Johnson Africa Initiative EO

Africa Initiative:EO Resources and Activities: 

Africa Initiative: EO Resources and Activities Roberta Johnson UCAR Director of Education and Outreach

EO Resources: 

EO Resources Numerous educational resources, in the form of lesson plans (hundreds), supporting background information, demonstrations - available mainly through websites Project LEARN Web Weather for Kids Windows to the Universe NCAR Education and Outreach Website (Educators Bridge, Kids Crossing) Activities/demonstrations hands-on (cheap materials) or computer-based Some bilingual (English and Spanish) Topics spanning the Earth and space sciences On-line courses on Climate and Global Change/Modeling in the Geosciences in development Monthly newsletter (through W2U) currently reaches ~3830 teachers in 118 countries

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W2U reaches over 13 million visitors per year 3 levels of content ~65% K-12 students 46% once per week or more NSF-supported Spanish translation, andgt;15,000 users per day ~1.24 million visits to Teacher Resources section in past 12 months In March – May 2006 Over 4,500 visits per day in Teacher Resources ~300 pages/day in magnetism Teacher Resources section Windows to the Universe Website www.windows.ucar.edu National Science Foundation Spans the Earth and space sciences, with arts and humanities connections Integrated classroom activities, interactives, and models for users Includes extensive background content on Earth sciences, as well as fundamental physics Professional development for ~1400 teachers per year at NSTA and other venues

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Mapping Ancient Coastlines Classroom Activity http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/teacher_resources/teach_bathymetry.htm

The Climate Discovery Teacher’s Guide : 

The Climate Discovery Teacher’s Guide Designed for use in middle school classrooms Multi-lesson instructional units include: Sun-Earth Connection Investigating Climate Present: Cycles of the Earth System Investigating Climate Future (Coming soon!) Investigating Climate Past: The Little Ice Age Case Study UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, Boulder, CO, www.eo.ucar.edu All classroom activities are available online: http://eo.ucar.edu/educators/ClimateDiscovery/

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UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, Boulder, CO, www.eo.ucar.edu Example #1: Trees: Recorders of Climate Change The simulated tree cores used in this activity were developed based on the the results of Briffa et al. (2001) which used ring patterns of 387 trees to interpret temperature variations over 600 years. Students examine tree x-sections to discover how age can be determined from rings and how ring thickness can be used to determine times of optimum growing conditions. Then students investigate simulated tree cores to explore how climate varied during the LIA.

Example #2: Blooming Thermometers : 

Example #2: Blooming Thermometers Students develop an understanding of the relationship between natural phenomena, weather, and climate change. Students brainstorm a list of phenomena that change with the seasons. Students plot and interpret average bloom data data from Japanese cherry trees over the past 1100 years. UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, Boulder, CO, www.eo.ucar.edu Mean bloom dates by century from Arakawa (1956)

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General Science Activities and Writing in the Science Classroom Snapshot Exercise A great activity to use on field trips or class outings - have students write a 'snapshot' of their experience. The Scientist Project Students research a given scientist and then present interviews to the class. Using Current Event Articles in the Science Classroom Various ideas for using current event articles in your classroom. Back to top The Solar System Clay Planets Using clay models to learn about the solar system Great Planetary Debate Students research a given body in the solar system and then defend their planet or moon in a Great Debate! I don't know my solar system. . .please ex-planet! An activity that leads students in researching a given planet or moon of the solar system Lunar Lollipops Learn the phases of the Moon! The Magnetometer Build your own magnetometer, use this to learn about planetary magnetic fields. Terrabagga Activity Use a homemade magnetometer instrument to learn about planetary magnetic fields. Windows to the Universe Scavenger Hunt Questions that have students explore the Space Missions, Solar System and Sun section of the Windows to the Universe site A Solar System Coloring Book A ready-to-use coloring book applet! Back to top Atmosphere and Weather Create a Tornado Create a tornado in a bottle! Create Your Own Cloud A cloud activity Create Your Own Fog An activity on making fog Create Your Own Lightning An activity on making lightning Create Your Own Thermometer An activity on making a thermometer starting with a straw Introduction to Ozone Reading Activity An article to read with an accompanying worksheet for students Latent Heat and Clouds A hands-on exploration of latent heat and its relation to clouds... Let's Make Oxygen Show the presence of oxygen and how to burn steel... Make it Rain! A rain activity Shadows... Shadows and their relationship to the time of day/season Three Clouds Activity One demonstration and two hands-on activities - all about clouds! Thunder and Lightning A simple activity Watch the Sky A great activity to get your students thinking about what they see in the sky Weather and Careers Exercise A lesson that looks at how weather affects different jobs Weather Crossword Puzzle A reading and puzzle exercise available at three levels Back to top

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0.35% of visits to W2U from Africa 13.6 million visits from around the world

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Discussions with UNESCO: 

Discussions with UNESCO We have been in discussions with Dr. Orlando Hall Rose (Chief, Section for Science and Technology Education, UNESCO) and Dr. Diileep Bhagwut regarding W2U since early 2005 Use in Latin America and other countries around the world (other languages) Web resource and professional development Easy to use format, requiring comparatively limited training, easy to implement activities, minimal/zero materials cost, comprehensive scope of resources across Earth and space sciences with arts/humanities connections Visit to UNESCO Paris Offices in April 2005 Invitation to UNESCO meeting in Chile in July 2005 Invitation to subsequent UNESCO sponsored meetings around the world (Lesotho, Kuwait, Egypt, Cuba, Trinidad/Tobago, Kenya, Nepal, Ethiopia, Peru) Parallel discussions with InterAmerican Development Bank and partnering institutions in Latin America on web-based curriculum development

7/4/06 – Message from Carl Katsu1 from Uganda: 

7/4/06 – Message from Carl Katsu1 from Uganda 'I spent four days last week in a small private school in a little dusty village called Ibanda, in the south of Uganda.' 'Electricity was unreliable, so although everyone had electric wiring in their brick, or adobe homes, they cooked and heated water by wood fire, and lit the place up with kerosene lanterns at night. Outside of the cities, water is hard to come by.' 'Yet getting people to keep clean is a national priority, washing hands before and after eating and using the toilet is becoming a habit among most people.' 'The school in Ibanda … is a private high school started five years ago... It is a small school (500 students) with very crude facilities by our standards. …most of the schools I saw … around the country are not much better off…We talked with the teachers, looked at the national curricula (very impressive, more rigorous than the curricula in most school districts in the U.S.A…), taught a lesson to the 10th graders (100 of them all in one large room), gathered the boarding students (about 180 of them, grades 8-11) for an evening astronomy lesson, and made list of materials I have available or can get from NASA, NOAA, USGS, etc. free of charge to send them once I get home. There are sometimes as many as one hundred students in one classroom, but they are taught to be well-behaved and quiet so all can here the lesson. Correcting papers is an awesome chore for the teachers here because their class sizes are so large. They have national end-of-term exams each student must pass to be promoted.' 'I have come to think of Ugandans (and other third world inhabitants) as not much different than Americans, just placed in a different setting. They have the same awareness of the world’s problems and tensions, the same ideas and plans for increasing their economic well-being (they just start at a much lower degree).' 1 Past President, National Earth Science Teachers Association

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Climate Past: The Little Ice Age Case Study : 

Climate Past: The Little Ice Age Case Study The Big Ideas: We learn about past climates via records (proxy data) Data tells us about mechanisms of climate change (forcings). 'Big Ideas' are addressed using Little Ice Age data: Students are exposed to multiple types of proxy data. Students are exposed to data about sunspots and volcanic eruptions to examine forcings. UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, Boulder, CO, www.eo.ucar.edu

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Special Curriculum from NASA These activities do not appear in the normal Windows to the Universe format. They are full units (many lasting more than a week) that NASA has offered that may be helpful in the classroom. Charting the Planets Using charts to discover planet characteristics Galileo Curriculum Module Activities based on the Jupiter Galileo mission including many puzzles, math activities, questions and answers Contents, Crossword Puzzle What do you know already? Volume Calculation Exercise Planet Structure andamp; Interior Jupiter's Monstrous Magnetosphere Catch a Wave What does the Galileo Spacecraft Look Like? Jupiter's Weather Forecast The Moons of Jupiter Data Handling Techniques Hearing Galileo's Whisper Across the Solar System Answer Key Solar System Puzzle Kit Comprehensive activity in which students make an eight cube version of the solar system. Space Based Astronomy Teacher's Guide Activities, experiments, and readings dealing with NASA's space based astronomy Contents The Atmospheric Filter The Electromagnetic Spectrum Collecting Electromagnetic Radiation Down to Earth The Whole World in Your Hands Activities dealing with hydrology, scientific observation and data gathering Acknowledgements Filling in the Gaps/Math Excursion Soda Bottle Hydrology Activity How When Affects What Cover Mapping Land ACCESSING AN EOSDIS DAAC/Technology Excursion Climate, Oceans, and Life Climate and Global Change Carbon Dioxide - Sources and Sinks Experiment with the carbon cycle! Thermal Expansion and Sea Level Rise Discover how thermal expansion of water might affect sea level! Mapping Ancient Coastlines Explore bathymetric contour lines and sea level change! Paleoclimates and Pollen Conduct a classroom paleoclimate study! Making Sedimentary Rocks! Students make a model of sedimentary rock layers to understand how rocks form layers and represent ancient environments. The Geography of Land Planning Students plan towns and learn how planning affects the environment and the larger community. The Difference Between Weather and Climate Students graph weather and climate data to learn the difference Natural Records of Climate Change: Working With Indirect Evidence Students play a game to learn about indirect evidence, like those that record ancient climate changes. Living During the Little Ice Age Discover how modest climatic cooling changed life for Europeans during the Little Ice Age Where Have All the Glaciers Gone? compare 'then and now' photographs to see how much glaciers have chnaged over the last century. Trees: Recorders of Climate Change Collect and analyse tree ring data to discover when the Little Ice Age occured. Blooming Thermometers A graphing activity that allows students to discover how the timing of blooming has changed as climate changed Sunspots and Climate Students investigate data to discover how Earth's climate is affected by changing quantities of sunspots. Dark Skies: Volcanic Contributions to Climate Change Discover how volcanoes can alter the Earth's climate The Little Ice Age Students investigate multiple pieces of data to learn about the Little Ice Age Albedo and Earth's Energy Cycle Students investigate how color affects heat absorption Oceans Exploring Density of Salt and Fresh Water: Par 5 A fun activity that involves the interaction between fresh water and salt water Thermal Expansion and Sea Level Rise Discover how thermal expansion of water might affect sea level! Mapping Ancient Coastlines Explore bathymetric contour lines and sea level change! Life The Evidence of Evolution Exploratour An in-depth examination of the science of evolution The Nitrogen Cycle Game Become a nitrogen atom and travel through the cycle! Carbon Dioxide - Sources and Sinks Experiment with the carbon cycle! Polishing the Petoskey Students will wear away and then polish a Petoskey stone... Adaptation Investigation Investigate how shape and structure of beaks affects the type of food that birds are able to eat. Back to top

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Sun and Spaceweather Graphing Sunspot Cycles Helps your students determine sunspot number cycles and make predictions in the near future. Plotting Sunspot Activity A comprehensive activity that will help your students understand sunspots Solar Concentration Game A great game to be played on the internet! Sun-Earth Flip Books A fun, easy way to learn about the Sun... Tracking an Active Sunspot Region An activity that will help your students understand how a single sunspot moves across the Sun Ulysses Solar Word Search Game A different game for each level! The words chosen are ones that have to do with the Ulysses solar mission. Exploring the Dynamic Nature of the Sun Compare and contrast pictures of the Sun. The Magnetic Sun A variation of our magnetometer extensions activity to explore the magentic fields of sunspots Sunspots and Climate Discover how spots on the Sun influence climate on the Earth Back to top Physics and Chemistry The Magnetometer Build your own magnetometer, use it to learn about magnetic fields (and use it in the Magnetometer Extensions Activity!). Magnetic Levitation Learn basic concepts of magnetism and forces via magnetic levitation. Is Air a Fluid? Discover how gasses can flow! Diving Raisins An activity dealing with density Floating Golf Ball A demonstration dealing with density Frozen Film A hands-on activity dealing with light interference Par 5 An exercise dealing with the density of fresh water and salt water Spectral Surprise A model that displays the rainbow colors of the spectrum Spectral Surprise Extensions including a Electromagnetic Spectrum power point presentation and a student worksheet Tetrahedron Model Students build a tetrahedron model using simple materials. Activity focuses on silica tetrahedron. Weightlessness Demonstration Uses everyday materials! Back to top

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Geology and Geography Geology Dante's Peak Movie Review Have students watch and then write a movie review for this popular movie. The Magnetometer Build your own magnetometer, use it to learn about magnetic fields (and use it in the Magnetometer Extensions Activity!). Magnetometer Extensions Activity Use your homemade magnetometer to learn about sea floor spreading and finding ore deposits. Layers of Rock Create and investigate a model of sedimentary layers. Let's Take a Rock Apart! A hands-on exploration of the minerals that make up a rock... Pangaea Puzzle A fun activity that explains plate tectonics Roger the Rock Writing and artwork exercise where students create a children's book to show the rock cycle Thirsty Rocks Investigate porosity and permeability using sandstone. Making Sedimentary Rocks! Students make a model of sedimentary rock layers to understand how rocks form layers and represent ancient environments. Snack Tectonics Students create a tasty model that illustrates plate tectonic motions. Shake, Rattle and Roll An easy way to show how surface area affects weathering Take a Stab! Model-building activity that will help students visualize what lies below a surface Tetrahedron Model Students build a tetrahedron model using simple materials. Activity focuses on silica tetrahedron. Who's on First? A Relative Dating Activity from the Learning from the Fossil Record Module (Opens new window) Geography Geographic Regions and Backyard Geology with the USGS Tapestry Map Students investigate maps in class or online! Mapping Ancient Coastlines Explore bathymetric contour lines and sea level change! Mapping Potato Island Students make a countour map of a potato! Cookie Mapping In this yummy activity, students make a geologic map of a chocolate chip cookie! The Geography of Land Planning Students plan towns and learn how planning affects the environment and the larger community. Introduction to Maps This quick lesson exposes students to a variety of types of maps. Mapping Your Classroom Students construct a map of the desk locations.

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