The purpose of the resource is to determine the major land cover type at a Land Cover Sample Site. Full description.

The purpose of the resource is to introduce students to Landsat images and how to identify the land cover types within those images. Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to investigate the center pixel of a homogeneous land Cover Site in order to understand that individual land areas are part of a larger land system. Full description.

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. Full description.

In this lesson, students explore how groundwater contamination can spread through aquifers by participating in a groundwater plume simulation. They will learn how to determine the source of groundwater contamination, explore the possible contamination of Nevada groundwater by a major nuclear test site, and write a persuasive essay from the point of view of a Nevada resident living close to a groundwater ... Full description.

In this activity students analyze actual data and images to assess whether liquid water existed on Mars. Groups analyze temperature and pressure graphs from the first 30 days of the Pathfinder mission and discuss whether liquid water could have existed under these conditions.Looking at images of Mars, students examine surface features and hypothesize about how water could have flowed across the Martian ... Full description.

This booklet provides a brief introduction to the concept of plate tectonics and complements the visual and written information in This Dynamic Planet, a map published in 1994 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Smithsonian Institution. The booklet highlights some of the people and discoveries that advanced the development of the theory and traces its progress since its proposal. Although ... Full description.

This lesson is one in a series that brings the important stories of historic places into the classrooms across the country. It could be used in units on the early industrial period of American history and in courses on geography or science and technology. It will help students realize the role canals played in western expansion and in the evolution of transportation by focusing on the construction ... Full description.

This NASA Module investigation compares and contrasts physical processes that occur on Both Earth and Mars. Students are given unidentified images of Earth and Mars. Their task is to arrange the images into pairs that show evidence of similar physical processes. Then they identify each image as one of Earth or of Mars by comparing and contrasting physical features that they observe in the image pairs. ... Full description.

The Gulf of Maine Aquarium hosts this two-part activity. The focus is on seasonal changes in the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Part 1 uses an atlas and satellite imagery to examine the geography of the region and the changing boundaries of the ice sheet. Part 2 tracks annual changes in sea ice. There is an animation page showing changes in ice cover around Antarctica during 1991, and links ... Full description.