This lesson is taken from NASA's Phytopia: Discovery of the Marine Ecosystem written in partnership with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science with funding from the National Science Foundation.
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Students use Phytopia: Exploration of the Marine Ecosystem, a computer-based tool, to investigate various phytoplankton species and topics relating to phytoplankton biology.
Students will review the NASA Space Place video, "Tectonic Forces", and answer questions about tectonic plates.
Students will describe the changes in a newly-formed volcanic island over the first three years of its life.
Examine (daytime) surface temperature and solar radiation received at locations found near similar latitudes using NASA Data.
Students analyze map visualizations representing the amount of Sunās energy received on the Earth as indicated by the amount that is reflected back to space, known as āalbedoā.
The activities in this guide will help students understand variations in environmental parameters by examining connections among different phenomena measured on local, regional and global scales.
Students construct explanations about Earthās energy budget by connecting a model with observations from side-by-side animations of the monthly mapped data showing incoming and outgoing shortwave radiation from Earthās surface.