The products of science are explanations and the products of engineering are solutions.

Within the science education community, there is a shift in focus from content driven instruction to that of the processes and practices associated with the acquisition of scientific knowledge.

Within the science education community, there is a shift in focus from content-driven instruction to that of the processes and practices associated with the acquisition of scientific knowledge.

Argumentation is an important practice whereas the scientist develops explanations using evidence and reasoning to explain observed phenomena.

Students will practice the process of making claims, collecting evidence to support claims, and applying scientific reasoning to connect evidence to claims.

Students discuss their current understanding of what Earth systems are and how they work and consider how to identify the boundaries of a region for Earth system study.

Students construct explanations about Earth’s energy budget by connecting a model with observations from side-by-side animations of the monthly mapped data showing incoming and outgoing shortwave radiation from Earth’s surface.

Students analyze diagrams showing the effects of clouds on Earth’s Radiation and answer the questions that follow. This mini lesson is designed to help students analyze the interaction between clouds and Earth's incoming and outgoing energy. 

This lesson introduces the Earth system science spheres through model making and discussion.

Use the Data Literacy Cube to guide students’ exploration of mapped data of the Earth System to enrich their observations and inferences.  This is a flexible resource that may be used with a variety of mapped images.  This activity requires a map of Earth data for students to evalu