This publication provides a series of short articles for students, teachers, and parents originally published as a weekly newspaper feature. Concepts introduced in each feature are designed to address state and national science education standards. Written by USGS scientists, the articles go beyond traditional textbook information to discuss state-of-the-art thinking and technology that we use today.

Students explore the interconnected relationships between plants and animals in an ecosystem. They will decorate wooden blocks with plants and animals and then stack them to simulate an ecosystem (producers on the bottom). They will then take turns removing blocks from the ecosystem, giving a possible reason for that particular organism's removal from the ecosystem until the ecosystem becomes so unstable that it collapses.

Students conduct research and design a news program about the lives and habitat of selected estuary animals.

This resource reviews the Pilgrim's initial landing being on the tip of Cape Cod and the impact that this sandy environment had on their movement. Also, as the last continental ice sheets melted away, the water returned to the ocean basins and the sea level rose drowning the land. The impact of the Great ice Age and varied glacial stages, helped to define this region.

This report describes how to build a model of the outer 300km of the Earth that can be used to develop a better understanding of the principal features of plate tectonics, including sea-floor spreading, the pattern of magnetic stripes frozen into the sea floor, transform faulting, thrust faulting, subduction, and volcanism.

This informational online text describes the structure and composition of the layers of the Earth.

This resource is a fact sheet released by the U.S. Geological Survey discussing landslide hazards. A student can use this resource to learn about debris flows, the conditions that lead to landslides, and how to prepare for and react to a landslide.

Students learn about the relationships among water quality, water pollution (point and nonpoint sources), personal lifestyle, and the ecological health of a river basin. Although this module focuses on the Lake Pontchartrain Basin, the activities and content can be applied to any river basin.

Students develop an appreciation for the complex interrelationships of natural resources in a river basin and how we must learn to steward them. Students will also generate and test hypotheses regarding the effects of specific pollutants upon an aquatic ecosystem by designing and implementing a controlled experiment. Although this module focuses on the Lake Pontchartrain Basin, the activities and content can be applied to any river basin.

This resource is an article and a diagram illustrating plate tectonics. Students will use this article and diagram to understand how plate tectonics works.

This publication provides background information on why water quality is important and how it is measured and monitored.

This informational online text supports the interactive map "This Dynamic Planet: A World Map of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plate Tectonics" and serves as a supplement to "This Dynamic Planet: A Teaching Companion." Contents include: "Historical Perspective," "Developing the Theory," "Understanding Plate Motions," "Hotspots," and "Plate Tectonics and People."

This resource is a map of the features that shape, and continue to change, the planet. It shows the locations of volcanoes and earthquakes as well as impact craters and the boundaries of tectonic plates.

This booklet from the U.S. Department of Interior shows the varied map symbols that represent such features as streets, buildings, streams, and vegetation on a topographic map.

This notebook provides five lesson plans developed to help educators discuss the subject of ground water with students in grades 6-8. Topics include: aquifers, porosity, permeability, and wells.

Students examine a model watershed and how water moves through the river basin when it rains.

Students construct a model of a contour map and then use the model to study changes in water levels and land elevations to better understand the impact of sea level rise on a coastal river basin area.

Students discuss causes and effects of and the related issues and solutions concerning wetland loss.