Hands-on Activity It's Really Heating Up in Here!

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Build a simple model to recreate the greenhouse effect.
• Record observations of global warming during experiments.
• Compare their model environment with their environment.
• Describe how global warming may impact an engineer's decisions, their own lives and the Earth.
• Discuss their roles as citizens in the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards - Science

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

State Standards

Materials List

Each group needs:

• 1 box modeling clay
• 1 medium-sized, deep, aluminum tin (such as an aluminum pie tin)
• 1 box plastic wrap
• 1 6-8 oz. paper cup, filled with water and frozen
• water
• The Greenhouse Effect Reading (1 per group or 1 for the teacher to read aloud)

Worksheets and Attachments

Introduction/Motivation

The "greenhouse effect" is so called because it is the same process that keeps the air inside a greenhouse warmer than the air outside. Have you ever been in a sunny spot in a car or by a closed window in your house? Do you notice how the air around you is warmer in that spot? That is because the visible light coming through the glass heats the surface of materials near the glass, warming the air.

In the Earth's environment, water vapor, clouds, carbon dioxide and other gases in our atmosphere act like the glass (in a greenhouse) by preventing some of the heat radiation from escaping into space. Due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere, more and more of the heat radiated by the Earth's surface may become trapped in the atmosphere, resulting in "global warming," or the gradual warming of the atmosphere around the world. Refer to The Greenhouse Effect Diagram attachment.

What will this do to our environment? Scientists and engineers predict that these changes may trigger disasters. It is speculated that an increase in the Earth's temperatures could cause droughts, tropical storms, and the melting of polar ice caps could cause a rise in sea levels, flooding of our shorelines and making the oceans less salty, threatening marine life.

While no one can predict for certain the impacts, scientists around the world have been recording temperatures and levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for years. They take measurements at the ground and aloft, using airplanes and balloons. Engineers design remote sensing instruments in satellites that provide data on temperatures, winds, and other atmospheric and oceanic conditions.

Procedure

Before the Activity

• At least one day in advance, fill the paper cups nearly full of water and freeze them solid.
• Gather materials and make copies of The Greenhouse Effect Reading.

With the Students

1. Take a class vote. Ask a true/false question and have students vote by holding thumbs up for true and thumbs down for false. Count the votes and write the totals on the board. Give the right answer. Ask the students, "True or False: The greenhouse effect is caused, in part, by increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." (Answer: True)
2. Divide the class into groups of four students each.
3. Distribute an aluminum tray and clay to each group.
4. Ask each group to use the clay to make a model of a coastline (including rivers, mountains, lakes, trees, towns, etc.) inside the aluminum tray (see Figure 1).
5. Distribute water to the groups and ask them to fill their lakes and the ocean (fill only to half the height of the tray).
6. Distribute the blocks of ice (frozen in paper cups). Ask the students to remove the ice from the cups and place them on the tallest points of their models.
7. Direct teams to cover the entire model with plastic wrap (see Figure 2). This represents the layer of greenhouse gases (mostly CO₂) around the Earth.

8. Ask the students to make predictions of what is going to happen to their models as the ice melts.
9. Leave the models in warm, but not hot, locations until the ice melts.
10. Periodically ask students to observe the changes in the systems. Record these observations on the board, journals or somewhere in the classroom.
11. While waiting for the ice to melt, read The Greenhouse Effect Reading. (This can be done as a class or in student groups.)
12. As a class, discuss the following questions:

• What do scientists think is causing the increased greenhouse effect on Earth? (Answer: Clearing of rainforests, human-made fires, automobiles, fertilizers.) Can you think of other sources of greenhouse gases not mentioned here? (Answer: Industry manufacturing, power plants, or any other new sources of air pollution.)
• What do scientists think will be the effects of global warming? (Answer: Increased global temperatures, changing weather patterns, rise in sea levels, dilution of salt content in oceans.) Are you observing any of these things in your models? (Answer: Rises in water levels.)
• What roles and responsibilities do engineers have for preventing the increased greenhouse effect? (Answers: Develop improved technologies to better clean pollutants emitted from manufacturing and power plants. Develop cleaner industrial and energy production processes, such as solar, wind and hydrogen energy.)
• What roles and responsibilities do you have? (Possible answers: Carpool, ride your bike, turn off lights when you are not in the room, conserve energy, plant trees, etc.)

13. As a class, discuss student observations of what happened to their models when the ice melted.

Assessment

Pre-Activity Assessment

Voting: Ask a true/false question and have students vote by holding thumbs up for true and thumbs down for false. Tally the votes and write the totals on the board. Give the right answer.

• True or False: The greenhouse effect is caused, in part, by increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (Answer: True)

Questions: Have students come up with questions to ask eachother about global warming (i.e., what factors have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century?). After the lesson, have students answer the questions.

Predictions: Ask the students to make predictions of what is going to happen to their models as the ice melts.

Activity Embedded Assessment

Discussion Questions: While waiting for the ice to melt, read The Greenhouse Effect Reading (as a class or in student groups), and ask the students the questions provided at the end of the Procedure section.

Post-Activity Assessment

Drawing: Have students make drawings of their models. Use blue arrows to show what happened to the ice as it melted. Have them explain what the increase in temperature did to their models.

Community Debate: Have students write and perform short plays or debates about the activity topic. The setting is a town meeting about a relevant issue. The people present are: engineer, scientist, manager of the industry, local politician and various citizens. The scenario is: The community is located on the Florida shoreline. The citizens have noticed some of their beaches are decreasing in size, due to a rise in water level. They want to know what they can do to help decrease global climate change and save their beach.

Safety Issues

Make students aware that the floors may become slippery with water spills.

Troubleshooting Tips

Be prepared with towels to mop up any water spills.

The clay can be reused if stored properly.

Activity Extensions

Ask students to measure initial and final volumes of water or the rise in lake levels and sea level in their models.

Ask students to write and illustrate stories about what the Earth would be like in the distant future if global warming predictions occur.

Use the Internet to find information on how to reduce CO₂ levels in our daily lives. Challenge the students to make changes in their lives to meet a goal, for example, to change some habits in their lives that save 2,000 pounds or more of CO₂ per year.

Activity Scaling

For lower grades, consider building one larger demonstration model for the entire class. Ask students to draw pictures of what they think the Earth might look like in the future (1,000 years or more) if global warming occurs.

References

Copyright

Contributors

Supporting Program

Acknowledgements

The contents of this digital library curriculum were developed under grants from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation (GK-12 grant no. 0338326). However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.