For this exercise, students utilize a Google Earth file to explore three different sets of Wonders of the World: The Ancient Wonders, the Modern Wonders, and the New 7 Wonders. Included is a student workshop with short-answer questions for the various sites and some summary questions that require students to pull information from across the exercise.

Students are directed to open specific pre-existing layers under "Global Awareness" in Google Earth - Appalachian Mountaintop Removal, and UNEP: Atlas of Our Changing Environment.  No additional Google Earth files are required, as students can complete the exercise using the available Layers in the Google Earth program (available as a free download from http://earth.google.com/).

This lesson was used as an inquiry activity to allow students to analyze recorded Near Surface Average Temperature data in order to make claims about the differences between seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the Earth. Students were additionally asked to construct a Temperature vs. Month line graph from a set of recorded data to determine if there was an observable difference between average temperatures in the Northern Hemispere and the Southern Hemisphere.

Weather and Climate Unit Big Idea

(School District of Philadelphia)

This lesson can be used to engage students in the study of the world's climate zones by helping them identify places on the world globe.

The Latitude and Longitude Scavenger Hunt activity provides students with a review of reading lines of latitude and longitude on a globe. This activity can also be used to pre-assess student understanding of how lines of latitude and longitude help locate and identify specific places on Earth.

This web-based lesson is a culminating activity to the Weather and Climate unit taught in 7th grade. I used the resources on the Teacher's Domain website to construct a booklet for students as a webquest. The website provides students with information about the world location (longitude and latitude),  average temperature, and average precipitation of different biomes. Students had to conduct additonal research to identify  the specific animals and plants native to each biomes and the organism's adaptations necessary for survival.

An image is a powerful tool for Earth and space science instruction.  An image can capture a feature, a process, and/or an event and allow us to bring that snapshot to our students.  Although images may be used throughout a class period, an image can be used at the very beginning of a class to engage students and direct classroom discussion for the day.

We invite you to contribute to our collection of examples of how you utilize an “image of the day.”