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How can we use ice core data from the polar regions to investigate changes in Earth's climate past, present, and future? Students investigate climate changes going back thousands of years by graphing and analyzing ice core data from Greenland and Antarctica. They use information about natural and human-caused changes in the atmosphere to formulate predictions about the Earth's climate. Grade level: 6-9. LINK >> |
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Though climate change isn't new, the study of how human activity affects the earth's climate is. The exploration of climate change encompasses many fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, geology, meteorology, oceanography, and even sociology. At this Web site, you can explore scientific data relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, the areas covered by ice and snow, and the living organisms in all these domains. You'll also get a sense of how scientists study natural phenomena-how researchers gather evidence, test theories, and come to conclusions. [Source: Exploratorium (NSF)] Grade level: 6-College. LINK >>
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This resource includes animations that illustrate how the greenhouse effect works. Accompanying description: "The greenhouse effect is the natural process by which the atmosphere traps some of the Sun's energy, warming the Earth enough to support life. Most mainstream scientists believe a human-driven increase in greenhouse gases is increasing the effect artificially. These gases include carbon dioxide, emitted by fossil fuel burning and deforestation, and methane, released from rice paddies and landfill sites." Grade level: 8-College. LINK >>
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This fun webpage about microbes that help cows digest their food is part of a larger website called Microbe Zoo. On this page, students can find out how cows have a special type of stomach called a rumen, which is home to billions of microbes which can eat grass and hay. These bacteria, fungi and protists provide nutrients that the cow can digest. Without these microbes, the cow would die.
During digestion, methane is produced by certain microbes called methanogens. This contributes significantly to world-wide methane levels which will increase as the demand for beef continues to rise. [Source: Microbe Zoo (Digital Learning Center-Microbial Ecology Project), Comm Tech Lab and the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University] Grade level: 2-8. LINK >>
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This interactive flash animation allows students to compare the sizes of the smallest organisms we know of on our planet. Starting with the head of a pin at 2 millimeters in diameter, students can use this animation to compare the relative sizes of cells and organisms small enough to sit on a pinhead. Nearly invisible without magnification, dust mites dwarf pollen grains and human cells. In turn, bacteria and viruses are even smaller. [Source: CELLS alive! J. Sullivan, Website: http://www.cellsalive.com] Grade level: 4-College. LINK >>
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