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.

These six graphs show Ocean Chlorophyll Concentrations from 1998 - 2018 in a variety of locations: East Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, California Coast, Southeastern US/Gulf of Mexico, Northeastern US and the Scotian Shelf, and the Hawaiian Islands.

Students watch a 28-minute video on NASA's involvement in fighting wildfires.

This video addresses the following question: "We know that there are a number of ways that data can be visualized. Would you please describe your process for looking at the same data as represented by different graph types and how this helps inform your meaning making from the data?"

Students will practice the process of making claims, collecting evidence to support claims, and applying scientific reasoning to connect evidence to claims.

This video addresses the following question: "We know that the science you do is driven by the big questions around Earth System Science. Could you please describe how you shape the questions that you ask before, during, and after you have collected data, how do you initially look at these data to help explore your initial set of questions?"

Students analyze historic plant growth data (i.e., Peak Bloom dates) of Washington, D.C.’s famous cherry blossom trees, as well as atmospheric near surface temperatures as evidence for explaining the phenomena of earlier Peak Blooms in our nation’s capital.

This video addresses the following question: "As you think about exploring the data that you have collected, what are the approaches that you use to organize your data and/or process your data before you make meaning from the data?"

This video addresses the following question: "As you look at a data set(s) that has been collected, could you help us understand how you use data visualizations to shape new questions to explore further in the data set(s)?"

This video addresses the following question: "As you think about how you use data visualization(s) to communicate your findings with others, can you describe how you refine the visualization(s) that you present to better support the story that you are sharing with the data visualization?"