This mini lesson engages students by watching a NASA video related to seasonal chlorophyll concentration as it relates to net radiation using NASA's Aqua satellite. Students will examine the model and answer the questions.

Explore and connect to the GLOBE Water Quality protocol bundle. 

Students review the NASA video showing biosphere data over the North Atlantic Ocean as a time series animation displaying a decade of phytoplankton blooms and answer questions.

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

Explore the biosphere and why it is important.

Read about Abigale Wyatt's great adventure as she travels on the R/V Sally Ride for a month-long cruise to study how plankton in the ocean affect the carbon cycle and, ultimately, the climate.

Phytoplankton distribution background information.

Explore and connect to the GLOBE Oceans protocol bundle. 

Students will explore the Nitrogen Cycle by modeling the movement of a nitrogen atom as it passes through the cycle. Students will stop in the different reservoirs along the way, answering questions about the processes that brought them to the different reservoirs.  

This lesson was based on an activity from UCAR Center for Science Education. 

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