In this activity, you will use an inexpensive spectrophotometer* to test how light at different visible wavelengths (blue, green, red) is transmitted, or absorbed, through four different colored water samples.

Background information on soil moisture.

In this experiment, students make a claim about the cause of ocean currents and then develop a model to explain the role of salinity and density in deep ocean currents.  This lesson is modified from "Visit to an Ocean Planet" Caltech and NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Geosphere is associated with solid portions of the Earth. It includes the continental and oceanic crust and all other layers of the Earth's interior.  This includes all rocks, sediments and soils, surface landforms and the processes that shape the Earth's surface.

Students investigate the effects of Hurricane Sandy and make a scale model of the storm over the continental United States to assess the area of impact.

MND recognizes that teaching science is about helping students make sense of the world around them, not memorizing facts and principles. MND makes teaching Earth Science easier (and more interesting) by organizing NASA data with the phenomena that they support.

This lesson introduces the Earth system science spheres through model making and discussion.

This lesson is taken from NASA's Phytopia: Discovery of the Marine Ecosystem written in partnership with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science with funding from the National Science Foundation.

In this activity, students will model the geometry of solar eclipses using quarters to represent the Sun and Moon (not to scale).

This activity is one of a series in the collection, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change activities.