About Inside Rain: Working with Precipitation Chemistry Data

  •  What's in the Inside Rain Package

  •  Using NADP Data in the Science Classroom

  •  Using Inside Rain Activities

  • About the National Science Teachers Association

Inside Rain is the second package in NSTA's Teach With Databases series, which guides students and teachers in using databases to ask and answer questions in science. Inside Rain activities support the National Science Education Standards and have Internet extensions through the NSTA sciLINKS  program.

What's in the Inside Rain Package?

Inside Rain: Working with Precipitation Chemistry Data is packaged with three supplementary publications:

  •  Teach With Databases: Database Basics (an NSTA skills book)

  •  National Atmospheric Deposition Program 1997 Wet Deposition (the NADP map  report)

  • Inside Rain: A Look at the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (an NADP publication)

Database Basics is an integral part of the Teach With Databases series and introduces many data analysis techniques. Students use the NADP map report with Inside Rain activities to investigate geographic patterns in atmospheric deposition. NADP's own brochure Inside Rain: A Look at the National Atmospheric Deposition Program provides more information on the program.

 Using NADP Data in the Science Classroom

Before classroom use of computers and databases, students rarely had access to the amount of data analyzed by scientists. Now, students can see the same data as scientists and can also apply the data to their own local questions and examine long-term trends. Using NADP data, teachers and students can investigate the causes and effects of acid rain, sulfate and nitrate aerosols, and mercury bioaccumulation. In addition, students use simplified versions of the techniques used for NADP sample collection and handling to pursue their own research and to compare their data with NADP's.

NADP links many disciplines of science. In a chemistry class, students can use this book with NADP data to study chemical concentration and the chemical composition of precipitation in their region. In a biology class, students can use Inside Rain activities in an ecology unit to learn about aquatic organisms and the food chain. In an Earth science class, students can use these activities to investigate the hydrologic cycle, the formation of rain, and weather patterns. In an environmental science class—or in related units within other classes—students can use Inside Rain activities to explore humans' impact on an ecosystem.  Every activity in this book also has strong mathematical components, and students learn to integrate the science concepts with math and data analysis.

How to Use Inside Rain Activities

  • Section 1 introduces NADP and prepares students to access the data. 

  • Section 2 investigates how NADP maps its data and has students create temperature maps of the school grounds. 

  • Section 3 looks at the formation of rain and analyzes trends in rainfall amount. 

  • Sections 4 and 5 study concentration and deposition, which determine the amount of a chemical deposited by precipitation. 

  • Section 6 investigates the causes and effects of acid rain and determines the relationship between acid rain and specific chemicals in the atmosphere. 

  • Section 7 examines toxic chemicals in the environment.

Each section has two activities. The first activity is a hands-on laboratory experiment illustrating a main concept; the second is a database activity in which students analyze NADP data and apply the lesson from the hands-on experiment. 

Each activity contains Student and Teacher Sections. The Student Section presents the procedure and data and conclusion questions for each activity. The Teacher Section references the corresponding activities in Database Basics, gives a time frame for the activity, lists required materials, suggests hints on activity procedures, and provides answers to the data and conclusion questions where appropriate.

Data questions in each activity ask students to analyze the data using various methods. Conclusion questions ask students to step back from the techniques to think about the implications of the data. Conclusions are often extended-response questions that require students to integrate concepts from that section. 

About the National Science Teachers Association

NSTA's mission is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. Its 52,000-plus members include science teachers of all grade levels, science supervisors, administrators, business and industry representatives, scientists, and others involved in science education.

NSTA serves as an advocate for science educators by keeping its members and the general public informed about national issues and trends in science education. NSTA disseminates results from nationwide surveys and reports and offers testimony to Congress on science education-related legislation and other issues. NSTA is involved in cooperative working relationships with numerous educational organizations, government agencies, and private industries on a variety of projects, including Inside Rain.

Inside Rain was developed and published by NSTA Press,  with funding support from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).