Identifying cause and effect relationships can help us make predictions about the function of natural systems and their impact on the world. These relationships, whether simple or complex, are vital for forecasting weather and predicting Earth events in new contexts.

This activity is one of a series in the collection, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change activities.  It engages students in modeling how increased temperatures hasten the melting of ice in the environme

Hurricane Harvey dropped record-breaking amounts of rainfall, particularly around Houston, Texas on August 25, 2017.

The advance-and-retreat cycle of snow cover drastically changes the whiteness and brightness of Earth. Using these two 2017 maps created using NASA satellite data, have students review the seasonal differences of snow and ice extent.

The Earth's system exemplifies stability and change. Change and rates of change can be observed and quantified over very short or long periods of time and at various spatial scales (e.g., from landscape level to global processes).

Explore the spatial patterns observed in meteorological data and learn how this information is used to predict weather and understand climate behavior. By observing patterns in data we can classify our observations and investigate underlying cause and effect relationships.

Students review Earth System phenomena that are affected by soil moisture.  They analyze and evaluate maps of seasonal global surface air temperature and soil moisture data from NASA satellites.