NEOGEO K-12 activities

NEOGEO K-12 ACTIVITIES AND

LESSON PLANS

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Activity name	Created by	At a glance	Supplemental materials
WEATHER AND CLIMATE
Reasons for Seasons	Yvette Vlack	To establish a conceptual understanding about what causes the seasons on Earth. Activities center on the two primary causes of seasons: Earth’s tilt and Earth’s spherical shape.
The Surface Radiation Budget	Scott Sheridan	In this exercise, students investigate the balance of surface radiation gains and losses in different outdoor environments, to help understand the earth’s climate on the large and small scale.
Weather Map Analysis	Vanessa Myers and Scott Sheridan	In this classroom-based activity, students will learn the different steps for creating and analyzing weather maps.
The Earth, Sun and You	Debra Mokaren and Bethaney Bosley	In this interactive classroom based activity students explore the Earth/Sun system to determine the relation of this model with Earth’s seasons.
Introduction to Climate	Debra Mokaren	In this classroom-based activity students explore the differences between weather and climate. Students are exposed to a variety of data collection methods and uses of data.
Density and Pressure of a Hot Air Balloon	Debra Mokaren and Bethaney Bosley	In this classroom-based lab activity students explore the concept of density of gases, specifically air; as well as how this concept relates to air pressure.
Introduction to Density	Debra Mokaren and Bethaney Bosley	In this classroom-based activity students explore the concept of density by participating in demonstrations and investigate the density equation.
GEOLOGIC TIME
Walking the Geologic Time Line	*Yvette Vlack*	Students will use GPS as a proxy for time and walk a geologic time line. Students will collaborate about various items at stations that represent major divisions in geologic time and use the items as cues about major events that occurred in an era or period. Students will write out their hypothesis as it relates to the various cues.	Activity worksheet Activity key
HYDROLOGY
Candy Creek Watershed	Beth Hart	Candy Creek Watershed provides students with the opportunity to approximate the amount of water flowing through a watershed given a certain amount of precipitation. This activity offers kinesthetic learning and a visual example of water movement.
Hydrology and Landforms	*Mandy Munro-Stasiuk*	Students will examine the processes of erosion, transportation and deposition in river systems. Students will set up an experiment demonstrating these processes and examine the landforms that result. Students will recognize different river environments from satellite images and aerial photographs.
OCEANOGRAPHY
What Goes Down Must Come Up… Exploring Density-Driven Ocean Circulation	Donna L. Witter	In this lab-based activity, students use commonly available materials to understand how variations in the density of seawater occur and how these can induce a global circuit of ocean circulation that is important to climate.
PLATE TECTONICS AND ASSOCIATED PROCESSES
Sea Floor Spreading	Pamela Schwenk	Students will learn about the evidence for sea floor spreading and create their own movable three-dimensional model.
Investigation of Plate Boundaries	Beth Hart	Investigation of Plate Boundaries provides students with the opportunity to visualize plate movement and the resulting landforms. This activity offers kinesthetic learning and discussions for diverse learners.
Reconstructing Pangaea	*Pamela Schwenk*	Students will mark areas that have matching geologic features on a world map and then cut their maps into three pieces and align them so that like areas match up.
Maps and Tectonic History	Pamela Schwenk	Students use maps to look at how continents have moved over time. Students will also look at Ohio’s movement throughout the Phanerozoic and infer climate changes from past latitudinal positions (tropical vs. temperate).
Earthquake Distribution	*Pamela Schwenk*	Students will use maps to look for patterns between landforms (focusing on volcanoes and spreading ridges) and depth of earth quakes.
BIOCHEMICAL CYCLES
Carbon Cycle	Pamela Schwenk	In this jig-saw activity students explore how biological, physical and geologic processes interact to create equilibrium in the carbon cycle.
*ECOSYSTEMS*
Ecosystems and Change	Bethaney Bosley	Students research a particular ecosystem from one organism’s point of view to identify interrelationships, impacts of change, and their own influence on the ecosystem.
Exploring Mini Ecosystems	Bethaney Bosley and Debra Mokaren	Students will apply knowledge of ecosystems to their schoolyard in an outside investigation.
GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY
Earth As Art – Observations and Inferences from Satellite Images	Donna L. Witter	This activity uses satellite images from a NASA website, “Our Earth As Art” to develop students’ observation, inference and analysis skills.
GPS treasure hunt	Mandy Munro-Stasiuk	Students will find pre-determined locations where items (treasure) have been placed in the landscape using a GPS unit. Students will learn how to use GPS units, read latitude and longitude, and gain a sense of space and distance.
Tracking the Treasure Trove	Mandy Munro-Stasiuk and Debra Mokaren	This outdoor field activity allows students to gain practical experience with Global Positioning System devices; such as learning to read latitude and longitude, as well as gaining a sense of space and direction. Students use GPS units to seek out pre-hidden treasure in a race to the end.
Learning Landforms with DEMs (Digital Elevation Models)	Yvette Vlack and Beth Hart	Students will manipulate DEM images in the MicroDEM program. By doing this, students will learn about various landforms and their characteristic features. Students will hypothesize and discuss the different geologic settings that formed various landforms through use of the DEMs. This activity focuses on glaciated versus non-glaciated landform features.
Sensing with Satellites	Beth Hart and Yvette Vlack	Students will use computer programs and satellite imagery to analyze local areas and draw inferences about seasonality, plant health, and long-term changes to the area.
Where are we on Earth?	Bethaney Bosley	Students become familiar with online remote sensing and GIS resources by creating a poster which "zooms in” to their school.	Web Links Poster Template
*WATER QUALITY*
Water Quality Activity	Beth Hart, Yvette Vlack, Kay Amey, and Joseph Ortiz	Students will utilize technology to obtain data concerning water quality. The data analyses will provide students with information regarding the quality of local water supplies.
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