Lessons Using Data

By Educational Resources

Check out the below lessons and activities that use data!

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Lessons

A fire burns in the distance in the Sierra National Forest, CA — **Wildland Fire School**
**Lesson Using Data: Impacts of Fire**

**About:** This lesson is part of **Part 2: Fire Impacts and Ecology.** Students will be given the opportunity to research relevant impacts of fire or ones that interest them most. If you live in or near an area that is vulnerable to fire, this portion of the lesson can be even more culturally relevant. One possible option for students to conduct research would be to access the National Interagency Fire Center website for data investigations, and record their research notes in a chart.

**Grades:** 6 to 12

Forest fire — **Wildland Fire School**
**Lesson Using Data:** **Is wildfire frequency, size, or severity changing over time?**

**About:** This lesson is part of **Part 3: Fire Management and Climate Change.** Students will explore the phenomenon of wildfires threatening increasing numbers of ecosystems. They will be given the opportunity to explore wildland fire data, create graphs using this data, and generate observations and conclusions based on the data.

**Grades:** 6 to 12

a river flows through a flat landscape with low vegetation, forested hills in the background — **Rollin Down the River**
**Lesson Using Data: What is a hydrograph and how do I make one?**

**About:** Students will use USGS streamgage data to create their own hydrograph and will interpret the data to draw conclusions.

**Grades:** 4 to 5

Color photograph of crater wall — **Exploring hot spot volcanism and a mysterious lake at the summit of Kīlauea using models, USGS data, and Hawaiian moʻolelo**
**Lesson Using Data: Understanding Real Data**

**About:** Students will be given the opportunity to interpret graphs, create their own graphs using real data collected by scientists from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and interpret their graphs to draw conclusions about the water level of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater.

**Grades:** 4 to 5

Activities

Remote Sensing Classroom

About: Educational lessons and activities that allow students to look at satellite imagery and perform the same analysis as our remote sensing scientists at EROS.

Grades: All

A building lifted from its foundation by floodwater from Typhoon Merbok is trapped under a bridge in Nome, Alaska — **How to Calculate a 100-Year Flood**

**About:** Students will use USGS stream gage data for the river of interest to create a graph of the largest annual flood for at least 60 years. They will then use that graph to calculate the expected level of a 100-year flood, or any other flood of interest. Students will then use a topographic map and overlay the 100-year flood level on the town. Discussion can be framed around the impacts of floods, the probability of flooding, the mathematics of probability, or the effects of climate change on flood frequency and size.

**Grades:** Created for a college freshman class but can be taught to high school.

Color Landsat image of surface water — **Remote Sensing Classroom**

**About:** Educational lessons and activities that allow students to look at satellite imagery and perform the same analysis as our remote sensing scientists at EROS.

**Grades:** All

Lessons Using Data

Lessons

Activities

U.S. Geological Survey

U.S. Department of the Interior