This mini-lesson features time-series graphs of mean salinity at the surface for the Arctic and Antarctic regions. A series of questions guides students in their analysis.

Background information on the El Nino Southern Oscillation or ENSO.

Hands-on demonstration of the El Niño Effect, trade winds, and upwelling provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

Explore the energy and matter cycles found within the Earth System. 

Many of our archived lessons date back to as early as 2004 when our learning community first formed and unfortunately contain links to content that is no longer updated or exist.  Please note that some of these have been updated, and we continue to update them.  Please check ou

Background information on ocean circulation.

This investigation is part of the NASA: Mission Geography Module "What are the causes and consequences of climate change?" that guides students through explorations in climatic variability and evidence for global climate change. 

Students develop and test a hypothesis about how albedo affects temperature.

Students watch the video Frozen Earth and answer the following questions that discuss how ice helps moderate the planet's temperature using NASA satellites.

Students will make a claim about whether changing albedo contributes to changes in Arctic habitats.