Demos & Experiments

Carbon cycle activity to demonstrate how carbon moves throughout the atmosphere. The activity ends with a discussion of how humans impact the carbon cycle.

This is a simple but effective scientific experiment to study the impacts of temperature and salinity on water density.

In this short but effective demonstration/experiment, students investigate how thermal expansion of water might affect sea level.

Here students use data from the NOAA carbon dioxide monitoring sites, such as Mauna Loa, to graph the Keeling Curve for themselves on large sheets of paper. Each group graphs one year, and the graphs are joined at the end to reveal the overall upward trend. The explanation describes the carbon cycle and how human activities are leading to the overall trend of rising carbon dioxide.

In this interactive activity students will create a very simple climate model. They use worksheets, chips/tokens, and follow rules for heat exchange. The activity only models temperature but there are instructions for adaptations of the model, such as rule changes for an atmosphere with increased levels of CO2.

This activity allows students to explore sea level rise. The experiment allows them to test whether land ice and/or sea ice contribute to sea level rise as they melt.

This demonstration shows how water absorbs more heat than air. The corollary that is made is that the oceans are absorbing a lot of the heat related to climate change. The video tutorial shows an engaging demonstration that teachers can do live in their classrooms as part of a larger lesson/discussion about global warming. The video itself also includes an animation of how greenhouse gases contribute to global warming and concludes by mentioning simple solutions for students.

In this lab activity, students investigate how to prepare a biofuel source for conversion to a combustible product. The activity models how raw materials are refined to process liquid fuels.

Students act out 4 different molecules (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor) to discover which ones are greenhouse gases and which ones are not.

This is a kinesthetic activity that demonstrates how shortwave radiation emitted by the sun and longwave thermal radiation emitted by the earth interact differently in the atmosphere. It allows students to experience this difference and reinforces their understanding of greenhouse gases as well. Students should have an understanding of shortwave and longwave thermal radiation and of greenhouse gases before doing this activity, but there is a minimal amount of background information about those topics included in this pdf. Additional resources and background information for teachers can be found on the website for the Little Shop of Physics.