Introductory lessons and activities have been prepared for participants
in the MGS Radio Science Team education outreach program to acquaint
them with the fundamentals of atmospheres, weather and climate. This
will enable the participants to better understand the Martian data and
will also enable them to make meaningful comparisons between the Martian
data and their own measurements of Earth's atmosphere. The lessons and
activities have been developed with a teaching consultant who has decades
of experience teaching science at the middle and high school levels.Each activity includes a time estimate for its completion, either as a demonstration or as an individual activity. It is recommended that students maintain a binder for this education outreach program, and that one section of the binder include copies of the activity pages along with student descriptions of the activities and answers to the activity questions. If possible, it would also be beneficial for students to include hard copies of the lessons themselves in a section of their outreach program binder.
Links to the lessons and activities are provided below. The lessons are
numbered, and the activities are listed below the lessons with which they
are associated. There are also links within each of the lessons to the
appropriate activities for the subject material. In addition, there are
links within the lessons to definitions of important vocabulary words.
Feedback on these lessons and activities would be greatly appreciated.
Send comments to
joe@nova.stanford.edu.
Activities for older or mathematically advanced students are indicated with an asterisk (*).