The unit teaches students to interpret climate data to recognize the symptoms and evaluate the severity of drought. It helps them realize that drought can still devastate areas that have stable infrastructure and access to expensive...

Students review what scientists know and what they're working to understand about the relationship between extreme weather events and climate change.

Students will learn about the ongoing issues associated with drought in California and how water conservation can be part of a solution. Students will design a rooftop water catchment system for drought-conscious Ms. Drizzle to install...

This activity examines the current state of drought in the United States and the economic impact of drought on local communities.

Assign reasons from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to explain pioneers' migration to and return from the American plains in the 1800s. Research, write and produce a newspaper dedicated to a natural disaster such as the 19th-century drought.

In this activity, students examine research on finches on the island of Daphne Major in the Galapagos Islands. The depth of the finches' beaks was measured before and after a drought. This data is displayed in graphs and students are...

Global warming is "the most dangerous threat to the future of wildlife," according to the National Wildlife Federation website. This visual matching activity was designed to engage students in learning about how a variety of NC species...

Precipitation affects many aspects of our lives, from drinking water and food to devastating rain or snow storms. NASA gathered information from satellites to study factors that influence precipitation. View these narrated and unnarrated...

Plants are essential for all life and development. Teach your students about this incredible lifeforce with this teaching guide, lecture notes, and PowerPoint presentation. [PDF]

The 1930's Dust Bowl era was about the grueling times of people suffering in the drought-stricken region of the Oklahoma pan handle. This lesson will help students to gain an understanding of the plights of the people. Using Woody...

NASA tracked rainfall and soil moisture for a three-month period in 1993 to confirm that these rain patterns were indeed a monsoon. Watch this animation to see the relationship between soil moisture and rainfall in the Southwest U.S. By...

Economists do not operate in a vacuum. If an economist is going to suggest that the price of a good needs to be increased, he or she needs to consider who will bear the increase in costs. Will the costs be distributed equally or will one...

For this lab, students investigate whether the rate of water falling (rain) affects the amount of erosion (soil movement). This experiment could lead to further questions: how does grass or rocks effect soil erosion, does erosion lead to...

Through a range of voices and multimedia materials, discover the story of climate change and its impacts on water in Bolivia. Case studies bring the explanatory analysis of vulnerability and the social, economic and cultural impacts of...

During this instructional activity, students will discover the differences in four types of weather disasters. They will collect information from selected Internet websites and create a multimedia presentation to demonstrate what they...

Students build a physical model to simulate watershed features, then use Google Earth software to tie the model to a real place. By exploring several layers of map-based images and data, students learn the complexity of a watershed and...