Atmospheric Tides?

Podcasts of previous EARTH & SKY related programs:

Intro + Atmospheric Pressure

http://www.box.net/shared/43of9fbpsv

http://www.box.net/shared/rqaox6ipik

Intro + Weather Forecasts

http://www.box.net/shared/caf4oo5575

http://www.box.net/shared/ka600vu7nq

I looked for lesson plans and website to support these two topics. I found MANY professional papers and scientific reports in my search, but few if any websites with applicable, usable teacher/student information. I did find one good site that was helpful for teachers and students:

NOAA: Tides and Currents http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/index.shtml

(Information, professional development opportunities, lesson plans for teachers and online activities for kids about tides and the atmosphere.)

Previous Earth & Sky programs ....shared!!

For many years I used the EARTH & SKY radio show / website to help introduce and teach many science and geography topics to my students. I also used the radio program as a way for students to work on non-fiction comprehension & writing skills. EARTH & SKY used to be a 5 minute radio show on various earth and space topics (usually on a public radio station). I used to record it and have my students listen/write about the topic each day...The students kept a journal of the daily topics. I used the radio programs as the "daily starter" activity every morning. To save the time and hastle of recording each day's radio program, I was able to purchase from Earth & Sky as a yearly subscription (a CD of each month's recordings). I ordered and used several years worth of EARTH & SKY monthly radio programs and needless to say I have quite a collection of CD's. Now the radio programs can be listened to FREE as daily podcasts from the http://www.earthsky.org/ website.

What to do now with all the EARTH & SKY CD's ? I contacted EARTH & SKY to see if I could have permission to use some of the topics from the CD subscriptions on this blogsite. They agreed, and gave me written permission to use them here! Thank You "Deborah Byrd" (of "Block and Byrd") for giving permission to use the past episodes!!

Today's podcast programs:
1-click on the shared links below for podcasts

2-turn down the music on this site to hear the podcasts

Intro + Dinosaur Fossil Site
http://www.box.net/shared/4q5bi240sa

http://www.box.net/shared/53x4ngmsiy

Intro + Dinosaurs in Alaska

http://www.box.net/shared/rau3qjotbl

http://www.box.net/shared/47rgrz9gtl

I found several websites about the National Dinosaur Museum including lesson plans that could be used to support the above "podcasts":

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0307_030310_dinotracks_2.html
http://www.dinosaurdiamond.org/Teacher_Resource.html

http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/dinosaurnationalmonument.html

http://library.osu.edu/sites/geology/National_Parks/dinosaur.php

http://edition.cnn.com/2000/fyi/teacher.resources/lesson.plans/06/12/dino.bones/index.html

http://www.ncsu.edu/sciencejunction/terminal/lessons/dino/

Discover Antarctica

National Geographic has a wonderful, interactive website all about Antarctica:


http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/antarctica/

The map shows all the different animal species and their ranges, videos/critter cams, physical geography, glossary, interactive quiz, and other resources & links, wallpaper, history of explorations, and NGS archive information...

This would be a great interactive website for use during your school's computer lab time, on a single computer or smartboard.

Skywatch Friday

SKYWATCH FRIDAY

See other amazing sky views @:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Early morning view of Mt. Timpanogos, Wasatch Mt Range,

Utah Valley, Utah, USA...

"Red skies in morning...

Sailors take warning !!!!"

World Digital Library Project

Yesterday on NPR radio, I heard a brief story about a relatively new UNESCO project:
World Digital Library Project www.wdl.org.
The directors of this project are partnering with WORLD governmental institutions (example: U.S. Library of Congress / National Archives) to "make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research."
http://www.wdl.org/en/ is an easy to use website, with a world map showing all current digitized documents available ....

What an incredible project! The World Digital Library is digitizing to preserve rare cultural primary resources documents spanning thousands of years of history from cultures around the world!!!

Sky Watch Friday

SKY WATCH FRIDAY:
See other fascinating sky views @
http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Ah, Spring in the Rockies!...Or at least along the Wastach Front portion of the Rocky Mountains!

Last weekend was lovely, sunny and warm (upper 60's)...the snow had melted so only the Mountain tops were snow covered. Then this week, Winter tried to return!! This picture was of the approaching storm front blowing in across the Salt Lake City toward the Wasatch Mts!! It has been raining, snowing, blowing, and COLD ever since. In fact, yesterday 4/16/09 the snow storm left 10-14" of snow in our surrounding area of Northern Utah County, Utah. The snow had a lot of moisture and most of it melted by last night.....Another storm is blowing in today. Needless to say, the Mountains are covered from top to bottom with snow again. Oh well, the extra "wet" snow will help fill our depleted water reserves!!!!!!!!

This picture just taken...mountains covered from top to bottom...again.

Bring on SPRING!!!!!!!!

Celebrate Earth Day art projects

Crayola.com has several easy and fun art lesson plans dedicated to the celebration of Earth Day:

Send an Earth Day Awareness e-card:

http://www.crayola.com/cardcreator/ecard_form.cfm?card=43&style=3

Make a Thank Earth card:

http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/thank-you,-earth-lesson-plan/

Where are you going: "Save the Earth’s limited resources by planning. Combine trips to go places. This early mapping experience helps pave the way to a greener lifestyle"

http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/where-are-you-going?-lesson-plan/

Don't Endanger our World:"Identify and label endangered and protected species on a large 3-D paper maché globe of the earth".

http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/don't-endanger-our-world-lesson-plan/

Where to recycle reminder:"Where can your family recycle cans, bottles, and newspapers? Create a colorful 3-D reminder to reduce landfill space!"

http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/where-to-recycle-reminder-lesson-plan/

Geography / Map resource!!

I discovered a huge map resource for teacher/school/student use:
Maps That Teach: Free U.S. and World Maps and Puzzles http://www.yourchildlearns.com/geography.htm
"Maps that Teach take advantage of the fact that geography is spatial. They also utilize the way kids learn best, by actively participating in their learning; learning by doing. As students assemble the maps, they build a permanent mental picture of their world. From Maps that Teach, a student will learn about the continents and where they are in relation to each other; the countries of the world, their capitals and major cultural landmarks, physical features; what is far and what is near."

All kinds of printable maps (world,continents, countries, states, world regional maps,etc), map puzzles, online interactive maps, world atlas, BIG sized maps for download and printing..

Most of the printable maps, are basic outline (not labeled) maps...easy to use and print.
Very user-friendly site for teachers & students!!

The Great Turtle Race

Conservation International and National Geographic have teamed to share online The Great Turtle Race: Starting 4/16/09!!

Follow the Leatherback Sea Turtles' 3,700 mile migration journey online @:http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/greatturtlerace.html








From the Great Turtle Race website:
"Eleven leatherback sea turtles are racing from foraging grounds in the frigid waters of Canada to nesting beaches on the sun-soaked shores of the Caribbean. The turtles are tagged with state-of-the-art satellite tracking devices that allow us to follow their incredible 3,700-mile (6,000-kilometer) journey. Which turtle will reach the finishing line first? Which will dive the deepest or go the farthest afield?
The race begins on Thursday, April 16. Watch the turtles' progress on our race map—updated every day—and sign up for daily race updates from Conservation International.Thank you to our sponsors and field partners for their support. (Will go live when info available). Learn more about the history of the Great Turtle Race.-->"
Also on The Great Turtle Race website:

1. Sign up for daily turtle location updates! (Have your students map the turtles' journeys from these daily race updates).
2. Watch a turtle-cam video.
3. Get facts: info from the Leatherback Creature Feature.
4. Learn about saving/protecting Leatherback and other Sea Turtles.
5. Do a sea turtle jigsaw puzzle, and much more......
   
   

3G on W3

3G on W3 (Great Globe Gallery on the WWW)

is a HUGE collection of globes & map projections! If you need a specific type of globe or map...this is the place to look!

http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/glob/3GonW3.html

Earth "hearts"

I really like GeoLounge: All things Geography blog.
http://geolounge.com/

A recent entry titled
9 Gigantic Hearts From Above
was pretty cool....showing
Earth "hearts"....


Warning!
http://damncoolpics.blogspot.com/2008/12/9-gigantic-hearts-from-above.html This particular log is a great link....but other content on the site is not appropriate for kids!!!!!!!!

Future Geographic Bee Winner

WOW!!!! This little girl will surely be a future National Geography Bee winner, the President of National Geographic's Cartography Department, President of Google Earth or.... You Go, Girl! .....Stop at nothing less than the U.S. Embassador to the World....

Easter -- Pysanky Eggs

Ukrainian Pysanky "Easter Eggs"

from Wikipedia.....

"A pysanka (Ukrainian: писанка, plural: pysanky) is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method. The word comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.Many other eastern European ethnic groups, including the Belarusians (пісанка), Bulgarians (писано яйце, pisano yaytse), Serbs (pisanica), Czechs (kraslice), Lithuanians (margutis), Poles (pisanka), Romanians (ouă vopsite or incondeiate), Slovaks (kraslica), and Slovenes (pisanica or pirh) decorate eggs in a similar manner for Easter.?

Pysanky Egg sites:

http://www.tostanoski.com/pysanky.html

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/pysanky/

Pysanky Egg art tutorial:

http://www.learnpysanky.com/

Pysanky Egg gateway...websites galore!

http://www2.uwindsor.ca/~hlynka/pysanka.html

http://infoukes.com/culture/eggs/links/

Pysanky slideshow:

http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org/pysanky.html

Pysanky Egg lesson plans!!!

I found several lesson plan about Pysanky eggs using two children's books from Patricia Polacco: Renchenka's Eggs &/or Chicken Sunday:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=996

http://www.harvey152.org/~cmeyer/csunday2.htm

Incredible geography lesson plan!

Global Diversity through literature: Eastern Europe

(also using Renchenka's Eggs story & Pysanky eggs)

http://www.valdosta.edu/~mhmorgan/global.html

Middle/High school art lesson: Pysanky eggs

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/high/Sue-Pysanky.htm

Pysanka: Not just a pretty egg -- lesson plan, elementary.

http://communitydisc.westside66.org/units/detail.lasso?unitid=333

SkyWatch Friday

See other interesting sky views: http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Last week, an interesting string of clouds passed in front of the Wasatch Front Mountains looking east from the Salt Lake Valley, Utah: Mt. Olympus, Lone Peak, Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. It was one of the few warm, but very windy, days we've had so far this spring in Utah.