Here’s what’s going on at the NASA Earth Observatory, brought to you by Fred Beyer at EarthSciTeach.
What if global warming isn’t as severe as predicted?
It’s natural to question whether we and future generations will regret our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if it turns out global warming isn’t as bad as predicted.
Oil Slick, Mississippi River Delta, Gulf of Mexico
While reviewing another space-related website, I came across this one, Starry Night Sky Chart, and decided it was cool enough to warrant its own post. At this site, you can enter your ZIP code and get a picture of what the night sky will look like in your area.
This website is part of a larger website, Starry Night Education, that offers extensive (paid) resources for teaching space science and astronomy. However, the interactive sky chart is free. Its operation is pretty simple. Enter your ZIP code and you will be presented with a picture of what the sky will look like at approximately 9 p.m. as you face south on that day. You can change the viewing time and a few other simple options, like labeling constellations and planets. You can also see what the view would look like if you were standing on the moon — how cool is that?
BY BILL FERRIS
Forty-one years ago today, man first set foot on the moon. Could Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have known that less than half a century later we’d all be living on cities on the moon, driving flying cars to work?
Until science catches up with science fiction, your students can still get excited about the space program and science with Moonbase Alpha, a 3-D multiplayer game from NASA. (more…)
Have you ever found that when you ask your students to research a particular topic (let’s say lions, for example) they want to type in www.lions.com, and see what happens? Unfortunately, if such a site exists, it may or may not be appropriate for school (remember whitehouse.com?). However, every once in a while, there is a site with a simple URL that does work out. Browsing to www.space.com will provide you and your students with quality information about — you guessed it — space.
The recent oil spill in the gulf reminds me of one of my dad’s favorite sayings: “Invest in your space program. Eventually we’re gonna need to get the heck out of here.” Well, since 1998 the governments of Russia, the United States, Japan, and several European nations have made a huge combined investment in the International Space Station. I had to admit, it’s been a while since I checked in on its progress, but the ISS has gone from something that looked like a big flashlight to a structure larger that a Boeing 767!
BY BILL FERRIS
Want to start next fall’s science class with a bang? You won’t find many bangs bigger than a supernova. NASA wants to bring those colossal explosions to your classrooms via the safety of a DVD through their Journey to the Stars DVD giveaway.
I used to think that the definitive YouTube video about our universe was Eric Idle’s Galaxy Song, but now I have to admit the good people at the American Museum of Natural History have raised the bar with their “The Known Universe” video that, in the simplest of terms, is like a universe-sized version of Google Earth on steroids. It’s about seven minutes long and just kind of mind boggling in scope.
It’s tough to put into words how cool Stellarium is for anyone teaching astronomy or anyone learning the subject. In a nutshell, Stellarium is a high-resolution personal planetarium you install on your computer. The fact that is 100% free launches it into the Google Earth realm of awesome free applications.
BY BILL FERRIS
The world may be getting smaller, but the universe is still a pretty big place. If you’ve the urge to feel like an insignificant speck of dust, play with this flash app that shows you the scale of the universe.
The controls are simple. Actually, make that control, as in singular — move the slider back and forth to zoom through the universe’s spectrum of size, from the boundaries of the known universe itself all the way down to quantum foam, whatever that is. (more…)
Here’s what’s going on at the NASA Earth Observatory, brought to you by Fred Beyer at EarthSciTeach.
World of Change: Yellow River Delta
Once free to wander up and down the coast of the North China Plain, the Yellow River Delta has been shaped by levees, canals, and jetties in recent decades.Water Watchers
In Idaho, NASA’s Landsat satellites are helping officials manage water resources and settle conflicts.
BY EMILY JACK
In Europe in the early 1600s, witch hunts were common practice and people were burned at the stake. Health care included bloodletting and surgery without anesthesia. And expeditions to the so-called New World were launching a new era of cruelty and genocide. But even during those dark times, a scientific revolution was underway that would change the way humans understood themselves and their place in the world forever.
It was 1609 when Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to the skies and began the observations that ushered in modern astronomy. 400 years later, the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO have declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy to honor Galileo and to celebrate the advances in astronomy since his time.
BY BILL FERRIS
One of the first lessons I learned as a kid was not to look at the sun. As lessons go, it was a pretty easy one to learn, since ignoring it kinda hurts. Extreme astronomer Gary Palmer wants you to disregard that advice and take a good long look into that burning ball of hellfire via the safety of your computer monitor at his site, The Sun in Motion.
Understandably, this summer has included a lot of reminiscing about the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing, as this year was its 40th anniversary. Since it’s also the International Year of Astronomy, I thought a review of a really cool website related to the moon landing was in order. A really spectacular resource I’ve found is called We Choose the Moon, a multimedia, interactive site created by the JFK Presidential Library.
BY BILL FERRIS
This week’s MBTN features an express flight to Mars, Web 2.0 project ideas, alternatives to book reports, and online sites where you can learn a new language. Read about all of it after the jump.
According to the plot summary for Teen Wolf on Wikipedia, “High school student Scott Howard is seventeen years old, sick of being average and wishing he were special… Scott keeps undergoing changes and eventually undergoes a complete change and becomes a wolf… During the final basketball game, Scott refuses to “wolf out” and insists on winning the game on his own.”
Isn’t that heart-warming? The message is just be yourself!
So, what does Teen Wolf have to do with anything here? (more…)
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