Glaciers around the World

Check out our glacier images and learn fun facts about how glaciers carve the landscape, the interaction of glaciers and climate, and some methods scientists use to study glaciers.

How Ice Behaves: A Look into Glacier Movement

Grades: 6-12
Length: 45 to 60 minutes
Topics: glacier deformation, basal sliding, friction
Consult this recipe for making your own glacier goo.

Lesson Plan available.

Evaluating Glacier Change and Landscape Change

Grades: 6-12
Length: 2-3 lessons, 45 minutes each
Topics: climate change, repeat photography, qualitative vs. quantitative data, glacier recession, aerial photography, evaluating graphic data
References: United States Geological Survey

Lesson Plan available.

How to Look at Rocks in your Backyard

Please reach out to request a worksheet on how to identify the basic types of rocks that you can find in your backyard in the Pacific NW.

The Stream Table – How Rivers Change the Landscape

Grades: K-12
Length: 1 to 1.5 hours
Topics: rivers, erosion, energy, discharge, dams, hypotheses, variables

Lesson Plan available.

Earthscope

Discover a multitude of resources from Earthscope, an NSF-funded program that investigates the structure and evolution of North America to learn about earthquakes and volcanoes, on why earthquakes occur and how scientists measure them here.

Earthquake Simulator

Learn about what earthquakes are, how energy is propagated, and how earthquakes are measured here.

Pore-Pressure Experiment

Grades K-12, details can be adjusted accordingly
Length: 20-30 minutes
Topics: Seattle geology, cohesion, capillary forces, pores

Lesson Plan available.

All About Landslides: Land on the Run

Grades: 5-7
Length: 1 – 1.5 hours
Topics: landslides, landslide triggers, gravity, friction
References: Teach Engineering STEM Curriculum
Lesson Plan

Atmosphere Pressure Experiment

See how our atmosphere exerts pressure on s through this easily-crafted-at-home demonstration.

Make Your Own Spectroscope

Ever wonder how we know what things in space are made of, for example how we know that the sun is mostly hydrogen and helium? With light! Scientists point instruments called spectroscopes at bright things in space (like stars) to separate the light emitted by these things in space and then determine what they are made of.

Learn more through this presentation from the Stanford Solar Center, then make your own spectroscope by following these YouTube directions!

Math

Choose from a wide range of lessons from NASA that incorporate basic math skills in a framework of geology and space science!

​Recommended lessons from NASA are available upon request.

Reading

Rockin’ Out’s summer reading list to encourage reading while learning about the earth:

​FieldNotes Environmental Journal (high school reading level) 

​More recommendations to come.