UDOE Earth Science Standard 3
Learning Objective: Students
will understand the atmospheric processes that support life and cause weather
and climate.
- Relate how energy from the Sun drives atmospheric processes and how atmospheric currents transport matter and transfer energy.
- Compare and contrast the amount of energy coming from the Sun that is reflected, absorbed or scattered by the atmosphere, oceans, and land masses.
- Construct a model that demonstrates how the greenhouse effect contributes to atmospheric energy.
- Conduct an investigation on how the tilt of Earth's axis causes variations in the intensity and duration of sunlight striking Earth.
- Explain how uneven heating of Earth's atmosphere at the equator and polar regions combined with the Coriolis effect create an atmospheric circulation system including, Hadley cells, trade winds, and prevailing westerlies, that moves heat energy around Earth.
- Explain how the presence of ozone in the stratosphere is beneficial to life, while ozone in the troposphere is considered an air pollutant.
Activities:
Recreate the atmosphere column converting feet to inches SERC. (Use cash register machine tape-end model at the thermophere-exosphere boundary.
Create a model presentation on the Coriolis Effect NOAA
Excellent Resources:
How the Sun Heats the Earth: University of Illinois Extension
Local Weather Stations
