Multiple activity, comprehensive lesson plan includes background information, grading rubric, information on associated learning standards and assessment, as well as links to additional external resources. Activity explores the concepts of a hurricane's impact on the environment, society, and economics of a given community. Students map the potential storm surge and flooding on a topographic map and locate and report on past hurricanes in a specific geographical region.

This site has something for everyone, from glaciologists to grade school students. It explores nearly all aspects of glaciers and includes data and science, facts, a gallery, and a glossary.

This comprehensive site is an introduction to sea ice: what it is, how it forms, how it is studied, how it affected historical expedition in the polar regions, and what role it plays in the global climate. The site contains a glossary of sea ice terms and references to additional information, which all serve as an excellent introduction. Data are also available from various collection methods for student interpretation.

The impact of natural disasters is made vivid in this video segment adapted from NOVA. A small town in Iceland, prepared for recurrent avalanches, is devastated when one takes a new and damaging path.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists are on the hunt for tornadoes. Using Doppler radar, they gather data in the hopes of solving the mystery of how tornadoes form.

This book of 19 essays, written by Earth scientists, provides insight into the dynamic processes that shape the Earth. The essays are supported by case studies describing a range of research projects (including Looking for Life in Antarctica-and Mars, Mapping Mt. Rainer, and Mapping Hot Springs on the Deep Ocean Floor) and profiles of historically significant Earth scientists (Including Inge Lehmann, Milutin Milankovitch, and Harold C. Urey). The essays, case studies, and profiles are organized along the same themes explored in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, (How do we read the rocks?; How has the Earth evolved?; Why are there ocean basins, mountains and continents?; What causes climate and climate change?; Why is the Earth habitable?) a large, permanent exhibition that opened at the Museum in 1999.

This video segment adapted from NOVA tells the tragic story of two Japanese seismologists who disagreed about the threat of earthquakes in the early twentieth century. Today, seismologists in California offer residents a probability of risk that an earthquake might occur.

This lesson on earthquakes is based on naturalist John Muir's experiences with two significant earthquakes, the 1872 earthquake on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Students will learn to explain that earthquakes are sudden motions along breaks in the crust called faults, and list the major geologic events including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and mountain building, which are the result of crustal plate motions. A downloadable, printable version (PDF) of the lesson plan is available.

In this lesson, students explore the causes of earthquakes and their impact on the geology of an area and on human societies. They begin by looking at the role tectonic plates play in creating the forces that cause earthquakes, to help them understand why earthquakes occur when and where they do. Hands-on activities illustrate how rocks can withstand a certain amount of stress, but that every material has its breaking point. When rocks break underground, an earthquake occurs. In the last section, students explore the impact earthquakes have on humans and look at the efforts scientists are making to better understand and predict these sometimes deadly events.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, animations are used to show how the hills around Los Angeles were formed by earthquakes at small thrust faults that extend outward from the larger San Andreas fault.

The history of earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area is plotted on a digital map and analyzed in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a geologist digs a trench along the San Andreas Fault to reveal three thousand years of earthquake history. Information from the layers of sediment may help geologists to predict earthquakes.

This video segment adapted from NOVA uses historical illustrations, photographs, and animations to explain how seismographs work, the difference between P and S waves, and the Richter scale.

Public attention was captured in May 2018 when the Hawaiian volcano Kīlauea erupted with rivers of lava that flowed through Leilani Estates and other nearby neighborhoods. Your students may have seen videos of hot lava covering roads, destroying homes, or reaching the ocean with clouds of hot steam. You can capitalize on their interest by using data from this real-world event.

In these middle school lessons, students take on the role of volcanologists in order to analyze geologic data about the May 2018 eruption of Kīlauea and provide recommendations for mitigating its harmful effects.

Users can obtain current weather forecasts for their own areas by entering a ZIP code, or they can access a large archive of historic data on severe weather (tornadoes, hail, high winds, hurricanes). Materials presented in the archive include dates, times, and intensities of storms, a photo gallery, maps, radar and other satellite data, storm chaser reports, and links to other weather sites. Raw data can be found in several forms for teachers wishing to have unprocessed data to work with.

This virtual field trip features a clickable map that shows stops along the San Andreas Fault from the Salton Sea to Point Reyes National Seashore. Each stop along the trip is marked by a photo showing features associated with the fault: fault gouge, sag ponds, deformed and titled rock strata, cultural features (roads, buildings) offset by the fault, and others. There is also a collection of videos archived from live webcasts from the original trip, a set of hands-on activities, and a set of links to additional material on seismic activity in California.

In this activity, students use a National Weather Service flood forecast, USGS gauging data, and other reports to estimate the maximum storm discharge from the New River and Wolf Creek, two streams in the Southeast U.S. which experienced flooding in November 2003. Topographic and urban maps are used to predict where flooding would occur and to evaluate strategies for reducing flood risk for the residents of the region.

This media-rich essay from NOVA Online describes the challenges of forecasting volcanic eruptions and includes information about specific cases.

This case examines the integrated physiological response to dehydration and starvation from the real-life report of a girl discovered 15 days after an earthquake devastated Port Au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2010. From the meager scientifically relevant facts reported by the newspaper accounts of the girl's condition, students are asked to work through the pathways of water loss from dehydration as they examine the multiple systems involved in homeostatic responses, and then are asked to calculate whether it is possible for a human to withstand 15 days without water. The case also gives the instructor the opportunity to differentiate between the general adaptive response to a stressor and the specialized adaptive responses exhibited by well-acclimated natives. The case was designed for an upper division comparative or human physiology course or possibly a graduate level medical physiology course.

This "Science Now" feature from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television program "Nova" shows students how remote sensing by satellites can be used to monitor and evaluate hazards presented by glaciers as the climate becomes warmer, causing the glaciers to melt. The feature, which can be presented as a slide show, consists of 11 satellite images with brief written descriptions that explain such hazards as ice collapses and avalanches, flooding by meltwater, and bursting glacier lakes.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades 6-8. It focuses on glaciers and icebergs, specifically, glacial scraping and landforms left behind by glaciers, and information about icebergs in the oceans. Students do a lab simulating glacial scouring. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, extensions, suggested readings, and vocabulary. There are videos available to order which complement this lesson, an audio-enhanced vocabulary list, and links to teaching tools for making custom quizzes, worksheets, puzzles and lesson plans.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a meteorologist explains how an unusual weather pattern led to one of the most devastating floods of this century.

In this activity, students investigate data from Hurricane Ivan, the September 2004 storm that devastated the Caribbean Islands and the Alabama Gulf Coast before looping across Florida and back into the Gulf of Mexico, where it regenerated into a new storm system. They will analyze data on the storm's location, windspeed, and barometric pressure, develop study questions, and map the hurricane's position at selected intervals.

This FAQ web site from the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory answers various questions regarding hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones. Technical references are given throughout the site for additional information. This site can help answer some of the questions that users may have about the characteristics of these catastrophic storms, how they are monitored and forecasted, and some of the research topics that are being addressed today.

Students can use this map to track the progress of hurricanes and tropical storms in the western Atlantic Ocean and Carribean Sea. It includes descriptions of hurricane watch and warning conditions.

In this EarthLabs module, students will do hands-on experiments and study hurricanes in satellite imagery and visualizations. They'll also explore over 150 years of storm data to find out when and where these storms occur. If students are studying hurricanes during hurricane season, they can monitor the position and status of storms in real time. Hurricanes can serve as an exciting entry point into understanding everyday weather, or a culminating topic for an Earth system or environmental science unit.

The EERC at the University of Bristol has developed an Earthquake Engineering Competition that challenges secondary school students to design and make small scale models of buildings that can withstand strong earthquakes. Provided on the website are tips for model design and construction, load testing advice, and a gallery of models organized by various characteristics.

This activity is a student based inquiry looking at various natural disasters and their impact.

Designed for use with small groups in an introductory geology class, this case allows students to determine the relationship between sinkhole development in a karst terrain and groundwater levels. Students then apply this knowledge to a lawsuit filed by the family of a driver of a minivan who dies after his car plunges into a sinkhole allegedly caused by a mining company.

Students are are introduced to Excel and its capabilities by building some simple spreadsheets.

Students continue their introduction to Excel by building spreadsheets that estimate the risk of a major earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone to Benton County, Oregon.

Lake Chad Disappearing between 1963 and 1997: Located on the edge of the Sahara and bordering four countries--Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger--the immense area of this land locked lake has nearly disappeared in recent years. Persistent drought has caused the lake to drop from its former sixth place position in the list of worlds largest lakes; it is now one tenth its former size. The basin of the lake is not naturally deep, so the surface area of the lake tended to spread out, keeping the total depth to little more 23 feet (7 meters). In recent years, rainfall patterns have begun to change, and tributaries to Lake Chad have not been refilling the basin as rapidly as they used to. The lush, productive flora and fauna fed by the wetlands of the shallow lake have suffered as a result. This has led to significant changes for various communities of people that live in the vicinity of the Lake. While for some the now exposed lake bed has enabled new land to be cultivated, much of the available fresh water that might have been used for irrigation is no longer dependable. As rainfall rates appear to be declining year after year, people living nearby develop even greater dependence on the lake, draining it even faster.

In this lesson plan, students will learn about the potential threat posed by icebergs, particularly the enormous icebergs that have broken away from Antarctica's Ronne Ice Shelf. They will research a news article and various web sites (links are provided) to collect information about icebergs, discuss what icebergs are and where they are found, and brainstorm a list of potential problems that could occur. Groups of students will address the potential problems, develop solutions in written form, and present their proposals to the class.

Students learn about the weighted mean by building spreadsheets that apply this concept to the average density of the oceanic lithosphere.

Students learn about the weighted mean by building spreadsheets that apply this concept to the average density of the oceanic lithosphere.

A comprehensive web portal for technical meteorology education. Offers on-line tutorials on current meteorological tools and imaging systems, exercises in image recognition and interpretation, applications for weather forecasting, and links to related resources. Target audience includes the operational forecasting community, university scientists and students, and other deeply interested in meteorology and weather forecasting.

This video segment adapted from NOVA relates the dramatic story of vulcanologists trying to predict the timing of the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

This video segment adapted from NOVA features footage of the aftermath of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines, including falling ash and mud flows. ***Access to Teacher's Domain content now requires free login to PBS Learning Media.

This is a High Definition version of the Multisensor Fire Observation animation with audio, text labels and colorbars.

In this lesson, students will be amateur mycologists--collecting and analyzing various mushrooms. Through observation and discussion, students will gain knowledge of the basic anatomy of mushrooms, their life cycle, and their method of reproduction through spores. Students will learn to create spore prints of mushrooms and label and preserve their spore prints, just like a mycologist. Students also will learn that by comparing spore prints, they can identify different mushroom species.