This visualization from NASA shows global rainfall patterns over a 22-year span. It incorporates data from a combination of remote-sensing and ground-based sources.

One of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of teaching an advanced placement environmental science course is finding enriching field and lab activities for your students. These labs have been developed by an experienced team of environmental science educators in partnership with the Environmental Literacy Council. Each lab has been the subject of an extensive peer review by a number of experienced environmental science educators. The content of this initial collection is varied, and APES teachers and students in different areas around the country should be able to complete each of the labs. These initial labs are not typical cookbook variety. They each contain an inquiry-based component. Over time, additional labs and tools for new and experienced teachers will be added to the collection.

In this web-based, interactive story, Tutangiaq (Too-tang-geye-ack - nicknamed 2T), a Canada Goose, flies across Alaska looking for his family. As he flies, he tells children about the fascinating 49th state. Children learn how Alaska was purchased from the Russians, and other facts about the state. They can also compare the size of Alaska to other states. 2T takes a flight across the volcanic chain in Alaska and helps the students to interactively explore how scientists monitor volcanoes from satellite images in near-real time. At the coast, the bird also meets his Walrus friend who shows him how the sea ice edge has receded and gives an example of an adverse effect on marine life. Finally, 2T arrives in Fairbanks where children use satellite imagery to help 2T find and unite with his family.

Explores the changing roles, ethical conflicts, and public perceptions of science and scientists in American society from World War II to the present. Studies specific historical episodes focusing on debates between scientists and the contextual factors influencing their opinions and decisions. Topics include the atomic bomb project, environmental controversies, the Challenger disaster, biomedical research, genetic engineering, (mis)use of human subjects, scientific misconduct and whistleblowing.

In this video segment adapted from KUAC, find out why the horizon in Alaska is sometimes shrouded in pollution and what it means for climate change in the Arctic.

In this interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain, learn how Arctic sea ice has changed over the past 25 years in terms of maximum winter extent, concentration, and the timing of breakup each spring.

This site offers a searchable collection of answers to questions about global warming, ozone depletion, greenhouse gases, and other issues related to climate change. Students can also submit questions of their own and explore related links.

In this lesson students will compare and make distinctions among 5 alternative fuels. They will understand the impact of different types of fuel on: a. the environment b. lifestyle c. the economy/personal finances of car choices. They will also use critical thinking skills to support multi-step decision-making for buying a car.

In this lab, students will infer a potential for increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leading to global warming by contrasting the temperature rise in a CO2 rich atmosphere to that of normal air when both environments are exposed to a bright light in a controlled experiment.

In this interactive activity from NOVA scienceNOW, explore options for storing carbon dioxide in order to prevent further global warming.

Students are introduced to the concept of energy cycles by learning about the carbon cycle. They will learn how carbon atoms travel through the geological (ancient) carbon cycle and the biological/physical carbon cycle. Students will consider how human activities have disturbed the carbon cycle by emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They will discuss how engineers and scientists are working to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Lastly, students will consider how they can help the world through simple energy conservation measures.

Through a reading, demonstration stations, and completion of a puzzle, students will recognize how respiration and photosynthesis move carbon through the earth system, how fossil fuels were formed, and how human activities have altered this movement on a global scale.

In this video adapted from the Arctic Athabaskan Council, learn how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the landscape, triggering a host of effects such as permafrost thawing and insect infestations.

Here you will find animations of how Global Warming occurs and how it is linked to the Carbon and Water cycles.

High school students can investigate the link between everyday actions at their high school, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Using this site, students can learn about climate change, estimate their school's greenhouse gas emissions and conceptualize ways to mitigate their school's climate impact. Students gain detailed understandings of climate-change drivers, impacts, and science; produce an emission inventory and action plan; and can even submit the results of their emission inventory to their school district.

This collection of Climate Change Graphics is from Earth: Inside and Out, part of the Museum's Seminars on Science series. These distance-learning courses are designed to help educators meet the new national science standards.

This video adapted from KTOO takes a look at Earth's warming and cooling cycles and the current atypical trend of warming that is impacting the glaciers in Alaska's Inside Passage.

Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently won the Nobel prize and climate change is all over the news, yet no action is being taken commensurate with its scale. This course will provide students with the scientific literacy to understand the issue itself and consider existing solutions such as the Kyoto Protocol, numerous bills in the U.S. Congress, voluntary measures, etc. The guiding principle will be to promote the understanding needed to evaluate, develop, and propose emerging and creative solutions at individual, campus, and local levels, rather than analyze the essentially paralyzed global discussion.

Use this site to learn about the science of climate change and its potential effects on our nation's wildlife and their habitats.