Students observe the surface temperatures of a variety of surface types found in a suburban environment.

Students will analyze how surface (skin) temperatures vary across a community and determine what factors contribute to this variation. Students will describe how human activity can affect the local environment. 

This resource helps to identify and access GLOBE protocols and hands-on learning activities that complement the Air Quality phenomenon.

Explore and connect to the GLOBE Mosquito protocol bundle. 

The world's surface air temperature is getting warmer. Whether the cause is human activity or natural changes in the Earth System—and the enormous body of evidence says it’s humans—thermometer readings all around the world have risen steadily since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. 

In this 5Es lesson, students will uncover how changes in global air quality have impacted human health in cities between 2000 and 2019.

NASA visualizers take data – numbers, codes – and turn them into animations people can see and quickly understand.

In this 5E’s lesson, students observe maps that show smoke and AOD levels surrounding Fresno, California at the time when the 2020 Creek Fire was burning. Students construct a claim that identifies a relationship between fire-related data and air quality data.

Students analyze Landsat images of Atlanta, Georgia to explore the relationship between surface temperature and vegetation.

The activities in this guide will help students understand variations in environmental parameters by examining connections among different phenomena measured on local, regional and global scales.