This mini lesson provides a video on an ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model of how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe. Students will review the video and answer the following questions.

The Earth System Satellite Images, along with the Data Literacy Cubes, helps the learner identify patterns in a specific image.  

Students will analyze the monthly seasonal chlorophyll concentration images in our global oceans for the four different months of 2024, and then answer the following questions.

Students identify patterns and describe the relationship between chlorophyll concentration and incoming shortwave radiation. 

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.

Students use Phytopia: Exploration of the Marine Ecosystem, a computer-based tool, to investigate various phytoplankton species and topics relating to phytoplankton biology. 

NASA visualizers take data – numbers, codes – and turn them into animations people can see and quickly understand.

Phytoplankton distribution background information.

My NASA Data has recently released several new resources, StoryMaps, for use in educational settings.

Students identify patterns in chlorophyll concentration data to formulate their explanations of phytoplankton distribution.