Curated OER
Zapping Fish
Young scholars explore whether fish get electrocuted when the lightning strikes a lake.
Curated OER
Lightning Safety
Students investigate how lightning is produced and ways they can keep themselves safe during a lightning storm. After a lecture/demo, students use a worksheet imbedded in this plan to reinforce the concepts taught.
National Weather Service
National Weather Service: Weather Fatality, Injury and Damage Statistics
Web site that contains detailed statistics involving natural disasters by year and type of disaster. Statistics are available in .pdf format.
NOAA
Noaa: Photo Library: National Severe Storms Laboratory
This National Severe Storms Laboratory Photo Album features amazing photographs of tornadoes, instruments, sky scenes, lightning, and hail.
University of Illinois
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign: Severe Storms
This site talks about severe storms. Topics include the dangers of thunderstorms, types of thunderstorms, components of thunderstorms, tornadoes, and modeling.
Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement
Web Exhibits: Causes of Color
Why are things colored? This site explores the 15 phenomena that create our colorful world. Learn how light is made, lost, and moved!
Other
Nlsi: Lightning's Social and Economic Costs
Scholarly article which discusses the cost of lightning and thunderstorms. Provides information about the economic cost and a personal cost, as well as discusses what one can do to prevent or limit the costs of lightning.
Other
Physics.org: Lightning Has Energy to Toast 100,000 Slices of Bread
A beginner's guide to understanding what causes lightning in a thunderstorm. Highlights the major ideas while giving fun, interesting facts.
NOAA
Noaa: National Weather Service: Jet Stream: Jet Stream Learning Lessons
Here's a comprehensive list of lesson plans offered by the National Weather Service covering the gamut of weather topics from the atmosphere to synoptic meterology. The plans include objectives, supplies necessary for the lesson, teacher...
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Learning Zone
This comprehensive, interactive site is loaded with information, activities, and stories about thunderstorms, lightning, and tornadoes. Find out how these weather systems are formed, how they impact our lives, and how they cause chaos.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Weather Alert
Students discuss the characteristics of storms, including the relationship of weather fronts and storms. Using simple materials, the students develop a model of a simple lightning detection system and analyze their model to determine its...
NOAA
Noaa: Nssl: Questions and Answers About Lightning
Find out the causes of lightning, the strikes of lightning, the flashes, safety, and damage. Great place to have your questions about lightning answered.
BBC
Bbc: Week of 5 19 14:template Solar Wind 'Triggers Lightning on Earth'
Scientists have learned that when gusts of high-speed solar particles enter our atmosphere, the number of lightning bolts increases. Learn more about how this phenonemon works.
The Washington Post
Washington Post: Mapping America's Wicked Weather and Deadly Disasters
Features data collection for natural disasters and maps the trends giving us an idea of where disasters have a tendency to strike.
NASA
Lightning & Atmospheric Electricity Research at the Ghcc
This is the homepage for the Global Hydrology and Climate Center's Lightning Team. On this site, you will data from the Lightning Team's experiments; documents, reports, press releases, and an assortment of other information related to...
Museum of Science
The Atom's Family: Radiometer
Help Dracula find out about light waves by using a virtual radiometer.
Encyclopedia of Earth
Encyclopedia of Earth: Weather & Climate: Lightning
Explains what lightning is, how it is created, what happens inside thunderstorms, how lightning develops during a storm, types of lightning, how individuals and groups can stay safe, chances of being struck by lightning, and answers to...
PBS
Nova Teachers: Lightning: Classroom Activity
This lesson plan allows students can create static electricity and compare it to lightning.
Dan Satterfield
Dan's Wild Weather Page: Lightning
Learn facts and statistics about the weather phenomenon of lightning. This illustrated article also includes a lightning experiment and safety tips.
Other
National Lightning Safety Institute: Personal Lightning Safety
This website provides a variety of resources to help you stay safe from lightning.
Other
Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Colorado's Forces of Nature
Students examine Colorado's forces of nature. Some topics explored are tornadoes, floods, blizzards, and windstorms. Images and video clips are included.
Other
Kidstorm: Lightning
Learn about lightning formation and lightning safety with this detailed webpage.
Other
Weatherscapes: Lightning
This page contains an in-depth document on the formation of thunderstorms and lightning. You can link to photos of lightning.
NASA
Sci Jinks: A Brief History of Lightning Detection
When was the very first lightning bolt detection device used? Find out and discover the evolution of the process.