Grade Level: 9-12
The extreme temperatures during July 2022 prompt students to investigate a model that displays historical heat wave frequency data to discover the importance of defining terms when interpreting data.
List of all Earth as a System Lesson Plans
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Select a Grade Band:
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
Guided by the 5E model, this lesson allows students to work together to uncover how changes in sea ice extent in the Arctic and Antarctic regions are connected to Earth’s energy budget.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
Students use albedo values of common surfaces along with photographic images of Earth taken from the International Space Station to make an argument about specific anthropogenic activities that impact Earth’s albedo.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
This lesson contains a card sort activity that challenges students to predict relative albedo values of common surfaces.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
Students consider the impact of changing conditions on the remote island of Little Diomede, Alaska after they investigate the relationship between seasonal trends in sea ice extent with shortwave and longwave radiation flux described in Earth’s energy budget.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
In this activity, students will analyze past and future eclipse data and orbital models to determine why we don’t experience eclipses every month.
Grade Level: 3-5,
6-8,
9-12
In this activity students will learn several ways to safely observe a solar eclipse.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
In this activity, students will compare the methods scientists use to study the Sun, including drawings made during a total solar eclipse in the 1860’s, modern coronagraphs, and advanced imagery gathered by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
In this activity, students will model the geometry of solar eclipses by plotting a few points on a piece of graph paper, and using quarters and a nickel to represent the Sun and Moon (not to scale).
Grade Level: 3-5,
6-8,
9-12
This hands-on activity is the construction of an extended coverage area of eclipse glasses to provide extra protection for safely viewing a solar eclipse. This makes it harder to look outside the lenses on the eclipse glasses.
These NASA lessons support Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and three dimensional learning of the Earth System. These include activities where students interact with NASA maps, graphs, and datasets from the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and the earth system.
