This lab activity is an exploration of Newton's Three Laws, forces and energy. Students will design, build, launch and analyze rocket data.

This activity is a classroom activity where kindergarten students mix the primary colors together to create the secondary colors using pipettes and well trays.

This video segment adapted from Last Oasis explores the use of new dams as a way to provide or store water. In the 1990s, the city of Denver was looking for a new source of water for its growing population, and its plan to build a new dam suddenly became highly controversial.

This article describes ways to supplement a science unit on the water cycle with the book Water Dance by Thomas Locker. Ideas for art, writing, poetry, and creative movement are included.

In this issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explore what the polar regions can teach us about the water cycle and the states and changes of matter. Find lesson plans about the many forms of water, ice, and snow found in the polar regions and how to use science notebooks to integrate literacy and science.

This article assembles free resources from the Water, Ice, and Snow issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

This article highlights children's literature about states of matter, phase changes, the water cycle, and glaciers and icebergs for use in the elementary classroom.

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, visit a water treatment plant and learn how water from a local reservoir is turned into drinking water.

This simulation from the National Center for Atmospheric Research portrays annual patterns in water vapor and precipitation across the globe, illustrating general circulation patterns as well as seasonal and regional variation.

The Arcadia Earth app, on tablet or smartphone, sets the stage with AR (augmented reality) for students to become environmental scientists through play, interaction, experimentation, and discovery. In the hands on activity students will design water delivery systems that help control and conserve water. In this process they will learn and utilize 21st century skills such as complex problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, and teamwork.

Estimated time required: 1 class period.

Technology required for this lesson: Tablet or Smartphone.

Students learn about the importance of dams by watching a video that presents historical and current information on dams, as well as descriptions of global water resources and the hydrologic cycle. Students also learn about different types of dams, all designed to resist the forces on dams. (If the free, 15-minute "Water and Dams in Today's World" video cannot be obtained in time, the lesson can still be taught. See the Additional Multimedia Support section for how to obtain the DVD or VHS videotape, or a PowerPoint presentation with similar content [also attached].)

In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Utah's ASPIRE Lab, learn how to measure wavelengths and see how wavelength affects the color of the light that we see.

The 11 books selected for inclusion in the issue of Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle devoted to climate studies range from easy readers to biographies. Each book is briefly described; all were reviewed for accuracy and appropriate reading levels for students in grades K-5. Several books deal with careers in meteorology.

This formative assessment item is used to uncover student ideas about solar radiation. Students will decide what they believe the sun provides to Earth. It is aligned to National Science Education Standards. Resources are provided to give additional information, as well as instructional suggestions.

This activity is a field investigation where the students observe shadows and reflections to learn about the sun.

Students use modeling clay, a material that is denser than water and thus ordinarily sinks in water, to discover the principle of buoyancy. They begin by designing and building boats out of clay that will float in water, and then refine their designs so that their boats will carry as great a load (metal washers) as possible. Building a clay boat to hold as much weight as possible is an engineering design problem. Next, they compare amount of water displaced by a lump of clay that sinks to the amount of water displaced by the same lump of clay when it is shaped so as to float. Determining the masses of the displaced water allows them to arrive at Archimedes' principle, whereby the mass of the displaced water equals the mass of the floating clay boat.

There's no need to don a space suit if you want to experience weightlessness. In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two members of the cast drop a cup of water with holes in it to demonstrate how free fall can create a momentary condition of "weightlessness".
Recommended for: Grades K-8

This video/animation shows that a molecule of water is made up of oxygen and hydrogen atoms. When oxygen and hydrogen atoms exist alone, their properties are different from the properties they have when they are chemically combined to form a water molecule.

SSAC Physical Volcanology module. Students build a spreadsheet to estimate the volume of volcanic deposits using map, thickness and high-water mark data from the 2005 Panabaj debris flow (Guatemala).

SSAC Physical Volcanology module. Students build a spreadsheet to calculate the volume a tephra deposit using an exponential-thinning model.