Question Exploration: Our Atmosphere and the Ozone Layer

Is the Earth's ozone layer in danger? This Question Exploration provides basic background information to answer questions on ozone-related issues in atmospheric science. Often students confuse ozone depletion with global warming or the Earth’s protective upper ozone layer with ozone and smog at the ground level. This lesson focuses on the structure of the ozone layer and how we have learned to protect it.

Training Materials

• Instruction Guide: Our Atmosphere and the Ozone Layer
• Ozone Q&A for Instructors
• Chlorofluorocarbons: Fact vs. Fiction
• Student Activity Sheets:
  • Activity: Fact vs. Fiction Map
  • Activity: Our Atmosphere and the Ozone Layer
  • Activity: Ozone Depletion Worksheet
  • Activity: Whole Body Ozone Chemistry
  • Activity: “It’s Atmospheric!” Crossword Puzzle
  • Activity: Atmosphere/Ozone Layer Poem/Rap

• Activity Sheet Answer Keys

Question Exploration Routines are instructional methods that teachers can use to help a diverse student population understand a body of content information by carefully answering a critical question to arrive at a main idea answer. Students taught using the content enhancement routines earned higher total test scores than did students taught using the lecture-discussion method.

Personally, I use the Content Enhancement Routines to figure out what I want to say and how I want to say it. It keeps my "Sage on the Stage" time limited to what fits onto 2-3 pages (about 45 minutes of directed class discussion).

This product includes both the completed strategic instruction, and the student guide blanked except for vocabulary, scaffolding questions, and graphics already filled in. This product is in Microsoft Word .doc form so that Ts can customize the discussion to fit the needs of their Ss.

This Content Enhancement Routine is classroom tested to help students with the following Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards in Science:

Students Will Be Able To (SWBAT/I Can):

• SC.6.E.7.4 Differentiate and show interactions among the geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
• SC.6.E.7.8 Describe ways human beings protect themselves from hazardous weather and sun exposure.
• SC.6.E.7.9 Describe how the composition and structure of the atmosphere protects life and insulates the planet.
• SC.7.P.10.1 Illustrate that the sun's energy arrives as radiation with a wide range of wavelengths, including infrared and ultraviolet, and that white light is made up of a spectrum of many different colors.
• SC.912.E.7.3 Differentiate and describe the various interactions among Earth systems, including: atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.
• SC.912.L.17.16 Discuss the large-scale environmental impacts resulting from human activity, including oil spills, runoff, greenhouse gases, ozone depletion, and surface and groundwater pollution.

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