactive Sites
  3. Information / Facts / Data / Reports
  4. Videos / Movies / Animations
  5. Photographs / Slides / Diagrams / Graphics
  6. Periodicals / Journals / Newspapers
  7. Searches / Explorations / Investigations
  8. Earth and Space Science Topics for Teachers

 

E5. Earth in Space and Time

High School
  1. E5.p1 Sky Observations (prerequisite)
    Common sky observations (such as lunar phases) can be explained by the motion of solar system objects in regular and predictable patterns. Our galaxy, observable as the Milky Way, is composed of billions of stars, some of which have planetary systems. Seasons are a result of the tilt of the rotation axis of the Earth. The motions of the moon and Sun affect the phases of the moon and ocean tides. (prerequisite)
    1. BBC-Space
      Articles, games and audio-visual animation about space and the solar system.
    2. Bradford Robotic Telescope Observatory - Studentship Opportunities
      This site is very unique in that it allows the student to use a telescope in England to view planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and much more. This site doesn't allow you to see different types of telescopes though.
    3. Classifying Galaxies
      An interactive site which explains how the Hubble Telescope is used to identify various galaxies. This is an interactive site for astronomy.
    4. Cosmos4Kids
      This site guides the user through the parts of the solar system. It is easy to read and contains several good images. It also has a quiz for each section.
    5. Curious About Astronomy
      Many facts and other information included about our sun and solar system. They have provided an opportunity to ask questions to an astronomer or read through the archive of previous questions.
    6. Fear of Physics - Set up for the Sun, Earth, and Moon
      This site has animations your students can set up to show the relative motion of the Sun, Earth, and Moon with respect to each other. It also explains and demonstrates solar and lunar eclipses.
    7. ISS EarthKAM
      Since 1996, ISS EarthKAM students have taken thousands of photographs of Earth by using the world wide web to direct a digital camera on select space flights and currently on the International Space Station. This site allows students and teachers to view the many images and even become part of the project. Appropriate for grades 7 and up.
    8. Solar System Simulator
      This site allows the participant to dial up almost any simulation pertaining to the planets and heavenly bodies.
    9. Solar Views New
      Explains the light year and it's formula.
    10. Space
      Outstanding - This site has an interactive 3-D space travel, in which the students control the space craft and travel throughout the universe. This site also provides information on each of the planets, the sun, and comets. This site also provides lots of information on new scientific discoveries such as worm holes, and multi-dimensional space. There is also a section on the origin of space, and its controversies, and a section devoted to teachers and students. To experience the virtual space tour you must have shockwave 8.5 plug-in installed on your computer, or you can download it from the site.
    11. Spacelink-NASA Educational Products
      NASA Educational site that includes many activities that can be used in your classroom.
    12. Star Date
      This site contains up to date information and pictures for all topics in space. It also includes a glossary of keywords and a frequently asked questions section.
    13. Star Journey-National Geographic
      Star charts and information on the Hubble Space Telescope inclosed. Star charts allow students to pick out specific stars in the night sky. The concellation Orion is also a main topic.
    14. Take A Spin Through the Solar System
      Students investigate how 3 planets, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn and the Sun rotate around their axes. NASA images are available so students can do some real "cyboscience". There are problems for students to solve, examples of problems and strategies on how to solve various problems.
    15. The Constellations and Their Stars
      This site defines constellations, lists the constellations, lists the stars, has an interactive star chart and many illustrations. It is easy to use, provides a great deal of information and has several hyperlinks to related topics.
    16. The Nine Planets Solar System Tour
      Outstanding - Informative program gives students extensive data on each planet in our solar system; also comets, asteroids, etc.  The site gives a lot of hyperlinks to explain the history of the discovery of the planets, definitions of words used, as well as many other links.
    17. Windows to the Universe
      Outstanding
      : Contains extensive background information on the universe, and has a strong interdisciplinary focus. Teacher resources are included, as well as a listing of external sites where space data can be found.
  2. E5.1 The Earth in Space
    Scientific evidence indicates the universe is orderly in structure, finite, and contains all matter and energy. Information from the entire light spectrum tells us about the composition and motion of objects in the universe. Early in the history of the universe, matter clumped together by gravitational attraction to form stars and galaxies. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe has been continually expanding at an increasing rate since its formation about 13.7 billion years ago.
    1. Astronomy Applet List
      This contains a list of astronomy related applets.
    2. Solar Views New
      Gives information on the formation of the galaxies and the Big Bang Theory.
    3. Star Journey-National Geographic
      Star charts and information on the Hubble Space Telescope inclosed. Star charts allow students to pick out specific stars in the night sky. The concellation Orion is also a main topic.
  3. E5.2 The Sun
    Stars, including the Sun, transform matter into energy in nuclear reactions. When hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium, a small amount of matter is converted to energy. Solar energy is responsible for life processes and weather as well as phenomena on Earth. These and other processes in stars have led to the formation of all the other chemical elements.
    1. Alpha Centauri
      This website compares our sun to Alpha Centauri in terms of size, spectral class, and many other features. There are also two other stars that are used in these diagrams.
    2. Astro Place
      Educator resource links and telescopic pictures for reference are provided.
    3. Bradford Robotic Telescope Observatory - Studentship Opportunities
      Outstanding - This site is very unique in that it allows the student to use a telescope in England to view planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and much more. This site doesn't allow you to see different types of telescopes though.
    4. Curious About Astronomy
      Many facts and other information included about our sun and solar system. They have provided an opportunity to ask questions to an astronomer or read through the archive of previous questions.
    5. Hertzsprung Russell Diagram and Stellar Evolution New
      An introduction to stellar evolution, through the intermediary services of the Hertzsprung-Russel (HR) diagram.
    6. Science NASA
      Topical information from NASA pertaining to solar flares, international space station, sunspots, and much more.  This is a site that gives the top stories relating to NASA research, live sky events, space weather, and opportunities for readers to participate in real NASA science.  They can change weekly or daily.
    7. Space
      Outstanding - This site has an interactive 3-D space travel, in which the students control the space craft and travel throughout the universe. This site also provides information on each of the planets, the sun, and comets. This site also provides lots of information on new scientific discoveries such as worm holes, and multi-dimensional space. There is also a section on the origin of space, and its controversies, and a section devoted to teachers and students. To experience the virtual space tour you must have shockwave 8.5 plug-in installed on your computer, or you can download it from the site.
    8. Star Journey-National Geographic
      Star charts and information on the Hubble Space Telescope inclosed. Star charts allow students to pick out specific stars in the night sky. The concellation Orion is also a main topic.
    9. Solar Views New
      This is an introduction to the suns formation with additional links to, sunspots,solar flairs, nuclear fusion and some additional star formation.
    10. The Constellations and Their Stars
      This site defines constellations, lists the constellations, lists the stars, has an interactive star chart and many illustrations. It is easy to use, provides a great deal of information and has several hyperlinks to related topics.
    11. Science NASA
      Topical information from NASA pertaining to solar flares, international space station, sunspots, and much more.
    12. The Virtual Sun
      Outstanding - This is an excellent site of excellent graphics. It takes students through a journey through the sun. There are MPEG movies of the sun, sunspots, elcipses, and solar flares.  There is a help page link on how to view the movies along with free software and other available software to download for both PCs and Mac's.
    13. Windows to the Universe
      Outstanding
      : Contains extensive background information on the universe, and has a strong interdisciplinary focus. Teacher resources are included, as well as a listing of external sites where space data can be found.

     

  4. E5.2x Stellar Evolution
    Stars, including the Sun, transform matter into energy in nuclear reactions. When hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium, a small amount of matter is converted to energy. These and other processes in stars have led to the formation of all the other chemical elements. There is a wide range of stellar objects of different sizes and temperatures. Stars have varying life histories based on these parameters.
    1. Cosmic Evolution-Stellar New
      This is the beginning of an interactive site that contains information on Stellar Evoluation, formation of the stars and sun.
    2. Hertzsprung Russell Diagram and Stellar Evolution New
      An introduction to stellar evolution, through the intermediary services of the Hertzsprung-Russel (HR) diagram.
    3. Life Cycle of a Star
      This takes the student through the entire life cycle of different types of stars. It will compare other stars to our sun and show how planetary nebulas, black holes, and white dwarves are formed.
    4. The Life Cycle of Stars, Information and Activity Book
      This site contains a booklet with information about stars (formation, energy, classification, black holes, and more). There are many student acitivity ideas in the booklet and it is suggested that the booklet be used in conjuction with the Imagine the Universe website or CDROM.
    5. Space
      Outstanding - This site has an interactive 3-D space travel, in which the students control the space craft and travel throughout the universe. This site also provides information on each of the planets, the sun, and comets. This site also provides lots of information on new scientific discoveries such as worm holes, and multi-dimensional space. There is also a section on the origin of space, and its controversies, and a section devoted to teachers and students. To experience the virtual space tour you must have shockwave 8.5 plug-in installed on your computer, or you can download it from the site.
    6. The Constellations and Their Stars
      This site defines constellations, lists the constellations, lists the stars, has an interactive star chart and many illustrations. It is easy to use, provides a great deal of information and has several hyperlinks to related topics.
    7. Windows to the Universe
      Outstanding
      : Contains extensive background information on the universe, and has a strong interdisciplinary focus. Teacher resources are included, as well as a listing of external sites where space data can be found.
  1. E5.3 Earth History and Geologic Time
    The solar system formed from a nebular cloud of dust and gas 4.6 Ga (billion years ago). The Earth has changed through time and and has been affected by both catastrophic (e.g., earthquakes, meteorite impacts, volcanoes) and gradual geologic events (e.g., plate movements, mountain building) as well as the effects of biological evolution (formation of an oxygen atmosphere). Geologic time can be determined through both relative and absolute dating.
    1. Earth Science Animations
      This site contains several plate tectonic, continental drift, and geologic timeline animations.
    2. Geologic Time
      This site contains good research information concerning geological time. Good graphics. Some information on fossils limited to dinosaurs. To get to dinosaur information go to the bottom of the site and click on Dinosaur Floor.
    3. Museum of Paleontology
      This is an excellent site that has many different activities and games for students to interact with.  There are teacher resources and lesson plans.  The site is easy to navigate through and very user friendly.
    4. Paleoclimatology Slide Sets
      This resource contains sets of images on topics such as ice ages, tree rings, and ice cores. The images are from NOAA and are public domain.
    5. RADIOMETRIC TIME SCALE New
      Information on radioactive rock dating and samples from around the worls of ages of some of those rocks.
    6. Web Geologic Time Machine
      This interactive page could be used by teachers and students to see examples of rock types and fossil evidence for the various time periods. It is very well organized and researched. Perhaps a teacher could devise a set of questions for students to answer as they procede through the various time periods.
  2. E5.3x Geologic Dating
    Early methods of determining geologic time, such as the use of index fossils and stratigraphic principles, allowed for the relative dating of geological events. However, absolute dating was impossible until the discovery that certain radioactive isotopes in rocks have known decay rates, making it possible to determine how many years ago a given mineral or rock formed. Different kinds of radiometric dating techniques exist. Technique selection depends on the composition of the material to be dated, the age of the material, and the type of geologic event that affected the material.
    1. JCS History of The Earth
      Geologic Time Scale and Tower of Time graphics colored poster.
    2. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Foundational Concepts
      Interactive site containing an interactive geological timeline to reinforce the concepts associated with types of dating methods.
    3. STRATIGRAPHIC LAWS
      Contains the specific wording of the 6 Stratigraphic Laws all geologists use in deciphering the spatial and temporal relationships of rock layers. These laws were developed in the 17th to 19th centuries based upon the work of Niels Steno, James Hutton and William Smith, among others.
    4. University of Kentucky Age Dating
      Database for activities, charts, diagrams and articles pertaining to Age Dating (Relative and Absolute Dating).
    5. USGS Fossil Index Chart
      USGS Fossil Index Chart
  3. E5.4 Climate Change
    Atmospheric gases trap solar energy that has been reradiated from the Earth’s surface (the greenhouse effect). The Earth’s climate has changed both gradually and catastrophically over geological and historical time frames due to complex interactions between many natural variables and events. The concentration of greenhouse gases (especially carbon dioxide) has increased due to human industrialization which has contributed to a rise in average global atmospheric temperatures and changes in the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Climates of the past are researched, usually using indirect indicators, to better understand and predict climate change.
    1. CALIPSO Outreach- Atmospheric Arcade
      The goal of the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar & Infared Pathfinders Satellite Observations) Outreach program is to provide information on global climate change to the public in an effort to develop scientifically literate citizens. This page contains student activities to further understand the atmosphere.
    2. Carbon Cycle and Climate Change
      This site explains the connection between the carbon cycle and climate change. It contains diagrams, graphs, and links to related topics.
    3. Causes and Consequences of Global Warming
      This site is from Wikipedia, but it is still a good resource and description of the causes and consequences of global warming. Check out the references section for more websites.
    4. Climate History
      Select a geological period and check out what the Earth's climate was like millions of years ago. Or view an animation that shows how the Earth's climatic belts have changed through time.
    5. Earth's Changing Surface New
      On these pages information is presented on investigating changes in the earth's crust and climate. This includes information about the rock cycle, dating rocks, climate and variables that affect the climate, and other processes that change the earth's crust.
    6. Earth's Energy Is Out of Balance
      This site, published by NASA, deals with the Earth's energy budget. It has a great applet showing reflected and emitted radiation.
      This site, published by NASA, deals with the Earth's energy budget. It has a great applet showing reflected and emitted radiation.
    7. Global Climate Change New
      Deals with Global Effects of Climate change in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and more. Has graphs, pictures and interactions of the greenhouse effect and atmospheric change.
    8. Global Warming Facts and Our Future
      This site contains basic facts about global warming and some interactive teaching activities.
    9. Greenhouse Applet
      Outstanding
      This is an applet that walks the student through the greenhouse effect and the human influence on the greenhouse effect.
    10. Greenland Ice Sheet Project
      This site take students through the process of drilling ice cores on Greenland. Students will respond to the evidence gathered from these ice cores and analyze graphs comparing historical temperature to several possible factors.
    11. If the Ice Melts
      This interactive resource portrays what might happen to world coastlines if entire sections of the Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt.
    12. Infrared Gallery
      In this interactive gallery, see what hydrothermal features and other objects look like in both visible and infrared light.
    13. Milankovitch Theory
      This site contains information on changes in orbital eccentricity and change in axial tilt of the Earth. It has diagrams to represent each.
    14. PHet New
      An interactive simulation of the greenhouse effect on the Earth.
    15. Sea Ice: Global Warming
      Drawing from satellite data that goes back to the 1970s, this site has a short video illustrating both seasonal patterns and long-term changes in sea ice distribution across the Arctic Ocean.
    16. The Discovery of Global Warming New
      On this Website you will find a complete history of global warming in dozens of separate essays on separate topics, including climate change and it's history. If you scroll down to the site contents there are additional links.
    17. What Is Your Ecological Footprint?
      Outstanding
      This site contains an ecological footprint quiz that estimates the amoudn of land and ocean area required to sustain your consumption patterns and absorb your wastes on an annual basis. After answering 27 easy questions you'll be able to compare your ecological footprint to others' and learn how to reduce your impact on the Earth.

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