In this interactive, students will explore safe methods for viewing the Sun at home or in the classroom, including using solar eclipse glasses and a pinhole projector. The interactive includes a video that explains how the projector works and how to build one.
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This interactive takes students through the basic mechanics of a solar eclipse, using a NASA Space Place Handout, including an optional eclipse art activity.
Students will analyze and interpret maps of the average net atmospheric radiation to compare the flow of energy from the Sun toward Earth in different months and for cloudy versus clear days. Students will draw conclusions and support them with evidence.
The Solar Eclipse Implementation Sequence provides a series of lesson plans for students to learn about solar eclipses.
A kinesthetic activity that challenges students to participate in a model that describes the fate of solar energy as it enters the Earth system. A good initial lesson for Earth’s energy budget, students unravel the benefits and limitations of their model.
Students will analyze a pie chart (circle graph) showing the distribution of different parts of the Earth system's absorption and reflection of energy.
This activity is one of a series in the collection, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change activities.
This lesson is designed to help students analyze the interaction between different cloud heights and Earth's incoming and outgoing energy.
The Earth System Satellite Images help students observe and analyze global Earth and environmental data, understand the relationship among different environmental variables, and explore how the data change seasonally and over longer timescales.
Students learn how to estimate the "energy efficiency" of photosynthesis, or the amount of energy that plants absorb for any given location on Earth. This is the ratio of the amount of energy stored to the amount of light energy absorbed and is used to evaluate and model photosynthesis efficiency.