Making Your Own National Park Geologic Tour Activity Source: National Park Service, 2006. Adapted with permission. Background In this investigation, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about the many geological features in our country’s national parks. You might not realize this, but a large number of the national parks were created because of their amazing geology. Just think of the geological features of Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and many more! [Read More]

Map-Making Basics Activity Source: U.S. Geological Survey, 2006. Adapted with permission. Background Maps are two-dimensional ways of representing information about the natural and built world from a “top-down” perspective. You are probably familiar with road maps that show where roads go and which roads intersect with others and where. You also may have seen weather maps, which show weather patterns across a specific geographic area, or political maps, which show where borders are for countries and areas within those countries. [Read More]

Mapping a Refuge Activity Source: National Energy Education Development Project. Provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Adapted with permission. The National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is the world’s premier system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fish, wildlife, and plants. Why not visit a national wildlife refuge (www.fws.gov/refuges) in or near your community? A refuge is a place where you can record observations of seasonal changes to plants, trees, and wildlife. [Read More]

Mapping from Different Perspectives Activity Source: American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Developed by Lindsay Mossa, AGI. Maps can be used for many purposes, such as exploring new areas and tracking changes in Earth’s features. Maps are also made in different ways. Traditionally, maps have been made from the ground-level. It is now becoming more common for maps to be made from images taken by satellites and drones. In this activity, you will make maps from different perspectives and analyze how those views can reveal different features. [Read More]

Mapping Quake Risk Activity Source: Esri. Adapted with permission. Today, people are “mapping our world” with the aid of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Mapping can be done in the field or the lab—even from smartphones. You can make maps with real-time data about wildfires, tsunamis, and tornadoes. You can make maps with imagery collected with visible light, infrared, and radar data. GIS helps people solve everyday problems in Earth science from coastal erosion on the local beach to global climate change. [Read More]

Mapping the Atmosphere American Meteorological Society Activity Source: American Meteorological Society. Adapted with permission. A map can represent data from an area on a flat surface. The part of our Earth system most frequently mapped is the atmosphere. Weather—the state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time—needs constant monitoring because it perpetually changes as weather systems evolve and move. Awareness of what the weather is and is likely to be has numerous benefits. [Read More]

Mapping Vertical Movements Activity Source: UNAVCO By installing GPS stations that measure the movement of Earth’s crust, UNAVCO advances geodesy, the study of Earth’s shape, gravitational field, and rotation. Each station has a receiver antenna that communicates with satellites to measure, within millimeters, how Earth is moving. Some movements are horizontal, the sliding of tectonic plates. Some movements are vertical, as when Earth’s mantle either sinks or rebounds in a process called isostatic rebound. [Read More]

Mapping Your Soil Activity Source: Soil Science Society of America. Adapted with permission. The key properties of soil (physical, biological, and chemical) determine recreation, crop production, range, water/erosion conservation, forestry, and engineering uses of the soil. Soil surveys help us understand how soils differ and how they behave under various land management systems. The heart of a soil survey is the soil map showing the spatial distribution and variability of soils on the landscape. [Read More]

Measure for Measure Activity Source: Adapted from Joint Oceanographic Institutions in the Classroom, 2005. Background Geoscientists use special boats to conduct research at sea. One of these boats is named the JOIDES Resolution (JR). Unlike most oceangoing vessels, the JR has a flat bottom, a 6.4-meter hole in the middle, 12 laboratories, and a derrick towering 67 meters above the waterline! Why? So scientists can sail nearly anywhere in the world to drill for samples of rocks and sediment from below the seafloor. [Read More]

Measuring Earth’s Water Activity Source: Source: NASA. Adapted with permission. Even though our home planet has a lot of water, over 73 percent of that is salt water. We need freshwater to meet most of our needs, and precipitation supplies much of this valuable natural resource. Did you know that NASA, in a partnership with the Japanese, has a satellite that measures precipitation as it falls from the clouds to the ground? [Read More]