Students observe seasonal images of Monthly Leaf Area, looking for any changes that are occurring throughout the year.

This mini lesson engages students by watching a NASA video related to plant growth activity around the world using data from the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite and answering questions on these stability and change relationships.

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

Students will identify and describe the relationship between watersheds and phytoplankton distribution. 

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.

Helping students build their understanding of Earth's spheres and how they are connected is difficult.  Review the graphics to help identify the parts of the Earth System and the processes that connect them at the local, regional, and global scales.

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

Students will analyze the mapped plot of the historic Ocean Chlorophyll Concentrations at key locations around the world for the period of 1998-2018.

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

Students will analyze the monthly seasonal chlorophyll concentration images in our global oceans for the four different months of 2017, and then answer the following questions.