GRADE: Sixth

CONTENT STANDARD: Earth and Space Science

CONTENT TOPIC: Structure of the Earth

CONCEPT: The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations.

CONTENT OBJECTIVE: 6I3.00 To understand, at different elevations, how the Earth's atmosphere was formed and describe the layers of the atmosphere

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: The learner will:

3.01 define atmosphere and hydrosphere.
3.02 learn how the atmosphere was formed.
3.03 describe the layers of the Earth's atmosphere and their distances.

I. Definitions
A. Atmosphere
B. Hydrosphere
II. How the atmosphere was formed
III. Layers of the atmosphere

TN COMPONENT OF SCIENCE: Unifying Concepts of Science

TN GOAL:

To enable students to acquire scientific knowledge by applying concepts, theories, principles and laws from life/environmental, physical, and earth/space science.

2.5 CHANGE - Interactions within and among systems may result in changes in the properties, position, movement, form, or function of systems.

2.5b Cycles of change can be extended in scales of time, space, and material.

BENCHMARK: Some changes in the earth's surface are abrupt while other changes happen very slowly.

TIME REQUIRED:

One to two class periods

fish bowl, small glass jar, water, paper towels, plastic coffee lid, scissors, soft drink can, hot plate, thermal mitt, measuring cup

Today, we are going to talk about the Earth's atmosphere and the different layers of the atmosphere.

Some scientists believe the earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. They think it was formed from particles in a dust cloud around the newly formed sun. It is believed that heat was produced from a gravitational attraction of the dust cloud particles. The heat caused volcanoes to erupt on the earth, and they released gases. The gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, and water vapor. These gases probably formed the earth's original atmosphere.

Plants growth on the earth changed the atmosphere, by using carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Most of the atmosphere today is nitrogen, and about one fifth of the atmosphere is oxygen.

The hydrosphere is probably formed from water vapor from the early volcanoes. The hydrosphere includes oceans, lakes, river, underground water, glaciers, clouds, and even water vapor in the air.

The Earth's atmosphere is made up of four layers and a boundary section. The layers are written from closest to the earth to the farthest.

1. Troposphere - This layer extends to a height of 8 km at the poles and 18 km at the equator.

2. Tropopause - This is a boundary that separates the first two layers.

3. Stratosphere - This layer extends to a height of 50 km.

4. Mesophere - This layer extends from 50 to 85 km above the Earth's surface.

5. Thermosphere - This layer extends from 85 km above the earth's surface upward into space.

PART A

1. Half fill the fish bowl with water.

2. Crumble a paper towel and place it in the glass jar so that it will not fall out when the jar in inverted.

3. Make an educated guess about what will happen when the inverted jar is submerged. Record your guess.

4. Keeping the inverted jar vertical, push it to the bottom of the bowl. Remove jar. Record your observations in your table.

PART B

5. Use the scissors to cut a circle from the coffee can lid larger than the diameter of the glass jar.

6. Half fill the jar with water. Dip the plastic circle into some water. Place it over the mouth of the jar.

7. Record your educated guess about what will happen when the jar is inverted.

8. Hold the jar with one hand. Place the fingers of your other hand over the plastic circle. Invert the jar over the fish bowl. Carefully remove your fingers from the plastic circle. Record your observation.

PART C

9. Add 1/4 cup of water to the can.

10. Place the can on the hot plate for several minutes until the water boils.

11. Hypothesis what will happen when the can is inverted in the fish bowl. Record your educated guess.

12. With the thermal mitt, carefully remove the can from the hot plate. As you turn it upside down over the fish bowl, quickly place the rim and hole just below the level of water. Record your observations.

1. In Part A, what did you observe when the jar was placed under water? Explain.

2. What did you observe when you removed your hand from the plastic lid? Explain.

3. What abrupt action took place to release gases?

This is the time this file has been accessed since 02/25/98.

The University of Tennessee at Martin is not responsible for the information or views expressed here.

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