In 1948, Melville J. Herskovits established the African Studies program at Northwestern University. It was the first of its kind at a major research university in the United States, and since its creation, it has also been actively involved with collecting historic maps of Africa. This particular online collection draws on this legacy of preservation and acquisition, and all told, it contains 113 antique maps of Africa dating from the middle of the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century. Visitors can utilize a search engine to look through the maps, or they may also browse by title, cartographer, or date. There are a number of real finds here, including Frederik de Wit's 1708 map of North Africa (titled "Barbaria") and an early map of Zanzibar from 1740.

This article and included graphs,from the web site accompanying the FRONTLINE NOVA special What's Up with the Weather?, reveals how atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides from coal- and oil-burning power plants, cars, and other fossil-fuel-burning sources have climbed along with the world population, with as yet unknown effects on the climate system.

This page from the Volcano World website contains a summary account of the 1959 eruption at Kilauea Iki which is illustrated by photographs and videos.

This video adapted from the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive, explores what happened during the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 through original footage, first-person accounts, and animations illustrating plate tectonics. ***Access to Teacher's Domain content now requires free login to PBS Learning Media.

An exercise on the effects of flooding that took place in the upper Mississippi River drainage basin in 1993, using before and after satellite images.

This movie shows a total eclipse of the Sun which occurred in 1994. It is accompanied by a link to a written description of the Sun's physical characteristics.

This is a task from the Illustrative Mathematics website that is one part of a complete illustration of the standard to which it is aligned. Each task has at least one solution and some commentary that addresses important asects of the task and its potential use. Here are the first few lines of the commentary for this task: Materials * Completed monthly weather recording sheet * Crayons * Sentence strips with frames (see below) * Student worksheet Actions Every day for a m...

This page hosts a collection of geometric tasks in pdf format that are aligned to the CCSS standards 1.G1 through 1.G3. It also has links to supplementary literature and learning materials.

Students are employees of a unit of the United Nations responsible for coordinating disaster relief after a major disaster (the 2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami) occurs. The agency needs to understand the situation in each country so that it can coordinate the work of various governments and NGO (nongovernmental organizations) working in the affected area.

This resource contains presentations from one of the Center for Automotive Research's (CAR's) breakfast briefings titled "Automotive Fuels and Emissions: Policies, Compliance, & Potential Impact of Future Technologies." This briefing occurred on 12/5/13 at Robert Bosch LLC in Farmington Hills, MI. At the briefing presenters discussed the strategic implications of Tier 3 regulations which will soon be finalized and may impact future technology decisions in a multitude of ways. The impact of Tier 3 emission regulations is expected to be far reaching as they have the potential to influence the quality of fuel, as well as usage of alternative fuels and powertrains. Further, the regulations will have a direct influence on the technologies, such as diesel and gasoline direct injection, that automakers will utilize to meet the fuel economy standards through MY2025. Included in this resource are the presentations from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Volkswagen, and Bosch utilized at the briefing.

This resource contains speaker presentations from the 2013 Plug-In Conference and Exposition. This conference took place September 30, 2013 to October 3, 2013 at Liberty Station in San Diego, CA and had the theme What's Next for the Electric Highway? This event brought together automotive manufacturers, component suppliers, electric utilities, government agencies, academia, and the environmental community to collaborate on the next steps in plug-in electric vehicle technology, infrastructure, policies and regulations, and market development.

This webpage features images of hominid skulls dating from 2.6 million years ago to the present. It illustrates the similarities between skulls and demonstrates the manner in which hominid skulls have gradually evolved towards the modern homo sapiens skull.

In this 7-minute video astronomer Dr Meghan Gray explains the relationship of the Earth's rotation and its revolution around the Sun, resulting in the need to add an extra day to our calendar every four years. She describes additional adjustments required to keep our calendar aligned with the Earth's movements. Dr Gray explains the Julian date and its usefulness.

In this physics activity, learners build their own rockets out of film canisters and construction paper. Learners discover how a chemical reaction (from a mix of water and Alka-Seltzer) creates gas pressure to propel the craft. The activity explores the three states of matter and Newtonäóťs Laws of Motion.

In this activity, learners build small indoor paper rockets, determine their flight stability, and launch them by blowing air through a drinking straw. This lesson plan includes procedures for the two part activity, background information, diagrams for making Ares 1 paper rockets, discussion questions, extensions, and black-line masters for learners.

This interactive Flash applet provides a Concentration-type game (called pelmanism in the UK) in which students must discern the properties of three-dimensional solids and their colors in order to match them in pairs. Spheres, cones, prisms and other standard 3-D shapes are hidden face down on cards. Time and number of trials needed to solve are recorded.

This resource introduces students to the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, the largest area on the continent that is not covered by ice. Materials include a map and some brief facts about Antarctica and the valleys, such as size, location and physical properties (temperature, precipitation and others), and an online journal in which participants in the Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project discuss what it is like to live and work there. The journal entries include descriptions of some of the organisms that inhabit the extreme environments of the valleys, physical features of the valleys, and the strange mummified bodies of animals such as penguins and seals that have been preserved in the cold, dry climate. There is also a glossary of acronyms used in the project and a set of links to other websites with additional information about the Dry Valleys.

The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science Atlas of Population and Environment is an important analysis of the relationships between human population and the environment. Through text, maps, and diagrams, the Atlas illustrates how population affects the world's ecosystems and natural resources both in the short and long term. Using sophisticated mapping and graphic techniques, the Atlas provides quantitative analyses of the important links between such factors as human population density, rates of growth, migration, resource consumption, and technologies, and the state of the global environment. These links are explored across the content areas of natural resources, land use, the atmosphere, waste and chemicals, ecosystems, and biodiversity. The Atlas draws on research and data from a number of academic institutions and international organizations, including the United Nations, its specialist organizations and agencies; the World Resources Institute; the Center for International Earth Sciences Information Network; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; U.S. Geological Survey; and the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre. The Atlas was produced to provide a concise, science-based compendium of information on the population and environment topics so important to the realization of a sustainable future.

The "ABC" in question here happens to be the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and they have come up with a smashing collection of science podcasts. Visitors can sign up to receive new podcasts via RSS feed, but they should definitely test the waters here by listening to any one of Dr Karl's "Great Moments of Science" or an edition of "Talking Science", which features interviews with various luminaries in the worlds of science. Further on down the homepage, visitors will encounter programs that deal with the mind ("All in the Mind"), the world of occupational health ("Life Matters") and the philosophical musings of thoughtful people ("Ockham's Razor"). Overall, there is some very delectable material here, and one can imagine that such podcasts could be passed along to science classrooms everywhere.

This tutorial explains some of the techniques developed by astronomers to determine the distances of objects we see in the sky. Links to additional information are embedded in the text.