Real World: The Air We Share – The Connection Between Earth’s Atmosphere and Our Health
How does Earth's atmosphere impact our daily lives and, in particular, our health? Erika Wright, an education specialist from the Center for Astrophysics, helps us learn more about activities that impact Earth's atmosphere, and as a result, impact our lives. She tells us more about NASA's TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of POllution), an array of air quality instruments that daily scan North America's atmosphere, giving us hourly pictures of Earth's air quality.
Share this episode with your learners and encourage them to write about what they learn by answering these questions:
Discussions and writing prompts:
Why is it important to track Earth's air quality?
What natural and engineered activities impact Earth's air quality?
How are changes in air quality tracked over time?
Why is it important to track Earth's air quality?
What does the data from TEMPO look like?
How can we use TEMPO data to help us stay safe?
Background Information
Grades K through 8
Grades 6 through 12
- My NASA Data About the Atmosphere: Background Information
- NASA 60 Second Science: The TEMPO Instrument
- NASA The Air We Breathe Quiz
- NASA The TEMPO Mission
- NASA Welcome to TEMPO
Activities
Grades 6 through 8
- My NASA Data Air Quality Mini Lessons
Grades 6 through 12
- Virtual Science Teacher What Is Air?
- Cosmic DS TEMPO Cosmic Data Stories
- GLOBE Atmosphere Protocols
- NASA Climate Interactives
- Smithsonian Atmosphere: Change Is in the Air