NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

Heat related illnesses and death are largely preventable with proper planning, education, and action. Heat.gov serves as the premier source of heat and health information for the nation to reduce the health, economic, and infrastructural impacts of extreme heat. Heat.gov is the web portal for the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS). This website includes data, forecasts, safety information, and much more.

Think about where you live. Have you ever been in a strong storm? Have you experienced flooding, a wildfire, or really hot days? These types of environmental hazards are happening more often because of climate change. Even though these events can be scary, there is so much you can do in your own community to make it better able to handle these challenges. When we work together to protect our communities from environmental hazards, we are building community resilience. In this activity book, you will learn all about community resilience and discover ways that you can make a difference. As you do the activities, keep track of your points. You will earn a badge at the end!

This resource collection from NOAA Education explores why and how our weather changes throughout the year. In many parts of the United States, you might change your wardrobe with the seasons, grabbing a heavy coat in winter, while wearing only a light t-shirt in summer. Although ecosystems, plants, and animals cannot adjust their attire quite so easily, they have evolved to make changes that help them survive seasonal conditions caused by the rotation of the Earth around the sun.

For many people, opening their windows to a chorus of crickets is a hallmark of summer nights and fall mornings, but did you know that their symphony can also be used as a thermometer? By counting the frequency of their chirps, you can estimate the temperature with arithmetic! 

Few real-world signs of climate change are easier to read than changes in the growing season of familiar vegetation. From lilacs — which are flowering earlier — to allergy-causing ragweed, which is producing pollen longer into the fall, vegetation is reacting to Earth’s rising surface temperature.

You may have noticed that meteorologists and climatologists define seasons differently from “regular” or astronomical spring, summer, fall, and winter. So, why do meteorological and astronomical seasons begin and end on different dates? In short, it’s because the astronomical seasons are based on the position of Earth in relation to the sun, whereas the meteorological seasons are based on the annual temperature cycle.

As the earth spins on its axis, producing night and day, it also moves about the sun in an elliptical (elongated circle) orbit that requires about 365 1/4 days to complete. The earth's spin axis is tilted with respect to its orbital plane. This is what causes the seasons.

NOAA SciJinks inspires and engages students to learn about weather, satellite meteorology and Earth science. Their page includes background reading, videos, activities, crafts, and more!

View interactive maps, numerical data, and graphs and figures collected by teachers and students participating in the GLOBE Program and long-term air temperature and precipitation observations from the Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). While lessons for data collection and other activities are a part of the GLOBE website (https://www.globe.gov/do-globe/for-teachers), specific lessons for manipulation of this data are not provided at this link.

Understand the daylight, darkness and changing of the seasons at the North Pole.