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 3 through 8
- NASA Earth Observatory for Kids Air Pollution: Seeing Small Specks from Space (e-magazine)
- NASA Earth Observatory for Kids Cleaning Up Our Air: Tracking Air Quality from Space (e-magazine)
Grades 3 through 12
- NASA eClips Ask SME: Education Specialist Erika Wright (video)
Grades 5 through 12
- NASA NASA Kids: Atmosphere (webpage)
- NASA 60 Second Science: The TEMPO Instrument (video)
Grades 6 through 12
- My NASA Data About the Atmosphere: Background Information (webpage)
- NASA The Air We Breathe Quiz (interactive)
- NASA The TEMPO Mission (webpage)
- NASA Air Quality (webpage)
Grades 9 through 12
- NASA Welcome to TEMPO (webpage)
Activities
Grades K through 12
- GLOBE Atmosphere Protocols (webpage)
Grades 3 through 8
- NASA NASA Kids What’s In the Atmosphere? (interactive)
Grades 6 through 12
- My NASA Data Air Quality Mini Lessons (webpage)
- Virtual Science Teacher What Is Air? (interactive)
- NASA Climate Interactives (interactive)
- UCAR Particulate Matter (webpage)
Grades 9 through 12
- Cosmic DS TEMPO Cosmic Data Stories (interactive)
- Smithsonian Atmosphere: Change Is in the Air (interactive)