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Interactive Learning Sites for Education

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Interactive Learning Sites for Education

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(208) 373-4340

(970) 295-5923

When using this image: Image Credit. A. Vicente, U.S. Forest Service.

A Watershed is an area of land where all of the water that is under it, or drains off of it collects into the same place (e.g. The River). Most of the watersheds in Idaho are part of the Columbia River Basin Watershed, which drains into the Pacific Ocean!

Precipitation

Imagine all of the rain that falls up on those steep mountains in the distance... When water hits a steep surface, there is only one way for it to go: downhill! gravity pulls water downhill as fast as it can taking the easiest path it can find. This water (including melted snow) eventually comes together ( runoff) to form small streams which meet other streams further down and so forth until a river is formed. Where is it going you may ask? Well some of it seeps into the ground to form groundwater, some is used by people and animals then recycled, but most of it flows until it reaches sea level, which is usually the ocean, but also may be a large lake.

The Health of a River

Throughout a river's journey to the ocean, it flows through a landscape that is rich in diverse land uses from lush forests and deserts to farmland, cities and manufacturing plants. Each of these environments has an impact on the river's health. In natural environments like forests, trees and other plants build up on the river banks, dropping leaves, logs and other organic debris into the water. This provides nutrients to feed other organisms as well as hiding places for creatures to live in.

Human developed environments on the other hand often negatively affect the cleanliness and health of a river. Farmlands for instance create an unnatural feeding ground where animals such as cows graze on the plant life that keeps the river bank stable and healthy, while also overloading it with animal waste.

Paved surfaces like streets, parking lots and driveways for instance create a surface for water to run off too quickly increasing flood risks and also washing down harmful chemicals and other human waste.

There are many other human alterations to the environment that can severely damage our river ecosystems.

Dams

Dams are a great source of electricity for Humans-- it's better for the environment because it doesn't release harsh chemicals and smoke into the atmosphere. Dams work by holding water behind them, and then slowly letting the water out through turbines. As the water pushes these turbines, electricity is produced! For fish however, dams make for an incredibly rough journey to and from the Pacific Ocean.... There are 9 dams between Boise, Idaho and the Pacific Ocean! The good news is that people are constantly working on methods to transport Salmon and other anadromous (fancy word for a fish that spend part of its life in fresh water and the other part in salt water) fish safely across dams.

Ever wonder what your local watershed looks like? This first picture shows the Boise River Watershed which is formed by rain, snow, runoff and ground water seeping from the nearby mountains and hills! Our local watersheds are a part of a much bigger picture: if you were to zoom out (picture #2) you would see the entire Columbia River watershed! The ocean passage of this river cuts through the border of Washington and Oregon.

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What is a watershed? - Science for Kids: Watersheds - Rocky Mountain Research Station: Fisheries and Watershed

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(208) 373-4340 (970) 295-5923 When using this image: Image Credit. A. Vicente, U.S. Forest Service. A Watershed is an area of land where all of the water that is under it, or drains off of it collects into the same place (e.g. The River).

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Land is very important to the water cycle. A WATERSHED is any area of land that water flows across or through. Where is the water going? Downhill of course. Water in a watershed trickles and flows toward a common body of water, such as a stream, river, lake or coast.

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Scholastic.com | Online Activities: Weather Watch

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Younger students look at clouds to learn how to observe weather patterns. This is the first step in learning about weather.

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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Find amazing facts about animals, science, history and geography, along with fun competitions, games and more. Visit National Geographic Kids today!

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Oceanography | Science Mission Directorate

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Looking at our Earth from space, it is obvious that we live on a water planet. Ocean covers over 70% of the Earth's surface and contains about 97% of the Earth's surface water. Life in the oceans can be found from the surface to the extreme environments at the bottom of the deepest submarine trench.

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:::: What’s It Like Where You Live? - Temperate Oceans ::::

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"Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me ... on that summer's day, when my eyes were opened to the sea."

- Jacques Yves Cousteau, Oceanographer

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The Sea - Discover Ocean Life and Reef Aquariums on Sea and Sky

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"Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me ... on that summer's day, when my eyes were opened to the sea." - Jacques Yves Cousteau, Oceanographer

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This Web site from PBS Online looks at some of the most unique and fascinatin g creatures that inhabit the ocean's depths, and offers classroom activities, broadcast information, behind-the -scenes info, detailed information about the creatures profiled, a stunning screen saver and more.

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The Water Cycle for Kids - How it Works - Diagram & Facts

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Back to the water cycle on the USGS Water Science School.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere truly is the superhighway in the sky that moves water everywhere over the Earth.

The next time you go outside you will be standing in the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere is all the air from the bottom of an ant's leg up to where there is no more air-many miles in the sky.

The air outside may look invisible, but it is full of molecules, including water molecules, as water vapor. That big cumulus cloud (full of water) floating in the sky is the water cycle in action.

The water vapor all around you rises up into the sky to become part of a cloud which will float off with the winds, probably looking for a picnic to rain on. A cloud in the atmosphere can move for hundreds of miles before it releases its water as rain or snow. That is how water that evaporates from the ocean one day may end up as rainfall over Ezmerelda's tomato patch in Kansas the next day.

How much does a cloud weigh?

Clouds are made of water, and water has weight, so how can they float? They float because the air below them has weight, too-more weight. Think about oil and water-if you pour oil into water the oil floats to the top of the water. That is because oil is lighter (less dense) than water; the same thing applies to clouds in the sky.

What fools you is that the water vapor in the air in a clear, blue sky is invisible, and there is not enough water vapor to condense into clouds. Water vapor contains water molecules-one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. You know hydrogen is the lightest of all elements, and, even when combined with an oxygen atom, the hydrogen acts like little "hot air balloons" that makes the vapor lighter than the molecules in the surrounding dry air. Water vapor naturally floats upwards, eventually condensing and forming clouds.

And, a cloud weighs ... According to NOAA, your average cumulus cloud one kilometer (0.62 miles) on a side will weigh about 998 million kilograms (2.2 billion pounds). That is equal to about 22 million (22,000,000) kids weighing 100 pounds each.

Learn more: Atmosphere | Condensation | "Little cloud that could" | Rainbows
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Fog and dew

Fog contains very tiny liquid water particles, like a cloud, and floats, like a cloud. Actually, fog IS a cloud, but one that swirls around your feet instead of high in the sky.

Fog forms when air containing invisible water vapor encounters cooler temperatures (next to the ground) and some of the water vapor condenses out into liquid water droplets. In this picture, as the day warms the air next to the ground will warm, too, and the fog particles will again evaporate back into invisible water vapor.

In the case of dew, water vapor in the air encounters a substance that has become cooler, such as the grass at night or even your glass of iced tea. The cooler temperatures causes the water vapor in the air to condense into liquid water-dew.

Fog and dew can join forces to become an intricate part on the water cycle in certain locations. On the island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands, fog condenses into dew and drips onto the ground, contributing a significant amount of water to the forests during the non-rainy months.

Groundwater flow

If you pour a glass of water onto the ground it usually sinks right in ( infiltration), so you can imagine how much water sinks into the ground during a major storm ( Find out here). Here in Atlanta, Ga, USA it rains about 50 inches/year. Over a 100 square mile (10 miles by 10 miles) area, that means 87,000 billion gallons of water falls, with much of it soaking into the ground to become groundwater.

Yes, water below your feet is moving all the time, but, no, if you have heard there are rivers flowing below ground, that is not true. Water underground moves, due to gravity, downward and sideways. Groundwater serves many purposes in nature: keeping plants alive, filling aquifers, from which people can withdraw water, providing water to rivers and lakes, and eventually flowing into the oceans.

You may know that water's chemical composition is H ₂ O. A water molecule contains 2 hydrogen (H) atoms and 1 oxygen (O) atom.

One molecule of water in your glass won't quench your thirst, though. You need LOTS of water molecules, trillions of them. At normal temperatures all those individual water molecules like to stick together and form a liquid (the water in your glass).

Because of the way that the hydrogen and oxygen atoms exist in a water molecule, one water molecule is attracted to another water molecule. The opposite sides of a water molecule stick to each other just as opposite sides (poles) of magnets do.

Like a magnet, one side of the water molecule (the side with the oxygen atom) has a negative electrical charge while the other side, where the hydrogen atoms sit, has a positive charge. Since opposite charges attract each other, water molecules attract each other. So much so that when trillions of them get together, they often start sticking to each other and, thus, you have liquid water.

Ice and snow

Ice and glaciers are part of the water cycle, even though the water in them moves very slowly. The amount of ice on the Earth goes up and down as the world's climate cools and warms over thousands of years.

Lucky for us we're now in a warmer phase of the Earth's history, but the last Ice Age was only 18,000 years ago. At that time, ice covered the northern part of North America.

So much liquid water was locked up in ice back then that the oceans were about 400 feet (122 meters) lower than they are today. If all land ice melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet (70 meters).

Ice and glaciers are still very prevalent today, as you can see by looking at a satellite image of Greenland (now, why is it called "Green"land?). Glacial ice covers 10-11 percent of all land. In fact, most of the world's freshwater, about 68 percent, is locked up in ice, snow, and glaciers.

Ice caps influence the weather, too. The color white reflects sunlight (heat) more than darker colors, and as ice is so white, sunlight is reflected back out to the sky, which helps to create weather patterns.

Sublimation

When rain falls where you live, much of it disappears from evaporation, right? But what about at the top of Mt. Everest? The elevation is over 29,000 feet and temperatures at the peak are never above freezing, so it never rains there. It does snow a lot. We all know that snow melts, but if it never rises above freezing, how does snow not build up forever on Mt. Everest?

As this picture shows, winds, often at hurricane force, blow tons of snow off the peak. But a part of the water cycle called "sublimation" is also at work. Just as evaporation turns liquid water into water vapor gas, sublimation turns frozen water directly into water vapor gas, skipping the melting phase into a liquid.

Also, as with evaporation, the sun's heat causes sublimation to work, and on top of Mt. Everest on a clear day, the sun is very strong and provides energy for sublimation, even though it is below freezing.

Sublimation doesn't just occur on mountain peaks. If there is snow and ice buildup in your neighborhood then on a sunny and dry day sublimation is happening there, too.

Sunbathing - evaporation

If this drip sitting on a desert island is hoping to get a tan, she'd better hurry because the water cycle is not going to let her hang around here very long. A water drop laying in the sun on a hot day is just asking to be evaporated by the sun.

As soon as she sat down in her chair, the sun's heat began to evaporate her into water vapor gas, and so she will float off as millions of vapor particles up into the sky. The drip won't be upset, though, as her water vapor will eventually recombine to form clouds and then rain which will runoff the land into rivers which flow into the oceans, again. She can be back sunbathing by the next day.

Volcanic steam

Volcanoes cannot exactly get angry, but as this picture of Mt. St. Helens, USA in 2005 shows, they really do "blow off steam". It may not be a big component of the world's water cycle, but volcanoes and geysers do release steam into the air, steam which rises and becomes clouds.

What is interesting about the steam coming from a volcano is that the components of water are coming out from deep inside the earth, which is on the far edges of the water cycle. At a certain depth below the land surface you won't find liquid water, due to the tremendous temperatures and pressures. But the molten rock and material making up magma deep in the earth contains chemicals that later do form water molecules.

The World's Water

Where is Earth's Water?

In the first bar, notice how only 2.5% of all Earth's water is freshwater, which is what life needs to survive. Over 96% of all water is found in the oceans.

The middle bar shows the breakdown on that 2.5% which is freshwater. Almost all of it is locked up in ice and in the ground. Only 1.3% of all freshwater (which was only 2.5% of all water) is surface water, such as lakes and rivers, which serves most of life's needs.

The right side bar shows the breakdown of only the surface freshwater, which was only 1.3% of all freshwater. Most of surface freshwater is locked up in ice, and another 20% is in lakes. Notice the 0.46% of surface freshwater that is in rivers. Sounds like a tiny amount, but rivers are where humans get a large portion of their water from.

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Interactive Water Cycle Diagram for Kids (Advanced)

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The Water Cycle for Kids, from the USGS Water Science School.

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Find amazing facts about animals, science, history and geography, along with fun competitions, games and more. Visit National Geographic Kids today!

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Grab an umbrella and step into the wild world of weather for kids with our cool range of experiments, online games, science fair projects, fun quizzes, interesting facts, amazing videos and more!

Learn about clouds, rain, wind, snow and all kinds of interesting weather topics. As well as activities for children, there are also plenty of lesson plans and worksheets for teachers, ideas for parents and a whole host of free teaching resources for anyone interested in the science subject of weather.

Enjoy our fun weather related experiments for kids. Make snowflakes and rainbows, learn the different characteristics of warm and cold air, experiment with heat absorption and more.

Check out these incredible weather videos. Learn how clouds form, watch huge waves and sea swells rocking ships, be amazed by freak sand and hail storms, enjoy spectacular lightning strikes and more.

Have fun learning about science with these cool games that involve important weather related processes and concepts. These interactive activities that will help teach you about heat transfer, ways to keep warm and the differences between ice, liquid water and steam.

Take a look at our awesome range of free weather pictures, photos and diagrams.

Find interesting images of clouds, storms, rainbows, snow, hail, fog and more.

Check out these fun weather facts for kids and learn more about clouds, hurricanes, lightning, rain, snow, temperature, thunder, tornadoes, wind, the water cycle, storms, climate, atmospheric conditions and more.

How much do you know about the weather? Luckily you don't have to a meteorologist to enjoy our weather based quizzes.

Take the challenge and test your knowledge of clouds, rain, storms, hail, lightning, temperature, pressure systems, isobars and more.

Get some great ideas for a range of fun weather based science fair projects. Follow our examples or use your weather and meteorology knowledge to come up with interesting ideas of your own. Follow the weather in your city using the measurement and forecasting tools you create and try making your own weather predictions.

Enjoy a range of weather lesson plans, teaching resources, classroom ideas and fun worksheets. Find information and activities for topics such as ice, moisture in homes, bubbles and more.

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Weather for Kids - Free Games, Experiments, Projects, Activities, Science Online

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Grab an umbrella and step into the wild world of weather for kids with our cool range of experiments, online games, science fair projects, fun quizzes, interesting facts, amazing videos and more! Learn about clouds, rain, wind, snow and all kinds of interesting weather topics.

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Weather Science content for Kids and Teens

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Weather.gov > Owlie Skywarn > Weather Science content for Kids and Teens

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Learn what makes weather wet and wild, do cool activities, and become hot at forecasting the weather on Web Weather for Kids!

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Classzone.com has been retired and is no longer accessible. Because of the age of this application, the programs supported by this platform are not able to benefit from the technological improvements in accessibility, security, and HMTL5 (non-Flash) that we have incorporated into our newer programs and platforms in recent years.

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The rock cycle is an illustration that is used to explain how the three rock types are related to each other and how Earth processes change a rock from one type to another through geologic time. Plate tectonic movement is responsible for the recycling of rock materials and is the driving force of the rock cycle.

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The Rock Cycle is a group of changes. Igneous rock can change into sedimentary rock or into metamorphic rock. Sedimentary rock can change into metamorphic rock or into igneous rock. Metamorphic rock can change into igneous or sedimentary rock.

Igneous rock forms when magma cools and makes crystals. Magma is a hot liquid made of melted minerals. The minerals can form crystals when they cool. Igneous rock can form underground, where the magma cools slowly. Or, igneous rock can form above ground, where the magma cools quickly.

When it pours out on Earth's surface, magma is called lava. Yes, the same liquid rock matter that you see coming out of volcanoes.

On Earth's surface, wind and water can break rock into pieces. They can also carry rock pieces to another place. Usually, the rock pieces, called sediments, drop from the wind or water to make a layer. The layer can be buried under other layers of sediments. After a long time the sediments can be cemented together to make sedimentary rock. In this way, igneous rock can become sedimentary rock.

All rock can be heated. But where does the heat come from? Inside Earth there is heat from pressure (push your hands together very hard and feel the heat). There is heat from friction (rub your hands together and feel the heat). There is also heat from radioactive decay (the process that gives us nuclear power plants that make electricity).

So, what does the heat do to the rock? It bakes the rock.

Baked rock does not melt, but it does change. It forms crystals. If it has crystals already, it forms larger crystals. Because this rock changes, it is called metamorphic. Remember that a caterpillar changes to become a butterfly. That change is called metamorphosis. Metamorphosis can occur in rock when they are heated to 300 to 700 degrees Celsius.

When Earth's tectonic plates move around, they produce heat. When they collide, they build mountains and metamorphose (met-ah-MORE-foes) the rock.

The rock cycle continues. Mountains made of metamorphic rocks can be broken up and washed away by streams. New sediments from these mountains can make new sedimentary rock.

The rock cycle never stops.

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The Rock Cycle is a group of changes. Igneous rock can change into sedimentary rock or into metamorphic rock. Sedimentary rock can change into metamorphic rock or into igneous rock. Metamorphic rock can change into igneous or sedimentary rock. Igneous rock forms when magma cools and makes crystals.

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Home " Rocks

Rocks hold the history of the earth and the materials that will be used to build its future.

Igneous Rocks: Photos, descriptions and facts about intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks.

Metamorphic Rocks: Photos, descriptions and facts about foliated and non-foliated metamorphic rocks.

Sedimentary Rocks: Photos and facts about clastic, chemical and organic sedimentary rocks.

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rocks igneous metamorphic sedimentary pictures geology

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Rocks: Igneous, Metamorphic and Sedimentary

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Home " Rocks Rocks hold the history of the earth and the materials that will be used to build its future. Igneous Rocks: Photos, descriptions and facts about intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks. Metamorphic Rocks: Photos, descriptions and facts about foliated and non-foliated metamorphic rocks.

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A useful way to illustrate how the three main types of rock are related to one another and how changes to rocks happen in a recurring sequence is the rock cycle. It can be presented in a diagram like the one below.

The concept of the rock cycle is attributed to James Hutton (1726-1797), the 18th-century founder of modern geology. The main idea is that rocks are continually changing from one type to another and back again, as forces inside the earth bring them closer to the surface (where they are weathered, eroded, and compacted) and forces on the earth sink them back down (where they are heated, pressed, and melted). So the elements that make up rocks are never created or destroyed - instead, they are constantly being recycled. The rock cycle helps us to see that the earth is like a giant rock recycling machine!

Explore the diagram by rolling your mouse over the names of the rock types and clicking on the images.

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Complete the Cycle
See if you can name the different parts of the rock cycle.

Photo credits: Rock photos included in the diagram Copyright © Jerome Wyckoff; Copyright © Dr. Richard Busch; Copyright © Bruce Molnia, Terra Photographics; Copyright © Stan Celestian, Glendale Community College; and Copyright © E. W. Wolfe, U.S. Geological Survey. Photos courtesy Earth Science World Image Bank and Glendale Community College.

© Annenberg Foundation 2017. All rights reserved. Legal Policy

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Interactives . The Rock Cycle . The Rock Cycle

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A useful way to illustrate how the three main types of rock are related to one another and how changes to rocks happen in a recurring sequence is the rock cycle. It can be presented in a diagram like the one below.

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Education Resources for Primary (K-6) Grades | USGS

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Educational resources for Primary (grades K-6) teachers and students: USGS

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Geology for Kids - Games, Facts, Experiments, Activities, Projects, Science Online

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Answer the question: What's It Like Where You Live? Learn about terrestrial biomes and aquatic ecosystems. Follow link to site about plants.

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Some Facts about Our planet

Earth is the third planet, and 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 km.) from the sun. It is estimated to be over 4.5 billion years old.

The planet rotates once every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09 seconds. It makes one full revolution around the sun every 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.45 seconds. Earth's axis is tilted at a 23.5° angle.

Earth has a total surface area of 196,800,000 square miles. Approximately 57,300,000 square miles, or 29% of the total surface area is land. Water covers approximately 139,500,000 square miles, or 71% of the total surface area.

The highest temperatures on Earth have reached 136° F (58° C) at Al Asisiyah, Libya. Temperatures of - 128° F (-89° C) have been recorded at Vostok station in Antarctica.

The atmosphere is a thin, gaseous layer of air that envelops the planet. Its inner layer is called the troposphere and reaches only 11 miles above sea level. It contains most of the planet's air, which consists of nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). The stratosphere, or outer layer, stretches 11-30 miles above sea level and contains ozone (O3). Ozone filters out most of the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.

More than 99% of earth's atmosphere is less than 50 miles (80 km.) high. However, particles of the atmosphere are found 1,000 miles (1,600 km.) in space above the planet's surface.

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Earth is the third planet, and 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 km.) from the sun. It is estimated to be over 4.5 billion years old. The planet rotates once every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09 seconds. It makes one full revolution around the sun every 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.45 seconds.