Workshop at the 2008 NSTA National Conference in New Orleans

NSTA National 2007 Interactive Simulations workshopWindows to the Universe staff presented a workshop titled "Interactive Simulations and Hands-on Activities across the Earth and Space Sciences" at the NSTA National Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 8-9 AM on Friday, March 20, 2008.

This workshop combined hands-on activities with computer-based interactives and animations.

Below are links to the resources (write-ups of hands-on activities and accompanying student worksheets, interactive simulations, animations, images, and web pages with relevant background information) used or referred to during this workshop:

  1. Climate
    1. Activities
      1. Carbon Dioxide - Sources and Sinks (in Spanish)
      2. Graphing Sea Ice Extent in the Arctic and Antarctic
    2. Interactives
      1. Select Various Maps Depicting Climate to View
      2. Maps of Projected Future Regional Climates
      3. Compare Images of Arctic Sea Ice Extent Side-by-side
      4. Compare Images of Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Side-by-side
    3. Animations
      1. Annual Variation in Sea Ice Extent in the Northern Hemisphere
      2. Annual Variation in Sea Ice Extent in the Southern Hemisphere
  2. The Very, Very Simple Climate Model
    1. try out the Very, Very Simple Climate Model
    2. Educator's Guide - "Using the Very, Very Simple Climate Model in the Classroom"
    3. Notes about the Very, Very Simple Climate Model
    4. background info: What Is a Climate Model?
    5. background info: How Climate Models Work
    6. background info: Accuracy and Uncertainty in Climate Models
    7. background info: Climate and Global Change
    8. background info: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
    9. Background info from our "Climate Discovery" online course sequence (more in-depth, but may be harder to follow outside of the context of the course):
      1. Climate Model "Test Drive"
      2. Where are we now? Climate "Today"
      3. The IPCC
      4. Climate Modeling
      5. Predictions of Future Global Climate
  3. Magnetism
    1. Activities
      1. Magnetometer (in Spanish)
      2. Magnetometer Extensions - Prospecting for Iron Ore & Seafloor Spreading (in Spanish)
      3. Terrabagga (in Spanish)
    2. Interactives
      1. Bar Magnet & Compass interactive (Flash)
      2. Bar Magnet, Compass, and Magnetic Field Lines (Java)
      3. Earth's North Magnetic Pole
      4. Earth's Magnetic Field and Compass
    3. Background info on site
      1. Planetary magnetosphere pages
        1. Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
        2. Detecting Planetary Magnetism
      2. Basics of magnetism pages
        1. Magnetic Field, Magnetism, The Force of Magnetism
  4. Exploring the Atmosphere with Virtual Balloon Flights
    1. Virtual Balooning game
    2. Student Worksheet
    3. background info: Layers of Earth's Atmosphere
  5. Orbits
    1. Animations
      1. Perihelion and Aphelion
      2. Elliptical Orbits
      3. Eccentricity of an Orbit
    2. Interactives
      1. Elliptical Orbits
      2. Mars Orbit and Opposition
      3. Comet Orbit and Tails
  6. Paleoclimateology - Dendrochronology
    1. Dendrochronology Interactives
      1. "Build a Tree" Dendrochronology Activity
      2. Align Tree Ring Cores Activity
    2. Project Learn activity page
      1. "Time & Cycles - Dendrochronology" activity
      2. Student guide
    3. Climate Discovery Teacher's Guide activity - "Trees: Recorders of Climate Change"
Last modified March 17, 2009 by Randy Russell.

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Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA