Scientists and engineers use and develop models for representing ideas and explanations.

The activities in this guide will help students understand variations in environmental parameters by examining connections among different phenomena measured on local, regional and global scales.

This story map lesson plan allows students to explore ocean circulation patterns as they relate to the world's ocean garbage patches using NASA ocean currents data.

This lesson introduces the Earth system science spheres through model making and discussion. Students will work within an Earth system science notebook to chronicle their work and learning.

This activity invites students to model and observe the effect of melting ice sheets (from land) on sea level and the difference between the effect of melting sea-ice to that of melting land ice on sea level.

This activity invites students to simulate and observe the different effects on sea level from melting sea-ice.

Students play the role of nitrogen atoms traveling through the nitrogen cycle to gain an understanding of the varied pathways through the cycle and the relevance of nitrogen to living things. 

Are you interested in accessing NASA data featuring ocean's mean sea level data to create your own model?  If so, you don't want to miss this mini lesson where models are easily created using the My NASA Data Earth System Data Explorer's 5-day Mean Sea Level (Sea Surface Height) Anomaly (meters).

Learn about volcanic ash and watch a visualization of the Calbuco volcano to see how ash travels around the world. 

Students observe images of daily average sea surface temperatures taken during 2017, as they analyze the plots for evidence of changes that are occurring throughout the year.