Education Overview

Citizen Science – Observe Clouds and Sky Condition

NASA GLOBE Clouds involves students and the citizen science community in real science, by making, reporting and analyzing ground truth observations of clouds to assist the CERES team in the validation of satellite instruments.

• Register to participate (teachers, students, and general public)
• Steps to observe and report
• Free GLOBE Observer app
• Tips and tricks of using the GLOBE Observer app
• GLOBE Clouds teacher guide and resources
• Additional resources and activities
• Citizen science cloud observations matched to CERES data
• Publications and presentations (for all GLOBE Observer)

Understand & Explore Earth’s Energy Budget

• Explore several mini lessons and resources about energy and matter here.
• Find an updated energy budget diagram and other resources here.

Grade Level	Lesson Plan	Lesson Description
6-12	Earth’s Energy Budget Mini Lesson	Students review the changes in net radiation of Central Australia over time.
9-12	Earth’s Energy Budget-Seasonal Cycles	Students move through a series of short activities to explore and evaluate global solar radiation data from NASA satellites. In this process, students make qualitative and quantitative observations about seasonal variations in net energy input to the Earth system.
6-12	Observing Solar Energy	Students analyze map visualizations representing the amount of Sun’s energy received on the Earth as indicated by the amount that is reflected back to space, known as “albedo”. Engaging their prior knowledge of seasons and climate, students make inferences about the relative months that these data represent. This lesson includes a regional dataset of the Chicago, Illinois area where students observe the map visualizations and compare them to a line graph of Earth’s absorption of the Sun’s radiation in 2015 to understand how data is represented in a variety of ways.
9-12	Earth’s Energy Budget, Applied Research STEM Curriculum Unit Plan	This unit, created through the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI), helps students learn about each component of the energy budget formula and how the contribution of each component changes based on the location and the time of the year.
6-8	Seasonal Science: Building Claims from Evidence	Students will analyze surface temperature and solar radiation data to construct explanations about the relationship of seasons and temperature to the amount of solar energy received on Earth’s surface. By observing the graphs of these variables collected from three cities: Porto Alegre, Brazil, Quito, Ecuador, and Memphis, TN, students will construct claims about the seasons by using scientific evidence and reasoning.
6-8	Revised: Cloudy vs. Clear – Graphs	Students will analyze and interpret graphs to compare the flow of (shortwave) energy from the Sun toward China over the course of a year on cloudy versus clear days. Students will draw a conclusion and support it with evidence.
6-8	Cloudy vs. Clear – Maps	Students will analyze and interpret maps of the average net atmospheric radiation to compare the flow of energy from the Sun toward Earth in different months and for cloudy versus clear days. Students will draw conclusions and support them with evidence
6-12	Energy and Matter: Longwave Radiation (2012)	Students review the video and text to answer questions about longwave radiation in the Earth system.

General Resources

• Climate and Earth’s Energy Budget: NASA Earth Observatory Article https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/EnergyBalance/page1.php
• Importance of Understanding Clouds: NASA Earth Observatory Article on Clouds https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Clouds/
• An introduction to CERES Brochure – Download as PDF File (11.6 MB)
• Earth’s Climate System: A 21st Century Grand Challenge – Download as PDF File (2.1 MB)

Contact

NASA GLOBE Clouds: https://scool.larc.nasa.gov/GLOBE/contact/
MY NASA DATA Team: mynasadata@lists.nasa.gov