An urban heat island is a phenomenon that is best described when a city experiences much warmer temperatures than in nearby rural areas. The sun’s heat and light reach the city and the country in the same way. The difference in temperature between urban and less-developed rural areas has to do with how well the surfaces in each environment absorb and hold heat.

Students will describe how the spread of COVID-19 is affected by population density and explain why patterns in the spread of COVID-19 are happening over time. 

This page explains the purpose of interactives in My NASA Data and how they can be incorporated into instruction and support learning.

My NASA Data StoryMaps provide an engaging and interactive way to explore Earth science topics using real NASA data. By integrating storytelling with interactive technology, these resources make complex scientific concepts more accessible and relevant to students.

This page explains the purpose of lesson plans in My NASA Data and how they can be incorporated into instruction and support learning.

This page explains the purpose of mini lessons in My NASA Data and how they can be incorporated into instruction and support learning.

This USGS activity leads students to an understanding of what remote sensing means and how researchers use it to study changes to the Earth’s surface, such as deforestation. 

The purpose of this activity is to have students use an Earth Systems perspective to identify the various causes associated with changes to Earth's forests as they review Landsat imagery of site locations from around the world.

An environmental planner tries to minimize the environmental impacts of housing, industrial, and transportation-related construction projects. Environmental planners help project managers navigate the environmental permitting process where they review a site to investigate potential environmental effects. This includes the effects of natural disasters.

Geospatial Information Scientists and Technologists research geospatial data or develop geospatial technologies. Geospatial data is data that has a geographic component associated with it, such as coordinates or an address, and geospatial technologies are the technologies used to collect and analyze geospatial data.