Earth's Magnetic Personality Teacher's Guide

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Subject:

Science and Technology

Institution Name:

NASA

Collection:

NASA

Grade Level:

Secondary

Abstract:

This magnetism teacher’s guide is one of four activity guides—plus a background guide for teachers—that provide students with the opportunity to build on science concepts related to Earth’s magnetism and its changes, as detected by THEMIS magnetometers located in schools across the U.S. The four activity guides have been used in different types of classes, from physical science and physics classes, to geology classes and astronomy classes. The excitement of actually participating in the THEMIS project helps motivate the students to learn challenging physical science concepts.

The background guide for teachers, the THEMIS GEONS Users Guide describes the important role that terrestrial magnetism plays in shaping a number of important Earth systems. It also explains the basic operating principles behind magnetometers—particularly the system you are now in the process of using to investigate magnetic storms at your school.

Earth’s Magnetic Personality is the fourth and final guide, which was developed with the goal that students can work directly with the THEMIS magnetometer data. The guide covers vectors, the x-y-z magnetometer plots, creating a prediction for aurora using the magnetometer data, calculating the total magnetic field strength and observing it over months, and the waves in Earth’s magnetic field excited by large magnetic storms.

Course Type:

Learning Module

Languages:

English

Material Type:

Curriculum Standards, Teaching and Learning Strategies

Media Format:

Text/HTML, Downloadable docs

Conditions of Use:

Public Domain
NASA still images; audio files; video; and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format, generally are not copyrighted. You may use NASA imagery, video, audio, and data files used for the rendition of 3-dimensional models for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations, and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages.