Rice Air Curriculum

Abstract

The Rice Air Curriculum, developed by Dr. Daniel Cohan and Kavita Venkateswar of Rice University with funding from the National Science Foundation, aims to engage young children in scientific inquiry and hands-on measurement of the atmosphere. The lessons enable students to apply math and science to explore the challenge of air pollution in their own community. Students measure air pollution and meteorology conditions on their school campuses using protocols developed by the GLOBE program (www.globe.gov).

The curriculum is aimed at 5th-grade level science and math classes and consists of 7 lessons: Introduction to the Atmosphere, Physical Properties of the Atmosphere, Atmospheric Gases and Their Cycles, Stratospheric Ozone, Tropospheric Ozone and Other Air Pollution, Climate Change, and Analyzing GLOBE Data.

How to Navigate this Collection: Please start with the “Curriculum Introduction,” which serves as an introduction to the other modules of this collection. The 7 lessons each consists of (1) a Teacher Lesson Plan, including information about the topic and a step-by-step lesson plan; (2) a Student Lesson module of activities and questions for the students to complete (including a link to a printable worksheet version); and (3) an Answer Key to each student lesson, available as a link from the Teacher Lesson Plan.

The Collection also provides: (1) a GLOBE Overview Instruction Manual describing the GLOBE measurement protocols; (2) a Data Sheet Module with links to printable versions of the measurement data sheets; (3) a list of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) learning objectives targeted by this curriculum; and (4) Teacher and Student Surveys, which we request that participating teachers return to Dr. Cohan to help assess and improve this curriculum.