The OmniGlobe is an educational installation developed by ARC Science. It is an interactive spherical display which can project images and animations of planet surfaces and can visualize phenomena like real-time weather, plate tectonics, ice coverage over time, ocean currents etc.
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These globes are installed in universities and museums worldwide and Canada’s first OmniGlobe was installed in UBC’s very own Pacific Museum of Earth. In addition to general viewing during museum hours, private 30-minute tours can also be booked. The materials provided here can be used in conjunction with the tours or independently as well.
Naming convention: T# denotes documents with information for the instructor. ST# denotes documents to be used by both students and teachers.
Moon Stories
| The Moon: Earth’s solitary natural satellite, was our navigator and timekeeper for generations. It has been the subject of study for centuries, from Galileo first noticing the heavenly body’s imperfections in 1609 with a stolen spyglass, till Neil Armstrong set his foot on its surface in 1969 only to confirm Galileo’s Law of Free Fall. The moon remains a source of wonderment and fascination to this day, and we are expected to return to it again as soon as 2024, when, NASA says, a woman will set her first step on the moon.
Interesting facts: The Moon is not only the name of Earth’s natural satellite, but is also the common name for all natural satellites orbiting other planets. In our solar system, Jupiter is the planet orbited by the most moons: 63 moons! Notice, when speaking about our moon, we capitalize it - the Moon, while speaking of other moons, we use the lower case. |
Resources - T1 Overview - T2 Workshop Worksheets: - ST1 About the Moon - ST3Moon Phases - ST4,5 Observing the Moon - ST6 Other Moons Web Resources: - NASA - ESA |
Mars
| Mars, the Red Planet, is one of the major locations in the search for extraterrestrial life. For years, mass media told us stories of Martians visiting the Earth, but it was us who made the first trip across the great expanse when NASA’s Viking 1 & 2 landed on the planet’s surface in 1976. Since then, numerous probes have been sent to study the lay of the land, each trip raising our confidence in one day settling on the surface. In June 2018, we had to say goodbye to Opportunity, a faithful rover which served for over a decade on the planet’s surface. The latest mission: NASA’s InSight landed on Mars to conduct geological and seismic surveys. Talk of humans on Mars has been getting louder as companies like SpaceX have begun planning missions for as soon as the 2020s.
Interesting facts: Mars is home to the largest mountain in the solar system. Olympus Mons is a 21 km tall volcano on the surface of Mars. It is over two and a half times taller than Mount Everest. The name Mars comes from the Roman... |
Resources - T1 Mars and Life Worksheets: - ST1 Drake Equation - ST1 Solar System - ST2 Phase Transitions - ST3 Magnetism of Mars Web Resources: - NASA - CSA |
Natural Disasters
| Nature never hesitates to demonstrate its awesome power over the inhabitants of the Earth. Different physical and atmospheric phenomena cause devastating shows of force like earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and longer term effects like droughts, ice cap melting, wild fires, and continuous climate change. Knowing about these phenomena is important to reducing their impact on life and in time, perhaps even mitigating them entirely.
Scientists study the effects of climate change not only to understand these natural phenomena but also to be able to minimize or prevent their effects. Interesting facts: https://www.nwf.org/eco-schools-usa/become-an-eco-school/pathways/climate-change/facts.aspx For Gr. H. gasses you can point to PhET sim https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/legacy/greenhouse |
Web Resources: - NASA - NatGeo |
Solar System
| The Solar System is our little neighborhood in the Milky Way, that we share with a number of unique inhabitants. From searing, rocky planets to frigid gas giants, the Solar System is home to eight large planets and numerous other smaller bodies like asteroids and planetary moons. Only a handful of satellites have travelled of the Solar System, but that is expected to change as knowing more about the Solar System can inform us about our origins as well.
Interesting facts: Surprisingly to many, the orbit of the Earth around the Sun is almost circular. So what then causes the seasons? The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis or rotation. To learn more about it, check A Private Universe Project by Annenberg Foundation. Another interesting fact is that it takes the sunlight about 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth: - 150,000,000 km. The speed of light is about 300,000 km/s. |
Web Resources: - NASA - |