(Teacher’s notes: once the students have watched the animation (see students’ page) you can do the “greenhouse effect in a jar” experiment.)
Activity 1:
The greenhouse effect in a jar
You will need
• A sunny day
• Two small thermometers
• A large clear glass jar
Ask groups of pupils to lay two thermometers side by side on the same kind of surface outdoors. They should then cover one of the thermometers with the large jar. Explain that this is their greenhouse.The groups should take and record the readings from each thermometer straight away; again after 30 minutes and again after an hour.
Discuss what difference in temperature, if any, there is between the two thermometers. Remind them that gases such as carbon dioxide have a similar effect to the glass jar. This is why it is called the ‘greenhouse effect’.
Activity 2: climate quiz
Climate change quiz
- Up to _____ of energy in homes is wasted by keeping equipment on standby.
2% / 13% / 20%
- If everyone boiled only the water they needed, instead of filling the kettle to the top, it would save enough electricity in a year to run more than three-quarters of the street lighting in the whole country. True or false?
- Energy-efficient light bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs last 20 times longer than a standard bulb and use half of the electricity. True or false?
- The average household could save around £100 a year by using energy more efficiently. This would save about one tonne of carbon dioxide per year (enough to fill 340,000 balloons, holding 1 1⁄2 litres each!). True or false?
- In 1961 only 30% of households in Great Britain had a car. By 2004 _____ of households had a car and 29% owned two or more. 50% / 80% / 100%
- People are travelling a lot further than they used to. In the last 30 years, the average distance people travel has increased from around 4,500 miles to about 6,800 miles a year. True or false?
- A holidaymaker flying to Florida and back creates as much carbon dioxide as the average British motorist produces in a _____. week / month / year
- Road transport produces about _____ of UK carbon dioxide emissions.
a tenth / a quarter / a half
- Food (growing it, processing it, transporting it, throwing it away) makes up about _____ of our contribution to climate change. 3% / 12% / 30%
- Bottled water uses around _____ times more energy than tap water (mainly for packaging and transport). 20 / 100 / 300
- The area of the world suffering from droughts doubled between 1970 and 2000.
True or false?
(Teacher’s answer sheet:
1. 13 % 2. True. 3. False – it should be 10 times and a third.
4. False – it should be £200, 2 tonnes and 680,000 balloons. 5. 80 %
6. True. 7. year. 8. a quarter 9. 30 %
10. 300 11. True.)
Activity 3: missing words
Climate change – the missing words
Fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal contain ______from plants and animals that died millions of years ago. When we burn fossil fuels to heat our homes or drive our cars, ______is released. Carbon dioxide is a ______, which traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This has always happened and helps to keep the Earth warm enough to ______on. But we are now using more and more fossil fuel ______to power machines in the factories that make all the new things we buy, for ______to work and school and on holiday, and to provide energy for our DVDs, ______and tumble driers. This means the blanket of greenhouse gases around the ______is getting thicker and the climate is getting hotter. This will mean more droughts, floods and storms. It could become harder to ______enough food. 20 – 30% of plant and animal species could become ______. The sea level could ______by 40 centimetres, because the water in the oceans expands as it gets warmer and the ice caps are ______. If governments, businesses and individual people work together to use less ______, we can slow down climate change.
Use the words below to fill the spaces:
Rise - greenhouse gas - extinct - energy - melting - carbon - Earth - refrigerators - live - carbon dioxide - fossil fuels - transport - grow
(Activities downloaded and adapted from )