Earth Science

ATMOSPHE R E

E
HY LITH OSPHE R
DR O SP H E R E

BIOSPHE R E

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 A self-paced course on atmospheric science, geology, and hydrology
Topic Next Generation Science Standard Page(s)
(if applicable)
1. Welcome to the geosphere 6
2. What are you breathing? 7-8
3. Could we live on Mt Everest? 9-10
4. The top of the atmosphere 11
5. Art Project: Atmosphere Model 12-13
6. Could you live in a cloud? 14-15
7. Predicting weather 16-19
8. Science Activity: How do planes fly? 4-PS3-3 20-23
9. Severe storms 24-25
10. Global weather patterns 26-27
11. Earth Science Quiz Show #1 28-29
Where in the world mysteries: Ancient Ruins 30-31
12. Rainforest biomes 4-LS1-2, 5-ESS3-2 32-33
13. Desert biomes 4-LS1-2, 5-ESS3-2 34-35
14. Art Project: Climate Zone Quadramas 36-37
15. What caused the ice ages? 38-39
16. Industrial inventions 40-41
17. All about ozone 42-43
18. The story of CO2 44-45
19. Science Activity: Mason Jar Biomes 46-47
20. The last 100,000 years 48-49
21. Climate change and our future 50-53
22. Science Activity: Spaghetti Bridge 3-5-ETS1-1 54-55
Bonus Quiz 56-57
Where in the world mysteries: Famous Cities 58-59

Video lessons with interative poll questions can be viewed for each lesson at: [Link] or
on the Science Mom YouTube channel under the “Earth Science” playlist.

There are 5 art projects and 5 science activities that can be completed throughout this course. Templates for the art
projects are available in the appendix (pages 113-137 of this document) and a complete supply list is available on the
following page. This class was designed to satisfy half of the 4th and 5th grade U.S. science standards, which are
commonly referred to as NGSS or Next Generation Science Standards, which are listed in the table of contents.

Lessons were recorded live during January-May of 2021. The recordings and notes have been made freely available
thanks to the support of our patrons on [Link]

Have questions or suggestions? Contact jenny@[Link] or serge@[Link]

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 Topic Next Generation Science Standard Page(s)
(if applicable)
23. Where do planets come from? 5-ESS1-1 60-61
24. Earth’s structure 5-ESS1-2, 5-PS2-1 62-63
25. Art Project: Layers of Earth 64-65
26. How do volcanoes work? 66-67
27. Erosion and weathering 4-ESS2-1 68
28. Earth Science Quiz Show #2 69
Where in the world mysteries: National Parks 70-71
29. Sedimentary rocks 72
30. Geologic time 73
31. Science Activity: Candy Rock Cycle 4-ESS2-1 74-77
32. Fossils 78-79
33. How to identify rocks 80-81
34. Art Project: Moons and Shadows 82-85
35. Where’s the water? 5-ESS2-2 86-87
36. Tides and ocean currents 88
37. Science Activity: Waves 4-PS4-1 89-91
38. You’re grounded! 92-93
39. How rivers work 94-95
40. Earth Science Quiz Show #3 96-97
Where in the world: Lakes and Rivers 98-99
41. Lakes: The good, the weird, and the salty 100-101
42. Glaciers 102
43. Art Project: Build-A-Map 4-ESS2-2 103
44. Coral and prickly pear 5-ESS2-1 104-105
45. Live on Mars (or Venus!) 106-107
46. Earth Science Quiz Show #4 108-111
Acknowledgments 112
Appendix 113-137

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 Supply List for Art & Science Projects:
Lesson 5 - Atmosphere Model Lesson 25 - Layers of Earth

• Paper, Scissors • Paper

• Art supplies for coloring (any type) • Art supplies for coloring (any type)
• Printed templates (optional) found on pages • Printed template (optional) found on
116-121 page 122-125

Lesson 8 - How do Planes Fly? Lesson 31 - Candy Rock Cycle

• Roll of toilet paper or a tissue • Skittles or other round candy with a

• 3 ping pong balls marking on one side (m&ms are a good
• 2 pencils OR a ruler OR another long substitute)
straight object • Starbursts or other chewy candy that
• 4 Balloons has different colors and will soften when
• String or yarn warm
• Paper “helicopter” toy (instructions and • Paper towel or plate
templates on pages 114-115) • Sidewalk chalk
• A paper airplane (instructions on page 113)
• Hair dryer Lesson 34 - Moons and Shadows
• Tape
• Cardstock
Lesson 14 - Climate Zone Quadramas • A white crayon
• Watercolors or markers
• Cardstock • Printed template (optional) found on
• Crayons or markers for coloring pages 127 and129
• Scissors • Sidewalk chalk
• Gluestick or tape
• Printed templates (optional) found on pages Lesson 37 - Waves
125-137
• 1 lightweight blanket or sheet
Lesson 19 - Mason Jar Biomes • 3 ping pong balls
• 1 slinky
• 2 mason jars and lids
• 4 small disks of compressed coconut fiber Lesson 43 - Build-A-Map
OR 2 cups of potting soil
• ½ cup gravel, pebbles, or marbles for a • Modeling clay or play dough
drainage layer • A marker
• Food scraps from the kitchen • Paper
• 1 bright light that can be placed over one of • Art supplies for coloring (any type)
the jars
• Small seeds such as clover, alfalfa, or
creeping thyme

Lesson 22 - Spaghetti Bridge

• A box of spaghetti noodles (can substitute

angel hair or other variety of long noodles)
• Tape OR Marshmallows
• A cup
• String or yarn
• A unit of weight such as coins, beans, or
marbles
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 Authorʻs note:
Although my target audience for this course is 4th
and 5th graders, I’ve never been able to hold
back from sharing big words and cool ideas. How to get the most
You’ll find that some of the material is above
grade level. I hope that’s one of the things you
from this course:
enjoy about this curriculum, rather than a source
of frustration.
This course can be used in a variety of
These notes and their accompanying video ways! You can participate passively
lessons are posted online as a free and public (just watch the videos), or actively by
resource. filling out the notes and completing the
projects. You can do the entire course
You are welcome to download and print as many in sequence or participate in one lesson
copies as you would like. You are encouraged to or section at a time.
share these notes with your friends or students.
For BEST learning, we recommend the
You are NOT allowed to sell these notes or to following:
share images from them without attribution.
Read the pages that go with each
Far too often, quality education is unavailable to lesson before watching the video. Take
people experiencing financial scarcity. These 10-15 minutes to see if you can fill in
notes are free because I believe in the power of the blanks.
education and want science to be accessible to
every student. On “Quiz show” days, use the itempool
link to take advantage of the interactive
If you enjoy this Earth Science class, please questions and test your knowledge.
support our efforts by sharing the course Prepare by taking the practice quiz
(positive reviews and personal testimonials before you watch the quiz show video!
makes a huge difference!) or by joining us at:
[Link]/ScienceMom. The larger our In each of the science activities, make
network of students and supporters, the more predictions before you conduct the
courses like this we’ll be able to create! experiments.

Thank you for being here. Let’s work hard and Download the answer key for the notes,
grow smarter together. but don’t look at the answers until after
you give things a try yourself!

The AuthaGraph map was invented by Hajime Narukawa and works by equally dividing the spherical surface of Earth
into 96 triangles, then mapping these on to a tetrahedron before unfolding them to a rectangle.
5
 Why Earth Science?
Why study Earth Science? Well, Earth is the only place in our solar system where we find
living things. The animals, plants, fungi, and single-celled organisms that call Earth home
have one important thing in common. They each live in and depend on these four spheres:

Atmosphere: all the air surrounding our planet

Lithosphere: all the rocks! The crust of our planet

Biosphere: all the living things on planet Earth

Hydrosphere: The water on, under, and above the surface of our planet
Each of these spheres interacts with the others in fascinating ways, and the study of these
spheres and their interactions is called Earth Science. In this course, we're going to focus our
attention on the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere. We can't wait to show you more
about our incredible planet Earth!
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 Pa rt
One :

Have you ever felt sorry for a fish because it’s

trapped in a pond and can’t walk around on MORNING, KIDS!
land? Well, we live in air just like fish live in HOW'S THE WATER
water, only we're too heavy to swim! today?
Just like a fish can’t live without water, we
can’t live without air, which is a mixture of
gases. The layer of gases surrounding a planet
is called its atmosphere. Our atmosphere is
important for more than breathing. It protects
us from radiation, cycles nutrients and heat,
and is the source of all our food.
Over the next several weeks, we’ll learn
exactly what it is that we’re breathing and why
it’s so important for food, climate, weather, and
life!

QU ICK FACTS:
THE ATMOSPHERE IS MADE OF:
Nitrogen: 78%
Oxygen: 20.9%
Argon: 0.9%
Carbon Dioxide: 0.04%
Helium: 0.0005%
Methane: 0.0001%
Ozone: 0.00006%

At any given time, there is also a

significant amount of water vapor in WHAT THE HECK
the air. But since the amount of water
iS WATER? I HAVE
is constantly changing, it isn’t included NO IDEA!
in percentages of atmospheric gases.

THE LAYERS ARE:

Troposphere: 1-12 km (1-7 miles)
Stratosphere: 12-50 km (7-31 miles)
Mesosphere: 50-80 km (31-50 miles)
Thermosphere: 80-700 km (50-440 miles)
Exosphere: 700-1,000 km (440-6,200 miles)
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 GASES of the ATMOSPHERE

Nitrogen (N2) Methane (CH4) Argon (Ar)

Chemical
Formula
YOUR
NOTES
Water vapor (H2O) Oxygen (O2) Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Name

Ar Argon CH4Methane O2 Oxygen

A greenhouse gas. Methane
A noble gas. Argon is not Animals and plants need
is produced from living
reactive. It makes up oxygen to stay alive. Almost
things (bacteria, cows, etc)
about 1% of the 21% of the atmosphere is
and can be burned to
atmosphere. oxygen.
produce carbon dioxide.

CO2Carbon Dioxide N2 Nitrogen H2O Water Vapor

The most abundant The most common gas in the The amount of water vapor
greenhouse gas. Carbon atmosphere (78% of the air in the air is called humidity
dioxide is made by animals is N2 gas). Nitrogen is not and it changes depending on
and combustion (burning reactive and not a the weather. Water vapor is
fuels like wood, oil, or coal). greenhouse gas. also a greenhouse gas.

M OST IMPORTA
E EN HOUSE G N ASE T The 3 most abundant gases in the
THGRE S:
atmosphere:
Methane (CH4) 1. Oxygen (O2)

Water vapor (H2O)

Carbon dioxide (CO2) 2. Argon (Ar)

3. Nitrogen (N2)

8
 Compared to how tall we are, the atmosphere is incredibly tall!
Compared to how thick the Earth is, it’s rather small.
12 meters 116 meters 830 meters 8,848 meters
40 feet 379 feet 2.722 feet 29,029 feet

2.29 meters
7 ft 6 in

YAO MING IS TALL, BUT A BRACHIOSAURUS IS A REDWOOD TREE IS THE BURJ KALIFA IS TALL,
A BRACHIOSAURUS TALL BUT A REDWOOD TALL, BUT THE BURJ BUT MOUNT EVEREST
IS TALLER. TREE IS TALLER. KALIFA IS TALLER. IS TALLER.

The tallest clouds

Up to 21,000 meters
69,000 feet

Mount Everest

The Burj Khalifa

MOUNT EVEREST IS TALL, BUT CLOUDS CAN BE TALLER.

It’s difficult to measure exactly where the

atmosphere ends and outer space begins because
the atmosphere doesn’t have a “lid” or cap on top.
OUTER SPACE IS EMPTY
In science, we call empty space a vacuum!
The air just keeps getting thinner and thinner, until
it’s so thin that it acts and looks like the emptiness of
outer space.
The lowest layer of the atmosphere (0-10 km) is
called the troposphere. It’s the warmest part of our
atmosphere and where all our weather occurs.
The next layer is defined by the ozone layer, which
protects our planet from harmful radiation. We call it Hey! there’s
the stratosphere (10-50 km). nothing
there!
The third layer is the mesosphere (50-85 km). When
meteors enter our atmosphere and burn up, creating Exactly.
shooting stars, they are doing it in this layer.
The thermosphere (90-500 km) and exosphere (500-
1000 km) are the next two layers. The air molecules
are so far apart in these layers, they look and feel
like the vacuum of outer space!
Cleaning vacuum. Real vacuum.
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 LAYERS of the ATMOSPHERE
If our
were the
Exosphere size of an

500 km

The ATMOSPHERE
Thermosphere would only be as thick as

90 km
Color me RED where
Mesosphere In the troposphere
the air gets warmer
and BLUE where the
and mesosphere, the air is getting colder!
air temperature gets
cooler with higher
altitude. In the
50 km stratosphere, the
trend is the opposite. When ____________
meteors enter
Stratosphere In this layer the air the atmosphere they burn
40 km temperature gets up, creating shooting stars.
warmer with higher
elevation.
This happens in the
WOW! ____________________.
mesosphere
30 km

OZONE LAYER
Ozone is O3 a molecule that
20 km
absorbs harmful UV light.
The ozone layer is in the
10 km ______________________.
stratosphere

Troposphere 8 km

All of our breathable air is

5 km in the _________________.
troposphere
People can adapt to live
anywhere from sea level to
___
8 km above sea level.

10
 Going to the top of Look it’s going to And when we say really
the atmosph ere? cold, we mean really really
out! be really cold really really cold!

Graph the temperature of the atmosphere

Hot air rises, so you might think that the air would keep getting warmer and warmer the higher you go. But don't forget that
outer space is really cold! Each of the balloons below has a measurement. Put these data points on the graph and draw a
line between them to discover how temperature changes with elevation. If you get a line like this: that means the air
is getting colder the higher you go. If the line looks like this: then the air is getting warmer with higher elevation.

0 km 5 km 10 km 15 km 40 km 55 km 80 km 85 km
15°C HINT:the data pointS for the -20°C -55°C -55°C 20 km -20°C 50 km -2°C 65 km -94°C -94°C
first TWO balloonS have been -55°C -2°C -20°C
filled in below with stars:

MESOSPHERE
80 km 80 km The change in temperature
is what defines the
stratosphere. It doesn’t
always begin at 10
70 km 70 km kilometers above sea level!
The elevation of the
stratosphere will be
different at different
times of years and in
60 km 60 km different locations.

Another “pause” before things

get REALLY REALLY cold
50 km 50 km
The heat released from ozone STRATOSPHERE
reacting with UV light is what
causes the increase in temperature
in the stratosphere
40 km 40 km

30 km 30 km
Interesting “pause” in temperature change
between the layers (maybe that’s why it’s
called the “tropopause”! )
20 km 20 km
Here the air gets dramatically
colder with elevation
10 km 10 km
8 km TROPOSPHERE
5 km 5 km

-80° -40°
-100° -60° -20° 20°
0°Celsius 11
 Layers of the
ART PROJECT
Build the layers, color them with letter art, or both. You choose which project you want to do!
1 Build the Layers
Choose something for your “unit” and make sure you
have at least 9 of them. It could be anything! Beans,
pencils, pieces of licorice, Lego blocks, books, or
pieces of paper that are cut to be the same size.
Place 1 unit down for the troposphere.
Mesosphere
Place 4 units down for the stratosphere. The second
of these units represents the ozone layer!
Place 4 more units down for the mesosphere. (Three
and a half units would be most accurate, but each of
these layers can vary by location and season. Four M
units is a fair representation.)
M
Your atmosphere model is complete! Or is it? Figuring
out where the atmosphere ends and outer space M
begins can be tricky, because the air just keeps
getting thinner, and thinner, and thinner. M
Stratosphere
In the thermosphere and exosphere, there’s more Ozone S
than a kilometer of space between air molecules. layer
Since these layers act and feel a lot like the emptiness S
of outer space, sometimes they aren’t included when o
we talk about the layers of the atmosphere.
If you’d like to include them in your model, you’ll need Troposphere S
FORTY ONE additional units for the thermosphere
and FIFTY more for the exosphere! T

Uh, so when you said you needed

paint for an art project, I thought This is art! One
you were going to actually do art – hundred buckets lined
you know, by painting something. up in honor of our
atmosphere!

12
 Layers of the
ART PROJECT
2 Art with Letters
Print the Layers of Atmosphere template
(page 117) OR create your own using a
ruler by starting at the bottom and marking
straight lines across the paper at
approximately the following heights:
Draw 4 more lines (lightly) every 3.3 cm or
1¼ inches above the first line (these are
the stratosphere. The ozone layer will be
between the 1st and 2nd of these lines)
3.3 cm/1¼ in from bottom (represents top
boundary of troposphere)
Draw your own Or use the template
TROPOSPHERE LAYER
The troposphere layer in the template is decorated with a tessellation of the letter T. A tessellation is a repeating pattern
with no overlaps and no gaps. You can make your own by repeating this basic shape of 2 letters, or 4 letters:

STRATOSPHERE LAYER
Make a grid of dots or circles on the 4 parallel lines and then connect the dots with the letter s.
Then color the second row a different color for the ozone layer!

How much
you curve
your lines
can create
very
different
effects!

MESOSPHERE LAYER
Make a grid of parallel lines and then draw the letter M in between them, connecting the corners. If you shift every two
lines over, then you’ll end up with a pattern that can be shaded to look three dimensional! This is rather appropriate,
since the air molecules in the mesosphere are spread VERY far apart. Of course, you can color yours any way you’d like!

OR

13
 Water THE WATER CYCLE SONG
ts
drople
Sung to the tune of La Cucaracha. Best
when performed with hand actions!
Evaporation,
Most clouds are made of Raise hands in a wavy motion
incredibly small droplets of water. Condensation,
These droplets are between Clap hands together up high
0.001 mm and 0.05 mm in size. Precipitation’s when it rains,
Raindrops are 0.05 mm and Bring hands down low
larger, which is MUCH bigger The water goes round
than a water droplet. If the circles Move hands in a circle
you see all around these words From cloud to wet ground
were water droplets, then THIS Move hands from high to low
would be the size of a raindrop. raindrop That’s the water cycle song!
To draw a raindrop at this scale, Clap three times when done!
you’d need 12 pieces of paper!

D IN A BOTTLE
CLOU TRATION
= 1 piece of paper
DEMONS
ea r o r d i s a pp e a r ?
W i l l t h e c l o u d app
s
th e p r e s sure make
g .
Increasin __d_is_a_p_p_e_a_r______
__ s
FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS: the cloud th e p r e ssure make
g _.
gas water humidity precipitation Decreasin ___a_p_p_e_a_r_______
__
float condenses merge vapor the cloud

When water evaporates it turns into

gas called _______
a _______ water _______.
vapor
S AT I O N
The amount of water vapor in the air N DEN
humidity
is called _______________. When CO
water _______________
condenses it changes
from a gas into a liquid. Clouds are
n
made from water droplets so small that
r o w s! Cas
a r e i
they can __________
float in air. If enough l the ch on is
Labe tell whi Which h
NTIO

water droplets collide with each other, u

yo ration ? Wh ? i c
o n
merge to form a raindrop.
they can _________ evap ensatio tation?
TA

n d p i
EV

co preci
Raindrops are too heavy to float, so they is
PI
AP

RA
CI
O

fall from the sky. This is called T E

IO PR
_____________________.
precipitation N

14
 CAN YOU USE THE CLUES The names of clouds come from Latin root words. In Latin,
FROM THE PICTURE BELOW
TO FILL IN THE BLANKS nimbo
the word __________ Cumulus
means rain. ___________ means a
USING THESE WORDS?
Stratus
heap or pile. __________ means to extend, spread out, or
stratus cumulus Alto
cover with a layer. _________ means high or tall, and the
nimbo alto cirrus cirrus means a lock of hair or a tuft of horsehair.
word _________
High Clouds
4,000 - 6,000 meters

Cirrus

Middle Clouds
2,000 - 4,000 meters

Altocumulus
Altostratus

Low Clouds
0 - 2,000 meters

Cumulus Cumulonimbus

Nimbostratus Stratus

15
Two Globs and a Dog - by Science Mom
You’ve been reading about Pine trees need
weather all day. Why do you Weather is a matter of Except pine nuts! water too! Plus, if a
even care about weather when life and death! All of our Those are harvested tornado was headed
we live inside a house? food comes from farms- from the wild! for your house,
you’d want to know
about it, right?

Time to take So, how did

fuzzball for my phone
a walk. Want Sure. know it was
to come? Better grab going to
the umbrellas! rain? I’m so glad
BEEP! TIME
TO WALK
THE DOG. BEEP! 80% you asked.
CHANCE
OF RAIN.

YOUR DOODLE SPACE

Draw your favorite type of weather and
describe it! Why is it your favorite?

Your favorite weather:There is no right or wrong answer here! Different people will
prefer different types of weather. Science Mom loves the rain and thunderstorms.
Math Dad prefers sunny or partly cloudy weather that isn’t too hot or cold.
16
Look up the 10 day weather forecast for RECORD THE 10 DAY FORECAST CHANCE
OF RAIN WIND
SPEED
where you live. Write down the expected
DATE Feb 3
high and low temperatures, the chance of 0% N 10 mph
Partly
precipitation, weather forecast, and the 4°
2° cloudy
expected wind speed. WEATHER
HIGH LOW FORECAST
Then, over the next ten days, record the RECORD THE OBSERVED WEATHER
observed results! Record the barometric DATE
PRECIPITATION
WIND SPEED
pressure and humidity for each day as BAROMETRIC
Feb 3 30 Hg PRESSURE
well. none N 12 mph
4° Partly HUMIDITY
2° cloudy 24%
How closely did the forecast match your
OBSERVED WEATHER
observations? What patterns or trends HIGH LOW CONDITIONS
did you notice?

The 10 day forecast The observed weather

Answers here will vary

dramatically depending
on location and time of
year! But hopefully you’ll
see that the first 5 days
of the forecast are
predicted with more
accuracy than the last 5.

17
 To predict the weather, you need to know where the
wind is blowing from and what it's bringing with it.
Scientists who study weather (meteorologists) make
their predictions by measuring the cloud cover, Whether or not the weather is fine,
temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and wind.
If they gather this information for a large enough area,
the wether is staying outside.
then they can use models to predict the weather for the
next 10 days. But how do you measure the temperature
over five hundred miles of desert, or the wind that’s
blowing over an entire prairie?
There are two important ways scientists gather the Baaaaaa!
information they need to predict the weather: from
weather stations and satellites.
Then, once they have all of their data, they use
computer models to predict what weather will happen
next.
Bellwether: the sheep that leads the flock and
wears a bell around its neck. A trendsetter.
A MODERN WEATHER STATION
FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
lightning rod thermometer anemometer meter
barometer hygrometer
wind speed and
solar direction sensor
radiation
anemometer
An ________________ measures wind
sensor speed and direction. Air pressure is
measured using a _________________.
barometer
To measure the temperature, use a
solar ____________________.
thermometer To measure
panel
humidity, a _______________
hygrometer is the tool
air temperature, you’ll need. You might have noticed that
relative humidity, each of these tools contain the word
antenna & barometric
pressure sensor _______
meter which means “to measure.” A
good weather station will have all of these
computer parts instruments, plus measure cloud cover
and data logger
and rainfall!
Te m p e rat u re H um idi t y
vs. vs.
rain HIGH LOW HIGH LOW
gauge
How hot the air is How much water is in the air

Wi n d Pre s s u re
vs.
How much the air is moving
(While air molecules are ALWAYS HIGH LOW
moving, wind is how much large
grounding rod regions of air are moving.) How much air there is
18
 Feb 4 Feb 5 Feb 6
Phenology (“fen-ALL-oh-gee”) is the study of how variations in climate affect
regular events in biology. By tracking the weather and then observing the living
things around us, people can better understand how animals and plants are
influenced by climate.
Have you ever wondered why the first migratory birds are seen on a slightly
different day each year? Or how the leaves know to start turning colors in the
fall? Creating phenology wheels can help point you to some of the answers.
Create your own wheel by tracking the weather and moon phases for 30 days.
In the space below each circle, draw a small picture to represent the weather,
along with one observation relating to a living thing you observe outside. If you 4° -2° 5°
don’t observe any animals and the plants are dormant, color the view of the sky. 0° -4° 1°
High and low
temperatures
Answers here will vary dramatically
depending on location and time of year!
Hopefully you’ll see a warming or cooling
trend in overall temperature and observe
animals and plants behaving or looking
different when the weather changes.
Perhaps seedlings sprouting after rain, or
more birds or insects when the weather is
warm? There are a whole host of things
waiting to be discovered by those who
watch, listen, and record their findings.

19
 Hands-on Activity
How do airplanes fly?
MATERIALS:
2 sheets
of paper

3 or 4 Ping Pong balls Ruler, stick, or anything else

you can tie two balloons to.
Hair dryer Paper clip

Small object such as a

peanut, penny, or raisin Tape (optional)
3 to 4 balloons String Roll of toilet paper

Does air have weight? Will the inflated balloon be...

1. Attach 2 empty balloons to the pencil
with tape.
2. Suspend the pencil from string so
that it is balanced.
3. Carefully remove one balloon, blow it
up and reattach it in the same place.
4. Circle your prediction. Lighter? Heavier? Weigh the same?
5. Draw what happened.
Draw what you see!
Answers will vary,
How did your predictions but yours might look
differ from your results? something like this: The balloon
filled with air
was heavier!
My prediction matched the results.

What does wind do? When the wind blows, will the balloons...
1. Use the balloons from your previous
experiment again, but blow up both of them.
2. Attach string to each.
3. Suspend the balloons so they are about
ten cm (4 inches) apart.
4. Circle your prediction.
5. Blow air between the balloons and observe Stay the same? Push apart? Push together?
how they move!
6. Draw your results. Draw what you see!

How did your predictions

differ from your results?
I thought the balloons would push
20 apart, but they came together!
 YOUR DOODLE SPACE
If there is only a piano in Carnegie Hall, is the room empty? Nope. The room is full of air! But how much does
the air weigh? Write down a guess below. Then draw the kind of music you’d play if you got to perform!

This auditorium has seats for

More than two thousand people!
it’s a pretty big room!

HOW MUCH DOES THE AIR THE ACTUAL 31,750 kilograms

WEIGH? YOUR GUESS: 50 pounds? AMOUNT: (70,000 pounds!)

Tissue Trouble When you blow over the top of a tissue roll, will it...
1. Circle your prediction.
2. Hold a tissue roll so that it will Wind Wind Wind
unravel away from you.
3. Use your breath to blow over
the top of the roll.
4. Draw your results.
5. (Optional) Try it with the hair dryer! Lift up? Stay the same? Curve around?
Draw what you see!
How did your predictions
differ from your results?
I thought the paper would curl under
more but it lifted up!

Ping Pong Ball + Hair Dryer When you put a ping pong ball over a hair dryer, will it...
1. Circle your prediction.
2. Plug in your hair dryer and turn it on
3. Carefully place your ball a few inches
above the air stream and let go.
WARNING: Air from a hair dryer can get very
hot! If your hair dryer has a “cool” button, use
it! If it does not have a cool button, be sure Shoot into the air? Fall to the ground? Hover in place?
not to leave it on too long and don’t touch the
top of the dryer because it will get hot!
4. Observe how the ball behaves. Draw what you see!
5. Draw what happened.

How did your predictions

differ from your results?
I thought the ball would shoot up
and then fall down, but it stayed in 21

one place!
 Air at an angle If the hair dryer is tipped, will the ball...
1. Circle your prediction.
2. Plug in your hair dryer and turn it on.
3. Carefully place your ball over the
air stream. WARNING: Air from a hair dryer
can get very hot! If your hair dryer has a “cool”
button, use it! If it does not have a “cool air”
button, be sure not to leave it on too long Shoot into the air? Fall to the ground? Continue hovering?
and don’t touch the top of the dryer.
4. What happens when you gently tip the Draw what you see!
dryer to the side?
5. Draw what happened

Did your predictions differ from your results?

I thought the ball would drop. If it was only

tipped a little, the ball stayed floating. If it

was tipped a lot, then the ball dropped.

Two or three at once! If multiple balls are in the air, will they ...
1. Circle your prediction.
2. Gather three ping pong balls.
3. Plug in your hair dryer and turn it on.
4. Carefully place your ball over the air stream
and then add another ball and another.
WARNING: Air from a hair dryer can get very
hot! If your hair dryer has a “cool” button, Fall to the ground? Do a crazy dance? Hover in place?
use it! If it does not have a “cool air” button,
be sure not to leave it on too long and don’t Draw what you see!
touch the top of the dryer, it will be hot!
5: Draw what happened.

Did your predictions differ from your results?

My prediction matched the results. The

ping pong balls would dance around like

crazy and then fall to the ground.

A Dented Ping Pong Ball If a ping ball is dented, will it ...
1: Circle your prediction.
2: Dent one of the ping pong balls by gently
stepping or pushing on it.
3: Plug in your hair dryer and turn it on.
4: Carefully place your ball over the air stream.
WARNING: Air can get very hot! If your hair
dryer has a “cool” button, use it! If it does Shoot into the air? Fall to the ground? Hover in place?
not have a “cool air” button, be sure not to
leave it on too long and don’t touch the top Draw what you see!
of the dryer because it will be hot!
5: Draw what happened.

Did your predictions differ from your results?

My prediction matched the results.

22
Flying Balloons? If a balloon with weight is placed over a dryer, will it...
1. Circle your prediction.
2. Place a penny, raisin, or peanut in a balloon
and then inflate the balloon and tie it off.
3. Carefully turn on the hair dryer and place the
balloon over the air stream. WARNING: Air
from a hair dryer can get very hot and hot air
will pop the balloon! If your hair dryer has a
“cool shot” button, use it! If it does not have
a “cool air” button, be sure not to leave it on
too long and don’t touch the top of the dryer. Shoot into the air? Fall to the ground? Hover?
4. Draw what happened.
Draw what you see!
Did your predictions differ from your results?
My prediction matched the results.

Helicopter vs Plane When both are dropped will they...

1. Build your helicopter and plane. See
pages 113-114 if you would like
directions.
2. Circle your prediction.
3. Toss your helicopter and plane from
the same height. Fall? Glide? Differ?
4. How do their flight patterns differ?
5. Draw your results Draw what you see!

Did your predictions differ from your results?

My prediction matched the results.

notes about Lift and pressure

Another fun variation I tried was placing my hand over the top of a floating ping pong

ball. If I slowly lowered by hand, the ball dropped. If I put a toilet paper roll over the
top of the ping pong ball, the ball shot through the tube and flew into the air!

When fast moving air Faster air = lower pressure. Air moves faster over the curved
meets the ping pong The lower pressure pulls evenly surface of a wing, and the change in
ball, it speeds up to in all directions on a round ball, pressure provides lift.
go around the ball. but unevenly on a dented ball.

23
 Severe Storms
All about Tornadoes & Hurricanes / Typhoons
Anatomy of a Tornado
STORM DIRECTION

REAR FLANK MESOCYCLONE

DOWNDRAFT
FORWARD FLANK
DOWNDRAFT

SHELF CLOUD

FILL IN THE LABELS ABOVE

USING THESE WORDS: STORM MESOCYCLONE
DIRECTION The three main ingredients Of a
FORWARD FLANK REAR FLANK

TORNADO
SHELF CLOUD
DOWNDRAFT DOWNDRAFT

Your notes: 1. INSTABILITY

cool, dry air
Everyone’s notes will be different. Include details from
class that stand out to you! They might be things like:
creates
warm, moist air updrafts

2. WIND SHEAR
More tornadoes form in the plains of the United States
than anywhere else in the world because “tornado alley” is OR

where cold dry air from Canada meets warm moist air from
DIRECTIONAL
SPEED SHEAR SHEAR
the Gulf of Mexico: perfect for large thunderstorms.
3. MOISTURE
that’s me!
The U.S. has more than 1,200 tornadoes each year. Good ol’ H2O

Lots of water Condenses to form

vapor in the air thunderstorms
24
Your notes: The three main ingredients Of a
Because of the curved shape of our world, different parts
of Earth move at different speeds and this produces the HURRICANE
Coriolis effect.
1. WARM OCEAN
WATERS
Because of the Coriolis effect, tropical cyclones north of 2. GENTLE AND
ROTATING WINDS
the equator rotate counter-clockwise (when viewed from Waters warmer
3. MOIST AIR than 27° C (80° F)
above) but cyclones south of the equator rotate clockwise.

Hurricanes form over warm water and transfer large

amounts of heat from the water’s surface to the upper LOW wind shear
so the storm Lots of water
system can build vapor in the air
atmosphere.

Tropical Cyclones are usually called THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE

HURRICANES if they form in the Atlantic Describes how severe a storm is expected to be.
or Northeastern Pacific, and TYPHOONS
if they occur in 63-118 119-153 154-177 178-208 209-251 252+
870 km km/h km/h km/h km/h km/h km/h
the Northwest/ (545 miles)
South Pacific. 34-73 74-95 96-110 111-129 130-156 157+
mph mph mph mph mph mph
They are huge TROPICAL
storm systems, STORM 1 2 3 4 5
ranging from HURRICANE
100 to 2,000
kilometers
across!

Anatomy of a Hurricane
= cold air

= warm air
outflow cirrus shield

outflow

eye
eye wall
rain bands

ION
STORM ROTAT

25
 Global weather patterns 30
Because the Earth is Singapore
round, light from the sun is 20
more intense over the

Average Daily Temp in °C

10
equator than the poles.
Notice how the “flashlight” 0
here highlights the globe -10
North Pole
differently?
-20
The intense equatorial -30
heat from the sun warms
the water in the tropics, -40
and this rising moist air is -50
the one of the main driving South Pole
forces for global weather -60
systems on our planet. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month

2
2

is is called
2 Th vection
3 con ! 3

1. The intense equatorial heat 2. As the air rises it cools 3. By the time the air has
from the sun warms the water and forms clouds and then cooled enough to sink, it
in the tropics, and this rising rain. The air drifts away from has lost almost all of it’s
moist air is the main force the equator because more water. This is why there
driving enormous loops of air warm air is pushing up from are deserts at 30° latitude
known as the Hadley cells. underneath. all over the world.

TRY IT YOURSELF
Explore convection by filling up a large container with room temperature
Your notes: The South Pole is water. Then place two smaller containers inside it, one with blue cold
water, the other with hot water colored yellow or red. You can also
WAY colder than the North freeze blue water to make colored ice cubes. Draw what you observe!
Pole because wind and water
currents around Antarctica
isolate it.

26
 PREVAILING WINDS
The global wind belts that circle our planet
Because our planet is rotating, the Hadley and
Ferrel cells create PREVAILING WINDS. These
60°
winds are named for the direction the wind blows
westerlies FROM.
In Nevada, the wind usually blows from the
30°
Easterlies west. Whatever big weather systems California
(trade winds) is experiencing, Nevada gets the same thing a
EQUATOR couple days later.
Easterlies But in Hawaii or Florida, it’s the opposite! In
(trade winds)
30° these locations, people look to the East to know
what kind of weather is coming their way - all
westerlies because of the prevailing winds.
60°
Which way does the wind usually blow where
YOU live?

Draw in the missing arrows to show which way the air is moving!
HINT: The Polar
cells are driven
by the very cold
air that sinks at
the poles.
POLAR POLAR

FERREL FERREL

HADLEY
HADLEY

HADLEY HADLEY

FERREL FERREL
HINT: The Ferrel cell
is caught in between.
Its rotation is driven POLAR POLAR
by the other two.

27
 Quiz Time! Answer the questions to
see what you learned!

① Which of these gases accounts for approximately 21% of the atmosphere?

A. Nitrogen
B. Oxygen
C. Carbon dioxide
D. Helium
E. Argon

② Name three greenhouse gases:

Carbon dioxide ___________________

__________________, Methane Water vapor
, __________________

③ Which of these statements are true? Select all that apply.

A. Rainclouds, hurricanes, and tornadoes form in the troposphere.
B. The tops of the tallest mountains are in the stratosphere.
C. The ozone layer is in the mesosphere.
D. The stratosphere is warmer than the mesosphere.

④ How far in advance can we accurately predict the weather?

A. 10 months
B. 1 month
C. 10 days
D. 10 hours

⑤ _____________ specifies a location’s difference north or south of the equator.

A. Latitude
B. Longitude

⑥ What is the elevation of the “death zone?” (The death zone is the elevation above which there is not
enough oxygen to sustain human life for more than a day.)
A. 3,000 meters (9,842 feet)
B. 5,000 meters (16,404 feet)
C. 8,000 meters (26,246 feet)
D. 10,000 meters (32,808 feet)

⑦ True or False: A hurricane generally has faster wind speeds than a tornado.
A. True
A level 5 hurricane (252+ km/h or 157+ mph) will have faster wind speeds than
B. False a level 1 tornado (117-180 km/h or 73-112 mph), but in general, tornadoes have
faster wind speeds.
⑧ List two reasons why weather prediction is important: (Answers will vary)
Because weather impacts how crops grow.
____________________________________________________________

28 Because predicting severe storms can save lives.

____________________________________________________________
⑨ The amount of water vapor in the air is called:
A. Humidity
B. Clouds
C. Rain

⑩ A funnel cloud is not considered a tornado unless or until it touches the ground.
A. True
B. False

⑪ If the weather is sunny and calm, the barometric pressure is usually

A. High
B. Low

⑫ Which gases are needed to keep Earth warm enough to sustain life? Select all that apply.
A. CO2
B. H2O
C. N2
D. CH4
E. O2

⑬ Which layer of the atmosphere do you live in?

A. Exosphere
B. Thermosphere
C. Stratosphere
D. Troposphere
E. Mesosphere

⑭ What percentage of the atmosphere is nitrogen gas?

78%
_____________

⑮ What layer of the atmosphere protects us from damaging ultraviolet radiation?

A. The ozone layer in the stratosphere
B. The ozone layer in the troposphere
C. The exosphere
D. The mesosphere

⑯ Which is colder, the North Pole or the South Pole?

A. North Pole
B. South Pole
C. They are equally cold

⑰ What is the main driving force of the Hadley cell that creates the trade winds?
A. Dry air at high altitude cooling and sinking at 30° latitude
B. Hot air at the equator rising
C. Cold air at the poles sinking
D. The trade winds

29
 Where in the World?
Each of these clues belongs to an abandoned place or ancient ruin. Write the letter from each clue next to
the drawing it describes. Once you’ve matched them, place a dot on the map locating the ruin! See if you
can mark all nine of them on the Winkel tripel projection map.

A D E

G H I

C F B

DRAWINGS BY ART MOM EMILY

A 600 terraces keep this place B The Lost City of Stone in Jordan’s C Built by the Mayans in Yucatán
from sliding down the mountain. desert is accessed through a narrow 1500+ years ago, and famous
Incas built it around 1450 AD canyon. Its pink sandstone tombs for the Temple of Warriors
and no one knows why they left. contain Al-Khazneh, The Treasury. and Great Ball Court.

Machu Picchu Petra Chichen Itza

D An eruption buried this city E Its five towers represent Mount Meru, F This isolated island
under several meters of ash. home of the Gods. hosted a community of monks
Forgotten for 1,500 years, it’s Pilgrims still visit and leave who fought off Viking raids
one of the world’s largest digs. locks of hair for good fortune. from the twin-pinnacled crag.

Pompeii Angkor Wat Skellig Michael*

G This prehistoric ring of stones, H The world’s largest Buddhist temple I A remote volcanic island.
each weighing more than 20 tons, has six squares and three Its native name is Rapa Nui,
was once the work of Druids circular platforms, the home to Moai and
and a burial ground. plus 504 Buddha statues. hundreds of big-headed statues.

30
Stonehenge Borobudur Easter Island
*Skellig Michael was also the site of Luke Skywalker’s home in
the Star Wars movies “The Force Awakens” and “The last Jedi.”
The above world map was published in 1595 and designed by Amerigo Vespucci and Gerardus Mercator.
Given how much more challenging navigation and communication were in the 1500s, it’s a good map. But
note that some things (like New Zealand and Australia) are missing entirely, and others (like New Guinea and
Antarctica) are drawn much too large!

In 1921, a cartographer named Oswald Winkel designed the Winkel tripel projection. The word “tripel”
(German for triple) is in the name of this map because Oswald’s goal was to minimize the three types of
distortion that are common in world maps: area, direction, and distance. He did a pretty good job!

G
F
D

B
C
E

A H

31
Tropical Rainforest
FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
Climates
soil wettest species biodiversity equator

Rainforests are the world's ____________

wettest ecosystems. These biomes have high
average temperatures, nutrient-poor _________,
soil very high annual rainfall and high
levels of ________________________.
biodiversity They contain about 50% of the world’s
terrestrial plant and animal _____________,
species but cover only 6% of the world’s land area.
Tropical rainforests are near the ______________.
equator Temperate rainforests occur near
oceans and experience cooler temperatures for part of the year.

DRAW LINES TO CONNECT THE CLUE WITH ITS CORRESPONDING ANIMAL OR PLANT

NATIONAL I have a long green tongue

FLOWER and hide in the trees to catch
OF COSTA
RICA hummingbirds for prey.
Guaria Morada
Guarianthe skinneri

I live in the trees and get water

from the air. I'm said to bring
good luck and fortune!
Green Vine Snake
Oxybelis fulgidus

A whole community lives on

me, including moths, beetles,
cockroaches, fungi, and algae!
Giant Blue Morpho
Morpho didius

My scales appear colorful

because they refract light,
just like a prism.
White-nosed coati
Nasua narica

I have double-jointed ankles

and can descend from trees
headfirst.
Three-toed Sloth
Bradypus variegatus

Corcovado National Park in Costa Rice is the most diverse area of its size of any place on Earth! The park has
13 different ecosystems, including the only remaining old growth forests of Central America's Pacific Coast.
32
 Continental Climates
FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
snow seasons climate Moscow Oslo
moderated continent Toronto Mumbai

A continental climate has four ____________.

seasons It is hot in the summer months and
very cold in the winter. These climates receive ___________
snow each winter. If it doesn’t
snow, then it’s not a continental ____________!
climate This type of climate usually forms on
a large landmass or ______________
continent where the temperature is not ______________
moderated
by an ocean. Famous cities that experience a continental climate include: _________,
Toronto
____________
Moscow and __________.
Oslo The city of __________
Mumbai does not have this climate!

DRAW LINES TO CONNECT THE CLUE WITH ITS CORRESPONDING ANIMAL OR PLANT

cone
I am an herbivore and an
seed excellent climber. I like high
elevations.
leaves European Larch
Larix decidua

I am a conifer, but I am also

deciduous. My foliage turns a
beautiful yellow each autumn.
Alpine Marmot
Marmota marmota

seed
My seeds are called acorns.
My wood is resistant to
insects and fungus.
leaf Oak
Quercus robur

I love to eat leaves and grass,

and sometimes insects too!
I hibernate during the winter.
Alpine Ibex
Capra ibex

70%-90% of my diet is bone.

I can live to be 45 years old.
Bearded Vulture
Gypaetus barbatus

Each of the above animals and plants can be found in the Swiss National Park, which was founded in 1914.
It covers 174 square kilometers of land, of which 28% is forests, 21% is alpine grasslands, and 51% is rock. 33
 Desert climates
FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
rocky adaptations cold Cairo Las Vegas
plants year Seattle water

A desert climate is defined by a lack of ___________.

water Hot deserts are the most
common type, but deserts can be ________
cold as well. Most deserts get less than 200
mm (8 in) of rain each ________.
year Their landscapes are often ________
rocky or sandy.
Animals and _________
plants living in this climate have special _____________
adaptations to help
them conserve water. Famous cities that experience this climate include _________
Cairo
and ____________.
Las Vegas The city of __________
Seattle does NOT have a desert climate!

DRAW LINES TO CONNECT THE CLUE WITH ITS CORRESPONDING ANIMAL OR PLANT

I am monogamous.

Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion

Hadrurus arizonensis

I only grow 2-3 inches per

leaves flower
year, but I can live to be
seed
thousands of years old.
Creosote Bush
Larrea tridentata

I only "breathe" (open my

stomata) in the mornings,
when the air is more humid.
Coyote
Canis latrans

fruit
I prey upon rattlesnakes.
flower
Joshua Tree
Yucca brevifolia

I grow fluorescent green

under UV light.
Greater Roadrunner
Geococcyx californianus

Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and lowest national park in North
34 America. It only receives 5 cm (2 inches) of rain a year!
 Polar Climates
FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
Antarctic ice penguins heat driest
important solar largest aquatic

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, and ________

driest continent on Earth. Many species of
large and small _______
aquatic animals live in the waters, while penguins
_________ are the most
recognizable land animal. Antarctica contains the _______
largest single sheet of _____
ice in the
world, known as the _________
Antarctic Ice Sheet, which reflects a large amount of _____heat
radiation. This results in it playing an important role in maintaining the Earth's ____
solar
balance. Antarctica is a very dangerous, beautiful, and ________
important climate on our planet.

DRAW LINES TO CONNECT THE CLUE WITH ITS CORRESPONDING ANIMAL OR PLANT

I can survive starvation for

up to 200 days! I also molt
throughout my entire life.
Mackerel icefish
Champsocephalus gunnari

I can dive over 220 meters

deep, and my name means
"good diver with a golden crest".
Antarctic Krill
Euphausia superba

I am the largest animal ever

known to have lived on Earth.
Elephant Seal
Mirounga

I'm known for being "white

blooded"! My blood cells lack
the red pigment haemoglobin.
Blue Whale
Balaenoptera musculus

I can hold my breath for

up to two hours, thanks to
all my red blood cells.
Macaroni Penguin
Eudyptes chrysolophus

Greenland's Northeast National Park is the largest in the world! It was created in 1974 and covers 972,000 square
kilometers. That's larger than most countries! This park contains 40% of the world population of musk ox. 35
 Climate Zone
ART PROJECT
A “diorama” is a miniature model. In Build your own
this art project, we are going to
make four climate models which can
be put together to make a “quad” of
climate zones, hence the name
“quad-rama.”
To begin, either print the climate
zone quadrama templates (pages
125-137) OR create your own. Cut a
piece of cardstock into a square,
then fold it along both diagonal lines.
2. Draw and color the 3. Fold and glue
Color the background along the top background and cut the two bottom
half of the quadrama. Then cut the the opposite diagonal quadrants
diagonal that is opposite the 1. Fold paper into together
background and fold the two bottom a square and cut
quadrants together, securing them off the edge
with glue or tape.
Next, draw animals and plants,
leaving a square of paper attached
to the bottom of each one. By cutting
the square vertically and bending 4. Draw or color the
half of it backward and half of it animals and plants for
forward, you create a “stand” that the foreground 5. Arrange the animals and
can support your creations! plants and glue them in
to complete your scene

Or use the templates from the appendix!

36
 Fill in the blanks for each of your models:
RAINFOREST BIOME:
Ab i o t i c = n o n - l i v i n g
Always warm (no frost or snow)
Abiotic (temperature):
Abiotic (amount of water): Daily rain

Primary producers: Trees, orchids, ferns, bromeliads

Primary consumers: Certain insects, birds (Macaw), sloths

Secondary consumers: Snakes, coatis, jaguars, monkeys

CONTINENTAL BIOME:
P r i m a r y Pr o d u c e r
Abiotic (temperature): Warm summers, cold winters
Plants and
Abiotic (amount of water): Variable, rain in summer snow in winter algae!
Primary producers: Deciduous and coniferous trees, grass, shrubs

Primary consumers: Certain insects, deer, ibex

Secondary consumers: Bearded vulture, bear, marmot

DESERT BIOME:
Pr i m a r y C o n s ume r
Abiotic (temperature): Variable, can be hot or cold
we’re
Abiotic (amount of water): Very little herbivores!

Primary producers: Cacti, creosote bush or Joshua tree

Primary consumers: Certain insects, bighorn sheep, chuckwalla

Secondary consumers: Coyote, scorpion, roadrunner, gila monster

POLAR BIOME:
S e c o n d a r y C o n s ume r
Abiotic (temperature): Always cold
Carnivores and
Abiotic (amount of water): Most receive less than 25 cm (10 in). omnivores!

Primary producers: Algae, seaweed or kelp

Primary consumers: Amphipod, krill

Secondary consumers: Seal, penguin, whale, nemertean worm,

starfish, icefish

37
 What is an Ice Age?

Glacial vs. Interglacial

22,000 years ago Today

An ice age is a long period of time where global temperatures drop low
FILL IN THE
BLANKS USING enough for ___________
glaciers to form. Because there are glaciers on earth
THESE WORDS:
right now, we are currently in an ice age! This ice age started almost 2.6
Antarctica
Antarctica
million years ago when __________________ became covered in ice.
glacial
But during an ice age, the amount of ice changes between
interglacial
______________
glacial periods (when almost 1/3 of the land is covered in ice)
glaciers
and ______________________
interglacial periods (like now). The last glacial
period ended approximately 22,000 years ago.
DRAW A LINE TO MATCH THE ANIMAL TO THE CORRECT FACT BOX
These animals Scientists can tell the This animal looked This animal was
survived by using age of this animal by soft, but it had small about the same size
inventiveness and the rings in its teeth, hard discs under its and weight of a VW
creativity. just like a tree! skin for protection. Beetle car!

Woolly Mammoth Giant Ground Sloth

Mammuthus primigenius
Megatherium americanum

Human
Homo sapiens Glyptodon
Glyptodon clavipes

38
 Milankovitch Cycles
Earth’s orbit is not exactly circular, and the angle of its tilt changes slightly about every 40,000
years. Changes in each of these contribute to different amounts of solar radiation reaching
earth and are thought to effect the start and stop of glacial periods.

22.5 Vega North

Star
24.5

Eccentricity Obliquity Precession

The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a

Summer. It was possibly the coldest year in the
last 500 years. Overall, the average temperature
drop was only about 0.4-0.7 °C, but that was
enough to cause an agricultural disaster. The
entire Northern hemisphere experienced famines
due to the erratic weather.

What caused such a large shift in the climate?

Earth experienced a volcanic winter event that
resulted from the eruption of Mount Tambora in
Indonesia the previous year. This eruption was the Mount Tambora
most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded
human history. Hundreds of cubic kilometers of
material were ejected high into the stratosphere, 1816 - The Year Without a Summer
where it reflected out much of the sun’s light.
in Pennsylvania,
What can we learn from the Year Without a Summer? Rivers froze in
There’ve been July and august.
Small changes in the overall temperature bad frosts
every month. It snowed
of the planet make a BIG difference to twice in June!
how well human beings can grow food.

News:
are FA CROPs
EVERYW ILing
HERE!

39
 The development of engines and power UNDEVELOPED DEVELOPED
grids of electricity allowed human beings to HEAT
travel, communicate, and invent as never
before.
It also changed how people heated, 72°
cooled, and moved things. Instead of a HEAT COOL FAN

fireplace, modern people use a furnace or FIRE FOR HEAT FURNACE OR THERMOSTAT
electric heating unit for heat. Instead of an ice
COOLING
box to cool food (literally, a box with ice in it),
people now use the power of electricity to
circulate gas and transfer heat from the inside
of a fridge to the outside. Instead of
transportation powered by animals, people
ICE BOX - LITERALLY REFRIGERATOR
now use airplanes, cars, and trains. Instead
of a room lit by a flickering candle, now bright TRANSPORTATION
electric lights are used to illuminate homes,
streets, and buildings.
Places with access to these modern tools
and resources are called developed
countries. One of the biggest differences HORSE AND CART CARS AND PLANES
between developed and undeveloped nations LIGHT
is how much energy they use and the sources
of that energy.
If energy is coming from burning fuel, then
carbon dioxide gas is being produced and
released into the atmosphere. CANDLE OR TORCH ELECTRIC LIGHTS

CAN YOU INVENT A NEW ENERGY SOURCE?

DRAW AND DESCRIBE IT HERE.

h a t y ou invent!s
w
ait to stoeebegin, take a fewonm’t inforget
ute
c a n’t w
We ren’t sure where rgy sources. D n use
If you a h alternative ene ergy” too. You ca
to researc ut fusion or “cold en your invention!
r
to check o se as inspiration fo
one o f th e

40
Fossil Fuels
How we get petroleum (crude oil)
Gasoline, natural gas, diesel fuel, and kerosene
are all produced from petroleum or crude oil. But oil
is used for much more than fuel! Petroleum
products are used to make fabric (polyester),
waxes, plastics, asphalt, and even certain
An oil rig or well drills medicines and food additives.
down through layers Oil is a complicated mixture of different
of rock to access an molecules containing hydrogen and carbon called
oil deposit. “hydrocarbons.” This mixture and other fuels like
coal are called fossil fuels because they were
formed millions of years ago – before the dinosaurs
existed!
When oil is burned, energy is released and
carbon dioxide is produced.
UNSCRAMBLE THE MIXED UP WORDS TO
DISCOVER WHAT TIME PERIOD OIL CAME FROM:

impermea
NILESAGO G A S O L I N E
ble 9
sh
gas al
BANROC C A R B O N
e

la
c

oi l
y

1 2 3 5

v oir r
ock ILO O I L LUFE F U E L
er rce rock 6 8 7
res so u
4
s
ou
por C A R B O N I F E R O U S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

DRAW A LINE TO MATCH THE ENERGY SOURCE WITH THE CORRECT ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Pros: Over 90%
Pros: Cost-efficient, Pros: Little environmental
Pros: Little pollution, efficiency. No waste is
easy to build. impact. Produces high-
Renewable. Works in produced.
Completely renewable. energy with very low risk.
lots of climates.
Cons: Environmental
Cons: Contribute to Cons: Leaves nasty
Cons: Low efficiency, impact, rivers and lakes
noise pollution, effective waste, a meltdown could
Doesn’t work at night. are disrupted, and there
locations are limited. be catastrophic.
is risk of flooding.

Solar Nuclear Hydroelectric Wind

41
 The Ozone Hole
and how we're fixing it
The ozone layer
NS IN THE OZO
A PPE NE
LA
ATH YE
H R:
W

FILL IN THE The ozone layer formed naturally from oxygen gas reacting with
BLANKS USING
THESE WORDS: radiation
_____________ UV light splits apart
from the sun. High energy ______
ozone
oxygen gas (O2) in the upper atmosphere. A single oxygen atom is
UV called an oxygen radical, and it combines with other oxygen gas to
absorbing ozone
form __________(O ). Once ozone is formed, it is constantly being
3
heat blown apart and reformed. As it goes through this cycle, it is constantly
radiation absorbing UV light and giving off __________.
____________ heat This incredible
protecting layer of gas is essential for life on Earth. It acts like a shield,
________________
protecting plants and animals from harmful radiation.
CHECK OUT THIS ART GALLERY OF GASES THAT CAN BE USED TO RUN A FRIDGE AND KEEP
YOUR FOOD COOL. WHICH REFRIGERANT WOULD YOU RATHER USE IN YOUR HOME?

i’m toxic and very I have no color or

i’m toxic and have odor. i’m not toxic or
flammable! i’m toxic and flammable
a stinky smell! flammable either.
and corrosive and I can
be used for fertilizer!

SULFUR DIOXIDE METHYL CHLORIDE AMMONIA CHLOROFLUOROCARBON

SO2 CH3Cl NH3 (CFC) CCl2F2

42 If the gas leaks in the house, this is the safest one by far
CFC’s were a good choice for refrigerants
because they were safer than the gases O
O
used at the time. But they were also a bad Chlorine binds oxygen to
choice because they were VERY long form chlorine monoxide
lasting, and once they drifted up into the Free chlorine atom Cl
stratosphere, they reacted with UV light to hits ozone molecule
O
form chlorine gas, which then started
destroying the ozone layer. Cl O
O
O

Cl C Cl
Cl F Free oxygen
reacts with
F O
C Cl O chlorine
Cl F The chlorine is free to
Cl monoxide to
F
begin the cycle again produce
oxygen gas
O
O
In 1987, more than 100 countries agreed to
the Montreal Protocol, which banned the
use of CFCs. One chlorine atom can destroy more than 100,000 ozone molecules

Why Antarctica? Because it is surrounded by strong wind and water

currents, Antarctica has the coldest air on the planet.
During winter months, this causes the formation of
Polar Stratospheric Clouds.

If there’s any
chlorine around,
I’ll free it!

The ozone hole appears each

spring over Antarctica. The largest
size ever measured was 28.3 Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC’s)
million kilometers2 (11 million cause more free chlorine atoms and
miles2) on Sept 3, 2000. speed up ozone depletion.

2050 - the world we hope to build.

What if?
What if we hadn’t banned
CFCs? NASA recently studied
that question, and discovered
that if we had NOT banned
CFCs, then by the year 2050,
most of the ozone layer would
have disappeared.
In this ozone-poor world, being In the year 2050, Math Dad will turn 70 and Science Mom will turn 69.
outside causes a severe sunburn
in less than 5 minutes. Skin
cancer is incredibly common 2050 - the world we avoided
(every family loses at least one
person), and crops are failing
worldwide, causing famines and
food shortages.
Figure out how old you will be in
the year 2050 and then draw a
picture of the “world we avoided”
and a picture of the “world you
hope to build.”

43
 Carbon Dioxide, aka CO2
What is it?
I’m one carbon and two The Carbon Cycle
oxygens! the best
plant food ever!
N CO2 abs
IO o

pho
T

rp
BU S

decompositio

tio
combustion

t o s y n t h e si s
respiration
COM

n
We need
you, CO2 !

n
Coal Ocean
Oil Takes hu Plants CO2 + H 2 O
Tar nd
Of millio reds =
n
years s of carbonic acid
Animals

FILL IN THE Carbon dioxide is a gas made of one _________ carbon atom and two
BLANKS USING
THESE WORDS: oxygen atoms. This is why it's called CO2. It is an essential part of our
atmosphere _______________.
atmosphere Without CO2, not only would Earth be way too
cold, but plants and algae would starve! Carbon is the building block
carbon
of life. Every food that we _______
eat contains carbon, and the source
eat of that carbon is the carbon dioxide in our air. Carbon dioxide is also
greenhouse
a _______________
greenhouse gas. It warms Earth by absorbing and then
heat
reflecting ________. We need some greenhouse gases in our
heat
atmosphere, but too much can be a problem!

Can you have too much of a good thing? SINK or SOURCE?

Draw lines to match each item
Absorbing & reemitting or activity to whether it adds
infrared radiation is carbon (source) or subtracts it
my superpower! (sink) from the atmosphere.
Erupting volcano

SOURCE Growing forest

Wood burning

Uh, it's getting Animals

too hot down
here! Wildfire
SINK
Cars driving

Ocean

Plants decomposing
44
 Seasonal variation in CARBON DIOXIDE
Because most of the Earth’s landmasses 3-

CO2 fraction in dry air (umol/mol)

are in the northern hemisphere, there is a
distinct yearly change in the amount of CO2 in 2-

the atmosphere. 1-
Concentrations decrease each June-
August because photosynthesis increases in 0-
the Northern Hemisphere. -1 -
From October to late April, lower
photosynthesis combined with higher levels of -2 -
decomposition, respiration, and combustion -3 -
cause CO2 levels to increase. Jan Apr Jul Oct
Data from NOAA & the Scripps Institution of Oceanography

There’s a lot more land in

the northern hemisphere
than the southern!

Color the ocean and land in

each hemisphere. Then Draw a
dot showing where you live!

Northern Hemisphere Southern Hemisphere

45
 Hands-on Activity
Mason jar biomes
MATERIALS:
Clover, thyme, alfalfa,
grass, or chia seeds
Discs of compressed Seeds
coconut coir OR 2
cups of potting soil
2 mason jars and lids

Optional: food scraps

from the kitchen
1 bright light that can be
½ cup gravel A bowl for hydrating the placed over one of the jars
marbles, or pebbles coconut fiber or potting soil

CHOOSE YOUR OWN SCIENCE ADVENTURE!

BRIGHT LIGHT vs LOW LIGHT OR COMPOST LAYER vs NONE

Plants need light to grow. What happens if Plants get their energy from sunlight, and
they have low light or no light? Will they they use water and carbon dioxide to grow
grow shorter or taller or even be a different bigger. But they also need nutrients like
color than plants with bright light? Try this nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.
experiment and find out! A compost or trash or “midden” layer can
Set up your jars so that everything is the provide those nutrients. But fungi will also
same (or as similar as possible). Use the grow in a compost layer, and if there is too
same amount of gravel, the same amount of much fungus, the plants won’t grow as well.
coconut fiber or potting soil, and the same To create a good midden or compost
type and amount of seeds. layer, mix dead leaves or shredded
One of the most important details in your newspaper with food scraps such as the
biome is to be sure that the soil is damp but peels from carrots, bananas, or apples.
not too wet. There should be some standing Place the compost layer on top of the
water visible in the gravel/marble/pebble gravel layer and be sure that it’s not more
layer, but NOT in the soil layer. than 3 centimeters (about 1 inch) thick.

If you notice a lot of

condensation inside
seeds your jar, you may have
seeds watered it too much.
Damp soil Just open the lid for
Damp soil (not too wet!) a day and let some of
(not too wet!) the water evaporate.
Compost layer
Water reservoir
46
 Bright light vs low light
Make a prediction! How will your biomes compare?
1. Put the compressed coconut fiber into a
bowl and add ¼ cup of water. Wait a minute
until the fiber has absorbed the water. Then
continue to add water a tablespoon at a time
until the fiber is fully hydrated.
2. Make the drainage layer in both jars by Bright Low light Bright Low light Bright Low light
adding an equal amount of gravel, pebbles, Stay the same? Taller with bright light? Taller with low light?
or marbles.
3. Place the coconut fiber or damp potting Record your observations:
soil over top of the drainage layer. Check to Day 5
be sure that the height of the drainage layer
and soil layers are the same between the two
jars. Day 10
4. Place the seeds on top of the soil and add
a small amount of water. The seeds and soil
should be damp, but there should only be Day 15
standing water in the drainage layer.
5. Set up the jars so that one of them has a
very bright light and one of them has dim Day 20
light.
6. Place both lids loosely on top of the jars
to maintain humidity. Check the jars daily and Day 25
record your observations. Water only as
needed (if the soil begins to dry on top).

Compost layer vs none

Make a prediction! How will your biomes compare?
1. Put the compressed coconut fiber into a
bowl and add ¼ cup of water. Wait a minute
until the fiber has absorbed the water. Then
continue to add water a tablespoon at a time
until the fiber is fully hydrated.
None Compost None Compost
2. Make the drainage layer in both jars by None Compost
adding an equal amount of gravel, pebbles, Stay the same? Taller with compost? Taller without?
or marbles.
3. Shred your food scraps and leaves or Record your observations:
newspaper and place it on top of the Day 5
drainage layer in your compost jar. Cover it
with the coconut fiber or damp potting soil,
making the height of the soil layers the same Day 10
between the two jars.
4. Place the seeds on top of the soil and add
a small amount of water. The seeds and soil Day 15
should be damp, but there should only be
standing water in the drainage layer.
5. Set up the jars so that they have the same Day 20
light conditions.
6. Place both lids loosely on top of the jars
to maintain humidity. Check the jars daily and Day 25
record your observations. Water only as
needed (if the soil begins to dry on top).
47
 The last 100,000 years
In 1858, a scientist named Carbon dioxide concentration at Mauna Loa Observatory
Charles David Keeling started Monthly average CO2 concentrations from 1958 - 2020
measuring CO2 levels in Hawaii at 420 -
the Mauna Loa research station.
Since Dr. Keeling started his

CO2 Concentration (ppm)

400 -
work in the late 1950s, more and
more stations around the world
have started measuring daily 380 -
levels of carbon dioxide. The
global average shows the same
trend as this data from Mauna 360 -
Loa: there is a dip each summer in
the Northern Hemisphere, but
overall, levels are steadily and 340 -
relentlessly increasing.
But how do these numbers of
320 -
400 parts per million compare to
historic levels? Well, take a look at
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
this next graph: Data from NOAA & the Scripps Institution of Oceanography

420
CURRENT
380
CO2 (parts per million)

340
HIGHEST HISTORICAL CO2 LEVEL 1950
300

260

220

180

800,000 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0

Thousands of years before today (0=1950)
Source: reconstruction from ice cores, NOAA and NASA

For about 10,000 years, carbon dioxide

levels on Earth were stable at about 280 Our planet is getting warmer
1.5
Temperature Anomaly (°C)

parts per million (ppm). That’s just 0.02%

of the Earth’s atmosphere. 1.0
During the industrial revolution, people
began burning more fuel. Since the 1800s, 0.5
carbon dioxide levels have more than
doubled, reaching over 415 ppm. This is 0
much higher than any levels recorded in
the past 800,000 years. The higher levels -0.5
of CO2 are causing worldwide warming 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
and climate change. Source: [Link]

48
How do we know carbon dioxide
levels from 100,000 years ago? Each snowfall creates a layer, and over time
those layers are compacted into ice with
Recent small bubbles of air, From ice cores in
Answer: Snow Greenland and Antarctica (some of them
From ICE several miles long!) Scientists have been
Trapped able to piece together climate data for
CORES! recent air
hundreds of thousands of years. The layers
in ice cores are similar to the layers in tree
Ice with air bubbles rings:
that are hundred to DROUGHTS CREATE WET YEARS CREATE
thousands of years old THIN GROWTH RINGS THICK GROWTH RINGS

1900 - first year

of growth

1907 -
wet year

1909 - first year

1909-1911 - of growth
drought

1917-1921 -
1917-1921 - drought
drought

1922 - wet
1922 -
wet year
year

1925 - last year 1926-1928 -

of growth wet years

1930-1931 -
TREE 1 drought

1935-1945 -
drought

1946 - last
year of growth
1916 - first year

1922 - wet year TREE 2

1926-1928 - wet years
1930-1931 - drought
1935-1938 - drought

TREE 3
Part of the
1935-1945
drought
Which drought(s) did TREE 3 experience? 1909 1917 1930 1935
When TREE 3 was 12 years old did it have: A wet year A “normal” A drought
year year
What year did TREE 3 sprout? 1916
Did TREE 3 experience mostly average
or wet years or mostly drought years? Mostly drought. It experienced 12 dry years,
6 average years, and 5 wet years.
49
 The FUTURE of our Climate
In 2015, 195 nations agreed to a goal of CO2 levels increase
CO2 levels increase moderately (humans
limiting the average temperature increase significantly (no change reduce emissions)
to 1.5°C. Swift action today can make a to human behaviors)
large difference for the future. Limiting the 4
global warming to 1.5°C instead of 2° is
projected to limit the damage of climate

GLOBAL SURFACE WARMING (°C)

change in the following ways: 3

• Keeping the hottest days only 3°C

warmer instead of 4°C 2
• Keeping deadly heatwaves from
becoming annual events
1
• Decreasing the severity and frequency
of flooding due to heavier rainfall events
• Cutting the loss of geographic range of 0
plants, insects and vertebrates by half
• Reducing deforestation and wildfires
• Reducing food scarcity, economic 1900 2000 2100
damages, droughts, heat-related illness,
CO2 levels
polar ice sheet depletion remain the same
Chart drawn based on data from the IPCC

Rising Sea Level More Hurricanes Warmer Temperatures

870 km (545 Bark beetles
miles) love warm
weather!

More Insect Pests

Less Frost & Snow

More Heat Waves Oceans and Rivers Changes For When and
and Droughts Become More Acidic Where Crops Can Grow
NEW RECORD:

250
DAYS WITHOUT RAIN

50
 FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
steel effective reduce disposable

The best way to lower our greenhouse

gas emissions is to _________,
reduce reuse,
and recycle. Reducing is the most
important and _____________
effective of these
three “R’s.” Reducing means lowering
the amount of energy used and
products consumed. Reusing means to
extend the life or use of things we use,
like bringing your own utensils rather
than using ______________
disposable plastic
ones. Glass, plastic, ________,
steel paper,
and aluminum are all materials that can
be recycled.
Carbon footprint for a cup of coffee includes:
A carbon footprint is the total
amount of carbon dioxide
gas produced by a product,
service, or person.
Farm > mill > roasting > packaging > shipping > grinding > consumption > disposal

Whereʻs the carbon coming from?

What produces most of the average person’s carbon footprint in developed countries like the United
States and Canada? Fill in the chart with your guess for which things contribute each percentage
of the average carbon footprint. Then write down an idea for how you could reduce carbon
emissions in each category.

Ideas to reduce my carbon footprint:

Food
Home
14%
Energy Use 1. Adjust the thermostat to be closer to the outside
temperatures (cooler in winter, warmer in summer)
32%
Transportation 2. Instead of driving, walk or bike when possible.
28%
Consumption 3. Consume less (own fewer clothes and toys).
26%
4. Plant a garden and grow some of the food you eat.

Transportation (Driving or flying places)

Home Energy Use (Heating and cooling, running appliances, etc.)
Food (Includes energy used to grow, transport, and cook food crops)
Consumption (The stuff you buy that was made using fossil fuels, such as cars or clothes)
51
 A “What If?” Experiment

Planet Zork Planet Ooka

Planet Zork and Planet Ooka have very
70% ocean, 30% land. similar atmospheres, but very different ideas 70% ocean, 30% land.
Nitrogen-Oxygen Nitrogen-Oxygen
atmosphere. Ice cap
about how to take care of them. Read about atmosphere. Ice cap
at Northern pole. their history here, then complete the graphs at Northern pole.
on the opposite page to see what happens!

Uh, this could

The age of Discovery be a problem!
The Zorkians and Ookians both
discover technology at the same
time. They build hospitals and
universities, invent factories and
airplanes. It's an age of travel
and new discoveries!

In the year 300, scientists on both planets

realize that increased carbon dioxide
levels are causing climate change.
save no car
fry sh the
bon
rimp = no jo fuel,
b! no c
arbo
n fue
sa = no l,
fry ve the job!
shr
imp

In the year 400, some scientists on planet In the year 400, the Ookians decide
Zork predict that the North ice sheet will to dramatically reduce their carbon
disappear if Zorkians keep burning carbon dioxide output. This isn't easy and
fuel which will harm the fry shrimp that lay some people are upset, but the North
eggs under the ice. Most governments ice sheet is already melting more
ignore this prediction and some people are than it ever has before. The Ookians
upset, but the factories run on carbon fuel. know that if the ice sheet melts
The Zorkians know that without the completely, the fry shrimp will go
factories, they won't be able to produce extinct. If the fry shrimp go extinct,
sweaters or pickled seagrass. And sea then so will the seagrass which is
grass is one of the Zorkian’s main foods. one of the Ookian’s main foods.
52
Complete the graphs to find out what happens to planets Zork and Ooka

Carbon Dioxide Levels

450
400
CO level in ppm

350
300
250
200
150

400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500

Year

Year 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500
Zork 175 191 206 238 266 310 346 370 400 441 490
Ooka 191 205 220 230 228 237 255 260 270 282 288

Average Temperature

16.0
15.5
Temperature in °C

15.0
14.5
14.0
13.5
13.0

400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500

Year

Year 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500
Zork 12.7 13.0 13.3 13.5 14.1 14.3 14.6 14.9 15.5 15.9 16.3
Ooka 13.1 13.3 13.4 13.4 13.4 13.6 13.7 13.9 14 14.1 14.1

53
 Hands-on Activity
Spaghetti bridge
MATERIALS:
1oz
Weight OR
Can use marbles, coins,
50 strands of spaghetti String Cup beans, or even water Tape Marshmallows

What holds up a bridge? Beam

Compression, the force that pushes

inward, is balanced by tension, the
force that stretches and pulls outward.
Each type of bridge uses tension and
compression in different ways!

The deck or beam is in both tension and compression.

The abutments are in compression.

Arch Truss

Compression forces are conveyed along the curve of The deck is in tension. Both compression and
the arch to the supports at the end. The structure is tension are distributed through the truss.
always pushing in on itself.

There are many other types of bridges, such as suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges and cantilever bridges.
Pick two kinds of bridges to research. Then draw and label the bridge and fill in the tension and compression forces.

Cable-stayed Suspension
54
Build your Spaghetti Bridge
1. Make a plan for the bridge you want to build. It may be helpful to draw
it at full size and lay the pieces out before you connect them.
2. Put your bridge together using tape or marshmallows to connect the
pieces. Don't be afraid to break the spaghetti into smaller pieces!
3. When your bridge is finished, make a prediction for how much weight
your bridge will be able to hold.
4. Use string to attach some weight to your bridge. It may be helpful to tie
a paper cup to the bridge and slowly add coins for weight.
5. When your bridge breaks, record the weight. If using coins for weight,
record the number of coins added to the cup. If using water, add the water
a tablespoon at a time and record how many tablespoons were added.
Draw your bridge!
Predicted weight:

30
marbles
The actual weight:

17
marbles

How would you change your bridge so that it could hold more weight?

1. Make a plan and build a second bridge

2. How much weight do you predict it will hold?
3. Attach the weight and keep adding weight until it breaks.
4. Record the weight.

Draw your bridge!

Predicted weight:

25
marbles
The actual weight:

45
marbles

Did your second bridge hold more or less weight? Why?

The second bridge had more trusses to offer support and a thicker base.
This made it much stronger.

55
 Quiz Time! Answer the questions to
see what you learned!

① What fraction of Earth’s land is “dry land,” meaning it loses more water through evaporation than it
gains by precipitation?
According to the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development,
A 1/2 the following “dry lands” occupy this percentage of Earth’s total land:
B 1/3 Desert (hyper-arid) 6.6%
C 1/4 Semi-desert (arid) 10.6%
D 1/5 Grassland (semi-arid) 15.2%
E 1/6 Total: 32.4%
② Name two examples of areas that experience a rainforest climate:
Answers could include: Amazon (parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia...), Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Papua New ___________________
__________________, Guinea, Costa Rica, Panama, Madagascar, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Burkina Faso ...

③ True or False: Polar climates don’t receive direct sunlight.

A True
B False

④ Which of these are consumers in an ecosystem? Select all that apply.

A Algae
B Herbivores
C Plants
D Carnivores
E Fungi

⑤ Rainforests cover less than ________% of Earth’s land but are home to _______% of Earth’s plant and
animal species.
A 1, 10
B 6, 50 Source: World Wildlife Fund and publications from Caltech and Columbia University
C 10, 20
D 16, 70

⑥ What harmful rays does the ozone layer protect us from? Select all that apply.
A UV-A One could argue that the ozone layer also protects us from UV-A radiation, but because
B UV-B it only absorbs 5% of UV-A and lets the other 95% through, it doesn’t offer much
C UV-C protection from UV-A.
D X-rays X-rays are absorbed in a region of the thermosphere known as the ionosphere. By the
time sunlight reaches the ozone layer, the x-rays have all been absorbed/removed.
⑦ What is ozone gas?
A Three oxygen molecules (O3)
B One ozone atom
C Oxygen chloride
D Two oxygen molecules (O2)

⑧ What would life on Earth be like in the year 2050 if the Montreal Protocol had NOT been signed and
chlorofluorocarbons had continued being produced?

Answers will vary, but the results would have been really bad! Without the ban on CFCs, by
____________________________________________________________

2050 the ozone layer would have virtually collapsed worldwide. Crops would only grow in
____________________________________________________________

greenhouses, and going outside for less than 5 minutes would result in severe sunburns.
56
 ⑨ What are organisms that get their energy from eating other organisms called?
A Producers
B Consumers
C Directors
D Hungry

⑩ Ecology is the study of the relationship between _______________ and their _____________ environment.
A Plants/Living
B Sediments/Physical
C Living organisms/Physical
D Abiotic/Three dimensional

⑪ Approximately what percent of the Earth’s land was covered in ice during the last glacial period.
A 10%
B 20%
C 30% Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and National Oceanic and
D 40% Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
E 50%

⑫ True or False: The ozone hole is a literal hole in the atmosphere.

A True
B False The ozone hole is a region located over Antarctica where the ozone layer is
severely thinned or depleted.
⑬ In this simple food chain (Algae > Krill > Whales), which organism is the primary consumer?
A Algae
B Krill
C Whales

⑭ List two examples of decomposers:

Answers will vary, but_________________

_________________, decomposers can include fungi (mushrooms), bacteria. Insects
and invertebrates such as millipedes, slugs, snails, earthworms, and beetles.

⑮ True or False: The North Pole is colder than the South Pole.
A True
B False The South Pole is much colder!

⑯ Which of the following are made from or with petroleum? Select all that apply.
A Gasoline
B Plastic
It’s possible to find plastics and rubbing alcohol made from biofuel
C Polyester clothing sources (such as ethanol from corn) but most often, each of the
D Rubbing alcohol (hand sanitizer) products in this list are made or derived from petroleum.
E Vaseline

⑰ Fossil fuels like petroleum take ___________ years to form.

A 100
B 1,000
C 1,000,000
D 100,000,000 Some oil reserves can be as young as 100 million years old, but MOST
E More than 150,000,000 fossil fuels like petroleum and coal are more than 150 million years old.

57
 Where in the World?
Can you match the clue to its drawing and discover the location of each famous city? Once you’ve matched
them, see if you can mark all nine locations on the Peirce quincuncial world map.
Burj Khalifa

Big Ben Jumeirah

London Eye
A
The Colosseum
D Emirates Towers C
Tower Bridge The Pantheon Burj Al
Atlantis, Arab
Trajan’s The Palm
Column

Jumeirah Beach Hotel

Shanghai Tower Sydney Tower Tokyo Skytree
Shanghai Mount Fuji
Convention B Deutsche
E H
Center Sydney Tokyo Tower
Jing’an Bank Place
Temple Harbour
Bridge Meiji Jingu

Pagoda of
Senso-Ji
Sydney
Oriental Pearl Tower Jin Mao Tower Opera House

Obelisco Mosque of
Yavuz Sultan Hagia Sophia F Puente de la I Muhammad Ali Cairo G
Selim Bridge Mujer Bridge Tower
National
Congress
Building The pyramids and
Great Sphinx at Giza

Galata Tower DRAWINGS BY ART MOM EMILY

A The smallest English city, B China’s largest city hosts C A once-small fishing village
technically a forest, 27 million people and with a thriving pearl-diving industry,
has an Eye in the sky, and the 2nd longest metro system now home to the Burj Khalifa,
six ravens in its tower. with 282 stations! the world’s tallest building.

London* Shanghai Dubai

D Founded in 753 BCE, E The deadly funnel-web spider F Home to a church that was
50,000 people once cheered hangs here with 5 million people once the world’s largest.
its gladiators, and who play cricket and rugby This is the only city located on
men often wore togas. and listen to opera. two different continents.

Rome Sydney Istanbul

G The “Mother of the World” - or H Near an enormous volcano, a I Argentina’s capital has
Um al-Dunya - has the world’s city famous for cherry blossoms the tango for its native dance.
Second oldest university and its 36 million people It's the birthplace of Pope Francis
And the Giza Pyramid. who live across 845 square miles. and its name means “Good Air.”

Cairo Tokyo Buenos Aires

58 *The actual city of London is only 2.1 square kilometers, which makes it officially the smallest city in England by land area. The
Greater London Urban Area, with a population of more than 9 million people, is the largest urban area within the United Kingdom.
 The Mercator map was designed in 1569 and is
one of the more common world maps. Its main
drawback is that it dramatically inflates the size
of objects that are further away from the
equator. On the Mercator map, Greenland
appears to be as large as Africa. But it’s not!

The map below is called the Peirce quincuncial

projection and it does a much better job at
preserving the relative sizes of the continents.

H
B

C
F
A
D G

59
 Where do planets come from?

A GALAXY can have millions or A SOLAR SYSTEM is the objects EARTH is the third planet in our
billions of solar systems as well as orbiting a sun. It includes things like solar system, which is in the MILKY
dust, gas, and nebulas. planets, dwarf planets, and asteroids. WAY GALAXY.

FILL IN THE nebula is a cloud of gas that becomes thick

A stellar nursery or ___________
BLANKS USING
THESE WORDS: and dense enough to condense into a star and planets. In the inner
nebula solar system, temperatures are so hot while the planets are forming
outer that most of the ________
gases are boiled away, leaving behind rocky
gases planets. In the __________
outer solar system, temperatures are cooler
gaseous and gas giants form. Our solar system has 4 rocky planets (the inner
asteroid planets), an _____________
asteroid belt, and 4 _____________
gaseous planets (the
outer planets).

blue, red, brown,

brown brown, and tan
grey green, and n et s
and grey
white C o lo r the i n ner pla

Mercury Venus earth Mars

This is how small

Color earth is compared
th to Jupiter! blue green,
eo

brown, rotates
u te

orange, and golden, sideways,

r pl

tan with white brown, with has faint

an

et cloud stripes rings

s large rings blue
and a large around the
red spot center

Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

60
A mnemonic (pronounced “new-MAH-nick”) is a Draw a picture of your mnemonic!
pattern of letters or ideas that helps you
remember something. To remember the order of
the planets, you could say a sentence like “My
Very Excited Monster Just Snaps Up Nachos.”
Invent your own mnemonic for the order of the
planets here!
M ______________
V ______________
E ______________
M ______________
J ______________
S ______________
U ______________
N ______________

Name the planets in our solar system

All the planets orbit the Sun in the same plane called the Ecliptic Plane. Each planet
also orbits in the same direction. Our word "planet" comes from a Greek word
meaning "wanderer." Can you label each of the 8 planets orbiting the Sun?

Earth
Neptune

Uranus
Saturn

Mars
Mercury
Jupiter
Venus

61
 What is Earth made of?
Inside Our Planet Earth
CRUST

MANTLE

OUTER CORE

INNER CORE

FILL IN THE LABELS ABOVE

USING THESE WORDS:
CRUST MANTLE
OUTER CORE INNER CORE

The hot core of our Earth is made TYPES OF PLATE BOUNDARIES:

mostly of iron and nickel. The inner
core is solid while the outer core is
liquid. The next layer (the mantle)
is like super thick and super hot
syrup. It moves about as fast as
your fingernails grow, but when it Example: basin and range fault system in
does move, it pushes parts of the Nevada
crust around! We call these pieces
of crust “continental plates,” and
when they meet, they can slide past
each other (called a TRANSFORM
boundary), smash into each other DIVERGENT
(a CONVERGENT boundary), or Example: mid-ocean ridges
pull apart from each other (called a
DIVERGENT boundary). All of this
pressure and movement creates
things like earthquakes and faults
– which is any broken area between Example: Mt. Saint Helens in Washington
two blocks of rock.
CONVERGENT Eurasian plate
It’s not Indian plate
my fault!
There’s just too
much friction
between us. Example: Himalayas

San Francisco
San Bernardino
TRANSFORM
Tectonic Relationships Example: San Andreas Fault

62
 COLOR THE PLATES
Use the clues below to identify and then color each of the tectonic plates shown on the maps:

Antarctic Plate Eurasian Plate North American Plate Pacific Plate

Juan De Fuca Plate - This plate slides Nazca Plate - The pressure of this plate
GREEN underneath North America producing RED running into South America is responsible for
volcanoes like Mt. St. Helens! the formation of the Andes mountains.
South American Plate - Home of the Amazon North American Plate - This plate has
GREEN rainforest! PURPLE Greenland and most of North America.
Philippine Sea Plate - The Mariana Trench African Plate - Contains the world’s largest
GREEN (deepest part of the ocean) is on the border of BLUE desert, the Sahara, and the longest river in
this oceanic plate. the world, the Nile.
Indian Plate - Home to more than 1 billion Australian Plate - Contains Australia, New
YELLOW people and the tallest mountains in the world. PURPLE Zealand, and parts of New Guinea!
Cocos and Caribbean Plates - There are Arabian Plate - Contains the countries of
YELLOW tropical rainforests on these plates. PURPLE Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, and more.
Antarctic Plate - This large plate contains the Pacific Plate - The largest tectonic plate and
YELLOW coldest, driest, and windiest land on Earth! BLUE responsible for a lot of volcanoes. It’s border
Home to several species of penguins. is sometimes called “The ring of fire!”
Eurasian Plate - Contains the countries of Scotia Plate - Most of this plate is
RED England, Russia, China, and many more! BLUE underwater!

63
 Layers of the
ART PROJECT
Print the Layers of Earth template
(page 119) OR create your own using a
ruler by marking straight lines across
the paper at the following heights:
25.4 cm or 10” from bottom (crust)
13.3 cm or 5 ¼ inches from bottom
(boundary of outer core)
4.4 cm or 1 6/8 inches from bottom
(boundary of inner core)

Draw your own Or use the template

INNER CORE LAYER

Create a grid of circles or dots and then draw the curve of a letter “c” to link them in a pattern like this:

OUTER CORE LAYER

Same pattern as above, just bigger! Create a grid of circles or dots, then curve lines to link them in a pattern like this:

5 km
How much you curve
70 km your lines can create
very different effects!
CRUST: 5 - 70 km

MANTLE:
2,900 km
If the patterns of C’s don’t
alternate on each line, then
connecting them with C’s will
create crossed lines!

OUTER CORE: 2,200 km

But you could

INNER CORE: 1,200 km connect them
with S’s!

Center of Earth
Don’t worry if some of your lines curve more than others or
64 if you have an “oops!” with your pattern. Variety in art is great!
MANTLE LAYER

Draw some diagonal Draw curvy vertical Make an “x” in each Color it in as it is or
or curved lines. lines. box. choose a doodle
design pattern (or
invent your own!)

Doodle 1: Stained glass bubbles. Doodle 2: telescoping triangles!

Line A Line B Line C Line D

Draw “bubbles” in each shape. They can be super
round, or fill in as much of the space as possible. This one can be a little tricky! Don’t
Either one is fine! There are no “rules” in this art. worry if it takes some practice. Start at
Enjoy doodling and discovering the design. Each one corner of your triangle and draw from
time you do it, it will look different! that corner to just below the opposite
corner (line A). Keeping your pencil at Line E
that point, draw a new line to the
opposite side of the triangle, hitting just a
Can you finish these partially completed ones? To make the
next two lines, connect the black circle to the grey one,
little bit “up” from the corner (line B).
then draw a line from the grey circle to the white. Repeat that step (line C) and keep going
until you close your triangle.
If you think this looks cool, just wait until
you see what happens if you do three
triangles that are next to each other!

These three are all filled in with a clockwise direction.

Give it a
try right
here!

Counter clockwise. Alternating.

What happens
if the distance
varies.
How far each line is from the corner.
65
 Igneous Rocks All about lava!
There’s no “right or wrong”
I’m super answer to drawing what you
think will happen! But if you’re But I’m
hot!! curious about what REALLY really big!
happens, this is it: Lava cools
and solidifies when it meets
water, but it also heats the water
and produces a large amount of
steam which then condenses to
form a cloud. Some lava cools
rapidly into small pieces,
creating “black sand.” Other lava
solidifies into larger pieces of
rock, creating volcanic rocks with
interesting shapes and textures.

1,200 °C A volcano is erupting in Alaska and lava is ARCTIC SEA 4 °C

LAVA (2,192 ° F) pouring into the sea. Draw what you think WATER (39.2 ° F)
will happen when LAVA meets WATER!

FILL IN THE
BLANKS USING
What happens if you heat a rock to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius?
THESE WORDS: It melts! Just like a piece of ______________
chocolate turns to liquid in a hot
magma
car, solid rock melts into lava. Melted rock inside Earth is usually
called __________,
magma and melted rock on Earth’s surface is called
igneous _________.
lava When lava cools down, it solidifies back into rock. What
lava type of rock? Well that depends on how much gas the lava contained,
how much silica it has, and how quickly it cools. Any type of rock that
chocolate igneous
comes from lava is called an ______________rock.

DRAW A LINE TO MATCH THE IGNEOUS ROCK TO THE CORRECT FACT BOX
This rock was used to This rock contains so This rock is very popular in More than 90% of
make knives and tools many little pockets of construction, from Egyptian all volcanic rock
and can be sharper air that it often floats pyramids to modern on Earth is this
than a steel razor. on water! kitchen countertops. type of rock!

Pumice Obsidian Basalt Granite

66
 Anatomy of a Volcano
Three ACTIVE
volcanoes:

Mauna Loa, Hawaii

This is the largest volcano on
Earth. It’s a shield volcano, which
means it has a gentle slope and
eruptions that are almost always
fluid or “runny” lava.

Mount St. Helens

This stratovolcano had an
enormous eruption on March
20, 1980 and several smaller
ones in the decades afterward.
Instead of runny lava, this
volcano sends clouds of
superheated ash into the sky.

Mount Erebus
Mount Erebus is the most active
volcano in Antarctica and contains
a lava lake! There are only 4 long-
lasting lava lakes on Earth. The
other 3 are located in the Congo,
Ethiopia, and Vanuatu.
67
EROSION
Swiftly moving water picks up rocks and
Wind
and
smashes them into other rocks, breaking
off pieces. water are
the most
powerful forces of
erosion and
weathering on our planet.
But they aren’t the only
things that cause rocks to
break down and move around!
Animals, plants, and chemical
reactions play a role too. Draw a
picture of each event in the
boxes on the left. You can
Weathering breaks down rocks
into smaller pieces
choose from one of the
examples below or
make your own!
Wind and water slowly remove pieces of
rock, forming an arch.

EROSIOn moves pieces of rock or

sediment to another place
Plant roots break Ice cracks the Animals dig holes
rocks sidewalk and make trails
Beaches are an example of
deposition! The sand was all
brought in and dropped by
the water.

Gravity makes rocks Lichen grows on rock,

collide with each other Rivers carve canyons digesting it

Rust

Deposition drops sediment

into a new location
Chemical reactions
change rock
Wind drops sand,
creating dunes
Chemical reactions
dissolve rock

68
 Quiz Time! Answer the questions to
see what you learned!

1 The Earth’s inner core is up to ______ times 9 True or False: Earth’s inner core is as hot as the
hotter than our atmosphere. surface of the sun.
A. 60 The temperature of the inner core of the A. True
B. 600 Earth is estimated to be over 5,200 °C, B. False
which is as hot as the surface of the sun!
C. 6,000 The temperature of the atmosphere all
D. 60,000 depends on elevation, but most of it is 10 Which national monument in Wyoming is a well-
well below 0 °C. known example of igneous rock?
2 What are the two main types of tectonic plates? Devil’s Tower
National Monument
___________________
Oceanic , ___________________
_______________ Continental
11 Which of these can erode and transport rock?
Select all that apply.
3 What is the name of the transform boundary in When water freezes it expands and
California that causes many earthquakes each A. Water pieces of rock can be moved. It works
year? B. Wind on a smaller scale than water or wind,
A. San Andreas Fault C. Gravity but it’s still moving sediment.
B. The Ring of Fire D. Freezing temperatures
C. Pacific Subduction Zone 12
D. Cascadia Subduction Zone Which type of rock most often has layers?
A. Igneous Since we hadn’t yet covered sedimentary
4 True or False: on average, continents move B. Sedimentary rocks in the notes or in class, this was an
toward or away from each other at the same extra tricky question. Don’t worry if you
C. Metamorphic didn’t know the answer!
rate that human fingernails grow.
A. True Mostly true. The “fingernail growth” speed of 13
~ 2.5 cm (1 inch) per year is actually quite When an oceanic and continental plate collide,
B. False fast - rift valleys and Australia move this what usually happens?
quickly. Other continents move more slowly. A. The continental plate covers the oceanic
5 What kind of volcanoes tend to form over plate, forming a subduction zone.
subduction zones? B. The oceanic plate covers the continental
A. Stratovolcanoes plate, forming a subduction zone.
B. Cinder cones C. The plates push together, forming a tall
C. Shield volcanoes mountain.
14
6 Seasons are caused by: What is the name of the most volcanically active
region or zone on Earth?
Earth’s tilt of about 23°
_____________
The Ring of Fire!
_____________________
The universe is mostly made of which two 15
7 How deep is the Earth’s crust?
elements?
A. Iron and Silicon A. Between 5-70 kilometers
B. Carbon and Oxygen B. Between 75 - 200 kilometers The Ring of Fire
C. Exactly 347 kilometers contains more
C. Hydrogen and Helium than 450
D. Plutonium and Uranium D. Approximately 500 kilometers volcanoes!

8 Which of the following are gaseous planets? 16

A. Jupiter The definition of a gas giant depends slightly Which is larger, a solar system or a galaxy?
on who you ask! Some scientists and A. Solar system A galaxy can contain
B. Venus educational websites classify Neptune and
C. Neptune Uranus as gas giants. Others argue that B. Galaxy BILLIONS of solar systems.
D. Mercury Neptune and Uranus are different enough
from Jupiter and Saturn that they should be
in a third category: ice giants. In my opinion,
the latter argument (Neptune is an ice giant)
is best. 69
 Where in the World?
Each of these clues belongs to a National Park or nature preserve. Can you match the letter of the clue with
each drawing? Then, once you’ve matched them, place a dot on the map locating the park! See if you can
mark all nine of them on the Cahill-Keyes world map.
The three
Towers of Paine D Tower karst A C

Li River
African Acacia Trees
Elephant

G Old Faithful B E
Geyser

F H I

DRAWINGS BY ART MOM EMILY

A This dramatic landscape of B Over 67 species of mammals C Here near the equator one can
karst towers covered with trees wander a land of 10,000 geysers, see rhinos and 500 bird species,
has hundreds of dolines and hot springs, and fumaroles. thunderous wildebeest migrations,
caves surrounding the River Li. The world’s first national park. lions, leopards, and cheetahs too.
Guilin Lijiang Yellowstone Serengeti
D A park with lakes and rivers, E Imagine white sweeping dunes, F Narrow fiords between steep cliffs
forests and fiords, glaciers fed yet not a desert - these dunes were carved by giant glaciers.
by a Patagonian ice field, transform into blue lagoons Islands here protect the kakapo and
plus steppe, shrub, and desert. during seasonal monsoons. kiwi, endangered flightless birds.

Torres del Paine Lençóis Maranhenses Fiordland

G Taller than the Burj Khalifa, H In the “Land of Beautiful Horses,” I Deadly hot with sand dunes and
this sandstone rock extends underground homes, tunnels salt flats 85 m below sea level. This
1.6 miles underground and takes and churches are carved in desert park also has fossils from an
3 ½ hours to walk around. rock from ancient volcanic ash. ancient lake and mountains covered
with winter snow.
Uluru Göreme National Park
70 Death Valley
Imagine you had a beach ball
with a treasure map printed
around the sides. How could
you lay it on table with all
parts visible at once?
G
You’d have to cut it up! These
two maps do exactly that.
Because of that, they both A
have very little or no
distortion.

H Cahill-Keyes projection
Designed in 1975

C
I

F
Goode homolosine projection
Designed in 1923
71
 Sedimentary Rocks All about erosion and sediments!
HOW TO MAKE A SEDIMENTARY ROCK:

1 GATHER A BUNCH 2 COMPACT THE 3 FORM NEW MINERALS

OF SEDIMENT. SEDIMENT. TO CEMENT THE
SEDIMENT TOGETHER.
NOW IT’S A ROCK!

Most of the rocks we see

on land are SEDIMENTARY DIWN W I N D RISRVE R I V E R S
rocks. They are formed from 6 3 5
sediments like clay or sand
that get cemented together. WETRA W A T E R CEI I C E
2
Sediments can come from 4

lots of different places, but SAVEW W A V E S TORFS F R O S T

erosion is one of the most 1 7
common sources!
ALL OF THE FORCES ABOVE CREATE:
Unscramble the words in
the above boxes to discover
all of the different things that S E D I M E N T S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
can cause erosion.

DRAW A LINE TO MATCH THE SEDIMENTARY ROCK TO THE CORRECT FACT BOX
This rock is This is the most common This rock is Ancient river beds
sometimes used sedimentary rock. It is formed made from sand. turn into this type of
to make buildings from ancient mud flats. Some- Sometimes these rock, which looks a
or statues. Caves times this rock breaks into thin rocks have bit like a bunch of
are formed in this layers, and in between the beautiful orange pebbles smooshed
kind of rock. layers, fossils are found! and red stripes. into playdough.

Limestone Sandstone Shale Conglomerate

72
Geologic TIME How do fossils of animals that live under water end up on top of
These rocks have remains of
animals that lived in the sea mountains? The answer is time - and LOTS of it! Scientists have
but we are thousands of divided Earth’s history into ERAS and PERIODS.
miles from the ocean!
Each era has different conditions and fossil records. The first
three eras of Earth’s history are often called the “Precambrian,”
Wow!
because the Cambrian period (the first part of the Paleozoic era)
is when Earth first had abundant animals. The next three eras
could be nicknamed the age of insects and plants (Paleozoic), the
age of reptiles (Mesozoic), and the age of mammals (Cenozoic).

To appreciate just how long these eras are, it helps to match them
to a calendar year. If all of Earth’s history were squished to fit in
one calendar year, this is what it would look like:

THE HISTORY OF EARTH - shrunk to fit in one year First

First flowering humans
Algae! plants Dec 22 Dec 31 at
Earth formed Mar 21 First multi-celled 11:48 pm
Jan 1 Cells with organism!
Fossil Sept 3
a nucleus! Dinosaurs
evidence Jul 18 The first go extinct
of bacteria Dec 26
First Cells? Apr 18 dinosaurs
Feb 25 Dec 13

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Tropical climate worldwide with abundant

plants (ferns, cycads, and lycopsids), huge
insects, and much higher levels of both
oxygen and carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere.
Flowering plants developed and
dinosaurs roamed the Earth!

Meganeura Known as “The Great Dying,” Nearly 90%

of marine life and 70% of terrestrial
species became extinct. One cause of this
event was climate change brought on by
large releases of underwater methane.

Arthropleura

73
 Hands-on Activity
CANDY ROCK CYCLE
MATERIALS:

4 Starburst candies Paper plate

Microwave

Lets make some candy rocks! R O CK C Y C

1. Unwrap 4 Starburst candies. HE LE
T
2. Tear (or cut with scissors) each candy
into small pieces. You may need to
soften the candy in your hand first.
Igneous rocks are
3. Hold the pieces in your hand and formed when magma
cools and solidifies.
smash them together into a lumpy ball.
This is your sedimentary rock.

4. Next, use the warmth of your hand

and pressure to turn your sedimentary Metamorphic rocks started as one type
rock into metamorphic rock. You may of rock but were changed into another
also try using books and your feet. Put type through heat, pressure, or both.
your "rock" into a plastic bag if you don't
want to get sticky.

5. Now it's time to make some magma!

Place your metamorphic rock on a
paper plate and microwave for 15 to 20 Sedimentary rocks are formed from
seconds. Stop the microwave as soon tiny particles of pre-existing rocks
as it begins to melt and bubble. The that settle together and harden.
longer it cooks, the harder your candy
will end up.

6. Don't touch! The magma is very hot

and may need up to 10 min to harden
and cool. Try putting it in the refrigerator
if you want it to cool faster. All three types of rocks
can be weathered to form
7. When the magma hardens and cools, sediments or melted to
the igneous rock is formed. It is safe to become magma!
eat, but may be tough and chewy!

74
Draw a picture of your rock and then describe it! Which was your favorite?

S e d i me n t a r y How these turn out all depends on

how soft and warm the candy is and
how much pressure is applied.
Hopefully you observed that the
sedimentary rock has more distinct
colors and could almost be “pulled
apart” to separate it back into the
original Starburst flavors.
The metamorphic rock should have
been much more compact and
solid, with some colors running
together, and the igneous rock
Me t a m o r p h i c should have melted to the point that
colors mixed entirely. Some bubbles
may have formed too, depending
on how long it was heated.

Igne o us

75
 Hands-on Activity
carbon dating with candy
MATERIALS: IF YOU DON’T HAVE SKITTLES, THAT’S NO PROBLEM! YOU CAN ALSO USE:

S m
S
Any other
S m m
OR OR small item
S S S m m m that has two
Cup 1 bag Skittles About 50 pennies
distinct sides
About 50 m&m candies

Calculating half-life
1. Count out 50 Skittles and place them in the
cup. Record your starting number of Skittles in Step 1
your table. Step 2

2. Shake the cup and pour the candy out on the

table. The Skittles that landed S-side up are TRIAL 1 50
radioactive and the candies that landed S-side
down have decayed. Count the number of TRIAL 1 50 27
decayed isotopes and record it in your table.
Set them aside.
TRIAL 1 50 27 15 7 3 2 1 1 0
3. Place your radioactive isotopes back in the
cup and shake them up. Pour them out on the
table and count your decayed isotopes,
recording the number in the table. Set them TRIAL 1 50 27 15 7 3 2 1 1 0
aside.

4. Collect the radioactive isotopes and put them TRIAL 2 50 24 10 5 2 1 1 0 0

back in the cup. Repeat the process until no
more radioactive isotopes remain. Don't forget TRIAL 2 50 25 12 6 3 2 1 0 0
to record the number of decayed isotopes for
each pour in your table!
AVERAGE: 50 25.3 12.3 6 2.6 1.6 1 0.3 0
5. After the first trial, repeat the experiment two
more times. On the third trial, you can start 50
eating the decayed isotopes. But make sure 45
NUMBER OF UNDECAYED SKITTLES

you wait until the third trial!

40
6. After the three trials, average your data for 35
each pour so you can plot it on the graph! Make
a dot for each data point on your average chart. 30
Then draw a line to connect them. 25

20
HOW TO FIND THE AVERAGE?
15
Add up the number 50 + 50 + 50 = 150 150/3 = 50
of skittles measured 10
on a turn and then
divide by the number 27 + 24 + 30 = 81 5
81/3 = 27
of measurements. 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

76 NUMBER OF TURNS
Carbon is found in all living things. Once an organism dies, it is no longer taking in carbon-14 in the form of food and
the carbon in its body begins to decay. Scientists can measure the amount of carbon to determine how long ago the
organism died. The older the sample is, the less carbon-14 there is to be detected. The half-life (the period of time in
which half the sample has decayed) for carbon-14 is 5,730 years. Carbon-14 dating can be used to figure out the age
of organic material up to 50,000 years old!

YOUR DATA

TRIAL 1 50 28 15 8 6 1 0 0 0

TRIAL 2 50 24 8 6 2 1 1 0 0

TRIAL 3 50 25 14 9 6 4 3 1 0

THE AVERAGE: 50 25.6 12.3 7.6 4.6 1.6 1.3 0.3 0

50

45
Each time you do this activity you will find
40 slightly different results! But on average, the
trend will be a curve something like this:
NUMBER OF UNDECAYED SKITTLES

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
NUMBER OF TURNS
77
 Fossilization is rare! Scientists estimate that less than one in a million make it into the fossil record.
To become a fossil, a dead plant or animal needs to be buried and then preserved. There are many
different ways that burial and preservation can happen. Unscramble the words below to discover
some of the different types of burial. Then use the numbers to spell the most common and famous
way a fossil can be preserved.

A fossil can be BURIED by being:

Covered in DUM M U D from a VIRER R I V E R

4 3

Swallowed by a NASD NEDU S A N D D U N E

10 2

Buried in SHA A S H from a NALOCVO V O L C A N O

7 8 6

Sink in a PAWSM S W A M P
1

A storm at sea moves TIMESEND S E D I M E N T

9 5

A fossil can be PRESERVED by being:

P E R M I N E R A L I Z E D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Types of fossils:

TRACE MOLDS PERMINERALIZED ACTUAL

CASTS (FOSSILIZED) SPECIMEN
Evidence of the The animal/plant has Tissue has been replaced with The rarest type. The actual
organism, but NOT dissolved away, but minerals! Most dinosaur bones and animal or plant is preserved
the actual plant/ the impression petrified wood fossils have been by being frozen or encased
animal. remained. permineralized. in amber.

footprints seashell mold Bone, T-rex claw, petrified wood insect in amber

78
Mixed up Fossils The animals and plants have gotten mixed up! Match the drawing of
each animal and plant with its correct fossil evidence and time period.

Paleozoic
Anomalocaris

Pleistocene Meganeura

Jurassic Sigillaria

Cambrian Smilodon

Carboniferous Stegosaurus

79
 ROCK identification FLOWCHART
Is the "rock" soft
enough to flatten
with two fingers?

YES NO

Wash your hands. Are you in Hawaii?

MOST LIKELY
IT'S POOP
NO YES

If you drop vinegar on MOST LIKELY

the rock, does it fizz? IT'S BASALT

YES NO

MOST LIKELY Does the rock

LIMESTONE have layers?
OR MARBLE
YES NO

Does the rock Does the rock

have crystals or YES have crystals or
large particles? large particles?

YES NO MOST
LIKELY
GRANITE
No, it's glassy
MOST LIKELY and black.
METAMORPHIC. Does it feel gritty
It could be gneiss, or smooth?
schist, or quartzite!
MOST
LIKELY
GRITTY SMOOTH OBSIDIAN

No crystals, but there

Does it look like a When you tap it with are some small chunks
bunch of pebbles your fingernail, what and one of them looks
cemented in sand? sound do you hear? a bit like a fish scale

YES NO
TINK TUNK FOSSILIZED
POOP!
MOST LIKELY (COPROLITE)
CONGLOMERATE MOST LIKELY SLATE SHALE
SANDSTONE
80
 What is a rock?
RAL GEMSTONE MINERA
You might think the answer to this INE L
question is easy, but “rock” is both a M TALC QUARTZ OPAL

OI
common word and a scientific term, GYPSUM DIAMOND

D
LAPIS LAZULI
and this sometimes causes confusion FELDSPAR EMERALD (LAZURITE)
over whether or not certain things ICE SAPPHIRE COAL
should be called rocks. CALCITE GARNET
JET
OBSIDIAN
PEARL
MICA RUBY
In geology, a rock is defined to be: AMBER PETROLEUM
SALT
• a solid mass
• naturally occurring MINERAL:
A solid with both a
GEMSTONE:
A mineral, rock, or
MINERALOID:
A mineral-like
• made of either minerals specific chemical organic material used substance that does
formula and crystal to make jewelry or not have a crystal
or mineraloid matter. structure. other adornments. structure.

DIMENTARY
SE
FOSSILS LIKE
COPROLITE
GLACIERS
CKS FRO LIMESTONE
RO ER SPA M
T CE CONGLOMERATE
OU * TUFF? ANTHRACITE?
SHALE SANDSTONE
CHONDRITES
S M ET
U AM
EO
ACHONDRITES
N

OR
GNEISS
IG

IRON-NICKEL

PHIC
METEORITES OBSIDIAN SLATE
MARBLE
BASALT
SCHIST
GRANITE
*Are meteorites igneous, sedimentary, QUARTZITE
or metamorphic? One could argue that
they fall into all three categories! It all PUMICE
depends on where they formed and MIGMATITE
how they traveled to Earth.

DRAW A LINE TO MATCH THE MINERAL TO THE CORRECT FACT BOX

This hard mineral is These minerals are the most This mineral will This mineral is
found in igneous rocks common on Earth’s surface. dissolve if placed in so soft, you can
like granite. It’s a main They come in three main vinegar. It is a main scratch it with
ingredient of sand and, varieties: potassium, sodium, ingredient of stalactites, your fingernail.
when purple, is called and calcium. Used in making and animals use it to Used to make
amethyst. ceramics and glass. create shells. plaster.

Quartz Calcite Gypsum Feldspar

81
 Shadows ART PROJECT
The moon is “locked” with Earth so that we always see the same side. But as it rotates around our planet,
different parts of the moon’s surface are receiving sunlight. The shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion as
viewed from Earth is called the moon’s phase. These are the 8 phases:

Last
Quarter
Waning Waning
Crescent Gibbous
The view
from Earth
New Full
Moon Moon

Sun Earth

orbit of the moon

Waxing Waxing
Crescent First Gibbous
Quarter

Earth's moon watercolor painting

1. Print the Phases of the Moon Use the template
template (page 121) OR create
your own using a ruler by marking
straight lines across the paper in a
3x3 grid.
2. Use a white crayon to color Or draw your own
each phase of the moon. Be sure
to press down hard as you color.
Do 2 or 3 coats of crayon for a
brighter white. Use other colors of Color with white
crayon for the Earth. crayon here Paint water color over
3. Use water color paints to paint a
and watch the phase of
dark background behind the the moon “shine through”
moon. The more water you use,
the lighter the color will be. Use
less water for brighter, more vivid
color.
4. Don't be afraid to paint right
over your moon, the crayon wax is WAXING FIRST
hydrophobic! Use a tissue to blot CRESCENT QUARTER
any paint that beads over the
82
moon. No crayon here.
OTHER MOONS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Print the Other Moons in the Solar
System template (page 123) OR
create your own drawings by
making circles for each of these 9
moons.
Your moon art can be realistic and
researched or fanciful and fun. Callisto
You choose!
Titan
If you want to color them with Io
realistic colors, first read the
descriptions in the template and
then look up photos online. The
NASA website has some great
pages on each moon!
If you would like to create a more
fanciful or imaginative set, blend Earth’s Ganymede
different combinations of crayon Moon
and water colors, or draw alien
settlements or space stations on Phobos
(LOOK EXTRA CLOSE!
each moon! IT IS SO SMALL IT’S
BARELY VISIBLE!)
Europa Enceladus
*Note: The moons on this page are drawn
to scale so Phobos (which is 239 times
smaller than Ganymede) looks like a tiny Triton
dot. The moons in the template are not
drawn to scale.

Sidewalk chalk sundial

Option A:

1. On a day forecast to be sunny, go to a flat,

paved area that gets good sun exposure most
of the day. Trace the shadow of a friend or
object such as a chair or lamp post. Mark the
spot where they were standing and write down
the time next to the shadow or in a journal

2. Set a timer for an hour. When it goes off,

head to the same spot and trace the shadow
again in a different color Option A

3. Repeat several times during the day to

record how the shadow’s position and shape
shifts.

Option B:

1. Place a stick or pencil in the center of a

paper plate. Tape the plate to the ground or
place rocks on the plate to secure it.

2. Trace the shadow and make a note of the

time. Set the timer for an hour and return
regularly to the plate to trace the shadow again. Option b
83
 The Inverse Square Law
To square a number, you multiply it by itself. For example, the number 6 squared is 6 × 6 = 6² = 36.
Fill in the table below by squaring each number.

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
n² 1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64 81 100 121 144 169 196 225 256 289 324 361 400

We call the numbers 1, 4, 9, When we make a squares with side lengths equal to
16,... square numbers. Why do
you think we would give them 1, 2, 3, 4,... the area of the square (length × width)
that name?
is 1×1=1, 2×2=4, 3×3=9, 4×4=16, and so on. Each 2D
figure has area measured in square units.

The Inverse Square Law. Moving an object 2× as far away makes the intensity only 1/4 of what it
used to be. Moving an object 3× as far away makes the intensity only 1/9 of what it used to be. In
general, moving an object n× as far away makes the intensity only 1/n² times what it used to be.

The image to the right demonstrates the inverse square

law. The same light that would hit a single square would be
spread across 4 squares at twice the distance. The light
that would hit a single square would be spread across 9
squares at three times the distance.

Jupiter is 5 times further from Stars don’t seem very bright to us. Why do you
the Sun than Earth. How many think that is?
times brighter is the Sun’s light
from Earth than it is on Jupiter?
Only a small portion of a star’s
Jupiter is 5 times as far light actually reaches Earth. The
from the sun, so the Sun’s light is rest of the star’s light is spread
only 1/25 times as intense on out through space.
Jupiter as on Earth. That means,
the light will seem 25 times
brighter on Earth than Jupiter.

84
 Earthʻs Orbit
In December, the Northern hemisphere is tilted
Earth has an axial tilt of 23.4°
relative to the plane of rotation
(ecliptic plane). That means that away from the sun, so it gets less light and heat.
different parts of the Earth are
directly facing the Sun at different In June, the Northern hemisphere is tilted toward
times of the year. Explain in your
own words how this axial tilt causes the sun so it gets extra light and heat.
the seasons.

Beginning
of July

aphelion perihelion
152.6 million 147.5 million
kilometers kilometers
Beginning
of January

Earth actually moves slowest around the Sun at aphelion due to Kepler’s 2nd Law. The result is that
summer is 2-3 days longer in the Northern hemisphere than the Southern hemisphere.

Surprisingly, the Earth is actually colder at perihelion because the Southern hemisphere’s oceans
are facing the sun and they don’t heat up as easily as land because water has high heat capacity.

Make your own ellipse! Tie a

piece of string between two nails
or pins in a piece of paper. Place
your pencil inside the string and
trace out the widest curve that
the string will allow.

The location of each nail is called a focus of the ellipse. For each planet’s orbit, the Sun is located
at a focus of the ellipse. For some planets the elliptical orbit is more oblong, while other planets
have a nearly circular orbit.
85
 Where is Earthʻs water?
o f Ea r t hʻs wate r
Al l

f re s ce or o
h wa t e r r f a h wa t h
s t

f u
re

er r
S

e
CAN SALT WATER BE MADE FRESH?
le f re sh w
D r a w a n d de s c r i b e ra l pro c e s s t h at t u r n s s a l t ink ab ate r.
a m achi ne o r n at u y wa t e r i n t o d r
If yo u do nʻt t hi n k r p r o c e s s e s e x i s t, t h e
s uch m achi ne s o n e x pl ai n why no t !

The water cycle turns salty

water from oceans into fresh
water (rain). Desalination
machines can also convert salt
water into fresh water.

86
 100
Percentage

PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL WATER

of total water 90
80
SALTWATER 97.47
70
FRESHWATER 2.53 60
50
40
30
20
Th e p e rc e n t age s di s p l aye d i n a b a r ch a rt ! 10
0
SALTWATER FRESHWATER

C a n yo u us e t his
% freshwater % freshwater da
g ra ph Ea r t hʻs f t a t
re s o
ICE 68.7 SOIL MOISTURE 0.05 hw

at
GROUNDWATER 30.1 ATMOSPHERE 0.04

er
?
PERMAFROST 0.86 SWAMP WATER 0.03
LAKES 0.26 RIVERS 0.006

100

90

80
PERCENTAGE OF FRESHWATER

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
ICE GROUND SOIL PERMA- LAKES ATMOSPHERE SWAMP RIVERS
WATER MOISTURE FROST 87
 The Thermohaline Circulation
Color the warm surface waters red and the cold deep water blue:

r
w wate
allo
, sh
a rm
W

ater
Cold, salty, deep w

Your guess: What scientists have measured:

How long do you think it takes for water to travel 1,000 years (source:
around the ENTIRE thermohaline current? [Link])

The movement of the ocean on the surface layer COULD CLIMATE CHANGE ALTER THE
is mostly driven by the wind. But in certain areas THERMOHALINE CIRCULATION SYSTEM?
near the polar oceans, the colder surface water WHY OR WHY NOT?
also gets saltier due to evaporation or sea ice
formation. This water then sinks to the ocean Yes. Sea ice is the main driving force
depths. This sinking force is the main drive of a
giant current which is called the thermohaline behind the Thermohaline Circulation.
circulation.
The formation of sea ice requires very
After sinking, the water moves horizontally
through the ocean depths. If the current hits an cold temperatures. If less sea ice is
island, this can cause some of the water to rise,
but most of it won’t resurface until it reaches the forming, then the current will slow down
warm waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
or could even stop or change its flow.
It is called the thermohaline circulation because
this “ocean conveyor belt” is caused by variations
in temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline).

88
 Hands-on Activity
Exploring waves
MATERIALS:

slinky Lightweight blanket or sheet ping pong balls

What is a wave?
Waves cause a disturbance in the medium they are Wavelength
traveling through, which allows them to carry
energy. The amount of energy they carry is tied to Crest Crest
the amplitude of the wave.
The amplitude of the wave is the distance from the Amplitude
center line, or still position, to the top of the crest or
bottom of the trough. The greater the amplitude of
a wave, the more energy it has. Amplitude
The wavelength of a wave is the distance from a
point on one wave to the same point on the next Trough Wavelength Trough
wave.
The frequency of a wave is the number of waves
passing through a point in one second. One hertz
is equal to one wave per second.

If you increase the frequency of the blanket

Blanket activity waves, how does the wavelength change?
1. If you have two people, have each partner hold
one end of the blanket. Alternatively, hold 2 corners The wavelength should get shorter. Is
down with books while one person holds the blanket.
this what you observed?
2. Shake the blanket in a wave pattern. Can you
make waves with an amplitude of 4 inches?

3. Place the three ping pong balls on the blanket and

pick an identifiable point on the blanket.

4. Can you change the wavelength and amplitude to What is the largest number of transverse
make the balls go to that point on the blanket? waves you can make with the Slinky? What is
the smallest?
Slinky activity There’s no right or wrong answer here! Just
1. Hold the slinky in two hands. If you move the slinky experiment and see what types of waves
up and down to make waves, these are called
transverse waves. and patterns you are able to make!
2. Now, stretch the slinky out on a flat surface but What are some examples of longitudinal
bunch up the slinky so you are holding most of the waves?
coils in one hand. When you let go, the wave moves Sound is a longitudinal wave. So are
horizontally between your hands. By pushing and
pulling on the slinky, you can keep the wave going.
This type of wave is called a longitudinal or
seismic P-waves that cause earthquakes.
compression wave.
89
 Wave Functions
Wave functions occur naturally in lots of contexts. Each wave has (at least) 4 characteristics that we care about:

Amplitude: The height of the wave from the baseline.

Wavelength: The distance between repeating parts of the wave.
Maximum: The highest part (or peak) of the curve.
Minimum: The lowest part (or trough) of the curve.

amplitude

wavelength
For each scenario below, identify possible values for the amplitude, wavelength, maximum, and minimum of
the wave function. (Your answers should be realistic guesses with units.) The first one is completed as an
example.

Phases of the moon

100% visible (full moon)
50% visible

29 days 0% visible (New moon)

Hours of daylight in a day

100% visible (full moon)
14 hours
50% visible
2 hours

29 days
365 days 0% visible (New moon)
10 hours

The numbers will vary a lot based on location. You’re just

estimating how much things change and how often.
High Tide

100% visible
+1(full
m moon)
50%
1 visible
m

1229 days
hours 0% visible (New moon)
-1 m

90
 Predator-Prey Models
A predator is an animal that eats other animals. A prey is an animal that is eaten by a predator. A
predator-prey model is a way of showing how the population of a predator and its prey grow in an
ecosystem.
The lion pride was so large
that the gazelle population
dropped.

A large gazelle population

Once the gazelle population
provided food for the lions,
dropped, there wasn’t
so the lion population grew
enough food, so the lion
again.
population dropped.

Fewer lions meant that more

gazelles could live, so the
gazelle population climbed.

One of the curves below represents the lion population, It’s possible to plot both populations
and the other represents the gazelle population. Label on the same graph if you use one axis
each curve correctly. for lions and one axis for gazelles.

Population Gazelles Gazelles

Lions

Time Lions

Make up your own predator-prey model below by choosing a predator

and a prey and then plotting their populations over time.

Population Bison
The wavelength should be the same, and the predator
population should rise after the prey population rises.

Bison

Wolves

Time Wolves 91
 Water Underground!
Ground water fills up the space between rocks and soil particles. As it percolates through the
earth, it can dissolve minerals, forming sinkholes and caves. Layers of rock that water cannot
pass through are called impermeable. These impermeable layers can trap ground water and
form aquifers or they can force it to the surface, creating springs or rivers.

WORD SEARCH
T T S E B S I H T A M L All the words below (except for one!) are
hidden in the grid forwards, backwards, or
N R E T I M G A L A T S diagonally. Can you find them?
E E J I S I N K H O L E Stalactite: structure of calcium deposits formed
on the roof of a cave
N F O K E P G E E A L L Stalagmite: structure of calcium deposits formed
on the floor of a cave
O I A T T E N V T G V B Aquifer: an area of permeable rock or earth that
contains ground water
P U S S A R A T N L R A
Karst: a limestone landscape with water-eroded
X Q R R C C S A R A B E towers, sinkholes and caves
Cave: a natural underground chamber or cavern
E A E G E O M E T R Y M Sinkhole: a hole or collapsed area caused by
underground water erosion
K K Y S U L U C L A C R
Permeable: something that allows water or air to
M S T A L A C T I T E E pass through
Limestone: a rock made mostly of calcium
O G B N O T R M C R A P carbonate This one is not in the grid!
Percolate: to gradually filter through something
P H A L G E B R A T B I
Did you see the bonus math words?

Whereʻs the water? A Above the water table

the spaces between
Can you label the unconfined aquifer (above the impermeable layer) rock and soil have
and confined aquifer (between the bedrock and impermeable layer). both air and water.
After filling in the labels, color the aquifers, spring, and lakes blue.
B
Below the water table
SPRING all the spaces are
filled with water.
RIVER

IM WATER TABLE
LAKE PE
RM A
EA
BL
E
LA
B YE
R
LAKE
B

BEDROCK

Confined aquifer Unconfined aquifer

92
 How Caves Form

1. Water seeps into cracks in 2. Water dissolves calcium 3. The water level drops and air
the ground. Because it carbonate in the rocks. fills the cave. Dripping water
contains dissolved carbon As long as the water is deposits calcium carbonate,
dioxide and minerals, it flowing, the cave grows creating cool formations like
becomes acidic. larger and larger. stalactites and stalagmites.

Going Spelunking...
If you were exploring a cave (spelunking!) What
would you most like to discover? A neat
formation, a rare crystal, an animal, or something
else? Draw it and describe it below!
Bonus activity!
Make your own stalactites/stalagmites.
We can’t wait to see what you invent!
Materials:
• Epsom salt
• Water
• Food coloring
• 2 identical sized cups
• Yarn or string
• 2 paperclips
• A plate and bowl

1. Fill two glasses to the brim with water. Then

carefully pour the water in a bowl or pan.
2. Heat the water in the microwave or on the stove
until it is very hot.
3. Add an equal volume of epsom salt a spoonful at
a time, stirring well. Continue adding salt until it
won’t dissolve any more.
4. Add food coloring if desired and pour the solution
into both glasses. Place the glasses on either side
of a plate and use the paperclips to suspend the
string between them. The middle of the string
should be slightly lower than the level of the water.
The key to good stalactite formation is for the drips
to happen very slowly.
5. Reserve the extra solution and replenish the two
cups as needed over several days.

93
About Rivers FILL IN THE BLANKS BELOW USING THESE WORDS,
THEN LABEL THEM ON THE DIAGRAM TOO:
delta tributaries source floodplain oxbow

A river is a channel of water that

flows into a lake, ocean, or another
river. The _________
source of a river can
be a spring, runoff from rain in
source mountains, or small streams that
form the "headwaters." As a river
flows downhill, it's likely to be joined
by other streams and rivers, which
are called __________________.
tributaries
When the river reaches a mostly flat
area of land, sand and other particles
tributaries in the water begin to drop.

Over many years these sediments

form the _________________,
floodplain an
area of land around the river that is
subject to flooding. Rivers tend to
floodplain meander, and since the water moves
fastest on the outside of the curve, it
oxbow erodes more of that riverbank, which
can eventually form an __________
oxbow
lake. When the river meets a lake or
ocean it drops the sediment, forming
a fan-shaped piece of land and
marsh called a river ____________.
delta
delta

FORMATION OF AN OXBOW LAKE

Slower moving water deposits sediment

Faster moving water erodes the river bank

94
Famous Rivers Five of the biggest and longest
SISSIP
AMAZON CO N G O IS

PI
N GT Z Average discharge:
Average discharge: YA 16,800 m3/s

E
Length: 3,700 km
209,000 m3/s! Average discharge: N IL E
That’s more than a million bathtubs 41,200 m3/s
full of water pouring out from the Length: 4,370 km
river every single second! Average discharge:
2,800 m3/s
Length: 6,400 km Average discharge: Length: 6,800 km
30,200 m3/s
Length: 6,300 km

Average discharge is how many cubic meters of water are coming out of the river every second.

All of the rivers below are part of the Mississippi watershed. Trace a line along which path YOU think
should be called the Mississippi river. Then look it up! For a bonus activity, color the Missouri, Arkansas,
Upper Mississippi, Lower Mississippi, Ohio, and Red river basins.

Missouri

Upper Mississippi

Ohio

Arkansas

Lower Mississippi

Red

95
 Quiz Time! Answer the questions to
see what you learned!

① Why is the sky blue?

A Blue has the longest wavelength of visible light, so it stays around the longest in the upper atmosphere.
B Because outer space is dark blue.
C Blue light has the shortest wavelength of visible light and is scattered by the gases in the atmosphere.

② What is the name of formations that hang down from the roof of a cave?

Stalactites
__________________

③ What is the typical speed of the thermohaline circulation system?

A 1 cm per second (0.0006 kilometers per hour or 0.00037 mph)
B 1 meter per second (3.6 kilometers per hour or 2.24 mph)
C 10 meters per second (26 kilometers per hour or 22 mph)

④ Caves most commonly form in which type of rock?

A Basalt
B Sandstone
C Shale
D Limestone

⑤ What type of rock is made of the fossilized remains of ocean life that died millions of years ago?
A Basalt
B Sandstone
C Shale
D Limestone

⑥ What factors contribute to forming a metamorphic rock? (Select all that apply)
A High heat
B Low pressure
C Mineral-rich fluids
D Accumulation of sediment

⑦ True or False: Dragonflies grew to be the size of seagulls during the Carboniferous period.
A True
B False

⑧ What are the three main types of rocks?

Sedimentary
___________________________, Metamorphic
__________________________, Igneous
__________________________

⑨ What is the most common mineral in sand?

A Quartz
B Calcite
C Gypsum
D Feldspar

⑩ True or False: All gemstones are minerals.

A True
B False
96
⑪ Which moons in our solar system are the most likely places we could find bacteria or other living organisms?
A Phobos
B Earth’s moon
C Europa
D Enceladus

⑫ When did flowering plants first develop?

A During the Cambrian Period
B During the Carboniferous Period
C During the Cretaceous Period

⑬ If the star SPARK was the same size and brightness as our sun but 100 times further from Earth, how much dimmer
would the light from SPARK appear to us?
A 100 times dimmer
B 1,000 times dimmer
C 10,000 times dimmer
D 100,000 times dimmer

⑭ Most of the world’s liquid fresh water is contained in:

A Rivers
B Swamps
C Lakes
D Groundwater

⑮ How much of Earth’s water is saltwater?

A 97%
B 74%
C 47%
D 24%

⑯ In a wave, what is the distance from crest to crest called?

A Amplitude
B Wavelength
C Frequency

⑰ What is the name of the number of waves passing through a point each second?
A Amplitude
B Wavelength
C Frequency

⑱ The thermohaline circulation system is important because (select all that apply)
A It absorbs heat and moderates Earth’s temperature
B It cycles nutrients through the ocean
C It provides a fast path for ships between Europe and North America

⑲ What is the main reason Earth experiences the seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter?
A Earth is tilted at 23°
B Earth orbits the sun in an elliptical motion
C There is more land above the equator than below

⑳ How long is a day on the moon?

A 24 hours
B 29 Earth days (708 hours)
C The moon doesn’t have days because one side is always facing the sun and the other is always dark.

97
 Where in the World?
Each of these clues belongs to a river or lake. Once you’ve matched the clue with its picture, place a dot on
the map locating the river or lake! See if you can mark all nine of them on the map of the world’s rivers.

F H E

Walleye Sockeye salmon

Lake trout Baikal seal Rainbow trout

Burbot Grayling

C I B

American alligator
Channel catfish

Piranha Anaconda

D A G

Humpback
Ganges river Chinese sturgeon chub
dolphin

Gharial
Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin Common carp
DRAWINGS BY ART MOM EMILY
A species that, unfortunately,
might be extinct
A Asia’s longest river is B A drop of water travels C The Jordan River flows in
fed by 700 tributaries. 3,700 kilometers in 90 days but not a single river flows out.
Its drainage basin covers 20% meandering through 10 states Ten times saltier than the ocean,
of China’s total land mass. to reach the Gulf of Mexico. this is a lake without any fish.
Yangtze Mississippi The Dead Sea
D India’s longest river E A basin that once held lava is F Fed by 300 streams and rivers,
hosts 400 million people who now home to salmon and trout. it holds hundreds of shipwrecks
live near its banks and is also Its crystal blue waters are and has a surface area as large as
home to gharials and dolphins. more than 500 meters deep. the country of Austria.

Ganges Crater Lake Lake Superior

G Wild for whitewater rafting, H The world’s oldest lake I Flowing through nine countries,
it travels through 15 dams and holds 20% of Earth’s fresh water. it holds 20% of world’s river water
a giant, deep canyon. Then after Geophysicists think and more than 3,000 species of fish,
flowing more than 2,000 km, it’s on its way to becoming including giant arapaima and sharp-
it often doesn’t reach the ocean. an ocean. toothed piranhas.

98
Colorado River Lake Baikal Amazon
 60°

If you live in Europe, or a country

that was settled by a European 30°
nation, your world map likely has
the Atlantic Ocean in the middle.
EQUATOR 0°

But if you live in Asia, it’s more

likely that your map is arranged 30°
with the Pacific Ocean at its
center, like the map of the world’s
rivers shown below. People like to 60°

see their home in the center of the

map. 180° 150° 120° 90° 60° 30° 0° 30° 60° 90° 120° 150° 180°
PRIME MERIDIAN

By tradition, North is at the top of

our maps, but there is no reason
north should be “up” and south
should be “down.” If the first world 60°
map makers had been Australian
instead of European, our standard
world maps could have easily 30°

looked more like this.

EQUATOR 0°

30°

60°

180° 150° 120° 90° 60° 30° 0° 30° 60° 90° 120° 150° 180°
PRIME MERIDIAN

MAP OF THE WORLD’S RIVERS

H
F
E G
B
C A
D

99
 Once upon a Lake... FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
sea water glacial land basin

A lake is a large body of ________

water
that is surrounded on all sides by
__________.
land It can be fed and
I interact with LAKE EFFECT
HABITAT FOR drained by rivers, and those rivers
all the other PLANTS AND
E
often travel into the _________.
sea A
ER
spheres! H ANIMALS
SP

lake fills a __________,

basin and how
MO

RE
AT

HE that basin was formed tells you

P
OS
BI what type of lake it is. It might be
___________
glacial (carved by ice from
LAYERS
OF SEDIMENT ancient glaciers), tectonic (filling a
ERE
LITHOSPH rift between two plates in Earth's
crust), or fluvial (formed by a river).

Geologically, all lakes are temporary. It can take A tub full

hundreds of millions of years, but eventually they'll of rocks!
fill up with sediment, just like a bathtub would if you
constantly dumped dirty, gravelly water into it.

Zones of a lake: WRITE IN THE NAME OF THE

LAKE ZONE BEING DESCRIBED:

limnetic
Sunlit water located far
away from the shore.
littoral

littoral
Sunlit water located close to
limnetic the shore.

profundal
profundal
Water with no sunlight
located deep in the lake.

100
The BIG The five largest freshwater lakes in the world!
Baikal Tanganyika Vostok Malawi Superior

These shapes are an

accurate representation
of the lake’s relative sizes!

Max depth: 1,637m 1,637m 900m 706m 406m

Volume: 23,615 km3 18,900 km3 5400 km3 8,400 km3 12,000 km3

The STRANGE Imagine a strange lake. Then draw and describe it here! What unusual
features will you invent? Would any new animals or plants live there?

For inspiration, you can check out some of Earth’s

strange lakes: 5 Jellyfish Lake in Palau, Boiling
Lake in Dominica, the soda lakes in Africa that are
home to flamingos, Lake Hillier in Australia (it’s
pink!) or Khiluk or Spotted Lake in Canada.

And the SALTY

The Caspian Sea
Lakes that do NOT drain into the ocean.
The Great Hey! Who built a The Dead Sea
railroad across My surface is 430
Some call me a Salt Lake my middle!?!? meters below sea
sea, others call level! it’s the
me the world’s lowest elevation
largest lake! on earth.

1986 Water level

1963 Water level
Volume: 78,200 km3 Volume: 19 km3 Volume: 114 km3
Salinity: 1.2% Salinity: 5 - 27% Salinity: 34%
Maximum Depth: 1,025 meters Maximum Depth: 10 meters Maximum Depth: 304 meters 101
 Glaciers
Glaciers are formed by snow accumulating over e r
ba
s
ha n h
At e tha
o
c
acier in Jasper Na
a Gl f its volume in t tional P
a lf o he la a
st 1 r k h
00 as
ye

lo Th
m ar
many years. Over time, the layers of snow become

st

s.
1918 2011
compacted into ice. Glaciers slowly move downhill,
carving sediment and rock as they go.
Most glaciers move just a few cm per day, but the
world’s fastest moving glacier (Jakobshavn Isbrae
in Greenland) moves up to 40 meters (131 feet) in
a day. Most glaciers are receding and melting faster
today than they ever have before.

WORD SEARCH
The bolded words are hidden in the grid forwards, backwards, or diagonally. Can you find them all?
N A C O N G N I T L E M
Till: sediment formed from the movement of a
L O B R P R E I C A L G glacier. It’s often deposited when a glacier melts.
Moraine: mounds of till ranging in size from
A L I M T E N A L P L E sand grains to large boulders. Formed by the
I F G T I G I N A O M C deposition of material from a glacier.
Drumlin: a canoe-shaped hill made of glacial till.
C Q U B A B L A T I O N
Firn: partially compacted snow from several
A W S S U L M A H Y R E seasons that is not yet as firm or solid as ice.
Accumulation zone: the area above the firn line
L R T A I C U T C T A I where snowfall accumulation is greater than
G E A T E G R M R H I C losses from evaporation, melting, or sublimation.
Ablation zone: the area of a glacier where more
B B M I X A D I U A N S ice is lost than gained due to melting,
U M A H E S E R A C E T evaporation, and ice calving.
Crevasse: a deep open crack in a glacier.
S U T E S S A V E R C H
Subglacial lake: a lake underneath a glacier.
A N H B N R A E L T S A Did you see the bonus words too?
(Melting, glacier, science, math, learn, number)

Ice on the move...

Use the definitions above to label the terminal moraines,
crevasses, ablation zone, subglacial lake, and till:

Ablation zone
Glacier ice is melting or
evaporating in this area

Terminal moraines

102 Subglacial lake Crevasses Till

 Build A
ART PROJECT
400m
A contour map is a 2-dimensional plot of a
3-dimensional figure that tracks all the 300m
locations of specific heights.
200m
200m
In the image to the right, you can imagine 100m
what the lines on the hill would look like
from above. That’s a contour map.

Draw lines to map the shape to it’s

corresponding topographical map!

400m
300m 200m

200m 100m

Forest If you’d like, you can make a key

Swamp for your map and add in symbols
Ocean to give it more details!

For each shape below, draw the contour

map that describes the shape below it.
Contour Challenge: Form a shape using
playdough, and draw the corresponding
contour map. If you want, use a ruler and a
marker to draw parallel lines around your
shape to help map it.

Reverse Challenge: Make up a contour

map and then create the corresponding 3D
shape.

Team Challenge: Teammate 1 draws a

contour map, and Teammate 2 molds it into
a 3D figure. Teammate 3 is then tasked with
drawing a contour map from the 3D figure.
Compare it with the original contour map to
see how well it translated back and forth.
103
 Coral Reefs
CORAL: Algae-farming animals that turn into rocks!
TENTACLES we’re photosynthetic algae!
Each of these is The coral gives us nutrients. and
an individual animal! we feed it sugars and proteins.

MOUTH

CALCIUM SYMBIOSIS:
A coral is a colony of thousands of SHEATH STOMACH A long term interaction
individual animals called polyps. CORAL POLYP
between two organisms
that benefits both of them.

Coral reefs are some of the most

diverse ecosystems on Earth. They MALICCU C A L C I U M
protect shorelines from erosion and 9 8
provide habitat for thousands of
different species of animals. TAREH E A R T H WORG G R O W
6 3 4 5 1
Most coral are photosynthetic and
grow in shallow waters. But they are not ORCLA C O R A L
2 7
plants! A coral is a colony of identical
individual animals called polyps. THE FOUR WORDS ABOVE ARE FROM THESE PARAGRAPHS.
UNSCRAMBLE THEM TO UNCOVER THE NAME OF CORAL ALGAE:
Hard corals form a support structure of
calcium carbonate. Over millions of Z O O X A N T H E L L A E
years, a coral reef will turn into
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
limestone.
DRAW A LINE TO MATCH THE CORAL TO THE CORRECT FACT BOX

One of the most important This coral These soft corals are often This soft coral grows
corals in the Caribbean. Forms looks like a seen on shorelines. They in a flat fan-like shape.
thickets in shallow water and is bunch of attach to strong rock and It has no calcium
an important habitat for fish. grapes! have a rubbery feel. carbonate skeleton.

Bubble Coral Tree Coral Common Sea Fan Staghorn Coral

Pleregyra Sinuosa Capnella species Gorgonia Ventalina Acropora cervicornis

104
 A prickly problem
The prickly pear was brought to Australia in 1787. These cacti were great homes
for macerated cochineal bugs which were used to make red dye for British
soldiers' coats. They were then used in gardens as a hedge. This led to cacti
slowly spreading and taking over land. In 1901, a drought caused farmers to plant
even more of it to help feed their cattle after many of their crops were destroyed.
By 1925 prickly pear had spread to over 25 million acres!
The land it grew on became unusable. It was so expensive to remove the
troublesome plant that farmers would just abandon their land. The government
tried crushing it, burning it, digging it up, and even poisoning it without much
success.
After a reward equaling $1.3 million dollars for a solution to the problem went
unclaimed, the Prickly Pear Traveling Commission was created. They searched
the globe until finally, in Argentina they discovered a small brown-grey moth called
Cactoblastis cactorum. Nine million moth eggs were brought to Australia in 1926,
and by 1932 the larvae had eaten their way through the problem!

Are there invasive species in your neighborhood or country? Research t wo of them!

Common Name: _______________
Scientific Name: _______________

Where it’s from. Why it’s a problem.

Common Name: _______________

Scientific Name: _______________

Where it’s from. Why it’s a problem.

105
 Venus, Earth, and Mars
FILL IN THE BLANKS USING THESE WORDS:
melt water atmospheres sun different

The closest planets to Earth have very different

_________________.
atmospheres The air on the surface of
Venus is thicker than liquid ___________
water but
hot enough to _________
melt lead. The air on the
surface of Mars is very thin and incredibly cold.
One reason conditions on Venus, Earth, and
Mars are so _____________
different has to do with
their distance from the _________.
sun Venus is too
close, Mars is too far, and Earth is just right.

Too hot Habitable Zone Too cold

LANDSCAPES BY SCIENCE MOM LIZA

Venus Earth Mars

ATMOSPHERE Mostly carbon dioxide, with Mostly nitrogen with Mostly carbon
clouds of sulfuric acid. 21% oxygen. dioxide. Very thin.

AVERAGE 461° C (861° F) 15° C (59° F) -46 ° C (-50° F)

TEMPERATURE
WATER No liquid water. 70% of surface Small amounts of
covered by ocean. ice at poles
PRESSURE ON 9,300 millibars (like being 1,013 millibars 6 millibars
PLANET SURFACE under a kilometer of water) (feels comfortable) (feels deadly)

DISTANCE & RADIATION 0.723 AU (astronomical units) 1 AU 1.52 AU

RECEIVED FROM SUN and 2,603 W/m2 1,361 W/m2 586 W/m2
106
 What supplies and shelter would you need to sur vive for three weeks on each planet?

Earth

A person could survive for three weeks

with no supplies as long as they were
placed in a temperate or tropical climate
and knew how to forage and gather edible
food from their surroundings. Without
hunter/gatherer skills, a large case of food
(about 50 MREs (Meals Ready to Eat)), a
water filter, and a tarp and blanket would
be more than adequate.

Venus

A person would need the most advanced

and indestructible submarine ever invented
(because the pressure and temperatures on
Venus are similar to diving to the bottom of
a boiling hot lake), an energy supply for
cooling to keep the inside of the submarine/
space station from overheating, all the air/
oxygen you’d need to breathe during 3
weeks, plus food and water.

Mars

A full space station with protection from

the hostile atmosphere, equipment to
keep the station warm, all the air/oxygen
you’d need to breathe during 3 weeks,
plus food and water.

107
 Quiz Time! Answer the questions to
see what you learned!

① What is the most common gas in the atmosphere?

A Oxygen
B Carbon dioxide
C Nitrogen
D Argon

② Most of the clouds in the sky are made of:

A Solid water
B Liquid water
C Gaseous water

③ Which of these clouds will produce rain?

A Cumulonimbus
B Stratus
C Cirrus
D All of the above

④ When air speeds up to go over the curve of an airplane wing, what happens?
A The pressure decreases.
B The pressure increases.

⑤ Air rising at the equator drives the circulation of:

A The Ferrel cells
B The Hadley cells
C The polar cells

⑥ Desert climates are defined by a lack of

A Heat
B Water

⑦ The layer of the atmosphere that contains the ozone layer is called the:
A Mesosphere
B Exosphere
C Troposphere
D Stratosphere

⑧ Which instrument is used to measure air pressure?

A Thermometer
B Hygrometer
C Anemometer
D Barometer

⑨ Herbivores in an ecosystem are:

A Primary producers
B Primary consumers
C Secondary producers
D Secondary consumers

⑩ True or False? Hurricanes transfer heat from the ocean to the atmosphere.
A True
108 B False
⑪ What caused the year without summer (1816)?
A A mistake by the calendar-makers guild
B A volcanic eruption
C An extreme drought
D Icebergs migrating from the Southern hemisphere

⑫ Where are most oil reserves located?

A Underground between layers of rock
B Aboveground in tar pits
C At the bottom of the ocean
D In the ozone layer

⑬ How is the ozone in the ozone layer formed?

A From pollution drifting into the sky
B From solar radiation splitting oxygen
C From a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen

⑭ Why do chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons damage the ozone layer?

A They emit radiation that causes ozone to decay.
B They release chlorine atoms into the stratosphere.
C They cause acid rain in the ozone layer.
D They emit a magnetic field that repels ozone.

⑮ If an alien civilization with superior technology came to Earth and removed all the CO2 from the atmosphere for one
year, the result would be
A Beneficial - It would solve global warming.
B Neutral - CO2 is only 0.04% of the atmosphere. Removing it wouldn’t make much difference.
C Catastrophic - All plant life on Earth would die.

⑯ When two tectonic plates move away from each other they create
A A divergent boundary
B A convergent boundary
C A transform boundary

⑰ If you had a super powerful drill that could drill to any depth as long as it was drilling through rock, which of these
depths would melt the drill because it would punch through the Earth’s crust and encounter magma? Note that you
are drilling holes on a continental plate, not an oceanic plate. (Select all that apply)
A 4 kilometers
B 14 kilometers “40 kilometers” could also be considered correct if one were drilling at the
very edge of or at a thinner spot on a continental plate. Continental plates
C 40 kilometers vary in thickness but are usually more than 40 km thick, so the best
D 400 kilometers answers for this question are 400 and 4,000 km. Oceanic plates are much
E 4,000 kilometers thinner than continental plates (often just 4 or 5 km thick!)

⑱ Which part of the Earth is the hottest?

A The mantle
B The inner core
C The outer core
D The crust

⑲ True or False: Erosion is breaking down something (like rocks) into smaller pieces.
A True
B False That’s weathering. Erosion is moving sediment or rock from one place to another.

⑳ Which came first in Earth’s history: flowers or dinosaurs?

A Flowers
B Dinosaurs
109
 21 What is the main process happening in a river delta?
A Weathering
B Erosion
C Deposition

22 What common sedimentary rock is formed from ancient mud flats?

A Limestone
B Sandstone
C Shale
D Conglomerate

23 Approximately how long does would it take for half of the carbon-14 in a dead tree to decay?
A 5 years
B 50 years
C 500 years
D 5,000 years

24 A fossil that has evidence of an organism but is not the remains or actual organism is called:
A A trace fossil
B A cast fossil
C A permineralized fossil

25 Which type of rock will usually fizz and produce bubbles when placed in vinegar? Select all that apply.
A Limestone
B Granite
C Shale
D Marble
E Obsidian

26 Which of these is NOT a mineral? Select all that apply.

A Quartz
B Pearl
C Emerald
D Opal
E Diamond

27 What is an example of the lithosphere interacting with the atmosphere?

Answers will vary. One example is a volcano erupting and putting
gases like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.
________________________________________________________

28 Which zone of a lake lacks sunlight?

A Limnetic
B Profundal
C Littoral

29 If the world’s water supply was 100 liters (26 gallons), how large would the liquid fresh water be?
A 3 milliliters
B 30 milliliters
C 3 liters
D 30 liters

30 A hole or collapsed area caused by underground water erosion is called:

A Limestone
B An aquifer
C A sinkhole (Also called a doline)
110 D Karst
31 A meandering river will form:
A Caves
B Oxbow lakes
C A swamp
D Whitewater rapids

32 What is at the bottom of every lake?

A A prehistoric sea monster
B Layers of sediment
C Hydrothermal vents

33 Glaciers carve sediment and deposit it into _________. Select all that apply.
A Drumlins
B Moraines
C U-shaped valleys

34 A lake with no outlet (no river draining from it) will be:
A Large
B Salty
C Full of fish

35 True or false: coral are plants.

A True
B False

36 What is an example of the biosphere interacting with the hydrosphere?

Answers will vary. Some examples: Clams, shrimp, and other filter feeders clean water, removing sediment, algae,
and other debris. Runoff from over fertilized fields adds excess nitrogen to a pond, producing an algae bloom.
_______________________________________________________

37 In the coral reef ecosystem, what are the primary producers?

A Algae
B Coral
C Reef fish
D Sharks

38 What is an example of the lithosphere interacting with the biosphere?

Answers will vary. Some examples are that of soil providing nutrients for plants, a cave providing
______________________________________________________
habitat for animals, a volcano erupting and lava forcing animals to move to a new home.

39 True or False: Obsidian and granite are both igneous rocks.

A True
B False

40 Why are invasive species a problem?

Answers will vary but should touch on the following concepts: Invasive species upset the balance of an ecosystem
by eating or outcompeting other important species, sometimes even causing other species to go extinct.
_______________________________________________________

41 True or False: The discharge or flow rate of a river rarely fluctuates.

A True
B False

42 How does the atmosphere impact the hydrosphere? Select all that apply.
A Carbon dioxide dissolves in water, changing the pH of oceans and rain.
B Volcanic vents release minerals into the air.
C Wind blows dust into the air, providing “seeds” for water droplets which increases cloud formation.
D Volcanic vents release minerals into the ocean.
111
 Acknowledgments
I wouldn’t have been able to complete this project without the help of
several wonderful people. I’d like to give a special thank you to each
of the following for their contributions:

Amber Chesser (Science Mom Amber) for wonderful moderating,

encouraging messages, and all around sparkle-power.

Emily Austin (Science Mom Emily) for excellent fact-checking. Your

candor and humor brings out the best in our team.

Emily Chen (Art Mom Emily) for amazing artwork in the “Where in the
World” trivia pages. If you’d like to see more or her art, check out:

[Link]/mchendraws and
[Link]

Jamie Hitchings (Science Mom Jamie) for outstanding moderating,

the best puns, and always being willing to lend a hand.

Jodi Ireland (Science Mom Jodi) for sharing a love of history and
science. Thank you for contributing the “Where in the World” clues!

Krista Frye (Science Mom Krista) for constant support (I couldn’t

imagine running our facebook page without you!) and the best insights
for worksheets and lesson plans.

Liza Bishton (Science Mom Liza) for incredible artwork, sharp writing,
and having words of encouragement at the times when I need them
most.

Our Patrons - it’s no exaggeration to say this class (and our Science
Mom Squad) wouldn’t exist without our wonderful patrons. Thank you!

Serge Ballif (Math Dad) for being the most supportive partner and my
best friend. Spending every day with you is a dream come true.

Appendix (the place with all the templates!)

Note that for the pages following 113, every other page is left blank. This is intentional
so that when the notes are printed double-sided, the templates are still usable)

IN THE APPENDIX:

p 113-114 Instructions for the dart and helicopter

p 115 - helicopter template
p 116-117 - layers of the atmosphere template
p 119- layers of Earth template
p 125 - arctic biome template
p 127 and 129 - continental biome template
p 131 and 133 - rainforest biome template
p 135 and 137 - desert biome template

112
 The Classic Dart

①. Fold the paper in half hotdog-style. ②. Fold the top two corners into the
Then open it back up. center line.

③. Fold the obtuse corners to the ④. Fold the two wings together.
center line.

⑤. Fold each wing down so that the ⑥. Reopen the wings by lifting them up
edges meet. a bit more than 90°.

113
 Helicopter
①. Cut a rectangular piece of paper (or use the
templates on the following page) and cut it along C
all solid lines. The dashed lines are for folds. A
B
D

②. Fold section C and D

along the dotted line.
C
A
B
D

③. Fold section B up
along the dotted line.

A
B

④. Fold section A along the dotted line, ⑤. Fold the tip up and hold it in
but on the opposite side as section B. place with a paper clip.

⑥. Toss the final helicopter into the

air or drop it from the ceiling.

114
 C
A
B
D

C
A
B
D

C
A
B
D

115
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116
117
118
119
 This page is intentionally left blank so that the templates can be cut out

120
121
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122
 Jupiter's moon Ganymede is larger Saturn's moon Titan is the second- Callisto is the second-largest moon
than the planet Mercury. The moon largest satellite in the Solar System. It of Jupiter, after Ganymede. It is the
likely has a salty ocean underneath is 50 percent larger than Earth's moon third-largest moon in the Solar
its icy surface and is the ninth- in diameter. It is the only moon known System and composed of equal
largest object in our solar system. to have a dense atmosphere. parts rock and ice.

Jupiter's moon Io is the most The Moon is Earth’s only natural Jupiter's moon Europa is slightly
volcanically active body in the solar satellite. Its presence helps stabilize smaller than Earth's Moon and is
system. Astronomers have mapped our planet’s wobble, which helps primarily made of silicate rock with a
about 150 volcanoes on the moon, stabilize our climate. The Moon has water-ice crust. It is believed to glow
some of which blast lava 250 miles a very thin atmosphere called an in the dark as Jupiter's radiation
(400 km) out into space. exosphere. lights up Europa's icy shell.

Phobos orbits only a few thousand Saturn's moon Enceladus is mostly Neptune's moon Triton is the only
miles above the surface of Mars. The covered by ice, making it one of the moon in the solar system that orbits
moon is getting closer to Mars over most reflective bodies of the Solar in a direction opposite to the rotation
the centuries, and will eventually System. It likely has hydrothermal of its planet. It has geysers, a very
break up or be pulled into the Martian vents and a liquid ocean under its thin atmosphere and cryovolcanoes.
surface. layer of ice. 123
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124
 Leopard seal
Nemertean Worm Hydrurga leptonyx
Parborlasia corrugatus Antarctic Sun Starfish
Labidiaster annulatus

125
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126
 Edelweiss
Leontopodium nivale Bearded Vulture
Gypaetus barbatus

Alpine Ibex
Capra ibex

Alpine Marmot Red deer

Marmota marmota Cervus elaphus

Oak
Quercus robur

European Larch Mountain Pine European Beech

Larix decidua Pinus mugo Fagus sylvatica

127
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128
129
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130
 Sword Fern
Nephrolepis exaltata

Philodendron
Philodendron verrucosum

Purpleheart Tree Giant Blue Morpho

Peltogyne purpurea White-nosed coati Morpho didius
Nasua narica

Green Vine Snake Scarlet Macaw Guanacaste

Oxybelis fulgidus Ara macao Enterolobium cyclocarpum
131
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132
133
 This page is intentionally left blank so that the templates can be cut out

134
 Creosote Bush
Larrea tridentata

Cholla cactus
Cylindropuntia bigelovii

Coyote Giant Desert

Canis latrans
Hairy Scorpion
Hadrurus arizonensis

Red barrel cacti

Ferocactus cylindraceus

Chuckwalla
Sauromalus ater

Greater Roadrunner
Geococcyx californianus
135
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136
137