List of all Earth as a System Lesson Plans

Select a Sphere:

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Atmosphere
black biosphere icon
Biosphere
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Cryosphere
black geosphere icon
Geosphere
black hydrosphere icon
Hydrosphere
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Earth as a System


Select a Grade Band:
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3-12
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3-5
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6-8
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9-12
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12

Students are introduced to the Earthrise phenomenon by seeing the Earth as the Apollo 8 astronauts viewed our home planet for the first time from the Moon.  They will analyze a time series of mapped plots of Earth science variables that NASA monitors to better understand the Earth

Grade Level: 9-12

This investigation is part of the NASA: Mission Geography Module "What are the causes and consequences of climate change?" that guides students through explorations in climatic variability and evidence for global climate change. 

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12

This investigation introduces students to the significant environmental changes occurring around the world. The investigation uses NASA satellite images of Brazil to illustrate deforestation as one type of environmental change.

Grade Level: 6-8

In this lesson, students will investigate the drivers of climate change, including adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, sea level rise, and the effect of decreasing sea ice on temperatures.

Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8

This activity invites students to simulate and observe the different effects on sea level from melting sea-ice.

Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8

This activity invites students to model and observe the effect of melting ice sheets (from land) on sea level and the difference between the effect of melting sea-ice to that of melting land ice on sea level.

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.