Water Balance web-app, slides, and activities

This resource includes materials to introduce students in an introductory hydrology or earth science class to the concept of a water balance using active learning. Included are a short powerpoint presentation, a link to an interactive web app, and a set of example activities that use the web app. The web app, which runs well on a smartphone or desktop, runs a monthly Thornthwaite-type water balance for any of thousands of sites across the United States for either of two NOAA climate normals periods and presents the results in a series of plots. Once a site and period are chosen, users can make a variety of changes to the site data to run simulations. For example, users can change the available soil water capacity, latitude, precipitation, and/or temperature data for the site. Additionally, users can output the raw data from the app to use in external programs for additional analysis or plotting in more advanced courses. Three activities that explore the water balance using the app are included in the activities document. These are provided for direct use in classrooms, as sets of questions to chose from, or as inspiration for new activities. If you create additional activities that use the app, please let the authors know!本资源配套教学材料，旨在通过主动学习模式，面向水文学入门课程或地球科学入门课程的学生讲授水平衡（water balance）概念。资源内含一份简短的PowerPoint演示文稿、一个交互式Web应用（interactive web app）链接，以及一套基于该应用的示例教学活动。 该应用可在智能手机或桌面设备流畅运行，能够针对美国境内数千个站点中的任意一处，基于美国国家海洋和大气管理局（National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA）提供的两类气候标准期中的任意一类，计算月尺度的索恩特威特（Thornthwaite）型水平衡，并以系列图表形式呈现计算结果。选定站点与气候标准期后，用户可修改该站点的多项基础数据以开展模拟实验，例如调整有效土壤持水量、纬度、降水量及/或气温数据。此外，用户可导出应用中的原始数据，用于外部程序开展进一步分析，或在进阶课程中用于绘图作业。 配套活动文档中包含三项基于该应用开展的水平衡探究活动，既可供教师直接用于课堂教学，也可作为选题题库供选用，或是为开发全新教学活动提供灵感。若您基于该应用开发了额外的教学活动，敬请告知作者团队！