Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What are Earth's spheres, and how do they interact with each other?

20 minutes

Find Out: How does climate change affect the interactions between the spheres?

25 minutes

Take Action: Can humans influence the Earth’s sphere positively?

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What are Earth's spheres, and how do they interact with each other?

Step 1.

Explain to students that there are 5 systems on Earth that interact to create the world we are familiar with. The names of those 5 spheres are the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere.

Show students the blank image of the Earth's spheres on the attached visual explainer. Ask students to observe the names of each sphere as well as the images provided in order to decide which image might relate to which sphere.

Note: Encourage students to think of the beginning of each word in order to allocate each image to a sphere. They might recognise the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere easily by recalling their root words and where they have seen them before. If they struggle with the last two, prompt them to think about where they have seen the prefix ‘cryo’ before (e.g cryogenically frozen).

Step 2.

Show students the next image, which shows the spheres with the correct images. Discuss with students what aspects of Earth might be included within each sphere. Suggested answers are included below:

Atmosphere - mixture of gases that surround Earth (nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, etc)
Biosphere - contains all living things on Earth (plants, animals, bacteria). Overlaps atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere.
Cryosphere - frozen parts of the planet (snow, ice, glaciers, sea ice, etc)
Hydrosphere - water on the planet (oceans, lakes, rivers, groundwater, etc)
Lithosphere - solid part of the earth (Earth’s crust and upper mantle, rocks and landforms)

Prompt students to consider whether these systems are isolated from or interconnected with each other, and encourage them to think about how these systems might be interconnected.

If you have completed Lesson 1 in this unit, you might like to encourage students to think about the ways that carbon is stored and moves between the spheres.

Find Out: How does climate change affect the interactions between the spheres?

Preparation

If you haven't taught Lesson 1 in this unit, you may like to give a brief introduction to the carbon cycle to your students and how carbon is cycled throughout the Earth.

Step 1.

Watch the following video that explains a little more in detail about the spheres:

Note: This video omits the cryosphere and incorporates it into the hydrosphere

Earth’s Interconnected Cycles - Lincoln Learning Solutions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j5iHvYBIcg)

Step 2.

To have a full understanding of climate change and the far-reaching effects of human activity on our environment, it is important to understand how the spheres interact with each other. In pairs, invite students to draw 5 evenly-spaced circles on a piece of A3 paper, labelling each one with the name of a sphere and leaving enough room to create a mind map between the circles.

Discuss with students what interactions they can already see between the spheres.

For example:

Water in the hydrosphere evaporates and moves into the atmosphere.
Oxygen from the atmosphere is used by animals and humans in the biosphere.
Decaying animal and plant matter is incorporated into the lithosphere.

Step 3.

The goal of the next section is to focus on how these interactions are influenced by climate change. Students should add these interactions to their A3 mind map to show how effects in one sphere can cause ripple effects to other spheres.

Invite students to read pages 15 - 18 of Changing Climate from National Geographic. These pages give some great examples of how one aspect of a sphere can affect other spheres.

For example:

Lithosphere - Location and the shape of the Earth itself can affect climate change.Equators are closer to solar radiation, so are warmer. Volcanoes expel gases into the atmosphere. Mountains influence rainfall patterns.
Biosphere - Living things generate gases and extract them from the atmosphere through respiration, photosynthesis, decay, etc.
Hydrosphere - Oceans hold heat. In tropical zones, they can be so warm that they evaporate, contributing to rainfall patterns. The warmer they are, the more of their dissolved carbon gets released into the atmosphere.
Atmosphere - Constantly absorbs or releases moisture according to its temperature. Solar radiation also affects winds, which push warm away from warmer zones and towards colder ones. Carbon, which was originally in the atmosphere, was incorporated into growing plants and stored in the biosphere. When those plants died, the carbon they contained was transformed into fossil fuels over millions of years. Humans have mined and burned these fossil fuels, returning huge amounts of carbon back into the atmosphere in a fraction of the time it took the carbon to accumulate in the biosphere.
Cryosphere - Melting ice and permafrost cools ocean currents as they circulate. Cooler water can absorb more carbon dioxide than warm water.

Encourage students to begin their mind maps with information from these pages, then conduct some more research to flesh it out and get a really thorough understanding of all the ways climate change can interact with the spheres.

Step 4.

Once students have completed their mind map, pair 2 or 3 groups together to discuss their connections and fill in any they might have missed.

Take Action: Can humans influence the Earth's spheres positively?

Step 1.

Invite students to select a sphere that most interest them. Their task is to focus on an animal, plant, feature or process in one of Earth’s spheres. They will then research a human activity or process that positively influences both their chosen animal, plant or feature and its sphere (and hence positively impacts other spheres as well).

For example, scientists are developing ‘super corals’ that can survive in increasingly warm and acidic oceans. Coral reefs are important for protecting biodiversity as they act as sites for shelter, reproduction and food. They also protect coastlines from storms and erosion, which is increasingly important as ocean levels rise.

Encourage students to find out:

The current climate change-related issue associated with this sphere/part of the sphere
How humans have impacted it negatively in the past
How humans are impacting it positively now
Potential positive effects on climate change and the other spheres

Students can present their information as a written report, mind map, PowerPoint presentation, or whatever they (or more importantly, you!) see as appropriate.

Students can use the following sources to help start their research

Students needing support could use these resources:

How Does Climate Change Affect the Ocean? | NASA Climate Kids
How Do We Know the Climate Is Changing? | NASA Climate Kids
Why Is Carbon Important? | NASA Climate Kids

Step 2.

Depending on how much time you have left, you might like students to present their research to a group of their peers and discuss how all of these positive human impacts could influence the spheres working in tandem.

Optional Extension - What careers would protect the spheres in the future?

To build upon this knowledge of the projects and technologies that are being used or could be used in the future to transition to a net zero economy, students could be tasked with diving a little deeper into the careers that will enable these projects to exist and flourish.

Students can use the document ‘The Million Jobs Plan: Powering jobs, wages and economic growth,’ which is available online at: The Million Jobs Plan - Beyond Zero Emissions (bze.org.au)

They can choose an aspect of the Land Use section of the plan and use the information and the internet in order to prepare a job advertisement for a career that this industry needs. It should explain:

Tthe industry and what it is

Where the job will be (Where is this renewable energy going to be established?)
The potential growth in the particular industry
How many different types of jobs (and potential numbers) that the industry or industries need
Why it would be a good job to go into for the future.

Reflection

Let your students get creative! Task them with inventing a scientific device or process that will have a positive impact on climate change by tackling an issue in a sphere. They could sketch or write about their invention in a 5-minute design sprint. Early finishers could be tasked with trying to discover whether their invention (or perhaps a slightly simpler version of it) exists in real life.

How Does Climate Change Affect Earth's Spheres?

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Summary

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