taskU3.html

Your task for this unit is to learn about the Electromagnetic (EM) Spectrum and the many different kinds of 'energy' it involves, explore how energy travels through the Earth System, and investigate, the pattern of energy arriving on Earth. You will learn some physics laws that describe the behavior of energy, and sort out what happens to all the energy that arrives on Earth (as much as scientists know). Your own investigation will lead you to hypothesize about how much of the Sun's energy actually gets through the atmosphere to the ground, measure it in your school yard, and compare your measurements with the other SOAR-High schools.

The Task is your overall goal for the Unit. A series of Activities will help you accomplish the Task.
The Rubric's Cube symbol suggests the task provides a challenge for you to deepen your understanding of science.

Ancient sun, eternally young,
giver of life and source of energy,
      In coal and oil, in plant and wind and tide,
      in spiritual light and human embrace,
You kindle the heavens, you shine within us
(for we are suns with hearts afire -
    we light the world as you light the sky
    and find clouds within whose shadows are dark),
We give thanks for your rays,
    and the clouds your rays draw up.

- Congregation of Abraxas

Light

It is written on the arched sky,
It looks out from every star...
It is spread out like a legible language upon
the broad face of an unsleeping ocean.
It is the poetry of Nature,
It is that which uplifts the spirit within us ...

John Ruskin

Rainbow on the cliffs at Sarclet, east coast of
SCOTLAND

Black rock cliffs one hundred feet above the blue,
specked white with gulls, and Fulmars;
Skuas and Guillemots wheel like loose seeds
making land and sea one.
....

Unexpectedly a perfect rainbow appears,
arching from the green cliff top,
over and down to the cobble beach where Austin stands.
"Austin, get the pot of gold!" we shout.
As we are spread out along the path,
the prismatic colors appear to each of us
in a slightly different place so
of course he is utterly confused.
It is clearly a most brilliant bow and
so close I am sure I can touch it. The sun
brightens and momentarily an echo of color
arches in reverse just above the first. Every color shines
intensely all the way into the blue, indigo and violet,
a perfect giant of the ones I create
on the blackboard for my students.
We smile at one another and feel magical.

M. S. Ellsworth

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument,
Arizona USA

Sunset Crater appeared at the end of the year
1064 when molten rocks sprayed out of a
crack in the ground high into the air, solidified,
then fell to earth either as large bombs or
smaller cinders. Periodic eruptions continued
over the next 200 years smothering 800
square miles of northern Arizona with ash. The
bright red and yellow oxidized particles of the
final burst of activity around 1250 fell back onto
the rim of the crater creating a permanent
'sunset'.

Volcanos supply a tiny fraction of the Earth's
energy. Our most important source of energy
the Sun.

yab@yannarthusbertrand.com
www.yannarthusbertrand.com
Used with permission