Sally Ride EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA educational outreach program that enables students, teachers, and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space.

During Sally Ride EarthKAM missions (periods when the Sally Ride EarthKAM camera is operational), middle school students around the world request images of specific locations on Earth.

This exercise challenges students to think about the extent sea ice grows and melts each year and how sea ice coverage in the Arctic Circle changes with time. Students utilize the National Snow and Ice Data Center's Sea Ice Animation Tool (link is external) to explore these changes in the Northern Hemisphere.

Goal: Students will understand the difference between climate and weather by exploring various urban center climographs of the United States.

Students will investigate data sources on snowpack, temperature, streamflow and population changes through out the watershed of the Colorado River.  They will analyze the impact these factors have on the effectiveness of the Colorado River Pact of 1922 and propose changes to the Pact to help with the current water dilemma in the region.

Student Description

In this activity students will explore watersheds in their local area, as well as those pertinent to discussion of the human impact on the watersheds in their own area and globally in areas with water problems.

There are websites and curricular materials to assist teachers with classroom instruction relating to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  Although it is important for students to be familiar with the current disaster, it is just as important for students to examine the historic occurrence and context of past oil spills from across the globe.  Fortunately, a Google Earth file exists that contains location information and details of oil spills.  We have modified this file to assist teachers in engaging students to explore the spatial and temporal distribution of global oil spill disasters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Ocean Service has an Office of Response and Restoration that publishes a series of Environmental Sensitivity Index Maps (ESI Maps). [See More Information About ESI Maps]

The GLOBE program has created activities to accompany the GLOBE Earth System Poster "Exploring Connections in Year 2007" to have students identify global patterns and connections in environmental data contained in the poster.  Images displaying global environmental data (insolation, surface temperature, cloud fraction, precipitation, aerosols, and the biosphere) through the course of 2007 are compared in order to understand how the Earth works as a system.

NOTE: Teachers may want to start with the PAESTA Classroom exercise Investigating Streamflow in the Schuylkill River and then use this one as a follow on.