WB: Habitat and Weather

Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Cryosphere, Biosphere- Oh the Possibilities

“Without atmosphere a painting is nothing.” ― Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn

Spheres in the Sphere – Starting with Questions:

What is your planet made of? What does the geosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere look like? What color is the sunset?

What are some of the cycles of your planet? Does it breathe, have a water cycle, or carbon cycle?

What are the weather patterns? Hurricane seasons? Are there octopus-filled fire tornadoes?  Or maelstroms?

What is your biosphere and ecosystems like? How does it stay balanced? Are there migrations? What are the main habitats? Is there photosynthesis or other forms of energy transformation?

Note: You don’t need to do all of these – they are just examples. Pick your favorites to add to your world’s portfolio.  This set of activities is very life-science centric, but can easily integrate statistics, ratios, physics, and more.

• Use the USGS for map topic ideas to create layers of maps for your worldbuilding.
• Check out this nullschool map and think through the currents of your world. (This is a map that can eat hours of your day.)
• Create weather reports, maps, and statistics for your world (average rainfall, temperatures, ice flow,…). The NWS and NOAA are resources for graphics.
  • Create city data statistics for weather and compare cities.
  • Make a radio weather broadcast for your world.
• Create a natural disaster map, graphic, informational brochure, or presentation for the peoples of your planet. (Think world-quakes, tsunamis, wildfires, volcanoes, and more.) – (Here is a great map example.)
• Create a graphic for the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and cryosphere.
  • What is the ratio of land to water? Air to land? Ice to water?…
  • Create a chart of ratios or other statistics for your spheres.
• Create a graphic, animation, or GIF for lifecycles, water cycles, food chains, photosynthesis, or other key patterns of your world.
• Create a calendar for your world.
  • How long are the days, seasons, and years?
  • Are there tide charts for a moon or moons? Lunar calendars?
• Create animal flash cards that have key statistics: size, habitat, food source, life span, etc.. Can these cards be used for a game?
• What are the main habitats of the world? Highlight them on a map.
• Create a science video lecture series for your world. (Watch One Strange Rock, or other earth science documentaries and create short videos for your world with the same approach.)
• Create a stop animation video for any of these topics.
• Create a comparison and contrast of your world to Earth.
• The possibilities are endless – what can you come up with?

After these activities, you are probably grateful that you have a notebook or folder for your world. Some do this digitally, and some create hardbound books to be used in games, role play, novel writing, and more. Whatever the approach, save what you have to be able to reach back to it later.