Students develop and test a hypothesis about how albedo affects temperature.

This lesson contains a card sort activity that challenges students to predict relative albedo values of common surfaces. 

Students explore positive feedback effects of changing albedo from melting Arctic sea ice.

Teachers, are you looking for resources to help you engage students in data analysis related to changes in the cryosphere using albedo values? Check out these images. 

Students use albedo values of common surfaces along with photographic images of Earth taken from the International Space Station to make an argument about specific anthropogenic activities that impact Earth’s albedo.

Students collect and analyze temperature data to explore what governs how much energy is reflected. 

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

This graphic organizer may be used to help students analyze the processes and components of Earth System phenomena.

An urban heat island is a phenomenon that is best described when a city experiences much warmer temperatures than in nearby rural areas. The sun’s heat and light reach the city and the country in the same way. The difference in temperature between urban and less-developed rural areas has to do with how well the surfaces in each environment absorb and hold heat.

The advance-and-retreat cycle of snow cover drastically changes the whiteness and brightness of Earth. Using two maps created using NASA satellite data for 2017, students review the seasonal differences of snow and ice extent and answer questions on their observations.