Activity 1: Interaction of the Four Spheres
Objective:
- Students will explore various materials to describe each of the four spheres and explain how two or more of the spheres interact in different ways through the Earth’s systems and processes.
- Students will create labeled sketches or models to explain the interaction of one or more of the Earth’s spheres.
- Students will think about humans in the biosphere and how our actions impact all of the Earth’s spheres.
- Students will brainstorm methods to reduce human impact on the Earth’s spheres.
Materials:
- Rounded rocks
- Earth’s Sphere labels printed and cut apart
- Scissors
- Sand
- Mud
- Silt
- Water
- Photos of streams, lakes, oceans
- Photos of snow, ice, glaciers
- Photos of clouds, fog
- Photos of plants, animals and humans
- Classroom plants and/or pets
- Science notebooks
Vocabulary:
- Atmosphere: The atmosphere might be the most difficult to conceptualize because the gases that comprise it are not visible. We can see clouds, which are made from water vapor (hydrosphere), and smoke in the air (ash is part of the geosphere). Earth’s atmosphere is critical to the biosphere. Animals and plants utilize different gases in the atmosphere to support life processes. The air we need to breath is found relatively close to the Earth’s surface. Our atmosphere is mainly made of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, and some other trace gases. The troposphere is closest to the Earth’s surface, followed by the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. Each layer has a different composition and temperature.
- Biosphere: The biosphere includes humans as well as all other life forms, both plant and animal. Microorganisms and elephants are both part of the biosphere. Plant roots can break rocks or anchor soil to a hillside. Earth’s largest animals (whales) rely on the hydrosphere to support their bodies. Almost all life forms require water to live.
- Geosphere: Geo means Earth. The geosphere is made up of Earth’s rocks, minerals, sediments, volcanoes, magma, mountains, and canyons. These materials and features were formed through the rock cycle, which involves all spheres. For example, fossils (biosphere), erosion by water (hydrosphere), and erosion by wind (atmosphere). Soil contains rock and mineral components which are part of the geosphere, but on a higher educational level, soil also contains organic matter (biosphere), air pockets (atmosphere), and water molecules (hydrosphere) too small to be seen.
- Hydrosphere: The hydrosphere contains all of Earth’s water. The majority of liquid water is found in the ocean as saltwater. Liquid freshwater is found as lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds, but also as groundwater under the Earth’s surface. Water vapor is found throughout the atmosphere and forms clouds. Water cycles around the planet but as it does so it flows over and through the geosphere, evaporates into the atmosphere, and is even incorporated into the biosphere (we drink water).
Introduction: All materials from the core of the Earth to its’ atmosphere, fall into one of four categories: the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere. The interaction between these four spheres make-up most of the processes on Earth. For example, the hydrosphere shapes the geosphere when waves crash into rocks creating sand and ocean currents, which affects the atmosphere and have a major impact on weather. The Earth is constantly changing. To better understand the processes that change it we can visualize Earth as four interacting systems—the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Humans are part of the biosphere, but have the ability to impact all of Earth’s spheres in both positive and negative ways. For example, recycling is positive, but piling trash in the geosphere is negative, each of which impacts the other three spheres. In this lesson we will explore interactions between the four spheres- land, life, water and air.
Procedure:
- Pass around rounded rocks from a local stream, river or beach. Ask students to record questions that the materials inspire.
- Facilitate a discussion about their observations and questions, leading them to think about how the rocks became rounded.
- Students will filter through four centers set up around the room- each labeled geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. The centers should each be populated with the following items- Geosphere (rocks, sand, mud, silt, soil.) Hydrosphere (water, photos of streams oceans, lakes, snow, ice glaciers, clouds, fog.) Biosphere (actual or photos of plants, pets and interactions between plants, animals and humans.) Atmosphere (photos of atmospheric layers, clouds.) While filtering through each of the four centers, students have to develop a definition for each of the four spheres, explaining what they mean.
- Bring class together after all have filtered through the stations to discuss their definitions and develop a class definition for each, explicitly discussing each as a system with components. Then ask students, “Do these spheres influence each other? How?”
- Tell the students that they are going to watch a video. (video- https://www.generationgenius.com/videolessons/earths-spheres-video-for-kids/) While they are watching they should be listening for answers to the following questions that are posted: In the investigation with the aquariums, which of the Earth’s spheres are represented? What happened to the temperature of the atmosphere when hot water was added? Does water temperature have an effect on air temperature? Which two of Earth’s spheres are represented in the example of erosion? How did the example with dry ice show that land affects water and air? Which of Earth’s spheres are humans a part of, which do they impact? Give examples.
- Facilitate a discussion using the discussion questions.
- Following the discussion, turn the focus back to the activity centers. The students will identify different interactions between two of Earth’s spheres. Each student should choose an interaction between two spheres that they come up with to write about in their science notebook. Students create a labeled sketch explaining their interaction in addition to explaining it using written words. Students should list all the components of the system they are modeling.
Closure: Students are now ready to apply what they have known to real life scenarios. Provide students with one or more scenarios involving interaction between Earth’s spheres. Ask students to explain which spheres are interacting and how. Example scenarios include: • Formation of beach sand • A landscape with different kinds of plants on opposite sides of a mountain. • Glacial striations on rocks. • Glacial erratic boulders (huge rocks that were carried and deposited by glaciers). • Freeze-thaw weathering. • Avalanche paths on mountainsides. As students explain, illicit class discussion to enhance their explanations.20
Activity 2: Energy Flow and Cycles in an Ecosystem
Objective:
- Students will be able to describe the importance of energy flow and nutrient cycles in sustaining Earth's ecosystems.
- Students will diagram the flow of energy through simple food chains and food webs.
Materials:
- (per group 4-5 students in each)
- 1 piece of cardboard or construction paper
- 1 or 2 nature or wildlife magazines
- scissors
- glue
- balls of string
Vocabulary:
- Carbon Cycle: The continuous circulation of carbon atoms in the biosphere as a result of photosynthetic conversion of carbon dioxide into complex organic compounds by plants, which are consumed by other organisms: the carbon returns to the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide as a result of respiration, decay by fungi, bacteria, etc., and combustion of fossil fuels.
- Carnivore: An animal that eats only meat.
- Combustion: The process by which fuel burns. For this to occur, three elements are required: Fuel, heat and oxygen.
- Condensation: The process in which water vapor changes into liquid water.
- Consumer: An organism requiring complex organic compounds for food, which it obtains by preying on other organisms or by eating organic matter.
- Decomposition: The breakdown of a substance into different parts or simpler compounds. Decomposition can occur due to heat, chemical reaction, decay, etc.
- Ecosystem: A functional unit consisting of all the living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in a given area, and all the nonliving physical and chemical factors of their environment, linked together through nutrient cycling and energy flow. An ecosystem can be of any size — a log, pond, field, forest or the Earth's biosphere — but it always functions as a whole unit.
- Energy: The capacity for vigorous activity; available power; the capacity to do work. For example, I eat chocolate to get quick energy.
- Environment: The surroundings in which an organism lives, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans and their interrelationships. (Examples: Tundra, coniferous forest, deciduous forest, grassland prairie, mountains and rain forest.)
- Evaporation: The process whereby atoms or molecules in a liquid state (such as water) gain sufficient energy to enter the gaseous state (such as water vapor).
- Food Chain: A sequence of organisms, each of which uses the next, lower member of the sequence as a food source.
- Food Web: A complex network of many interconnected food chains and feeding interactions.
- Herbivore: An animal that eats only plants.
- Hydrologic Cycle: The continuous cycle of evaporation and condensation that controls the distribution of the Earth's water as it evaporates from bodies of water, condenses, precipitates, and returns to those bodies of water.
- Nitrogen Cycle: The continuous circulation of nitrogen in nature, consisting of a cycle of chemical reactions in which atmospheric nitrogen is compounded, dissolved in rain, and deposited in the soil, where it is assimilated and metabolized by bacteria and plants, eventually returning to the atmosphere by bacterial decomposition of organic matter.
- Omnivore: An animal that eats both plants and animals.
- Photosynthesis: The process in green plants by which carbohydrates are made from carbon dioxide and water using sunlight as the energy source.
- Precipitation: Water falling, in a liquid or solid state, from the atmosphere to Earth (e.g., rain, snow, hail).
- Producer: Any organism that is capable of producing its own food, usually through photosynthesis.
- Respiration: The process in which an organism uses oxygen for its life processes and gives off carbon dioxide and water.
- Transpiration: The process by which water absorbed by plants, usually through the roots, is evaporated into the atmosphere from the plant surface, principally from the leaves.
Introduction: In this lesson, students will learn about energy and nutrient flow in various biosphere climates and environments. They will learn about herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, food chains and food webs. Students will understand the interdependence between producers, consumers and decomposers. Students are also introduced to the roles of the hydrologic (water), carbon, and nitrogen cycles in sustaining the worlds' ecosystems such that living organisms survive.
Procedure:
- What is an environment? Can you think of an example? What do you think supports these environments or keeps them running? What fuels the animals and plants that live within the environments and ecosystems we just discussed? It's energy! Today we are going to learn about how energy moves through an environment or ecosystem and how this knowledge helps us make better choices.
- Discuss with students: Why did you eat your most recent meal? We know that we have to eat to provide ourselves with the raw materials that help us to move, grow and stay healthy. Our food gives us the energy we need to perform daily activities. Do you know of other sources of energy and for what they are used? For example, fossil fuels (oil and coal) and renewable energy (solar or wind) are used for transportation, heating, cooling and electricity. Did you know that energy actually flows around in a system? For example, the energy in fossil fuels is changed into the heat or power that we need to run appliances or heat our homes — that energy moves from one form to another. It is the same with the food we eat; our bodies take the energy from the food and turn it into energy to move and grow.
- Have you heard of a food chain? A food chain traces the energy of nutrients through the organisms that eat them- show students’ examples. This includes the production of the vegetables, fruit, cheese, eggs or meat that you had for breakfast or will have for lunch or dinner. Energy is in all this food! From where does the energy in food come? Well, all the energy in food starts with the sun! students draw their own example of a food chain.
- Draw examples of simple food chains that show how energy moves from one place to another. The arrows in these food chains illustrate the direction of energy flow — starting with the sun providing nutrients to producers, which use photosynthesis to become food for consumers. What are producers and consumers? A producer is any organism that is capable of making its own food, usually through photosynthesis, such as a plant. A consumer is any organism that gets its food by eating producers or other organisms. A food web is what happens when one organism gets energy from more than one source, such as a human eating vegetables, ham and cheese.
- Model Human Food Web activity with students. Divide the class into teams of eight students each. (Groups may be larger or smaller, if desired, but they must be at least five students each.) Have all the students stand in a circle. Distribute a ball of string or yarn to one member of each group. This person represents the sun and starts each food web. Have the first student hold tightly to the end of the string and toss the ball of string to another person in the group, across the circle. Have the second person name one thing in the ecosystem that uses energy from the sun. Next, have this person clasp the string with one hand and toss the ball of string on to another student in the circle with their other hand. Have the third student name something that eats or is eaten by the previous item named. Continue until all students in the circle are connected with the ball of string at least once. Have the student groups stop and look at the web they have created. Are some webs more complex than others? Why? Point out to students how they have modeled a food chain or food web.
- Now have students create their own. Divide the class into groups. Ask each group to think of a terrestrial food chain and an aquatic food chain, and create each of these with words on one side of a piece of paper, using arrows to show the energy flow. Discuss the food webs they created as a class in Part 1, and tell them that they are now going to construct a food web using pictures. Pass out an assortment of nature and wildlife magazines. Instruct the groups to make food webs on the other side of their paper by either drawing pictures of the living things in their food chains or finding them in the magazines and gluing them onto the paper. Suggest that they use arrows to show the direction of the flow of energy between the images.
- Conclude with an informal discussion: How do we use the energy that is in the food we eat? We need energy to move, keep warm (we give off heat all the time, and this heat energy comes from the food we eat) grow, think, stay healthy and stay alive! Any energy that is left is stored in our bodies. Only a fraction of the energy that an herbivore, or plant eater, gets from the plant food that it eats becomes part of its body (its mass). The rest of the energy from the plant food is lost as waste (in droppings) or is used up (for movement, keeping warm or just surviving). The same goes for carnivores, or meat eaters, and omnivores, organisms that eat both meat and plants. When a carnivore or omnivore eats another animal, only a fraction of the energy from its animal food is incorporated into its body. Energy is lost at each link in the food chain because the living things pass on much less energy than they receive. This energy loss means that most food chains are only four or five links long. Discarded plant and animal (organic) materials eventually decompose, returning energy, in the form of nutrients, to the soil. The food chain alone is not responsible for the survival of plants and animals, humans. It is important to recognize that other nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water, also play a part in maintaining the ecosystems in which the living organisms of the world depend. How could we survive without water or air? Just as energy flows through organisms and the environment, these other nutrients also flow through the biosphere in cycles. For example, part of the water cycle includes water evaporating from rivers and oceans into the atmosphere where it builds up in clouds (condensation) and returns to the ground as rain or snow (precipitation).
Closure: Today, let's think about how we might get energy, and other nutrients, such as water, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen for organisms to survive.21
Activity 3- What Contains Carbon?
Objective:
- Students will learn that carbon is a common element on the Earth and is found in many forms in both living and non-living things.
- Students will recognize that carbon moves between Earth’s four spheres.
- Students will communicate ways that carbon impacts us and the Earth.
Materials:
- What Contains Carbon? Worksheet (list the items in a table with last three boxes in the 1st column blank (11x4) with a check box of yes/no, explain.)
- Seashells
- Piece of Wood
- Plastic
- Fabric
- Carbonated Beverage
- Cup of Water
- Post-its
- Chart Paper
Vocabulary:
- Calcium Carbonate: a white insoluble solid which occurs naturally as chalk, limestone and marble and is a main component of chicken eggshells, snail shells, shells of marine organisms and pearls.
- Carbon: a naturally abundant nonmetallic element that occurs in all organic compounds and can be found in all forms of life.
- Carbonate: to dissolve carbon dioxide in a liquid.
- Carbon Dioxide: a colorless, odorless gas that is present in the atmosphere, breathed out during respiration, produced by decaying plants, used by plants during photosynthesis, and formed when any fuel containing carbon is burned.
- Hydrocarbon: compound containing only hydrogen and carbon; often occurring in fossil fuels.
Introduction: (Pre-assess) Ask students what they know about Carbon. Students can complete a word map about what they know. Discuss with students that carbon is an integral part of life on Earth, give an example of carbon in the graphite in their pencils. Explain that carbon combines with many other elements to form other substances. Carbon does however elicit negative consequences which means it can both help and hurt the planet. Explain that the amount of carbon remains somewhat consistent but there are more or less in various parts across the planet and that it is important for there to be certain levels of carbon in the oceans and atmosphere for plants and ocean animals. Give students post it notes for them to jot down ideas that carbon can be a help or a hurt. Create a T chart where students will post there notes in the appropriate column. Begin a discussion about what other everyday objects contain carbon, and chart what the students’ thoughts and explanations are without confirming or denying their thoughts.
Procedure:
- Show students the objects (seashells, wood, plastic, fabric, carbonated beverages, water.)
- Ask students to individually predict whether or not each of these objects contain carbon or not and record on the “What Contains Carbon?” worksheet. Students must include an explanation for their conclusion.
- Then put students in groups of 5 to discuss their choices and explain their reasoning. After discussing students can choose to alter their choices with explanations for reasoning.
- Once all worksheets are complete, bring class together as a whole and ask students to share out their answers and how they may be able to confirm their answers.
- Discuss each object and explain why they each contain carbon.
- As a class, classify the objects into living/ used to be living and non-living groups.
- Students complete the bottom three rows on the worksheet, by choosing three different items in the classroom that they use on a daily basis that contains carbon. Students can then confirm their choices through research to find out whether or not the objects they chose contain carbon or not.
Closure: Ask students to take second look at the original list of both, “What contains Carbon?” and the “Carbon helps and Hurts,” from the beginning of the lesson. Students can revisit the original “What contains Carbon?” list and alter it by highlighting only the objects that contain carbon. Next, students can use remaining post-its to list new ways that carbon helps or hurts the planet. Students can then discuss how their understanding of the role of carbon in our world changed from the beginning of the lesson to the end. Students should also discuss what new understandings surprised them and what changes in their lifestyle can make a big difference.22
Activity 4: Carbon Cycle Role Play
Objective:
- recognize that there is a finite amount of carbon on earth.
- model how carbon moves around in the environment, from one place to another.
- identify how humans influence the carbon cycle.
Materials:
- 14-28 of a small, lightweight objects to represent carbon (e.g., ping pong balls.)
- Carbon Cycle Role-Play Cards (7 total, one per group)
- Chalk, if needed for drawing regions
Introduction: Remind students of the “What contains Carbon?” activity. Have students share what their learning was. Discuss how does the finite amount of carbon on this planet move around in the environment, from one place to another? How do the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere interact? In this active demonstration, students will model the carbon cycle, and consider way in which human actions play a role. Explain to your students that the carbon contained in any one thing doesn’t stay there forever. The carbon atoms move from one thing to another in what is called the carbon cycle. Parts of the carbon cycle happen very quickly, like when plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis. But, other parts of the carbon cycle happen very slowly. Tell students that in this activity, they will learn how carbon moves from one place to another, by performing a carbon cycle role-play
Procedure:
- Divide students evenly into 7 groups and distribute the appropriate role-play card to each group. Each group will be a team of actors that will play a certain part of the carbon cycle (atmosphere, water, algae, marine snail, sediments & rocks, trees, or caterpillars). The table provided at the end of the lesson plan summarizes all the groups, their options for carbon flow, the explanation for each carbon flow, and their script lines.
- Distribute 2-4 ping pong balls to each group and explain that these represent carbon atoms.
- Have students in each group review their role play card to figure out their role in the carbon cycle and decide as a group using their “Options for carbon movement” how they are going to move their carbon. Explain that they can give their carbon to only one other group, or if they have plenty, they can give the carbon to more than one group. Explain that carbon exists in all of these things at the same time and only a portion of the carbon in each thing moves. Therefore, when each group moves their carbon, they can’t give away all their carbon: they must keep at least one carbon atom. As they move their carbon, they must say their script lines to explain the carbon movement that they have chosen. One at a time, ask each group to give their carbon to another group (or groups). Run the role-play a number of times, telling students to make different choices about carbon movement each time. If you have time, consider running the following variations: Have all the groups moving their carbon at the same time: Have one person from each group be the deliverer of carbon and the other group members remain to receive carbon from other groups. Tell students that this is a more chaotic, but more realistic acting out of the carbon cycle, since in the real-world carbon moves between all these areas at the same time.
- Trace the journeys of only few carbon atoms: Use only one carbon atom (ping pong ball) and start it with one group. Each group that gets the atom makes a decision about where it goes next. Assign one student to write the journey on the board or a piece of paper. Do this multiple times so that you can compare the journeys of several individual atoms through the different spheres and see how the carbon cycle does not move in one direction, but moves in lots of different directions at the same time.
- Explain to students that they just acted out the carbon cycle without human involvement, but humans greatly influence the carbon cycle with some of their activities. Have students guess what movement corresponds to the following human activities: Humans extract and burn fossil fuels for energy (carbon moves from the sediments and rocks where fossil fuels are buried into the atmosphere). Humans cut and burn trees to use land for farming, ranching, or building (carbon moves from the land plants into the atmosphere.) Pull students aside and have them be the humans. Ask them to move the carbon in the appropriate manner for the human activities that you discussed. How did this affect the carbon cycle?
- Explain that humans have not created more carbon on earth, but that we move carbon from one place to another more quickly than would naturally happen and that this has consequences for the climate of the planet. Some salient examples: Burning fossil fuels takes carbon from sediments and rocks where fossil fuels are buried and puts it into the atmosphere because when fossil fuels are burned, they release carbon-containing gases. Cutting and burning trees takes carbon from the land plants and puts it into the atmosphere because when trees are burned, the carbon that was stored in their structures is released as carbon-containing gases.
- Ask students if they can think of other human activities that might affect the carbon cycle.
Closure: Work with your students to draw all of the carbon flows that they acted out, relying on the groups as “experts” for their representation. Encourage students to provide explanations for the processes underlying each of the arrows.23
Activity 5: Global Climate Change, Understanding the Greenhouse Effect
Objective:
- Students will understand what global climate change is and how it affects our lives.
- Students will learn about greenhouse gases and begin to consider what events are causing an increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Materials: (For each pair or small group of students)
- three thermometers
- two clear glass jars that will fit over the thermometers
- sun lamp or sunny windowsill
- paper towels
- scientific notebooks or journals for recording data and observations
- graph paper
- one clock to be used by the entire class
Introduction: Students study past climate change, explore the effect of greenhouse gases on Earth's atmosphere today, and consider human impact on global warming. Changes to Earth's global climate have had and will have major consequences for life on Earth. Using evidence preserved in ice for tens of thousands of years, scientists are searching for an understanding of the history of Earth's climate changes in order to better predict what the future holds for life on the planet. In this lesson, students learn about ways in which we study past climate change, and reflect on the present condition of Earth's climate. They explore the effect of greenhouse gases on Earth's atmosphere, and begin to consider the human impact on global warming.
Procedure:
- Write the word climate on the board and ask students to try to define it. Write down their suggestions on the board. Once the list is complete, help students synthesize their ideas into a class definition.
- Ask students to think about the term global climate. Ask them how global climate might differ from regional or local climate. Discuss with students that the term global climate describes Earth's overall climate variability, such as average temperature, average precipitation, average intensity of winds, and other conditions of Earth's overall atmosphere and at its surface. Separate from any specific weather events or local climate conditions. Show Climate Change Video and discuss the following questions: What is the difference between weather and climate? How do scientists measure the average world temperature in past eons? Before 8000 B.C., dramatic changes in average temperature occurred over just a few years' time. What was happening to the global climate before 8000 B.C.? (https://cptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.climatechange/climate-change/)
- Analyze the Methane Concentration graph. When did the largest change in methane gas concentration occur? Look at the Methane graph with the temperature overlay showing. What is the general relationship between methane concentration and temperature? Analyze the Calcium (Dust) graph. When did the largest change in calcium dust concentration occur? Look at the Calcium graph with the temperature overlay showing. What is the general relationship between calcium dust concentration and temperature?
- Analyze the Insolation graph. When did the largest change in insolation occur? Look at the Insolation graph with the temperature overlay showing. What is the general relationship between insolation and temperature? What else besides the chemicals in the atmosphere affects the temperature on Earth? How might any of these variables (temperature, methane concentration, calcium dust concentration, and insolation) be used to determine past or future climatic conditions?
- Divide the class into small groups to begin exploring the effects of greenhouse gases on our atmosphere. Distribute the prepared materials to each group. Have each group place three thermometers within a few inches of each other on a sunny windowsill or under a sun lamp. Be sure that all three thermometers receive the same amount of light for the entire class period. Have students move on to the next activity, but ask them to periodically check the thermometers until they are at exactly the same temperature. Ask students to record this temperature and the time.
- Now cover two thermometers with glass jars, leaving one thermometer uncovered. Students should place a wet paper towel inside one of the two jars. Use water at room temperature to wet the paper towel. (In this experiment, the water vapor will act like a greenhouse gas and increase the temperature in the jar with the wet paper towel even more than the temperature in the dry jar.) Continue with the next activity, but have students periodically check all three thermometers and record the temperature and time.
- The presence of greenhouse gases, compounds in the atmosphere that trap heat, maintains Earth's temperature. Human activities, however, are increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and affecting global temperatures. Show students the video to introduce them to these concepts, and have them answer these questions: What is the greenhouse effect? What are four naturally occurring greenhouse gases? What would Earth be like without the greenhouse effect? What are some manmade sources of greenhouse gases other than power plants and automobiles? What natural phenomena produce greenhouse gases? https://cptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.matter.greenhouse2/global-warming-the-physics-of-the-greenhouse-effect
- If they have not already done so, have students take temperature readings of the thermometers inside the jars and compare them to the temperature of the thermometer outside the jars. Then show the video: https://cptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.ess.watcyc.co2/global-warming-carbon-dioxide-and-the-greenhouse-effect/ and discuss the following: Why does the image of the scientist fade after carbon dioxide has been turned on? How does this explain the greenhouse effect? What would the scientist feel like if he were inside the tube? How does this explain the effect of carbon dioxide on the temperature of the atmosphere? How long does it take for carbon dioxide to spread throughout Earth's atmosphere? How long does it take to be absorbed into the oceans?
- In small groups, have students take their final temperature measurements and analyze the data that they have collected. Students should graph the data to show how the temperature of the thermometers under the "dry" glass jar and the "moist" glass jar changed throughout the day, and how these temperatures compared with the temperature of the thermometer outside the jars. Finally, ask students to write a summary of their findings and how these results compare to the greenhouse effect of our atmosphere.
Closure: Have students discuss the following: What tools/methods are used to study climate change in the history of Earth? What is the general climatic trend on Earth as revealed by the evidence gathered through these methods? Distinguish between the greenhouse effect and global warming. In what ways are humans having an effect on the concentration of greenhouse gases?24
