Discover! Science Library

ScienceSchoolHouse’s new Discover! Science Library for grades 6-8 and 9-12, has the following features and components:

1. Interactive multimedia tutorials: Each unit includes up to 200 screens with text and pictures/illustrations plus interactive exercises and lots of video clips. All core text is fully narrated (with an on/off option). Built to pedagogically correct standards with appendices for advanced research.
2. Two text levels: Students can toggle between grades 9-12 and grades 6-8 text levels or stay at one of the two text levels throughout. All vocabulary checked for age appropriateness.
3. One 30-minute, high-resolution, digital video associated with each unit, with content indexing and one-click navigation.
4. Quizzes for the students and Test Banks for teachers.
5. Teacher’s Guides and state and national curriculum correlations on our website.

System Requirements

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 10+, Safari 4+, Opera 9+

In this unit:

Quizzes and Test Banks

Manual

Interactive Exercises

• 1_9 Hydrologic Cycle Animations
• 2_4 Tectonic Plates Project
• 2_6 Hypsographic Chart
• 3_6 Sea Temperatures
• 3_11 Secchi Depth
• 3_12 Pressure and Depth
• 4_2 The Sun's Output
• 4_8 Ocean Circulation

Movies and Animations

• 1_1 Earth
• 1_2 The Water Cycle
• 1_5 Fly over the Pacific Ocean
• 1_7 Measuring Ice Thickness
• 1_10 Evaporation
• 1_12 The Amazon River
• 2_1 The Ocean Floor from Space
• 2_2 Continental Drift
• 2_3 Sea Floor Spreading
• 2_5 Area of the Ocean
• 2_6 Mapping the Ocean
• 2_9 Trench Sounds
• 3_1 Water
• 3_3 Iceberg Flips
• 3_5 Sea Surface Temperatures
• 4_1 Solar Radiation
• 4_4 Outgoing and Reflected Radiation
• 4_7 Ocean Heat
• 4_11 Ocean Currents
• 4_12 The Global Conveyor Belt

Chapter 1: Introduction

An introduction to the importance of water on Earth. This lesson looks at Earth’s water reservoirs and provides a simple description of the hydrocycle.

• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 The Hydrosphere
• 1.3 Water on Earth
• 1.4 Water Reservoirs
• 1.5 The Oceans
• 1.6 Water in the Air
• 1.7 Frozen Water
• 1.8 Liquid Water on Land
• 1.9 Flow between Reservoirs
• 1.10 Evaporation
• 1.11 Precipitation
• 1.12 Flow over and through the Land
• 1.13 Solar Heat drives the Hydrocycle

Chapter 2: Structure of the Oceans

A description of the structure of the Earth’s ocean basins, their formation and some discussion of the size and amount of water in Earth's oceans.

• 2.1 Ocean Basin Formation
• 2.2 Continental Drift
• 2.3 Sea Floor Spreading
• 2.4 Growing & Shrinking Oceans
• 2.5 Area of the Ocean
• 2.6 Depths and Volumes
• 2.7 Vertical and Horizontal Extent
• 2.8 Continental Margins
• 2.9 Deep Ocean Basins

Chapter 3: Oceans of Water

A look at what makes water such a special substance, the chemistry of seawater and how the ocean is composed of different layers.

• 3.1 Water is Special
• 3.2 Phase Changes
• 3.3 Ice Floats
• 3.4 Seawater
• 3.5 Ocean Temperatures
• 3.6 Temperature and Depth
• 3.7 How Salty?
• 3.8 Major and Minor Salts
• 3.9 Density of Seawater
• 3.10 Density Differences
• 3.11 What is Pressure?
• 3.12 Pressure at Depth

Chapter 4: Ocean Heating and Ocean Currents

This lesson examines how the Sun warms the ocean surface and causes the oceans to circulate.

• 4.1 Solar Radiation
• 4.2 Heat Input and Latitude
• 4.3 Fate of Incoming Radiation
• 4.4 Radiation Budget
• 4.5 Ocean Layers
• 4.6 Depth Profiles
• 4.7 The Oceans and Heat
• 4.8 Surface Currents
• 4.9 Driving Forces
• 4.10 Convection in the Ocean
• 4.11 Deep Ocean Currents
• 4.12 Global Conveyor Belt

Note: Appendices A, B and C are common to all Discover! titles.

Appendix A: Scientific Method

• A.1 The Need to Know
• A.2 What Makes Science Different?
• A.3 Induction
• A.4 The Scientific Method
• A.5 Hypothesis and Deduction
• A.6 Experiments and Observation
• A.7 Acceptance of Hypotheses
• A.8 Theories and Laws
• A.9 The Cycle of Scientific Inquiry
• A.10 Scientists Build Models
• A.11 Scientific Theories and Revolutions
• A.12 Scientists Doing Science
• A.13 Open Communication
• A.14 Ethical Responsibilities
• A.15 Role of Technology
• A.16 Science and Society

Appendix B: Measurement Systems and SI Units

• B.1 The Need for Common Units
• B.2 Some Old Units of Measurement
• B.3 Problems with Different Measurement Systems
• B.4 The SI (Metric) System
• B.5 Basic Units of SI
• B.6 Derived Units
• B.7 More Derived Units
• B.8 Decimal Multipliers
• B.9 SI Prefixes
• B.10 Scientific Notation
• B.11 Large and Small Numbers
• B.12 Exact and Approximate Numbers
• B.13 Precision Measurements
• B.14 Significant Figures
• B.15 Scientific Notation and Precision
• B.16 Accuracy and Precision
• B.17 Dangers of Many Digits
• B.18 Working with Scientific Notation

Appendix C: Careers in Science

• C.1 Careers in Science
• C.2 Careers in Geology
• C.3 Careers in Oceanography
• C.4 Careers in Atmospheric Science
• C.5 Careers in Astronomy
• C.6 Geological Field Safety

Appendix D: Topography of the Ocean Floor

• D.1 Bathymetry + Topography = Hypsography
• D.2 Average Depths
• D.3 Profiles and Sections

Appendix E: Physical Properties of Seawater

• E.1 Seawater
• E.2 Changes of State
• E.3 Heat Capacity
• E.4 Cohesion, Surface Tension and Viscosity
• E.5 Compressibility of Seawater
• E.6 Density of Seawater
• E.7 Temperature and Density
• E.8 Salinity and Density
• E.9 Pressure and Density
• E.10 Hydrostatic Equation
• E.11 Specific Gravity
• E.12 Density Layers and Water Masses
• E.13 Thermoclines and Pycnoclines

Appendix F: Chemical Properties of Seawater

• F.1 Salinity of Seawater
• F.2 Complex Salt Solution
• F.3 Measuring Salt Abundance
• F.4 Constant Proportions
• F.5 Speciation of Elements
• F.6 Residence Times
• F.7 Conservative and Non-conservative Elements
• F.8 Salinity and Chlorinity
• F.9 Dissolved Gases
• F.10 Atmospheric Gases
• F.11 Oxygen Content of Seawater
• F.12 Carbon Dioxide in Seawater
• F.13 Acid-base Balance of the Ocean
• F.14 Water, Water, Everywhere

xMedia Movie

Sea Winds: The Quick Scat Story

• Introduction
• Understanding the Oceans, the Wind and the Atmosphere
• Got a Problem? Get an Engineer
• Scatterometer
• Waves Indicate Wind
• First the NASA Scatterometer
• ADEOS Spacecraft Loses Power
• A New Mission - Quick Scat
• Vibration Testing
• Thermal Vacuum Test
• Last Minute Problems
• Putting it all Together
• Launch!
• Controlling the Spacecraft
• Starting Up the Instruments
• First Wind Data Arrives
• First Pictures Generated
• Questions and Answers
• Credits