Overview and Colorado Academic Standards in Science | Lesson Plan | Demo | Discussion |Project Ideas
Overview
Look at the relationship between the Carbon Dioxide level and captured heat. Recycling and other actions impact the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Colorado Academic Standards
Climate change; science as a process for inquiry; energy transformations—specifically light to heat, carbon dioxide (CO2) ; cause and effect; graphing
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Lesson Plan
Temperatures are increasing
According to NASA scientists, the global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880. The finding continues the trend in which nine of the ten warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000. The August 2012 global temperatures were the fourth highest on record. View an animation of how global temperatures have changed since 1880 at http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-temps.html.
Glaciers are shrinking
Warmer temperatures cause the glaciers to melt. As these white surfaces get smaller, less light is reflected back into the atmosphere, causing more heat to be absorbed by the land and water around them. As the ice melts, ocean currents are slowing.
Sea levels are rising
Sea levels have risen about eight inches in the past 100 years, and the rate of increase is accelerating. This is caused mostly by ocean water expanding as it gets warmer and, to a lesser extent, glacial ice melt. This rise in sea levels has multiple effects on people, plants and animals living along the coastlines.
Changes in weather patterns
As precipitation patterns and amounts change, some places are getting more rainfall and other are getting less, which affects plants and crops (therefore income!) growing in that area, as well as amounts of water available to people.
Blooming times are changing
As temperatures rise, plant blooming times are now earlier than ever. This can drastically affect animals that migrate to an area at a specific time so they have access to that specific plant for food or reproduction.
Animals are changing migration patterns
Animals are adapted to live in areas with particular temperatures or climates. As the climates and food sources change, animals are shifting their range and/or migration timing in response to those changes. If they cannot find suitable new locations and food sources, or if they are sedentary organisms such as plants, trees, and coral, they could go extinct.
Prepare an area in a large, flat space by drawing two concentric circles on the ground. One circle should be about 2 feet in diameter and a larger one about 15 feet in diameter.
Ask the students if they have ever been in a car after the car has been sitting in the sun. How does it feel? (Hot!) That’s because the sunlight, or radiant energy, goes through the windows of the car.
Once the radiant energy hits a solid surface inside the car, it turns into heat. However, once the energy is in the form of heat, it can’t get back out through the window. It’s trapped inside! More keeps getting trapped inside and the air inside the car warms up over time. Tell the students that they are going to play a game that’s similar to what’s happening in the car, but on a bigger scale.
Take the students to the area you marked of with the circles. Explain that the smaller circle represents the earth and the larger one is the Earth’s atmosphere (the gases/air that surrounds the planet).
Tell the students that the game will be played in rounds. During the first round, choose 2 students to be Carbon Dioxide (CO2—one of the gases that naturally occur in the atmosphere that has one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms) and let them choose any place to stand within the atmosphere. However, once placed, they cannot move their feet. Give each of the students a “CO2” name tag to wear.
The rest of the students are bundles of energy called sunbeams. They should each receive a
sunlight tag to wear. Their goal is to touch the earth (with their foot or hand) where they turn from light into heat (students turn over their name tag once touching the earth), and then escape the atmosphere without getting tagged by the CO2 molecules. Remind the students that they only need to go back and forth once. If a sunbeam is tagged, the student must stay standing still in the atmosphere. Those that avoid getting tagged will bounce back into space.
Play the first round of the game. After the round, have the “escaped” sunbeams gather around the atmosphere to see what happened. What do they notice? What happens when some of the heat is trapped in the atmosphere? Explain that a certain amount of CO2 is needed in the atmosphere to help keep the planet warm.
For the second round, remove the trapped sunbeams from the atmosphere; they will rejoin their other sunbeam buddies.
Show the students the “Carbon Games” bag. Ask the students if they have ever heard the term
“climate change.” What do they know about that term? Explain that they are going to see some of the things that can affect climate change in both good ways and bad ways.
Next, increase the amount of CO2
by reaching into the “Carbon Games” bag and pulling out an action card (for this round, use only the cards that add CO2 to the atmosphere). Increase the amount of CO2
in the atmosphere based on the card (by redesignating some “sunlight” students
into CO2, changing their name tags in the process) and play another round. What happened?
For every round afterwards, place all cards into the bag so that CO2
levels will go up and down depending on which card is drawn. Cards include things such as:
• Drive cars
• Cut down trees
• Ride bikes
• Plant trees
• Recycle
• Use less energy
• Reduce and reuse
• Buy products made with recycled materials
• Compost
• Trash is landfilled
As the game is played, chart or graph the amount of CO2 and how much heat is trapped. See Figure 1 below for an example of how to set up the graph.
Discussion
What do the students notice? The heat goes up and down in relation to the CO2
levels.
• Do some actions have more of an impact than others? In what way? Yes, they cause more or less
CO2
to be released.
• Why do they think that some things have more of an impact? Some actions release more CO2
into the atmosphere because they contain more stored carbon that can be released, such as
fossil fuels.
• Do the students think it is only CO2
that traps the heat? No, there are other gases and particles in
the atmosphere, such as water vapor, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and methane gas that will
also trap the heat.
• How will having additional gases and particles trap heat affect the planet? Things will heat up
even faster.
• How could this affect the planet? The extra trapped heat can cause changes in the tempera-
tures around the world.
• Is this something that is actually occurring on Earth? Yes, it’s called the “greenhouse effect” and
the gases that trap the heat in the atmosphere are called “greenhouse gases.”
• Do the students know the difference between “weather” and “climate?” Weather refers to what’s
happening (weather-wise) at this moment. Is it hot? Cold? Rainy? Windy? The climate of an area
reflects the typical weather trends in that area over a long period of time. Therefore climate
change is a change in long-term weather patterns. Most scientists agree that the climates
are changing. The debate comes in regarding the causes of those changes, be they natural or
man-made and the extent of each. The challenge we face is, that regardless of the cause, the
climate is changing and how will we deal with or try to slow some of those changes.
• What are some of the results of climate change? Take answers from the students.The following
information may be beneficial to help add to your discussion.
Project Ideas
