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.

In this lesson, students find their location on a map using Latitude and Longitudinal coordinates. They determine where they should go to be rescued and how best to get there.

The purpose of this resource is to identify a region for study as a system, and to establish a list of characteristics and features useful for determining the boundaries of regional systems. Students discuss their current understanding of what Earth systems are and how they work, and consider how to identify the boundaries of a region for Earth system study. In small groups, they select a region for recommendation to the class, and they make a list of characteristics and features that can mark the boundaries of regional systems. After presentations by each group, the class chooses one region for study as an Earth system. Then they mark the boundaries of their chosen region on their Landsat image, topographic map, or other map.

Explores the changing map of the public and the private in pre-industrial and modern societies and examines how that map affected men's and women's production and consumption of goods and leisure. The reproductive strategies of women, either in conjunction with or in opposition to their families, is another major theme. How did an ideal of the "domestic" arise in the early modern west, and to what extent did it limit the economic position of women? How has it been challenged, and with what success, in the post-industrial period? Focuses on western Europe since the Middle Ages and on the United States, but some attention to how these issues have played themselves out in non-Western cultures. This course will explore the relation of women and men in both pre-industrial and modern societies to the changing map of public and private (household) work spaces, examining how that map affected their opportunities for both productive activity and the consumption of goods and leisure. The reproductive strategies of women, either in conjunction with or in opposition to their families, will be the third major theme of the course. We will consider how a place and an ideal of the "domestic" arose in the early modern west, to what extent it was effective in limiting the economic position of women, and how it has been challenged, and with what success, in the post-industrial period. Finally, we will consider some of the policy implications for contemporary societies as they respond to changes in the composition of the paid work force, as well as to radical changes in their national demographic profiles. Although most of the material for the course will focus on western Europe since the Middle Ages and on the United States, we will also consider how these issues have played themselves out in non-western cultures.

At the completion of this lesson you will be using a road map and able to explain to someone what way to go.

Students will become familiar with the regions and local features of North Carolina and be able to write directions for others to find these features on a map.

The marine environment is unique and requires technologies that can use sound to gather information since there is little light underwater. The sea-floor is characterized using underwater sound and acoustical systems. Current technological innovations are allowing scientists to further understand and apply information about animal locations and habitat. Remote sensing and exploration with underwater vehicles allows scientists to map and understand the sea floor, and in some cases, the water column. In this lesson, the students will be shown benthic habitat images produced by GIS. These imaged will lead to a class discussion on why habitat mapping is useful and how current technology works to make bathymetry mapping possible. The teacher will then ask inquiry-based questions to have students brainstorm about the importance of bathymetry mapping.

The students will use a map of the classroom to strengthen their map reading skills. They will work in groups and use a prepared map of the classroom to find hidden messages.

This activity serves to introduce the concept of tracking and spatial movements of animals in relation to the environment in which they live. The following activity will aid student understanding of animal tracking and how technology used in this process.

See how the human heart moves blood through the body in this animated feature from the NOVA: "Cut to the Heart" Web site.

Historically, sea floor mapping occurred with a more simple data collection method: soundings. Soundings are taken by dropping a weight with a pre-measured rope off the side of the boat and noting the measurement on the rope when the weight hits the bottom. This activity will replicate the creation of sea floor bathymetry by taking a simplified form of soundings in the classroom.

The marine environment is unique and requires technologies that can use sound to gather information since there is little light underwater. The sea-floor is characterized using underwater sound and acoustical systems. Current technological innovations are allowing scientists to further understand and apply information about animal locations and habitat. Remote sensing and exploration with underwater vehicles allows scientists to map and understand the sea floor. Similar technologies also aid in animal tracking, a method used within science and commercial industries. The teacher will use inquiry-based learning techniques to teach students the importance of habitat mapping and animal tracking.

MASLab (Mobile Autonomous System Laboratory) is a robotics contest. The contest takes place during MIT's Independent Activities Period and participants earn 6 units of P/F credit and 6 Engineering Design Points. Teams of three to four students have less than a month to build and program sophisticated robots which must explore an unknown playing field and perform a series of tasks. MASLab provides a significantly more difficult robotics problem than many other university-level robotics contests. Although students know the general size, shape, and color of the floors and walls, the students do not know the exact layout of the playing field. In addition, MASLab robots are completely autonomous, or in other words, the robots operate, calculate, and plan without human intervention. Finally, MASLab is one of the few robotics contests in the country to use a vision based robotics problem.

Normally we find things using landmark navigation. When you move to a new place, it may take you awhile to explore the new streets and buildings, but eventually you recognize enough landmarks and remember where they are in relation to each other. However, another accurate method for locating places and things is using grids and coordinates. In this activity, students will come up with their own system of a grid and coordinates for their classroom and understand why it is important to have one common method of map-making.

In this unit, students learn the very basics of navigation, including the different kinds of navigation and their purpose. The concepts of relative and absolute location, latitude, longitude and cardinal directions are discussed, as well as the use and principles of a map and compass. Students will discover the history of navigation and learn the importance of math and how it ties into navigational techniques. Understanding how trilateration can determine one's location leads to a lesson on the global positioning system and how to use a GPS receiver. The unit concludes with an overview of orbits and spacecraft trajectories from Earth to other planets.

This lesson will introduce and reinforce main transportation routes for people and goods in North Carolina. Students will enhance map skills including using cardinal and intermediate directions, using a mileage chart, and planning transportation routes.

Students apply their knowledge of the Internet to locate their states on a map of the US, gather information regarding those states, cut and paste that information onto a recording sheet, and then print out the final product. The purpose is also to compare this way of preparation to a non-technilogical way.

Students will play a game in small groups using large grids to develop skill in locating and naming points on grid maps.

Maps are designed to allow people to travel to a new location without a guide to show the way. They tell us information about areas to which we may or may not have ever been. There are many types of maps available for both recreational and professional use. A navigator uses a nautical map, while an engineer might use a surveyor's map. Maps are created by cartographers, and they can be very specific or very general, depending on their intended use. The focus of this lesson is on how to read and use topographical maps. Students will also learn to identify the common features of a map. Through the associated activities, students will learn how to use a compass to find bearing to an object on a map and in the classroom.