5 Composition of the Atmosphere Lesson Ideas to Keep Engagement in Sky-High!

Teaching about the composition of the atmosphere? The makeup of the Earth’s atmosphere may not be as exciting of a topic as some others, but it is oh so important! It’s kind of what makes Earth so special. Our atmosphere is a special formula made just for us humans.

So, how can we describe the composition of the atmosphere? First of all, if I haven’t made it clear, the atmosphere is a mixture of gases that surrounds the Earth. It is made of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.1% of other gases. The other gases include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone, water vapor, and more!

The nitrogen, oxygen, and argon do not change from day to day; however, other gases in the atmosphere may.

Now that I’ve shared about the composition of air and their percentages, I want to dive into how you can teach this information to your middle school science students and bring the WOW Factor while doing it!

In this post, I first share some introduction activities to make learning about the composition of Earth’s atmosphere exciting and help students WONDER and want to learn more. Second, I share an interactive lesson to teach the content. Finally, I share some extension activities to WIDEN student knowledge on this topic.

Let’s get started!

Composition of the Atmosphere WONDER Activities

WONDER activities are those hooks that you need to get students excited about learning! Here are two ideas you can try out before diving into your composition of the atmosphere notes!

Breathe in, and Breathe Out

Need an EASY intro to composition of the atmosphere activity? This is the one. I highly recommend that you never just JUMP into a lesson.

There should be some type of “hook” to get students engaged. You want to work towards helping your students become internally motivated to learn.

This one is SUPER simple if you just don’t have the time but still want to do something.

So, here’s what you can do:

1. Have students close their eyes.
2. Tell them to take a deep breath in and focus on the air that’s coming in.
3. Then, tell students to exhale, focusing on the air that is coming out.
4. Do this about 3 times.
5. After, ask them, “What did you just breath in? Could you see it? What IS that invisible stuff?

This should intrigue them some. Many students will know about oxygen but may not know what else is in our atmosphere!

Does Air Have Mass?

This is a fun demonstration to help students, first, understand that air does have mass. Second, it helps students WONDER about what causes air to have mass.

In this demo, students will answer the questions “Does air have mass?” and “Will an inflated balloon weigh more than a deflated balloon?”.

You will need some volunteers to help you with this demo!

1. Let students come up with a hypothesis to answer the questions. Then, you are ready to test!
2. Inflate two large balloons, and tie the balloons closed.
3. Attach each balloon to opposite ends of a meter stick using identical pushpins.
4. Balance the meter stick with two fingers.
5. Check that the meter stick is perfectly balanced.
6. Pop ONE of the balloons and observe.
7. Let students record their observations.
8. Have a discussion with your students. Let them explain their observations. Was their prediction correct? Why did this happen?

So, what should occur is that once you pop one balloon, that side will become lighter causing the meter stick to tilt toward the still-inflated balloon. Why? Because air does have mass!

Now, after your students are WONDERing and ready to learn more about what our atmosphere is made of, it’s time to dive into the interactive lesson!

Composition of the Atmosphere Lesson

Interactive lessons are my jam, and I think your students will love them too! They are great because they use the 7 steps to help students retain content.

You know, we’ve all been there. You teach the content, and then when it comes to test time, students have forgotten everything you taught them.

Interactive lessons were created with that in mind! They use strategies such as highlighting important information, segmenting content, and more to help reduce student cognitive load, ultimately helping students store things into their long-term memory.

This interactive lesson on the composition of the atmosphere is no exception! It’s not your average structure of the atmosphere PPT!

Students will learn all about the importance of the atmosphere, what the atmosphere consists of, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and other gases, water vapor, humidity, air pressure, and more!

An interactive lesson wouldn’t be complete without embedded activities to assess student knowledge as they learn. These include answering questions in a text box, drag-and-drop questions, a KWL chart, a vocabulary activity, and more!

Earth’s Air Composition WIDEN Activities

Skip the composition of the atmosphere worksheet and try out these WIDEN activities!

WIDEN activities are those extension activities to help students go above and beyond in their learning. This helps them to make connections and understand the material on a deeper level. Here are two ideas to try out!

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Atmosphere Bead Model

You can tell students the percentages of the different gases in our atmosphere, but can they visualize it? Now, it’s time for them to make a model using beads! The perler beads seem to be the most cost-effective option. You’ll need a different color for each gas.

Here’s what you’ll need for each group of students:

(Let students count out the beads! Don’t put that stress on yourself. I also suggest making sure students clear the floor of beads after this is over. Don’t let them stay on your clean classroom floor!)

You will need:

• 78 (one color) beads for nitrogen
• 21 (second color) beads for oxygen
• 1 bead (third color) for argon
• 1 bead (fourth color) other gases
• a container or bowl

1. Let students count out their beads and mix them in the container.
2. Ask them follow-up questions like, “How do even small amounts of carbon dioxide play a role in climate?” and “Why is nitrogen the dominant gas?”.
3. Have a discussion on why this is a good model for the invisible air around us. How does this look different from other planets?

Love this idea?

What If? – Writing Prompts

If you want to incorporate some writing into your day, you can test out these writing prompts! They will get students thinking and WIDEN their knowledge about the composition of the atmosphere.

You can give them parameters or just allow free writing time.

Here are some examples:

• What if…there was more oxygen than nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere?
• What if… in 20 more years, there was less carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere?
• What if…humans adapted to breathing a different mixture of gases?
• What if…Earth’s atmosphere disappeared for just an hour?
• What if…we lived in an atmosphere made of a majority different gas?

Bonus: Move On to the Layers of the Atmosphere

Don’t have time for an extension? You can go ahead and move on to the Layers of the Atmosphere. This lesson flows right into it!