Atmosphere+and+Weather+Sandbox

Energy in the Atmosphere Try the interactive below to learn more about the Greenhouse Effect. media type="custom" key="25166278" **Greenhouse Effect Interactive** From the good folks at National Geographic. Go through the interactive to find out more about the greenhouse effect. ** Weather ** ** Water in the Atmosphere ** **Relative Humidity Simulation** Use this simulation as you work your way through the "Not the Heat, but the Humidity" activity.
 * Weather Wiz Kids ** This website is a fantastic resource with lots or weather related activities. Link to and surf the website to find out more!


 * The Water Cycle -This activity helps to explain and remember one of the earth's most important cycles**.


 * Interactive Water Cycle** **What's cool about this activity, is that each part of the water cycle has different ways in which you can interact with it. For example, be sure to use the magnifying lens to carefully examine how water evaporates in many different ways on the earth. You also can create different types of precipitation in this interactive model as well.**

**MetroBlue Weather: Clouds** Another good web site to help you complete your types of clouds graphic organizer.
Cloud Identifyer **Use your observations and this web site to identify different types of clouds.** **Cloud Spotting Guide** Lots of excellent information on clouds.

Fronts
**Weather Fronts** -As we learned in class, when we have masses of cold air meeting warm air, we get the most dramatic weather. Use this activity to explore what happens in two of the four types of weather fronts: **cold front, and warm fronts** **Weather Fronts** -As we learned in class, when we have masses of cold air meeting warm air, we get the most dramatic weather. Use this activity to explore what happens in the four different types of weather fronts: **cold front, warm front, stationary front,** and the more unusual **occluded front**, and to complete your graphic organizer.

**Comparing Warm & Cold Fronts**-This animation does an excellent job comparing these two types of fronts. Pay careful attention to the types of clouds that each front will commonly produce.

Predicting the Weather
** The Evaporation Station **-Water is one of the most important ingredients that affects weather. Play the evaporation game to see what weather conditions and container shape causes water to evaporate the fastest over a five day period of time. ** Comparing Warm & Cold Fronts** -This animation does an excellent job comparing these two types of fronts. Pay careful attention to the types of clouds that each front will commonly produce. ** Observe a Hurricane** -This site provides excellent satellite footage showing the formation of hurricane Dennis which approached the coast of Florida on August 28, 1999.

**Be a Weather Intern!**

-Learning how to report and predict weather has never been any more fun than by playing this brand new Edheads game! Follow along with the Weather-Tron 3030 as you learn how to help report the weather. As you move toward the harder levels, you'll gain a better understanding for how the symbols are used on a weather map. Once you've completed all three levels for reporting the weather, be sure to play the activity which lets you predict the weather!

**The Lightning Protection Game**

- Did you know that lightning hits the earth an estimated 100 times/second or 8.6 million times a day? If you've ever been caught in a lightning storm, you know how scary it can be! Play the lightning protection game to learn about the best ways that you can protect yourself from getting struck by lightning.

** Interactive Weather **-Discover for yourself what kinds of weather you can create in this activity by changing three important factors: Equatorward Temperature, Poleward Temperature, and Relative Humidity.

**Are you a Water Expert?** **-** Water is one of the most important ingredients that make up weather. Test your knowledge about one of Earth's most precious resources in this game. **Global Winds & Travel** **-Imagine if you were the captain of a modern sailboat. Do you think that you know enough about global winds to plot an efficient course that will get you to your destination in a timely manner? Play this activity to see how good a sailboat captain you would make!**

** Why do hot air balloons float? ** - Join Nova for an online adventure exploring why hot air balloons float. At first, you might not think that hot air balloons have anything to do with weather..... Think again! ** States of Matter** - Molecules of matter need more space when they are heated up. We saw this with our homemade thermometers. Here's a good model demonstrating the movement of the molecules as matter changes from a solid, to a liquid, and ultimately to a gas! ** Min/Max Thermometer** -see if you can figure out how to read one of these cool thermometers!

**Web Weather for Kids** **-** Web Weather for Kids is a great site that's just packed with great activities and visualizations that are perfect in helping kids learn about weather. This site has some really great activities on cloud types.

**Wonderground.com** - This website will give you all of the up-to-the-minute detailed weather information that you'd ever need!

**The Weather Dude** - This site has a whole host of great resources for kids and for teachers as well. Check out in particular, the page called Bad Meteorology- Weather Misconceptions. There were a couple of very surprising things here!

** Making a Weather Station - **This site shows you how you can build simple weather instruments, and set up your own weather station.

** How to build a Barometer - **Do you want to measure air pressure? Then, you'll need to make what's called a barometer.

** The Weather Dude's recommended reading list - **Here is an extensive list of good reading material on the topic of weather.