This textbook chapter presents a real case study involving the the logging of an old stand forest from three perspectives, that of the environmentalists, the wood products industry, and a politician. An associated writing activity engages students... (View More) in reviewing the different viewpoints, and writing a "letter to the editor" for or against the logging of old growth forest. This is chapter 3 in the unit, A New World View, which introduces global systems science, emphasizing the concepts of environmental diversity, Earth as a system, and sustainability. The resource includes a textbook chapter, integrated hands-on and inquiry activities, links to current news articles, and a suite of pre- and post-unit assessments. A teacher's guide supports classroom use. The resource is part of Global Systems Science (GSS), an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact. (View Less)

Students will learn about satellites that gather data about Earth systems by reading a NASA press release and viewing a NASA eClips video segment. Then students will practice dividing multi-digit numbers using satellite data related to the Earth's... (View More) ozone layer. Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts are identified. This activity is part of the Space Math multi-media modules that integrate NASA press releases, NASA archival video, and mathematics problems targeted at specific math standards commonly encountered in middle school textbooks. The modules cover specific math topics at multiple levels of difficulty with real-world data and use the 5E instructional sequence. (View Less)

In this field activity, students observe clouds, and are introduced to dichotomous key to classify cloud types. Students also make weather observations of current weather and record and track changes in weather over time. Materials/equipment needed... (View More) include weather instruments (thermometers and barometers) and graph paper. A student self-assessment rubric, vocabulary linked to an on-line glossary, a list of elementary level trade books on weather, and teacher notes and class management suggestions are provided. This hands-on activity is related to NASA CERES Students' Cloud Observations Online (S’COOL) project. (View Less)

In this problem set, students calculate precisely how much carbon dioxide is in a gallon of gasoline. A student worksheet provides step-by-step instructions as students calculate the production of carbon dioxide. The investigation is supported the... (View More) textbook "Climate Change," part of "Global System Science," an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact. (View Less)

In this activity, students compare and analyze lapse rates (rate of decrease in atmospheric temperature with height) for two U.S. locations. It requires the use of atmospheric temperature data downloaded from the Internet into a student developed... (View More) Excel spreadsheet. A detailed instructional tutorial (with sample screen images) for importing data from the Internet and downloading it into Excel spreadsheets is included. This lesson uses student- and citizen science-friendly microsets of authentic NASA Earth system science data from the MY NASA DATA project. It also includes data analysis tools. (View Less)

In this lesson, students analyze land cover change in order to help them grasp the extent, significance, and consequences of land cover change; and to introduce them to the perspective of space-based Earth observations. Students learn to identify... (View More) kinds of land cover (such as roads, fields, urban areas, and lakes) in Landsat satellite images. They decide which land cover types allow the passage of water into the soil (pervious) and which types do not allow it (impervious). They consider some effects of increasing impervious surface area on ecosystem health. Students then make land cover maps using two Landsat satellite images taken about a decade apart, and quantify the change of land cover from pervious to impervious surface. They also make predictive maps of what they think the nature and extent of land cover change in the area will be in the year 2025, and speculate about the consequences for the availability of water for people and ecosystems. Students justify in writing their predictive maps and their thoughts about the consequences of change. This activity uses Landsat images of Phoenix, Arizona; links are also provided for finding Landsat images of other cities. (View Less)

In this activity, students learn about the aviation hazard associated with volcanic eruptions as they take the role of an air traffic controller and calculate the amount of time it will take for an ash plume to travel to the control tower. A map of... (View More) the continental U.S. is included. The resource is part of the teacher's guide accompanying the video, NASA Why Files: The Case of the Mysterious Red Light. Lesson objectives supported by the video, additional resources, teaching tips and an answer sheet are included in the teacher's guide. (View Less)

On this worksheet, students examine a diagram of global winds and learn the position of the prevailing westerlies, the polar easterlies, the trade winds, the horse latitudes and the doldrums, and that together, the uneven heating of the planet by... (View More) the Sun and the Coriolis Effect are responsible for the global wind belts. The resource is part of the teacher's guide accompanying the video, NASA Why Files: The Case of the Mysterious Red Light. Lesson objectives supported by the video, additional resources, teaching tips and an answer sheet are included in the teacher's guide. (View Less)

Students watch or read a weather report, and draw the position of the jet stream on a map. This worksheet includes questions that help students learn the role of the jet stream in the generation of weather in the continental U.S. The resource is... (View More) part of the teacher's guide accompanying the video, NASA Why Files: The Case of the Mysterious Red Light. Lesson objectives supported by the video, additional resources, teaching tips and an answer sheet are included in the teacher's guide. (View Less)

Using this worksheet, students learn to differentiate between wind speeds by using the Beaufort Scale of Wind Force. They are presented with a table describing the Beaufort scale, and then assign the appropriate scale to different weather events... (View More) they see in pictures. The resource is part of the teacher's guide accompanying the video, NASA Why Files: The Case of the Mysterious Red Light. Lesson objectives supported by the video, additional resources, teaching tips and an answer sheet are included in the teacher's guide. (View Less)