Earth can be described as four interacting spheres: the atmosphere (air), biosphere (living things), hydrosphere (water) and geosphere (rock, soil and magma). Many things sit where spheres meet.
A single bushfire involves all of Earth: burning trees, smoke in the air, ash washed into rivers and scorched soil. Scientists use four 'spheres' to keep track of it.
To follow carbon around the Earth, you first need a map of where it can be.
Engage: Commit to a prediction before you test anything. A wrong guess is fine: it shows you what to look for.
Explore: Try it on the board and compare what happens with your prediction.
Explain: Use the particle model to explain what you saw.
Elaborate: Use the same idea in a new context.
Evaluate: Look back at your first ideas and what changed.
WidthMore contexts, same idea.
Make your prediction first. Help opens once you've locked it in.
EngageCommit to a prediction before you test anything. A wrong guess is fine: it shows you what to look for.
Engage: which sphere?
ExploreTry it on the board and compare what happens with your prediction.
Explore: sort the landscape
Click something in the picture, then choose its sphere.
Try it yourselfYour edits are saved in this browser.
Place all ten things in the picture into their sphere.
Use the board. This ticks when you get there.
ExplainUse the particle model to explain what you saw.
Explain: four spheres, one system
In your book: draw a quick landscape and label one thing in each sphere, and one thing where two spheres meet.
Match each sphere to what it contains.
Atmosphere
Biosphere
Hydrosphere
Geosphere
Match each sphere to a process that happens in it.
Atmosphere
Biosphere
Hydrosphere
Geosphere
Elaborate TypicalUse the same idea in a new context.
Elaborate: a rain event
A storm rolls in over farmland. Which sphere is each part mainly about?
Wind and falling air pressure
Rain filling the creek
Topsoil washed off a paddock
Crops growing faster after the rain
Elaborate WiderUse the same idea in a new context.
Elaborate: managing interactions
EvaluateLook back at your first ideas and what changed.
Evaluate: look back
Write one sentence: "At first I thought… Now I think… because…"
Revision summary
Atmosphere: air. Biosphere: living things. Hydrosphere: water. Geosphere: rock, soil, magma.
Many things sit where spheres meet (soil, clouds), and processes move matter between spheres.
Earth works as one system of interacting spheres.
For teachers
Students name and describe Earth's four spheres, give examples of matter and processes in each, and recognise that spheres overlap and interact (AC9S9U03, node 1, a hinge node). About 18 minutes.
I can name the four spheres and say what each contains.
I can give an example of matter in each sphere.
I can explain that the spheres interact, with examples where they meet.
Before class
A concept tutorial for introducing or revising the idea. Set the width with ?width=minimum, typical (default) or wider.
The hinge is the framework itself: students who can't place things in spheres can't place carbon flows between them. The board accepts two answers for the cloud (atmosphere or hydrosphere) and the soil (geosphere or biosphere) and explains why.
Board notes: a simple drawn landscape; students click a thing, then choose its sphere. The wider question on cool burning is general; use local First Nations sources for detail about practice on your Country.
Running the lesson
Engage: count how many chose 'more than one'.
Explore: discuss the cloud and the soil.
Explain: the tree question is the checkpoint (processes cross spheres).
The hard part (on purpose)
Placing things that sit in two spheres at once. When a student puts the ocean in the biosphere, ask whether the water itself is alive.
When students get stuck
A student puts the ocean in the biosphere because fish live there. Ask: Is the water itself alive? Fix: The water is hydrosphere; the fish in it are biosphere.
Stretch and support
Stretch: Which sphere holds the most carbon? (Hint: the next lesson.)
Support: Give a four-column table with one example filled in for each sphere.
Where it leads
Next: photosynthesis and respiration moving carbon (node 3), then combustion (node 4).
What each step is for
Engage: which sphere?: Students often treat the spheres as separate boxes; asking about soil shows things can belong to two.
Explore: sort the landscape: Placing ten everyday things into spheres, some in two, builds the framework the carbon cycle hangs on.
Explain: four spheres, one system: Naming each sphere's contents and processes, and seeing that processes cross spheres, is the hinge for the carbon cycle.
Elaborate: a rain event: Following one event across spheres shows Earth working as a system.
Elaborate: managing interactions: Seeing land management as deliberately changing sphere interactions extends the framework to people.
Now you can
Name the four spheres and say what each contains.
Give an example of matter in each sphere.
Explain that the spheres interact, with examples where they meet.