Earth Day: Atmosphere

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As part of our 'Air' component of Earth Day studies, we took a closer look at the amazing atmosphere on Earth. We looked at five levels, plus the ozone layer between the first and second. To emphasize the layer differences, we used an old density experiment, layering honey, corn syrup, dish soap, water and oil. If you want to add accuracy, each layer should include a little more of the substance than the last, as each layer of our atmosphere is more km's than the last.

Before jumping into our concentric ring art, we watched a short video explaining the layers and what happens on each.

Then the kids painted the Earth in the center of their page, adding blue concentric rings to represent the Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere and Exosphere. We looked at the prefixes to see if we could guess their role in the atmosphere (for example, 'meso' meaning 'middle and 'thermo' meaning 'temperature.')