Study Guide
Quick meanings for every word. Pair Tier 3 words with pictures to support newcomers.
Beginner ELL Core Idea
- Air surrounds Earth and changes.
- Air pushes and moves.
- Heat makes air rise. Cool air falls.
- Weather happens in the troposphere.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Air Pressure | The force per unit area exerted by air on a surface. |
| Atmosphere | The layers of gases that surround Earth. |
| Gas | Matter with no fixed shape or volume. Its particles are far apart and move fast. |
| Gravity | The force that pulls objects with mass toward each other. |
| Pressure | Force exerted per unit area on a surface. |
| Temperature | A measure of how hot or cold matter is, related to the average kinetic energy of its particles. |
| Weather | The condition of the air at a certain time and place, like temperature, wind, and rain. |
| Altitude | Height above sea level. |
| Barometer | A tool that measures air pressure. |
| Biosphere | All the living things on Earth and the places they live. |
| Chemical Composition | What something is made of and how much of each part it has. |
| Density | How much mass is packed into a certain volume. |
| Exosphere | The outermost layer, where the air fades into space. |
| Greenhouse Effect | Warming of Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere as certain gases absorb and emit outgoing infrared radiation. |
| Hydrosphere | All of the water on Earth: oceans, lakes, rivers, ice, ground water, and water vapor. |
| Ionosphere | A region high in the sky where sunlight knocks electrons loose from gas particles, leaving behind a layer of charged particles. It overlaps the mesosphere and thermosphere. |
| Lithosphere | Earth’s rigid outer shell, made of the crust and the rigid uppermost mantle. |
| Mesopause | The boundary at the top of the coldest air layer, where temperature stops dropping and starts rising again with height. |
| Mesosphere | The middle layer of the atmosphere, where most meteors burn up. |
| Ozone | A gas made of three oxygen atoms bonded together, which absorbs most of the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. |
| Stratopause | The boundary at the top of the layer where jet planes often fly, where temperature stops rising and starts dropping with height. |
| Stratosphere | The layer above the lowest layer. It holds the ozone layer and gets warmer as you go up. |
| Troposphere | The lowest atmospheric layer, where most clouds and weather occur. |
| Thermosphere | A very thin atmospheric layer with high gas temperatures caused by absorption of solar energy; many auroras occur here. |
| Tropopause | The boundary between the lowest layer of the atmosphere and the one above it. |
| Variations | Differences among objects, individuals, conditions, or measurements, including traits within a population. |
| Water Vapor | Water in the form of a gas. |