Category: Author: Sarah Pryputniewicz
The High-Adventure Science modules, first written in 2011-2013, are each based on a big unanswered question in Earth/environmental science. These six modules include interactive computer-based systems models and real-world data that students use for evidence as they develop scientific arguments. The modules incorporate real-world data from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, National Oceanic and […]
Kilauea, Hawai’i’s youngest and most active volcano, has been continuously erupting since 1983. But it made news again recently with large earthquakes and lava fountains erupting in residential areas. Have you ever wondered what’s going on with Kilauea? Can scientists predict when and where a volcano will next erupt? You can use Seismic Explorer to […]
We’re thrilled to announce that the popular High-Adventure Science (HAS) climate module is now available in Spanish. Many thanks (muchas gracias) to Penny Rowe (University of Santiago of Chile) and Cristián Rizzi (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina) for taking this on! The Spanish-language version directly parallels the existing English-language version. The HAS climate module poses […]
When you live in New England in the winter, you pay attention to the forecast. Large snowstorms can make travel near impossible. Heavy snow and blowing winds can cause coastal flooding, power outages, and roof collapses. The National Weather Service (NWS) exists to “provide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts and warnings for the protection […]
Geoscience poses many questions. Why are there continents and oceans? How do mountains form? Why do volcanoes form in some areas and not others? What causes earthquakes to be more frequent in some areas than others? Why are oil, diamond, gold, and other deposits clustered in particular areas rather than being spread evenly across the […]
Note: This blog post was updated January 24, 2022, with new images, exemplar answers, explanations of items, and links to new teacher resource materials, including two High-Adventure Science modules that offer automated scoring for selected argumentation items. One of the questions unique to the High-Adventure Science project is what we call the explanation-certainty item set. […]
What was Earth like 2.8 billion years ago? The first life was emerging on the planet. The Sun was weaker than it is today, but geologic evidence shows that the climate was as warm (or warmer) than it is today. Was Earth colder because of the weak Sun, or warmer, as geologic evidence suggests? How […]
About 33 million years ago, the Earth abruptly went from being warm and wet to having Antarctic ice cover. Only 23 million years after the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a time of some of the warmest temperatures on Earth, ice covered the surface. What happened? According to a recent study by scientists at Yale and Purdue universities, […]
New groundwater and soil moisture drought indicator maps produced by NASA are available on the National Drought Mitigation Center’s website. They currently show unusually low groundwater storage levels in Texas. The maps use an 11-division scale, with blues showing wetter-than-normal conditions and a yellow-to-red spectrum showing drier-than-normal conditions. (Credit: NASA/National Drought Mitigation Center) The map […]
A team of astronomers led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology have found 18 planets orbiting stars more massive than our Sun. Finding planets is becoming more and more routine with the Kepler telescope, but these planetary discoveries help to answer questions about planetary formation–and raise other questions about planetary orbits. The scientists […]