Earth’s Blanket

In this lesson, you will learn about the atmosphere’s role in keeping Earth warm enough for us (and other organisms) to live here. You will learn about how the Sun heats the Earth and the atmosphere, and you will learn about how the Earth heats the atmosphere too. You will also learn about what it would be like if Earth’s atmosphere was different, and talk about how the changing atmosphere affects climate change. Then, you will get to do your own experiments to see that air can keep things warm, and that air can even help to heat things up.

What you’ll learn:

• Earth gives off heat
• Air insulates
• The greenhouse effect
• 3 types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation