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 watch a video explaining albedo and its impact on Earth. The video shows visualizations of albedo across Earth and how it can change. Students will interpret the images in the video and answer questions about albedo.

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

Students connect day/night and seasonal cycles with albedo in the Arctic region. 

Students explore albedo, sea ice, and the relationship between changing albedo and changing sea ice using data visualizations. 

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

Students review a video showing a global view of the top-of-atmosphere shortwave radiation from January 26 and 27, 2012 and answer the questions that follow.

This mini lesson helps students visualize how the Hydrosphere and Cryosphere interact to produce changes in land and sea ice. 

Students move through a series of short activities to explore and evaluate global solar radiation data from NASA satellites.  In this process, students make qualitative and quantitative observations about seasonal variations in net energy input to the Earth System.