Drought, Fire, Floods Climate change is intensifying the circulation of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth — causing drought and floods to be more frequent, severe and widespread. Higher temperatures increase the amount of moisture that evaporates from land and water, leading to drought in many areas. Lands affected by drought are more vulnerable to flooding once rain falls. As temperatures rise globally, droughts will become more frequent and more severe, with potentially devastating consequences for agriculture, water supply and human health. Hot temperatures and dry conditions also increase the likelihood of forest fires. eGFI – Student Blog » Turning Air into Water Posted on December 23rd, 2011 by axb In a world increasingly affected by climate change, unexpected droughts are a harsh reality for many farmers whose livelihoods depend on regular rainfall. That’s why Edward Linacre, an industrial design graduate student from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, decided to invent a device that can literally harvest water from thin air. Airdrop, as it’s called, recently won the prestigious James Dyson Award, which grants Linacre over $14,000 to develop the product. The sleek, minimal design of Airdrop is in part inspired by the extraordinary water-gathering abilities of the Namib Desert Beetle, which survives in very arid climates by collecting moisture from the air with its wings. Watch Linacre explain his ingenious invention in this video: Airdrop is purposely designed to be an inexpensive, low-tech solution to drought that farmers can easily install and maintain. Top photo by Arsineh Houspian Filed under: e-News
NEA - Drought by Phil Nast, retired middle school teacher and freelance writer Found in: science, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 California is the largest agricultural producing state in the country, producing 11% of the total U.S. agricultural value, and is one of the world’s most productive farming regions. Lesson Plans: Build a Solar Still Students in grades 3-8 build a solar still to generate fresh water from salt water. Interactives: Discover Water: The Role Of Water In Our Lives Eight online activities about water and wise water use in English and Spanish. Printables: Background Resources: Learn About Water Print and multimedia resources.
Home | U.S Drought Portal NWS Education Resources This page offers information for children, teens and adults. Materials range from coloring books, puzzles and games, to lesson plans, brochures, satellite images, and career information for weather related fields, such as meteorology, hydrology and climatology. Classroom Materials Student Sites Graphics, Photos, Images Glossary Glossary of Weather Terms Other Weather Sites Careers/Classes in Weather General Resources (NWS is not endorseing these sites, merely providing a service.) Satellite Meteorology for Grade 7 - 12 : Home / Learning Modules May we suggest: To maximize learning from this Satellite Meteorology course we recommend that students: Go through each module in the order they are presented Engage in all hands-on exercises in the modules when they are offered Tackle "Problems with Solutions" and "Assessments" at the end of each module before moving on to the next one Note: "Problems and Solutions" and "Assessments" pages are only accessible on the last page of each module) Meteorology is an excellent topic to introduce middle and high school students to geoscience, physics, chemistry and applied mathematics.
Weather and Climate Basics What Is the Difference Between Weather and Climate? It’s a sweltering midsummer day. “It must be global warming,” mutters someone. Weather is the mix of events that happen each day in our atmosphere including temperature, rainfall and humidity. Climate in your place on the globe controls the weather where you live. Climates are changing because our Earth is warming, according to the research of scientists. Explore weather and climate! Click on links to the left to explore how dynamic forces within the atmosphere change our weather and climate.
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