The video was featured as the July 23, 2012 "Astronomy Picture of the Day". Video Credit and Copyright: Tom A. Warner, ZTResearch, www.weathervideoHD.TV
Tom's camera was able to take 7,207 frames per second (actual time is shown at the bottom of the video). The 33-second video represents about .12 seconds of real time.
See if students can identify cities in your area. Initially, I was confused by the large area of lights in western North Dakota - until I realized there were due to activity in the Bakken Oil Fields. In most cases more light means more people. Challenge students to identify the Earth Science factors that draw people to specific areas (rivers, lakes and other water resources, harbors, soil, warm sunny climates, transportation/travel routes, mineral resources, etc.).
In the long history of mankind geology, hydrology, and meteorology have played important roles in the development of communities and cultures. An important aspect of every culture is the story of how that group of people adapted to their environment - how they figured out how to feed themselves, build shelters, clothe themselves, make weapons, even how they developed values and beliefs, etc.
To learn more about the lights in the Bakken Oil Fields in North Dakota, CLICK HERE.
EXTRA: ScienceCasts Christmas Sky Show
To view a convenient list of all the resources that have been posted on this "Earth Science Guy" blog site, CLICK HERE.
Another great source is the animation provided by The New York Times, which explains and shows the sequence of events that caused New Orleans to flood in 2005. It is very impressive! CLICK HERE to see it. The animation created by graphic artist Dan Swenson and researched by Bob Marshall.
In fact 2011 was the deadliest tornado year in decades. How does it compare to other years in the past several decades? This week's resource is an interactive map that allows you to find out. CLICK HERE to view the interactive, which is provided by The New York Times. You can select any year on the scroll bar above the map (beneath bar graph) to look at a certain year, or you can let run (and pause it).
Also, The NY Times also has a page that features before and after aerial photos of the Joplin, Missouri tornado. CLCICK HERE to see that. Below those photos you will find a link to street-level before and after photos - pretty impressive!
Here is a link to NOAA's 2012 Severe Weather Summaries. Choose "large hail", "wind damage", or "tornadoes" at the top of the map to see where these different types of severe weather happened.
The key that helped me understand why there are jet streams was a "pressure block" activity that I did while taking the DataStreme (online) Course offered by the American Meteorological Society. Although I don't have students do the activity, I use photos of the blocks in my presentation. The topics covered in the PowerPoint are . . .
1. Jet Streams: What and where?
2. How do we know where they are?
3. Why are they important?
NOTE: The presentation is posted on www.slideboom.com - a free site that allows you to post up to 100 presentations, which students or colleagues can view or download. To view other presentations that I've posted type "rod benson" into the search box.
NOTE: If students have a good understanding of "plate tectonics" and "the rock cycle", they have a decent foundation in geology. For more about the rock cycle, check out this Rock Cycle PenCast.
*The links embedded in the above text will take you to several photos.
This week on PBS: The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns airs on PBS Sunday and Monday evening, Nov. 18-19 at 8 pm Eastern Time. Also, the topic of this week's NOVA is about superstorm Sandy.
One of the fun new images I learned about on Mike Heard's Blog shows "Total Precipitable Water" (vapor in the air over ocean water). Mike is a broadcast meteorologist in Butte, Montana. He explains the images on his blog site. To see the current loop, CLICK HERE. . . Or, CLICK HERE to watch a YouTube video about the images.
Here's what I did. I gave each student a zip-lock snack bag with 12 beads (4 that turn yellow, 4 that turn red, and 4 that turn blue). Next, I explained that each of them would need to design, and carry out an experiment to find the answer to one of the questions listed HERE (or one of their own questions). The students were given 1 week to complete the project.
According to their site, the academy "is a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge."
CLICK HERE to view the list of Khan Academy tutorials available in the "Cosmology and Astronomy" category. . . Many of the tutorials are related to geology topics. (They really should have a "geology" category!) The tutorials may be helpful for students who want to review a topic. If you have a web site, you might post links to certain Khan videos that you think will be beneficial to your students. CLICK HERE to see how I have done this on my web site for students (scroll down once you get there).
He continues, "In the first month of existence, SciShow pulled in 2 million views and over 100,000 subscribers. The channel continues to grow with a strong demographic interest among high school and college students as well as a much stronger female demographic than science programming usually draws. This is really exciting for me, because it's exactly the sort of people that our world needs taking an interest in science."
To learn more about Hank, CLICK HERE (Wikipedia) or go to www.hankgreen.com.
GONE HIKING FOR THE SUMMER: This will be the last post for the school year. The next resource will be posted on September 7th, however I do not plan to post every week. Go to RODNEY'S HOMEPAGE for Earth Science Teachers to access resources related to Earth Science education. Have a great summer vacation!
Also (unrelated to the "Scale of the Universe 2") there will be an annular eclipse on Sunday. CLICK HERE to see a good short video produced by NASA. The best viewing will be in the southwest, but much of the west will see a "partial". Spaceweather.com is another good source. Select "animated eclipse map" to find out what the eclipse will look like from your state.
To view a convenient list of all the resources that have been posted on this "Earth Science Guy" blog site, CLICK HERE.
This example will be more meaningful to those who have seen the butte and for those who live in Montana. However, this approach is something to think about as you teach students about geology in your area. I've tried to promote this strategy in Montana with a "picture of the week" web site. Teachers in Montana simply decide which picture (from the list) will be the "picture of the week" for their classes, they post the number in their classroom, and then students use the generic worksheet to complete the assignment. A copy of the worksheet can be printed from the web site: www.formontana.net
It would be very beneficial to Earth Science education in your state if your state had a similar resource. The development of such a site would be a great project for a state science teachers, or Earth science teachers, association.
The second is provided by NOVA (PBS). CLICK HERE and then select "Launch Interactive".
CLICK HERE to read about the day in our nation's history when tides and moon phases were crucial to what happened. Finally, CLICK HERE to see a related problem-solving activity.
Here's another good current wind map: www.wunderground.com
To view a convenient list of all the resources that have been posted on this "Earth Science Guy" blog site, CLICK HERE.
One of the fun things about teaching Earth Science is helping students understand connections between geology, astronomy, meteorology, and oceanography. One such connection is the link between ice ages and changes in the Earth-Sun relationship. This week's resource is a tutorial that will help students explore Milankovitch Cycles. CLICK HERE to go to the tutorial.
According to the Milankovitch Theory, the advance and retreat of "ice ages" (technically "glaciations, or glacial periods") over the past 3 million years have been caused (at least in part) by changes in the relationship between the Earth and Sun. The theory is named for Serbian astronomer Milutin Milankovitch, who painstakingly calculated how changes in Earth's orbit affected the amount of solar radiation that reached different latitudes at different seasons.
Though he did his work in 1920's, Milankovich's results weren't proven until the 1970s. A 1976 study, which examined deep-sea sediment cores, found that Milankovich's findings corresponded to periods of climate change. Although there is a consensus that Milankovitch cycles do influence the waxing and waning of ice ages, there are several problems. One mystery about the ice ages has to do with the change in frequency of glaciations that happened about 1 mya (see graph above). Why did the timing switch from once every 41,000 years to once every 100,000 years? To read more about Milankovitch Cycles and other mysteries related to ice ages, CLICK HERE. To watch, and listen to, an explanation (pencast), CLICK HERE.
By the way, did you know we haven't been using the Richter Scale since 2002? CLICK HERE to find out more.
Here's another resource, posted by Mark Colberg, Associate Prof. of Geol. at Southern Utah University. Colberg's web page outlines the basic principles of earthquakes and provides links to the best animations of seismic waves that I've seen. CLICK HERE to view the page and then scroll down to access the animations.
To view a convenient list of all the resources that have been posted on this "Earth Science Guy" blog site, CLICK HERE.
Another great source is The Earth Science World Image Bank, which is a service provided by the American Geological Institute (AGI). This Image Bank is designed to provide quality geoscience images to the public, educators, and the geoscience community.
Another source is the Earth Science Picture of the Day web site, which also provides a "search" feature to help you find what you are looking for. A similar Astronomy Picture of the Day web site is also available.
As you know, convection plays a major role in Earth systems. Here is video that shows a colorful way for students to cause convection . . . and then watch as it happens. The video shows the second part of a two-part activity that helps students understand the role convection plays in causing wind. Both parts, as well as the student handout, are included in a kit available from WARD's. CLICK HERE to see the kit, which also includes an activity related to ocean currents. CLICK HERE to watch a video of that activity. The student handouts (one for the wind lab, and the other for the ocean currents lab) challenge students to apply what they have observed to wind and ocean currents in a way that contributes to a deeper understanding of these Earth systems.
As they are working at home, the worksheet instructs them to go to www.formontana.net/jump.html where they find links to sites such as Virtual Dating and others needed to finish the worksheet. I haven't provided a key because I want you to work through it before having your students do it. Even if it's not something you're interested in, take a look at the "Virtual Dating" site. . . No, it's not that kind of dating!
Photo courtesy of Montana Historical Society: The diorama, which depicts the First Peoples Buffalo Jump west of Great Falls, is on display in the society's museum in Helena, Montana.
Reminder: Watch NOVA on Wednesday, February 1 on PBS. The title this week is Ice Age Death Trap.
The time scale was established in the 1800s, using principles of relative dating (fossils, super-position, cross-cutting relationships, etc.). In the 20th century radiometric dating allowed dates to be added. Earth's history was divided into major time periods called "eons", and then sub-divided into even smaller spans of time (eras, periods, epochs).
Students may wonder why one period ended and another began. Each period was different from than those before and after it; different organisms, different climate, etc. . . and one of the challenges of geology is figuring out what caused these changes. In some cases the ends of time periods coincided with mass extinction events. For example, most scientists believe the extinction event that abruptly ended the Mesozoic Era was caused by an asteroid impact. Unfortunately, not all transitions are so well-understood.
And the resource is . . .
To strengthen your understanding of Earth's history, read Why Geology Matters (2011) by Doug Macdougall. Macdougall explains significant events in Earth's history and provides a perspective that brings together oceanography, meteorology, astronomy, and geology. Macdougall also wrote "Frozen Earth: The Story of Once and Future Ice Ages"; another one of my favorites.
The ASPIRE Lab offers several other activities created by teachers for teachers, many of them related to Earth Science.
