Weather is ever present, ever changing and always interesting. Have a look at these Science Learning Hub links to see how they might fit in to your weather unit. General weather concepts and ...
This interactive looks at the electromagnetic spectrum.
Wayfinder navigators always look for signs of weather at sunrise and sunset. This is when they try to predict the weather for the next 12 hours. One of the easiest ways to predict weather is to ...
In Antarctica, winter temperatures can vary from -70ºC to -15ºC – it is one of the coldest places to live on earth. To survive in the Antarctic, keeping warm becomes a very important focus, and ...
Fires behave differently. Some burn slowly and evenly; others are extremely hot, burning fiercely and quickly. Different fires have different coloured flames. Some fires start easily; others don’ ...
Water in the Earth system is influencing all aspects of life on Earth. Pathways, storage, transfers and transformations have an effect on the global climate and human welfare. Within this ...
Lightning is a large-scale natural spark discharge that occurs within the atmosphere or between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface. On discharge, a highly electrically conductive plasma ...
Trying to understand how this planet we call home works can seem confusing – there are so many things going on at once! Scientists break down the way the Earth system works to a number of ...
Looking down at the Earth from space, you can get an idea of just how much water there is. In fact, around 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Oceans make up about 97% of the world’s ...
Just as we have essential needs for our growth, plants also have essential needs for their survival. These include: sunlight air water nutrients appropriate temperature. As long as plants have ...
Solar energy is transformed into other energy forms for our use on Earth – energy for food (chemical energy), electrical energy and heat energy. Food Solar energy (sunlight) is crucial for our ...
Solar cars are powered by electricity through the use of solar energy. Solar panels are attached to the surface (generally, the top) of the vehicle. Photovoltaic (PV) cells convert the Sun's ...
New Zealand has a wide variety of landscapes. A day’s sightseeing journey might include volcanic plateaus, rolling hills, river basins and coastal lands. It is easy to notice how the scenery ...
The water cycle is driven by energy from the sun. Liquid water is evaporated and changed into a gas. In this process, energy is absorbed (endothermic). The gaseous vapour rises and circulates in ...
Dave Campbell explains that evaporation occurs when water changes from a liquid state to a gaseous state. It can happen anywhere there is water – in the soil, lakes, oceans and plants. When it ...
Use these Material World resources for NZ Curriculum levels 1 and 2 to explore the characteristics of solids, liquids, gases and bubbles by observing water and its unusual properties. Observation ...
A small dataset showing the typical densities of snow and ice. Typical densities of snow and ice (kg/m³) New snow (immediately after falling in calm) 50-70 Damp new snow 100-200 Settled snow ...
This timeline lets you see the historical developments in technology related to weather monitoring, measuring and forecasting. It also shows how scientific thinking changed over the centuries as ...
In this video, Dave Campbell and Keith Hunter discuss what weather and climate are, and how the water cycle is key to the weather. Weather describes the condition of the air masses overlying land ...
In this activity, students observe the processes of evaporation and precipitation by creating a model that simulates the water cycle. By the end of this activity, students should be able to ...
The greenhouse effect is the natural warming of the Earth’s atmosphere. Solar radiation enters the atmosphere mainly as light, and some of that radiation is absorbed by the Earth’s surface then ...
During winter, the average temperature in the South Pole is -60C, but in the North Pole it is -30C. Why is there such a difference? Three factors come together, resulting in the cold world we ...
Knowledge about the apparent movement of the Sun, Moon and planets across the celestial sphere is important for wayfinding. You can estimate position and direction by observing, for example ...
In this video, Associate Professor Bob Lloyd states that it is nuclear fusion that fuels the Sun. He then goes on to explain in simple terms how this process works by fusing lighter elements into ...
