17 September 2011 Earth Science Sites of the Week

Editor’s Picks: 1) Water Footprint Calculator, ***2) Weather Spark, 3) ***Musings of Carl Sagan "Before we Found our Way" fantastic video, 4) Tracking Hazards in Real Time, 5) Wikipedia Comes of Age – You Mean it’s OK for Students to Use it?, ***6) Core Practices for Ambitious Science Teaching, 7) Celebrity Dirty Jobs: Why you want Students to Excel in School.



Geosphere
Site Name
Magnets at the Core
Site URL
Site Author
Consortium For Ocean Leadership
Suggested By
Leslie Peart
Description
“Instructions for an activity where students use core models made from swim noodles with embedded magnets and compasses to measure and record magnetic orientation. These model cores simulate the magnetic fields recorded in real deep-sea sediment cores obtained.”

Site Name
Recent Earthquake Teachable Moments
Site URL
Site Author
IRIS
Suggested By
Becky Remis
Description
“Teachable information about the Haitian Quake. Complete lists of teachable moment PowerPoint presentations are available along with animations and visualizations. Links for additional Haiti earthquake resources are listed at the bottom of the site.”

Site Name
Division of Seismology, Geology, and Tectonophysics
Site URL
Site Author
Columbia University
Suggested By
Michael Passow
Description
“Highlights of the projects researchers have done at this University are posted here. These project highlights include earthquakes, faulting, geodynamics, and ocean bottom seismology.”

Water
Site Name
Water Footprint Calculator
Site URL
Site Author
Prof. Arjen Y. Hoekstra and Dr. Ashok K. Champaign
Suggested By
Michael Gallagher
Description
“Your individual water footprint is equal to the water required to produce the goods and services consumed by you. Please take your time and feel free to use the extended water footprint calculator to assess your own unique water footprint. The calculations are based on the water requirements per unit of product as in your country of residence.” It would be desirable if the assumptions used in constructing the model were included.

Weather
Site Name
Golden Gate Sundog
Site URL
Site Author
Mila Zinkova
Suggested By
Matt Coia
Description
“Images of cool colors in the sky, looking like a halo or corona of some sort reflecting/refracting through a low, wide bank of clouds near the horizon except that each small streak of orange and yellow color was really far away from the sun in the NE and SE corners of the sky.  These images are called sun dogs.”
For  more images of sundogs see:

Site Name
Weather Spark
Site URL
Site Author
Jacob Norda and James Diebel
Suggested By
Sean Ellison
Description
“Full of lesson materials. Complete set of weather history reports broken down daily by the hour. Complete with temperatures, amount of precipitation and cloud cover.  Very interesting!”
Space
Site Name
Site URL
Site Author
Richard B Dunn
Suggested By
Jay Sinclair
Description
“The Bad Astronomer has an interesting post about the possibility of weak or even non-existent solar maxima over the next couple of cycles. Even though the Sun is currently approaching the peak of its cycle in 2013, and we’re seeing an increase in activity (more sunspots, flares, and other violent events), there are strong signs that the next expected peak (in 2022 or later) may be weaker, or may not come at all!

Site Name
Musings of Carl Sagan ... "Before we Found our Way"
Site URL
Site Author
UNAVCO
Suggested By
Lou Estey
Description
Spectacular imagery: “A video speaking of the future and all the greatness we are capable of achieving in future generations. Stating how our weaknesses hold us back yet noting everything we have achieved. Many photos of nature are shown in the background of the video.”

Site Name
The Universe’s Size
Site URL
Site Author
Nicole Sosnoski
Suggested by
Nicole Sosnoski
Description
“A virtual (Prezi) presentation to make the scale of the universe easier to understand.”
General
Site Name
Tracking Hazards in Real Time
Site URL
Site Author
RSOE Emergency Information and Disaster Service
Suggested by
Thomas McGuire
Description
“The RSOE Emergency Information and Disaster Service created a webpage that begins with a multi-function world map that plots a wide range of current events including volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, biological hazards and even Earth approaching objects. Interactive tables listing each disaster along with details including specific locations follow. It's colorful and very user-friendly.”

Site Name
Wikipedia Comes of Age – You Mean it’s OK for Students to Use it?
Site URL
Site Author
Suggested by
Marion Weaver
Description
“An interesting article about Wikipedia in the Chronicle Review of the Chronicle of Higher Education wherein the author is now supportive of the use of Wikipedia because it can play a valid role in formal educational settings. He feels that the role of academic publishers is now to strengthen links from entries to more advanced resources, he gives documented examples.”
Teaching
Site Name
Core Practices for Ambitious Science Teaching

Site URL
Site Author
Early Career Science Educators
Suggested By
David Smith
Description
“This is a website is for new teachers to develop ideas about how to communicate information to students effectively. The website contains descriptions of the effective strategies to promote learning and videos of teachers using them.  It will take a good deal of time to work through it all, and even more time to become proficient but they really hit the nail on the head in terms of research-based practices.”

Environment
Site Name
The Fukushima Daiichi Incident Powerpoing
Site URL
Site Author
Dr. Matthias Braun
Suggested by
Mark Heilbrunn
Description
A powerpoint containing all the details of the Fukushima Daiichi incident which occured in Japan. Including the plant design, accident progression, radiological releases and fuel pools.
Demo
Title
Plate Tectonics Demo
Contributor
John Henry Cottrell
Description
“A power point about plate tectonics to go along with completing a demo with a paper towels and small aquarium.  Explain how the plates near the ridge are hotter and thus lighter.  The further one travels from the rift two things occur, one, it gets colder and it also builds up more sediment (i.e. limestone, shale, etc), both helping making the slab more dense. Then put a small paperclip on one end of the paper towel to explain the extra density at a subduction zone.  Put the paper towel flat on the top of the water in the aquarium... in a short time the paper towel will "subduct" into the aquarium similar to plate subduction”
URL

Title
Coriolis Spin Table Tops
Contributor
Virginia Malone
Description
“I used paper and a ruler (this seems to confirm to students that the line drawn is  "straight line."  The following is the lesson plan
http://www.wetheteachers.com/plan.php?id=629  you will need to sign in but it is free and no spam. Since each pair of students can complete their own models, I like the try it out which has the students illustrate the effects off:
A planet that rotates very fast
A planet that is not rotating
Earth from the Southern Hemisphere.
Winds blowing from the Equator toward the pole. (Draw the pencil from the edge of the paper to the center.” 
Computer Tips
Site Name
Desmos: Powerful, free on line calculator
Site URL
Site Author
Desmos
Suggested by
Rich MacLeish
Description
“Forged from the math engine of the Desmos Whiteboard, we've built the best browser-based calculator on the web. It's powerful, beautiful, intuitive, and free! Desmos is a place where anyone can create and share rich, interactive content that works across platforms – from computers, to interactive touch screens in classrooms, and even to many tablet devices and smart phones.”
Humor
Site Name
Celebrity Dirty Jobs: Why you want Students to Excel in School
Site URL
Site Author
TVKim.com
Suggested by
Tim Wozniak
Description
Tell the kids this is the reason why you want to succeed in school.  There are some jobs you just wouldn't want to do. Mike Rowe's job is to find these jobs and work them for a day. Listen to him talk about the fascinating, and sometimes gross, jobs he's worked. He also talks about how these jobs have changed his idea about work.

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