Curated OER
What Makes you Hot?
Students manipulate different variables in a model and make inferences about the temperature on Earth. In this heat lesson students calculate the blackbody radiation of an object at a certain temperature.
Curated OER
Dimming the Sun
Pupils collect, interpret and analyze weather variable data. They describe atmospheric variables that affect evaporation. Students create graphs and analyze the information collected.
Curated OER
Calculate Your Contribution
Young scholars assess the environmental impact of their transportation choices. They keep a transportation journal and use a website to calculate vehicle emissions for themselves and their class. They evaluate their transportation choices.
Curated OER
Heat Transfer and Pollution
Students perform computer simulations on air dispersion. In this chemistry lesson plan, students calculate energy transfer based on specific heat and temperature change. They explain the causes of smog.
Curated OER
The Kyoto Protocol: What Should We Do?
Students examine why the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. They develop their own opinion on the Protocol and share them with the class. They also discover how scientific data may be organized to use in a debate.
Curated OER
Will they grow?
Third graders plant seeds and see how they will grow in a specific temperature and are questioned about different environments and how they think crops would grow there. They form a hypothesis, perform an experiment, and then collect...
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Greenhouse Effect Teaching Box
This teaching box provides resources related to the greenhouse effect. It will help you teach how the greenhouse effect warms our planet.
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Energy Balance & Greenhouse Effect Teaching Box
This teaching box will help your learners understand how conservation of energy determines the average temperature of a planet, including Earth. These activities also illustrate how the greenhouse effect prevents our home planet from...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Global Climate Change: Understanding the Greenhouse Effect
Young scholars study past climate change, explore the effect of greenhouse gases on Earth's atmosphere today, and consider human impact on global warming.
BioEd Online
Bio Ed Online: Greenhouse S'mores
Students learn about climate change as they investigate how different materials are affected by a greenhouse effect. The instructional activity and accompanying PowerPoint can both be downloaded.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Greenhouse Effect
An inquiry lab measuring the effect of carbon dioxide and temperature change in an enclosed environment to simulate the greenhouse effect.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Greenhouse Effect and Surface Radiation
Young scholars will design a controlled experiment to demonstrate the greenhouse effect and the effect of different surfaces on light reflection.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Greenhouse Effect Lab
Young scholars measure temperature changes inside soda bottles filled with CO2 and air as incandescent light is shined on them to model the Greenhouse Effect.
US Geological Survey
U.s. Geological Survey: Greenhouse Gases [Pdf]
Lesson plan in which young scholars observe and contrast thermal properties of three major greenhouse gases. Using simple, readily available materials, students collect temperature change over time for dry air, water-saturated air,...
Climate Literacy
Clean: Automotive Emissions and the Greenhouse Effect
This is a laboratory activity in which students will compare the amount of carbon dioxide in four different sources of gas and determine the carbon dioxide contribution from automobiles. They test ambient air, human exhalation,...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Introduction to Climate Change
This is designed to be an introductory lesson to climate change. It covers the importance of the atmosphere, the basics of the "Greenhouse Effect" and an introduction to the human contribution to increased greenhouse gases.
Climate Literacy
Clean: Greenhouse Gas in a Bottle Demonstration
A simple demonstration that is quick and easy to setup and provides dramatic evidence of the effect on temperature of an atmosphere with increased carbon dioxide. [4 min]
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Let's Heat Things Up!
Young scholars observe demonstrations, and build and evaluate simple models to understand the greenhouse effect, the role of increased greenhouse gas concentration in global warming, and the implications of global warming theory for...
Climate Literacy
Clean: Carbon Cycle
This activity from NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory introduces students to the current scientific understanding of the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycle. The activity leads them through several interactive tasks investigating...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Carbon Temperature Model
With this carbon/temperature interactive model, students investigate the role of atmospheric carbon in the greenhouse effect using a relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature.
National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Nagt: Demonstrating Climate Change and the Water Cycle
Demonstration of the greenhouse effect and its role in climate change, discussion of the phases of water and the water cycle, and a hands-on experiment to investigate the role of temperature in phase changes of water.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Global Climate Change
Students learn how the greenhouse effect is related to global warming and how global warming impacts our planet, including global climate change. Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and how we react to these changes are the main...
PBS
Pbs Pov's Borders: Air: Fuel for Thought
This lesson plan engages students in a real-life exploration of climate change as it is affected by greenhouse emissions from vehicles. The aim of this activity is for students to realize the impact of vehicle use in their family and to...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: How Greenhouse Gases Absorb Heat
In this experiment students observe two model atmospheres: one with normal atmospheric composition and another with an elevated concentration of CO2. These two contained atmospheres will be exposed to light energy in a sunny window or...