Activities:
Mars Landing: Remote-Sensing Tools
Students imagine they are astronauts aboard a spaceship that has been orbiting Mars. They are now preparing to land safely by studying Viking Images of the Martian landscape. Students use tools in the application NIH Image to locate an appropriate landing site.

Strangers in Paradise: Measurement Training Using NIH Image
Students imagine they are tourists finding their way around Honolulu. They use measuring tools in the application NIH Image to measure distances between sightseeing stops and to do calculations on volcanic craters.

Basic Modules:
Severe Weather Events--Hurricanes!
Student weather teams review the actions of Hurricane Andrew (1992) in preparation for tracking, analyzing, and predicting the course of a new hurricane that may threaten North America this school year.

Weather or Not?
Students monitor the weather environment and make weather predictions up to 48 hours before an outdoor event that is special to them.

Yellowstone Fires
Students perform an Earth system science analysis to make recommendations about the prescribed burning policy in Yellowstone National Park.

Comprehensive Modules:
Coral Reefs
Though coral reefs cover less than .2 percent of the ocean’s bottom, they contain a fourth of all marine life. Yet, experts say coral reefs are disappearing. And fast. Why and what could or should be done?

El Niño: The Child Returns
Students examine how an event in the ocean can affect events around the world.

Florida Everglades
Students predict the future of the Florida Panther based on the Earth system science analysis of the restoration of water to the Everglades.

Global Climate Change
Create an ESS analysis to predict the effects of increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide on the yield of hard red winter wheat in Kansas.

Korean Enigma
Students compare North and South Korea. They investigate how history, present ideology, and the natural environment have shaped North and South Korea.

Mountain Gorilla
Students consider social, political, cultural, and economic factors that make survival a challenge for an endangered species.

Rift Valley Fever
Students determine what actions can be implemented to predict future outbreaks of Rift Valley fever and control its spread.

Temperate Rainforest
Students attempt to find a balance in the policy debate over use of temperate rainforests in the Pacific Northwest.

Tropical Poison
Students address issues of biodiversity, economic growth, and medical research as they attempt to answer questions about the human impact on rainforest resources.

Volcano Modules
The four volcano modules represent different kinds of hazards and geologic processes.

The teacher/students may choose to engage in one, all, or any combination of the four volcano modules. It may be best if groups of students undertake different volcano modules in order to facilitate inter-team comparing/contrasting different types of volcanoes. In modules 2-4, simulated data are used to appear as realistic as possible.

A New High School in Orting
Students decide whether to build a new high school in the shadow of Mt. Rainier.

Volcanic Unrest in Paradise!
Students decide what the prospects are for the human population living near Kilauea.

A New Eruption in the Cascades?
Students decide what should be done in the Portland area, when Mt. Hood starts acting like Mt. St. Helens.

The "Big One" in Yellowstone National Park
Students decide if we are facing an eruption in Yellowstone as devastating as a nuclear attack.

Water Quality
Students advise a local water board, which is concerned about water quality in its watershed.

Advanced Modules:
Earth on Fire
Students examine the earth's past and humankind's impact on the global environment as they attempt to answer important questions about global warming.

UV Menace
Students learn about stratospheric ozone depletion and its effects as they attempt to determine what future measures will be needed to correct the situation.