Atmosphere/Environment Sites for Educators

Oceanographic related sites
Weather and Climate related sites
El Niño and La Niña sites

 

Athena - Earth and Space Science for K-12
Links to teacher resources on space, weather, the Earth, oceans, and more. Part of NASA's Learning Technologies Project.
 
Earth & Sky
An award-winning daily science radio series which discusses popular science subjects that affect our everyday lives. The series focuses mainly on the areas of earth science, astronomy, and environmental science. Text and audio of shows available online.
 
Earth Day Home Page
First held in 1970, Earth Day is an annual event recognized around the world as the symbol of environmental responsibility and stewardship. It originated from former U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson's grassroots effort to make the environment a national political issue. Earth Day 2000 will be held April 22.
 
Earth Observing System (EOS) Home Page
 
Earth Science Enterprise (EOS) Poster Series
Educators may browse images and order free of charge one hardcopy set of these seven posters online:
 
EarthKAM (Langley Research Center)
NASA Langley's regional KidSat project. "...find out who is participating in the latest mission, learn about the different school research investigations, meet NASA engineers and scientists who are part of the EarthKAM team, and see the latest images downloaded from the shuttle!" - from NASA Langley's Learning Technologies Project
 
GLOBE - Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment
"A global worldwide network of students, teachers and scientists working together to study and understand the global environment. . . . GLOBE students make environmental observations at or near their schools and report their data through the Internet. Scientists use GLOBE data in their research and provide feedback to the students to enrich their science education."
 
The JASON Project
". . . founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert D. Ballard following his discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic. After receiving thousands of letters from children who were excited by his discovery, Dr. Ballard and a team of associates dedicated themselves to developing ways that would enable teachers and students all over the world to take part in global explorations using advanced interactive telecommunications. The JASON Foundation for Education, which was founded to administer the project, sponsors an annual scientific expedition which is the focus [of] an original curriculum developed for grades 4 through 8. During the expedition, students can take part in live, interactive programs which are broadcast using state-of-the-art technology to a network of educational, research, and cultural institutions . . ." (quoted from the "background" page from the JASON Project web site) - Definitely worth checking out
 
KidSat (main page)
"KidSat is a bold educational experiment. Put a camera on the shuttle, point it at Earth, and let students use it to investigate Earth from space. [The] program links middle, high school, and university students to space shuttle missions." - from NASA Langley's Learning Technologies Project EarthKAM site
 
Landsat Program Home Page
 
Live from Antarctica
One of the Passport to Knowledge "Electronic Field Trips," a joint project between NASA, the National Science Foundation, and PBS's K-12 Learning Services.
 
Live from Antarctica 2
Another Passport to Knowledge "Electronic Field Trip," this is the sequel to Live from Antarctica.
 
NASA Earth Science Enterprise Home Page
What Earth Science is, Earth Science missions, science of the Earth system, image gallery, "For Kids Only", access to data, links to publications and education programs/resources.
 
NASA Langley Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC)
LaRC's DAAC archives and distributes NASA science data in the the areas of radiation budget, clouds, aerosols, and tropospheric chemistry. LaRC participates in investigations for the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite. Links to data, educational resources.
 
National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA's NESDIS is the site for the latest operational imagery for significant events such as fires, volcanoes, floods, tropical storms, oil spills, dust storms, and other unique categories.
 
TOMS - Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Home Page
Find Nimbus-7 TOMS data and images, Earth science lessons and projects.
 
U.S. Geological Survey Virtually Hawaii
Site run through the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, UH Manoa. Includes a "virtual field trip" to Hawaiian islands, virtual tours of the Kilauea Volcano that include remote sensing data, and tutorials/info on remote sensing.
 
Visualization of Remote Sensing Data
Images, movies, 3D/VR from satellites, plus resource list of remote sensing data and info.
 
VolcanoWorld
THE volcanic info site for educators and students, supported by the NASA Learning Technologies Project
Top Oceanographic related sites:
The Bridge - Ocean Sciences Education Teacher Resource Center
The Bridge, maintained at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, aims to provide educators with accurate and current marine info and data, support researchers in outreach efforts, and "bridge the gap" of communication between the education and research communities. Sections:
 
Mid-Atlantic Marine Education Association (MAMEA)
Regional Chapter of the National Marine Educator's Association, serves NC, VA, DC, MD, and DE.
 
National Marine Educator's Association (NMEA)
 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NOAA's International Year of the Ocean (1998) site
The United Nations declared 1998 the Int'l Year of the Ocean, recognizing that the oceans are vital to life on earth. Check out the Kids' and Teachers' Corner.
 
National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC)
A national data center within NOAA/NESDIS, the NODC holds the world's largest collection of publicly available oceanographic data.
 
Ocean World - Texas A & M Univ.
Site has classroom activities and an Ocean Atlas. Main sections:
 
SeaWiFS Project Home Page
NASA's Earth-orbiting, global ocean color monitoring mission, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor.
 
TOPEX/Poseidon Home Page
This is the main project home page from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. TOPEX/Poseidon, or the Ocean Topography Experiment, is a partnership between the U.S. and France to monitor global ocean circulation, discover the tie between the oceans and atmosphere, and improve global climate predictions.
 
VIMS - Virginia Institute of Marine Science
 
Virtual Marine Education Center - Virginia Institute of Marine Science
A site for both teachers and students to find resources and information on the marine environment.
Top Weather and Climate related sites:
GOES Project Science - Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
The site for real-time satellite imagery, movies.
 
National Weather Service
Current weather, climate and historical data, and weather topics.
 
S'COOL - Students' Cloud Observations On-line
A project involving validation of an instrument orbiting the Earth called CERES - Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System, which is being used to study the ways clouds affect the climate. Students participating in S'COOL provide "ground truth" measurements to assist in validation of the CERES instrument and compare surface and space based observations to learn more about clouds and climate.
 
weather.com - The Weather Channel Home Page
Look for weather forecasts as well as these educational sections:
 
Weather Underground
Get the forecast faster than www.weather.com (less traffic).
 
Weather World 2010 - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
". . . a WWW framework for integrating current and archived weather data with multimedia instructional resources using new and innovative technologies." Find online guides with instructional modules in meteorology, remote sensing, reading weather maps, and classroom projects and activities.
 
El Niño and La Niña sites:
El Niño Theme Page
Access to distributed info on El Niño, from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. The Basics, What is happening now?, Where can I find data on El Niño?
 
NOAA El Niño Page
Comprehensive listings of NOAA and other govt. and non-govt. sites. Forecasts, observations, research, animations and graphics.
 
NOAA La Niña Page
General info, forecasts, impact of this phenomena characterized by unusually cold temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, the opposite of El Niño.
 
What is an El Niño?
 
What is La Niña?
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Last updated: July 8, 2002.