This is the education section of a larger site about the Aquarius underwater habitat in the Florida Keys. It includes classroom activities exploring concepts of buoyancy, pressure and light; a series of classroom activities exploring the biology of corals; and an on-line book about coral reef biology.

This site provides an explanation for cloud formation and seeks to correct myths or misconceptions about how clouds form. Water vapor, condensation, and evaporation are discussed in the context of dew-point temperature and saturation. Educators and anyone explaining cloud formation will find hints on how to present the correct information and avoid misinforming their audiences.

Users can access information about educational programs and materials for teachers and students, including tours, traveling exhibits and presentations by the staff of the Des Moines Water Works. "Water Trunks", which contain water-related literature, books, science experiments, videos, games, CD-ROMs, hands-on activities, picture cards, career information, and a teacher resource book, are available to order. There are also links to other water websites, a teachers' newsletter and pollution prevention tips for classroom use and for the general public.

This is an inquiry activity that, while based on a local area (the San Francisco Bay), could be adapted to the teacher's/student's local area. Students perform an experiment in which they observe how water pollution is absorbed into plants. The site contains a teacher's guide and printable student worksheet.

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 site presents two case studies regarding the Wheeling Creek area of West Virginia. The scenario asks students to research problems and come up with answers to a ficticious local water board's concerns over water quality in the watershed. The site provides students with extensive, yet easy to understand background information on the following topics: Importance of Water, Water Cycle, Hydrosphere, Forms of Pollution, and Methods for Monitoring. Graphs, charts, maps, and photos of the creek give students detailed information to help them in their investigations. The case study approach is a great way for students to explore all the issues affecting a watershed.

Segments on Rivers & Streams, Ponds & Lakes, and Wetlands provide information, photos, and graphics related to fresh water resources. The site provides information related to the geology and biology of these ecosystems and some information on technology as well. Each segment provides links to additional resources related to that topic. Students could readily use the site as a resource for independent learning or research, and educators could use the site to develop water-related activities.

As part of the GLOBE program's 2003 Teacher's Guide, this site provides information and activities related to understanding hydrology. Sections featuring protocols and activities cover collecting water samples, conducting tests such as dissolved oxygen, conductivity and salinity, modeling a local watershed, comparing local water to global data, modeling water balance and looking at how water chemistry affects life. Instuctors will also find information on learning goals and student assessment.

Students will utilize the Internet to take a virtual field trip to visit a glacier and discover what physical effects glaciers have on the land. They will also have the opportunity to virtually visit Vermont and trace the pictorial history of how a whale's fossils were found there. The site also contains a student worksheet for their visual field trip. The site also provides an explanation of the formation of fossils.

This United States Geological Survey (USGS) general interest publication presents a description of ground water in the U.S. This includes what ground water is, how it occurs, aquifers and wells, ground water quality and what affects it, and the state of U.S. ground water resources.

This Oregon State University site offers in-depth information on groundwater including: human impacts, protection, contamination, regulations, agencies, community action, and community stewardship. Although some information, such as how the geology of Oregon affects groundwater, is specific to that state much of the information is transferable to other locations.

This resource provides scientific understanding, detection, monitoring, assessment, and prediction of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and hypoxia (low oxygen). Specifics are given on understanding HABs (red tide) where they occur, the climate and economic impact on the environment as well as a framework of response options.

Ships travelling between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie use the Welland Canal. Beginning with a conversation between characters Mathise, Geo, and Trig, they explain how a lock in the canal operates by gravity alone, without pumps. The characters use mathematics to solve problems such as how long the locks take to fill and how to express the volume and flow of water in more common terms (bathtubs of water per second). They also ask why the lower lock door is much larger and heavier than the upper one, a question which users can answer by watching the animation of the lock's operation.

Using the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, Spanish and Italian astronomers have for the first time measured the total amount of water in cold regions of the Milky Way. The findings and implications of this research are discussed here, with emphasis on the fact that water is abundant in these cold regions and exists mostly in the form of ice. Images and videos are included.

This site provides the user an opportunity to explore storm clouds and climate change through the use of NASA climate research data obtained through satellite imaging. The user is challenged to investigate actual scientific research data on clouds and storms, and make observations and interpretations available to NASA research scientists for review. Topics addressed by these investigations include the role of clouds in relation to the changing climate of Earth, the role of clouds in warming or cooling the planet, and the major types of clouds produced by storms.

Visitors can study this account of the calving of the Larsen ice shelf and the disintegration of the ice shelf around James Ross Island that occured in Austral Summer of 1994-95. The account is in chronolgical order and is accompanied by photographs. Follow-up examinations from 1996-2002 and links to related material are provided.

The information on this site indicates that the life cycle of a glacier is more eventful than it appears. The site allows students to follow the journey of a single snowflake as it takes a ride through a glacier, a process that can take as much as 30,000 years to complete. It can be viewed as an interactive slide show or a single page of text and illustrations.

Arctic Science Journeys Radio (ASJ) is a free service that offers interesting stories about science, culture, and the environment of the far north. This audio file of a radio story describes the research of one scientist into the animals and plants that live within the ice of the Arctic Ocean.

This unit, designed to span two class periods, helps students understand that physical factors, particularly temperature and precipitation, limit the growth of plant ecosystems. The activity begins with a discussion in which students develop their own ideas about the role of temperature, precipitation, and environment on plant growth. They will then examine X-Y graphs of vegetation growth, temperature, and precipitation versus month for four diverse ecosystems to determine which climatic factor is limiting growth. A worksheet and scoring rubric are provided.

In this lesson, students will identify rivers in their local area and compile information about aquatic life in or near these habitats. Through research in various books or other sources, the students will learn more about the various animal and plant species living in riparian areas. The compiled information can be assembled into a class book, combining both text and drawings related to aquatic life.

Until very recently, planetary scientists had thought that Mars is a cold, dry planet. Then in the summer of 2000, NASA released images from the Mars Global Surveyor showing evidence of very recent seepage of ground water from crater and valley slopes in the planet's southern hemisphere. It seems that substantial reservoirs of the water that once may have run so copiously on the surface may still exist. Evidence of other water-created landforms is presented and accompanied by remote imagery.

This applet presents a visualization of the albedo of the earth. It is one of a series for a textbook. Users can adjust the speed of the visualization.

This site is maintained by the Digital Learning Center for Microbial Ecology. A Microbe Zoo and the Microbe of the Month are included. The site provides some background material on many different types of Microbes, in ponds, around the deep sea vents, and various other locations. Two water regions are represented on the site, although mention is made of several others.

This is a fact sheet on the water quality programs directly administered by the USGS. USGS provides information on issues such as the suitability of water for public supply and irrigation, aquatic ecosystem health, effects of agriculture and urbanization on water resources, acid rain, and disposal of radioactive waste. There are hot links to several studies and to data available from USGS and other agencies.

Users can read about the discovery of ice on Earth's moon, which occurs in the form of ice crystals accumulated near the lunar poles. The discussion covers the use of the neutron spectrometer as a tool for detecting water by sensing the hydrogen it contains, some ideas on the origin of the ice, and the fact that water has been found elsewhere in the solar system (on Europa, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon). Other materials include an interview with Harrison Schmidt, the last astronaut to walk on the Moon, and a bibliography.

The Antarctic Meteorological Research Center focuses on observational Antarctic meteorological research, providing real-time and archived meteorological data and observations and provides recent and archived imagery of icebergs, including data and imagery.

NSIDC offers data and information about the cryosphere; that portion of the Earth where water is in solid form, typically snow or ice. Topics include snow, glaciers, permafrost, sea ice, news and features, and others. The State of the Cryosphere section provides an overview of the status of snow and ice as indicators of climate change. An image and photo gallery provides historic photographs and satellite imagery of cryospheric conditions in both the Arctic and Antarctica.

The NOAA Ocean Exploration program strives to engage broad audiences to enhance America's environmental literacy through the excitement of ocean discovery. Increasing this literacy requires high-quality, effective collaborations between ocean explorers and America's teachers. NOAA is forming such collaborations to reach out in new ways to the public to improve the literacy of learners with respect to ocean issues. This site is a daily log of exploration in the Arctic and research on the Polar Bear.

This USGS Fact sheet provides an overview of water quality considerations. Each brief section contains definitions and descriptions. The topics include how to measure water quality, why there are standards and guidelines, the effect of natural processes, the effect of human activities, pathogens found in water, and links to sites in USGS with additional information.

This site provides information on the history of the Salt River community, its Native American Indian culture, and the impacts of water usage by and for humans. Activities topics include energy, electricity, and water energy, usage and safety. Historical references to the Salt River valley are integrated into resource materials. Resources are available free of charge for teachers and students and must be requested via email.

This site presents average ice conditions estimated using satellite passive microwave data for the most recent month available, as well as snapshots of trends and anomalies that compare these recent conditions with the mean for the month.

This site is a portion of a larger program in which users construct a world and the life that inhabits it. Marine botany is the subject of this site, and users are instructed on how they can 'evolve' their own plant species to meet the characteristics of specific marine environments. Although the goal of this activity is to create imaginary species, it is based on having the user develop an understanding of basic marine plant ecology and adaptation. A number of useful links to information on aquatic plants, marine ecology and biological evolution are included, as well as a rubric for scoring this activity.

This page presents a narrative history of the Colorado River Compact, which has provided the management framework for this natural resource since 1922.

This set of slides shows imagery of clouds as seen from above, in space, by various satellites and space shuttle missions. Each slide is accompanied by a brief caption describing the feature being shown and the satellite or shuttle mission from which the photo was taken. The slides are available as downloadable high-resolution TIF files, or they can be purchased from Lunar and Planetary Institiute's online store.

Until recently, the total energy imparted to the oceans from the moon's gravitational pull has not been fully accounted for: about 30 percent had seemingly vanished without mathematical explanation. The total energy dissipating along the world's shallow areas and coasts don't add up to the expected total. However, data collected by the U.S./French satellite called TOPEX/Poseidon may provide the answer. Visualizations and remote imagery accompanied by text explain how the rough terrain of undersea mountains and ridges may dissipate the unaccounted-for energy.

This collection of databases is intended to aid in the assessment of the process of water conflict prevention and resolution. The searchable collections include data such as case studies, freshwater treaties from 1820 to 2001, events concerning historical water relations from 1948 to 1999, a register of international river basins, and information on interstate water compacts in the United States. There is also spatial data on transboundary freshwater indicator variables, international river basins, and a map and image gallery. Other materials include links to the organization's publications and research projects, and a set of links to other databases and publications on freshwater conflict issues.

This interactive map depicts real-time steam flow compared to historical stream flow for selected gauging stations in the United States and Puerto Rico. Users may select a state and choose a list of all stations in the state, a state map, or a list of the nearest stations. The map tracks short-term changes (over several hours) in rivers and streams. Its appearance may change very little from one hour to the next, but individual sites may change rapidly in response to major rain events or reservoir releases. Colored symbols represent real-time stream flow as percentiles of historical stream flow for the day of the year.

This site is based at Reading Memorial High School in Reading, MA. It features general information defining and describing vernal pools as a habitat type, including an illustrated cartoon series. Resources for educators and students include suggestions for classroom and field trip activities, examples of school projects, field guides, and teacher resources such as workshops. While this site contains several references to state-specific resources and regulations, it is relevant and useful outside of Massachusetts wherever vernal pools are found. The teacher responsible for the text on this site spent a sabbatical developing a resource kit for educators, which is available for purchase. Links are provided to scientific researchers conducting vernal pool studies, including their methods and results. There is an extensive page of resources, both digital in print. Educators and students are encouraged to download and use the collection of 78 slides of vernal pools and associated species on this site.

This web page is a tide and current predictor provided by Dean Pentcheff from the University of South Carolina. The site allows you to select a region, choose the location, and then prepare a customized table of tidal height and/or current speed and direction.

This article discusses the possibility that water might exist on the Moon. Topics include some uses for water in space (other than drinking), where the water might be found, and the idea that it may have been 'delivered' to the Moon by comets, which are largely made of ice.