A River of Dust

The Life-Giving Link Between North Africa and the Amazon

A lyrical ode to connection between two continents that have been separated for millions of years, A River of Dust is STEM with a beating heart.

Each winter, the dust of the Sahel lifts with the harmattan winds, mixes with dust from the Sahara, and travels thousands of miles westward across the Atlantic Ocean, to land in the Amazon basin.

Told from the perspective of dust, readers embark on a journey through vibrantly illustrated landscapes, celebrating the power and wonder of Earth’s ecosystems, and discovering how these tiny particles are key to the health of our planet.

Back matter includes a description of how scientists use NASA satellite data to estimate the quantity that makes the journey, how the nutrients carried by dust feed the Amazon and the South Atlantic Ocean, how dust alters the weather and hurricane formation, how geologists figured out that the continents were once a supercontinent, and more!

How I set the stage for connection:

Resources

Educator guides

• Educator guide with active links
• Full Educator guide to print
• Language Arts only
• STEM only
• Social Sciences/Art/PE

Supplementary activities

• Dust and Diatoms from Ancient Lake Chad
• NASA’s original A+C Train satellites
• NASA’s CALIPSO satellite
• Plate tectonics puzzle + discussion guide
• PACE – NASA’s new Earth observation satellite
• Watch this short NASA video (5:00 min) about PACE
• NASA Earth Observatory for Kids: Dust a True World Traveler Info & Activity Guide
• NASA video (2:13 min) about dust’s journey
• Find your house on Pangaea (online activity)
• How Earth will look 250 million years from now (2:06 min)
• Plate Tectonics: How Earth’s plates are moving throughout time (12:24 min)
• Earth Throughout Time (interactive online)
• PBS: The World Before Plate Tectonics (10:29 min)
• Watch Pangaea Split Along Tectonic Plates (49 sec)

Build your own models

• NASA’s PACE Satellite
• CALIPSO Satellite
• NASA JPL Build your own satellite and vibration test (5th-8th grade) 
• NASA – Building satellites to survive space (3rd grade and older)