Project title: The Greenhouse effect and its consequences.

Team: Climate Rangers

Somercotes Academy   Louth   United Kingdom   7 Student’s age: 12-13 years old, 14-15 years old

What is the greenhouse effect and how does human activity change the energy balance in the Earth’s atmosphere?

What the greenhouse effect is and how human activity changes the energy balance in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The potential effects of increased levels of carbon dioxide on the Earth’s climate.
Possible consequences of the increased greenhouse effect.
The different consequences of flooding and rising sea water level due to melting sea-ice and melting ice sheets and glaciers.
What albedo is and how the reflectivity of different surfaces affect temperature.
How Earth observation can be used to monitor Earth’s climate.
Students will conduct experiments to achieve their learning objectives. They will first create a model to using heat lamps and baking soda to produce carbon dioxide. They will test to see if the production of carbon dioxide does increase the temperature of the atmosphere. In a second hands on experiment students will look at the differences between land and sea ice and determine how this will affect the rise in global sea levels. As the school is in a coastal area, we will look at how the rising sea levels may directly affect the school and the surrounding villages in the future. For a third experiment the students will learn what albedo is and how this can affect the Earth’s climate. They will measure the temperature changes in different reflective surfaces.
The students will collect the date from these experiments and collate them into tables and graphs. Pupils will use their data to compare to the satellite-derived data collected by the ESA for the Earth as a whole.
Students will share their project with the school via a notice board which has been allocated to them within the Science department. They will also share their findings with the with the climate change detective community and determine the best course of actions that could be taken using their findings.

Figure 1 shows the results of the first experiment we conducted. We used heat lamps to replicate the heat from the sun and baking soda to produce carbon dioxide. We tested to see if the temperature of the atmosphere increases the production of carbon dioxide. The experiment concluded that the temperature of the atmosphere made the production of carbon dioxide increase compared to the control flask.
The second experiment we conducted (fig.2) we looked at the differences between land and sea ice to determine how this will effect the rise in global sea levels. As the school is in a coastal area, we looked at how the sea levels may directly affect the school and the surrounding villages in the future. We determined that land water (tap water) melted quicker than the sea water ice we collected from the north sea.
For third experiment (fig.3) we learnt about albedo and how it affects the Earths climate. We measured the temperature changes in different reflective surfaces. We collected the data from the experiments into the table (fig.3) and used this to compare to the satellite-derived data collected by the ESA for the earth as a whole. The darker reflective surfaces we tested absorbed more heat (became hotter over time).

Based on our results, if you look at fig 3 it shows that changing the colours of structures and daily objects to more reflective colours like white will decrease the temperature, as the heat will be reflected back out. If we decrease the temperature then the production of carbon dioxide will decrease as well.
To decrease the production of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere you could do bike rides or shorter journeys in cars/ car share. This will also be good for the health of people too.
We determined that the thing of all the things that we tested the albedo made the biggest impact on the environment.

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