Grade Level: 6-8
Students review the NASA video showing biosphere data over the North Atlantic Ocean as a time series animation displaying a decade of phytoplankton blooms and answer questions.
loading Biosphere...
Featured Mini Lessons
Computing Vegetation Health
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Explore using units for calculations with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). NDVI is a ratio of different light wavelength reflectance which can be used to map the density of green vegetation.
Computing Vegetation Cover
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Explore using units in calculations with the Leaf Area Index (LAI). LAI is a ratio that describes the number of square meters of leaves per square meter of available land surface. Because of the units in the ratio, it is dimensionless.
Observing Annual Vegetation Changes
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Students observe monthly images of changing vegetation patterns, looking for seasonal changes occurring throughout 2017. These data can be used by students to develop their own models of change.
Analysis & Application of Seasonal Vegetation Data
Grade Level: 6-8
Students observe seasonal images of Monthly Normalized Difference Vegetation, looking for any changes in vegetation that are occurring throughout the year. They put the images in order based on what they know about seasonal changes.
Analyzing Seasonal Vegetation & Leaf Area
Grade Level: 6-8
Students observe seasonal images of Monthly Leaf Area, looking for any changes that are occurring throughout the year.
Cause and Effect: How do our forests change over time?
Grade Level: 6-8
This mini lesson engages students with answering questions on cause and effect relationships by watching a NASA video related to changing forests in the Pacific Northwest from 1984 to 2011.
Stability and Change: Observing and Measuring Plants
Grade Level: 6-8
This mini lesson engages students by watching a NASA video related to plant growth activity around the world using data from the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite and answering questions on these stability and change relationships.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
This mini lesson engages students by watching a NASA video related to seasonal chlorophyll concentration as it relates to net radiation using NASA's Aqua satellite. Students will examine the model and answer the questions.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
In this mini lesson, students explore the relationship of chlorophyll and solar radiation by analyzing line graphs from the North Atlantic during 2016-2018.
Grade Level: 6-8,
9-12
Students learn how to estimate the "energy efficiency" of photosynthesis, or the amount of energy that plants absorb for any given location on Earth.
Grade Level: 3-5,
6-8
Students will analyze a pie chart (circle graph) showing the distribution of different parts of the Earth system's absorption and reflection of energy.
