By Kaelan Graham

Welcome to Science Literacy Week 2025 at U of T Libraries! All week long, U of T Libraries will be hosting fun, educational events to learn more about the interconnected nature of our world. At the OISE Library, interpreted the theme, From Sea to Space, in the context of science education. We even hosted a planetarium!

Resources for science in the classroom

From sea to stars, there are plenty of fascinating connections to explore. Check out the education guides linked below for resources on bringing our interconnected world into the classroom.

Looking to learn more about the oceans, the skies, or other areas of science? Check out these resources and come see us on October 9 from 10:00-5:00 to get started with a planetarium, fun activities, and more!

A closer look at our atmosphere

Between the oceans and the stars sits our atmosphere, a protective layer of gases only 4-20 km thick – depending on where you are on the planet – that supports and enables all life on Earth. The specific gaseous composition of the atmosphere allows living organisms to breathe, and the water cycle it facilitates delivers precipitation to lands far from the coasts. Viewed from the surface of Earth through our atmosphere, stars twinkle, clouds turn pink at sunset, the sky is blue, and the moon can look orange. But the atmosphere’s functions and even existence are reliant on the ocean.

The atmosphere’s existence alone provides the necessary pressure and temperature regulation for liquid water to exist on Earth’s surface at all. In turn, the ocean supports a staggering amount of life. The ocean is where photosynthetic organisms developed, which produced enough oxygen to shift the composition of the atmosphere into the oxygen-rich blend of gases that now sustains all life on Earth.

The water cycle

The water cycle describes how water moves around Earth in gaseous, liquid, and solid forms. Water evaporates into the atmosphere from oceans, seas, and lakes to form water vapour and clouds, which create precipitation in the form of rain, snow, hail, or a combination. Water is held in solid form as glaciers and snowcaps on mountains, where the snow and ice melt in the spring and feed waterways before refreezing and collecting snow again the following winter. Transpiration is the process of vegetation, ice, and land releasing moisture into the air, and it contributes to atmospheric moisture that becomes clouds and precipitation. The water cycle enables life around the world and has a huge impact on the ways we interact with our atmosphere, and our perception of the cosmos beyond.

The ozone layer

The ozone layer is a layer of the stratosphere that absorbs ultraviolet rays, protecting vegetation and animals (including humans) on the surface. You may have heard of “holes” in the ozone layer that develop as a result of pollution. Ozone-depleting substances (ODS) are a group of chemicals created by manufacturing and products like foams and refrigerators. These chemicals lessen the amount of ozone in the ozone layer and cause thin patches, commonly called holes, to develop. In 1987, 197 countries committed to taking action to phase out ODS use and production under the Montreal Protocol, and the ozone layer has been slowly improving ever since. As long as people and companies adhere to the Montreal Protocol, the ozone layer is set to recover by mid-century. The Montreal Protocol and its success in fostering the recovery of the ozone layer is a great example of global collaboration on climate action and environmental protections.

Library resources

Bendall, D. S., Howe, C. J., Nisbet, E. G., & Nisbet, R. E. R. (2008). Introduction. Photosynthetic and atmospheric evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1504), 2625–2628. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0058

Blanchett, M. (n.d.). Research Guides: Education: K-12 Teaching Resources: Home. Retrieved September 18, 2025, from https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/c.php?g=250592&p=5353793

Canada, E. and C. C. (2017, September 15). The Montreal Protocol: Fixing the ozone layer and taking climate action [International treaties]. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/canada-international-action/montreal-protocol.html

CBC. (2018, May 16). Emissions of banned ozone-eating chemical rise mysteriously. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/cfc11-ozone-rise-1.4665806

Earth’s Atmosphere | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/atmosphere/en/

Environment, U. N. (2018, October 29). About Montreal Protocol. https://www.unep.org/ozonaction/who-we-are/about-montreal-protocol

Meadows, V., Arney, G., Schmidt, B., & Des Marais, D. J. (2020). Planetary Astrobiology. University of Arizona Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/utoronto/detail.action?docID=6175068

Montzka, S. A., Dutton, G. S., Yu, P., Ray, E., Portmann, R. W., Daniel, J. S., Kuijpers, L., Hall, B. D., Mondeel, D., Siso, C., Nance, J. D., Rigby, M., Manning, A. J., Hu, L., Moore, F., Miller, B. R., & Elkins, J. W. (2018). An unexpected and persistent increase in global emissions of ozone-depleting CFC-11. Nature, 557(7705), 413–417. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0106-2

NASA/GSFC Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC). (2000, October). Why do stars twinkle? https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question26.html

OISE Library. (2018, November 19). Research guides: Environmental and sustainability education: Home. University of Toronto OISE | Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/c.php?g=733778&p=5276403

Our World: Sunsets and Atmosphere - NASA Science. (2013, May 20). https://science.nasa.gov/eclips/videos/sunsets-and-atmosphere

Ozone Layer. (n.d.). Retrieved September 9, 2025, from https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ozone-layer

Plait, P. (n.d.). Why Does Smoke Turn the Sky Orange? Scientific American. Retrieved September 18, 2025, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-smoke-turn-the-sky-orange/

Presenter, M. T. L. W. (2025, June 8). Canada wildfires smoke turns UK skies orange. BBC Weather. https://www.bbc.com/weather/articles/c4g2k9lzjeko

What’s Going on with the Hole in the Ozone Layer? We Asked a NASA Scientist: Episode 44 - NASA. (2023, July 24). https://www.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/ozone-layer/whats-going-on-with-the-hole-in-the-ozone-layer-we-asked-a-nasa-scientist-episode-44/

Why Is the Sky Blue? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/

From Sea to Space: Our Atmosphere Bridging the Gap

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