Resources for High School Science Education
From of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, Colorado
NCAR's Climate Discovery Online Courses
A Earth’s climate has evolved in remarkable ways since our planet’s origin. It also changes over shorter time periods in response to natural processes and human actions. These changes can impact our lives on a daily basis, now and in the future. Scientists draw upon many different, yet interrelated, fields of the geosciences as they strive to understand climate and global change. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is offering middle and high school teachers an opportunity to learn about the science of climate and how current research is advancing our understanding through, Climate Discovery, a series of three online workshops.
The
Climate Discovery Teacher's Guide
This
teacher's guide was produced by the National Center for Atmospheric Research
as a companion to the Climate Discovery exhibit at our Boulder, Colorado
laboratory. Each unit contains lessons appropriate for grades 5-9 on a
variety of Earth system science topics that facilitate student learning
about our planet's climate system.
About
the Sun
A basic guide to all things solar, produced by the NCAR High Altitude
Observatory
APOL Biocomplexity Education
APOL's Biocomplexity Project's education component was created by two Colorado high school teachers and two students. The materials were designed to serve the secondary education community in developing public understanding of climate change science and associated technologies. Visit this site to see their work in describing carbon's role in climate change, how APOL's laser spectrometer addresses important questions, and how this new laser system functions. The site also provides secondary level educational activities and many video interviews with scientists about the carbon cycle, climate change, and the APOL project that are appropriate for anyone interested in learning more on state-of-the-art research involving Earth's climate and carbon cycle.
Climate & Global
Change Geoscience Education Workshop
The goal of the workshop is to provide standards-relevant science
content, training on easy to implement inquiry-based classroom
activities, and a broad overview of the geosciences in the context
of climate and global change to educator-leaders who are teaching
sciences at the middle and high school levels.
Colorado
Computational Science Fair
High-school competition sponsored by NCAR and Colorado State University
DLESE:
Digital Library for Earth System Education
A grassroots, community-based effort involving teachers, students, and scientists
working together to create a library of educational resources and services to
support Earth system science education, at all levels, in both formal and informal
settings. DLESE resources include electronic materials for both teachers and
learners such as lesson plans, maps, images, data sets, visualizations, assessment
activities, curriculum, online courses, and much more. Sponsored by the National
Science Foundation, DLESE is being designed, built, and governed by community
members from around the country.
EXPLORE
the Atmospheric Sciences
Newsletter of informal science education of UCAR and NCAR
The
GLOBE Program
An exciting, worldwide,
hands-on education and science program
Global
Weather Services in 2025
A vision of future weather services
Greenie
Environmental Stewardship Awards
Awards recognize special Earth Day projects in the areas of recycling,
composting, environmental education, energy, conservation, sustainability,
and air and water quality
Hurricane
Strike!
A multimedia learning package created by COMET®, Hurricane Strike!
is aimed primarily at middle school students. It integrates disaster safety
and preparedness with science instruction, providing an engaging interactive
learning environment. It also dovetails with science and safety content
in the American Red Cross Masters
of Disaster curriculum.
In
a New Light: The Color of Weather and Climate (6.8 mb PDF)
This 72-page booklet
(in PDF format) is the handout for the popular workshop presented at NSTA
by UCAR Education and Outreach staff. The booklet provides extensive background
information and directions for all hands-on activities presented during
the workshop.
Introduction
to Fire Behavior
This site provides an overview of factors that affect the ignition and
spread of wildfires. Information is presented with 3-dimensional graphics
and animations as well as audio descriptions and commentary provided by
a fire behavior expert. You don't need an extensive background in fire
science or weather forecasting to learn from this site.
LEARN:
Atmospheric Science Explorers
Enhancement program for science teachers
Learning about
Science Easily and Readily Series (LASERS)
Lectures and brochures on atmospheric research topics
Children
of the Tropics: El Nino and La Nina
Constant as
the Sun? A Look at Solar Variability
Modeling
in the Geosciences Workshop
Environmental concerns are becoming increasingly pressing and complex, requiring
citizens to have much better understanding of Earth systems and processes, and
the methods scientists use to unravel this complexity to develop an understanding
of the underlying systems. Models are an important tool used by scientists to
study and better understand complex systems. To increase teacher understanding
of models and their utility in Earth System Science studies, NASA’s Earth
System Enterprise is sponsoring the Modeling in the Geosciences Workshop (MGW)
for middle and high school teachers that will explore Earth System Modeling concepts
that are relevant for classroom use.
NCAR
Vislab
Explore visualizations
of NCAR computer models to learn how models are used to understand phenomena
of the Earth system from global climate to the behavior of wildfires.
NSDL:
National Science Digital Library
The
comprehensive source for science, technology, engineering and mathematics
education.
Funded by the National Science Foundation.
Remote Sensing Using Satellites
This website was developed by COMET® to support an introductory
earth or atmospheric science course. Its goal is to help you better understand
weather information
by providing dynamic graphics, animations, and science content about remote
sensing, satellite imagery, and hurricanes. As part of the module, you
will apply what you've learned by exploring recent hurricanes through satellite
imagery.
Roberts
Forum
Illustrated talks on current research regarding the atmospheric and
related sciences
Science
Now
Newsletter for science teachers published by UCAR and SIRS, Inc.,
an educational publisher
Skymath
Mathematics curriculum using real-time weather data
Unidata
Sites Using Unidata Systems for K-12 and General Education
Outreach
Windows
to the Universe
A fun and different Web site about the Earth and Space sciences