Discover Your Changing World with NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
An Activity Book

The Discover Your Changing World with NOAA Activity Book
was put together under the direction of the Project Working Group:
Bruce Moravchik - NOAA Ocean Service
Peg Steffen - NOAA Ocean Service
Frank Niepold - NOAA Climate Program Office
LuAnn Dahlman - NOAA Climate Program Office

Written and Edited by Mel Goodwin, PhD, Charleston, SC
Design and Layout by Sandy Goodwin, Coastal Images Graphic Design, Mount Pleasant, SC

Thank you to the NOAA scientists and educators who helped review this book.

To see and download these activities, visit: oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/discoverclimate
For more information on climate, climate change science, data, and lessons, visit: www.climate.gov

Introduction

How does the Sun power Earth's climate system?

How do the ocean, ice, clouds, and gases in the air change the way the Sun's energy affects Earth?

How have plants, animals, and people changed Earth's climate?

How might a changing climate affect plants, animals, and people?

What tools do scientists use to track weather, and how do they use that information to predict weather and climate?

What is a climate-literate person? (Someone who understands climate well.)

• They understand how Earth's climate system works.
• They know how to find and use accurate scientific information about climate.
• They can make smart, responsible choices about actions that might affect climate.

These activities will introduce you to Earth's climate system — what changes it, what happens because of those changes, and what you can do to keep exploring, understanding, and protecting our Earth.

Have Fun!

Table of Contents

• Activity 1: The Great Glowing Orb (Make a Solar Heat Engine) — page 2
• Activity 2: The Climate Team (Make a Solar Cooker) — page 6
• Activity 3: Climate Is Our Friend…Isn't It? (Make an Extinction Polyhedron) — page 10
• Activity 4: Climate, Weather…What's the Difference? (Make an Electronic Temperature Sensor) — page 14
• Activity 5: How Do We Know? (Make more weather sensors and set up a home weather station) — page 17
• Activity 6: I Didn't Do It…Did I? (Make Your Own Greenhouse Effect) — page 22
• Activity 7: Why Should I Care? (Show how extra carbon dioxide makes the ocean more acidic) — page 26
• Activity 8: Are You Climate Literate? (Play the Essential Principles Challenge) — page 28
• Activity 9: Communicate! (Create your own message about climate change) — page 35
• Activity 10: The Incredible Carbon Journey (Play the Carbon Journey Game) — page 38

Climate Science Literacy means understanding how you affect climate, and how climate affects you and your community.

Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science

1. The Sun is the main source of energy for Earth's climate system.
2. Climate is controlled by many different parts of Earth working together.
3. Life on Earth depends on climate, is shaped by climate, and also affects climate.
4. Climate changes across different places and times, both naturally and because of human activity.
5. We understand the climate system better through observations, scientific studies, and computer models.
6. Human activities are affecting the climate system.
7. Climate change will affect Earth and human lives.

For more information, see: www.climate.gov

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Activity 1: The Great, Glowing Orb

Climate Science Principle 1: The Sun is the main source of energy for Earth's climate system.

What You Will Do: Make a Solar Heat Engine

When we talk about Earth's climate, we're really talking about energy from the Sun — and how much of that energy reaches different places on Earth. This energy heats Earth's land, ocean, and atmosphere (the layer of air around our planet). Strong winds and big ocean currents happen because heat moves from warm places, like the Equator, to colder places, like the North and South Poles. So some of the Sun's heat energy turns into motion energy.

A Solar Heat Engine is a tool you can build that also turns heat energy from the Sun into motion energy.

How It Works

Many plastics shrink when heated. This engine uses strips of plastic attached to a flywheel (a spinning wheel) mounted on a drum that can turn on an axle (a rod it spins around). When sunlight hits one plastic strip, the strip shrinks and pulls the flywheel off-center. This pulls the drum around. As the drum turns, another strip is exposed to the sun, and the motion keeps going. When the strips move into the drum's shadow, they cool off and stretch back out again.

How to Do It

Note: Do this activity with an adult's help.

What You Will Need:

• An adult partner
• 1 black plastic trash bag
• 2 Styrofoam cups (16 oz size)
• 1 wood dowel (about 1/4-inch thick)
• 1 Styrofoam freezer tray
• 2 straight sewing pins
• 1 plastic lid (like from yogurt or margarine), about 4 inches across
• 2 metal food cans with the tops completely removed
• Masking tape
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun (low temperature)
• Metal file
• Ruler
• Drawing compass
• Unsharpened pencil
• Sharp knife
• Gloves for safety while using the knife

(Adapted from Strahl, 2007; instructables.com/id/Solar-Thermal-Motor/)

Steps:

1. Lay the garbage bag flat on a large surface, like the floor. Cut it into strips about 3 inches wide and 10 inches long. You need 8 strips for your engine, but cut a few extra for practice.

1. Stretch each plastic strip by holding one end in each hand, gripping tightly with your fingers and palm. Slowly stretch the strip until it's a little more than twice as long and about 1 inch wide. Some strips may break since garbage bags aren't perfect — go slowly and be patient. Once you have 6 stretched strips, cut about 2 inches off each end (the parts you held, which didn't stretch).

1. Measure across the small end and the large end of a Styrofoam cup. Use your compass to draw two circles the size of the small end and one circle the size of the large end, on the Styrofoam freezer tray. Use a compass instead of tracing around the cup so you'll know exactly where the center of each circle is. Cut out the circles with a sharp knife. Be careful and wear gloves!

1. Prepare the Fixed Cup Assembly: Make a hole in the bottom of one Styrofoam cup that matches the width of your wood dowel. Make a matching hole in the center of the large circle and in the center of one small circle from Step 3. Glue these circles onto the large and small ends of the cup with hot glue. Push the wood dowel through both holes in the cup, letting about 1 inch stick out past the large end. Use hot glue on both ends to hold the dowel in place. Add extra glue around the dowel at the small end to make a smooth, rounded bump — this will be the pivot point that lets the Wobble Cup wobble.

1. Prepare the Wobble Cup Assembly: Make a hole in the bottom of your other Styrofoam cup, slightly bigger than the dowel's width, so the cup can wobble freely on the dowel. Make a matching hole in the center of the last small circle from Step 3. Glue the small circle onto the small end of this cup.

1. Put a 1-inch line of hot glue along the inside rim of the Wobble Cup. Place the end of one plastic strip onto the glue, using a pencil to hold it steady until the glue sets. Glue 7 more strips around the rim the same way, spacing them evenly with about 1/4 inch between each strip.

1. Slide the Wobble Cup onto the dowel so the small ends of both cups are close together. Use masking tape to temporarily hold the Wobble Cup centered on the dowel. Glue the loose ends of the plastic strips onto the Styrofoam circle on the Fixed Cup. Make sure the strips are tight when you glue them — but not so tight that they pull the Wobble Cup off-center.

1. Cut a 1-inch hole in the center of the plastic lid (be careful and wear gloves!). Remove the masking tape and glue the lid onto the large end of the Wobble Cup, making sure the hole lines up with the wood dowel. Push a sewing pin into each end of the dowel. Your engine is finished!

1. Use a metal file to cut a small notch into the rim of each metal can. Space the cans so the sewing pin at each end of the dowel rests in a notch. Test the balance by slowly spinning the engine. If one side feels heavy, add sewing pins to the Styrofoam circle on the lighter side until it balances.

1. Put your finished engine in the sun and watch it spin!

Challenge

How could you make this type of solar heat engine more powerful?

Think About It

Would strips cut from a white plastic bag work as well as strips from a black plastic bag? Should you think about how heat reflects (bounces off) and absorbs (soaks in) when choosing the color of your plastic strips?

Your Solar Heat Engine is really just a model — it's not powerful enough to do much real work. But can you think of a way it could still be useful? Here's an idea: Draw a line on one spot on the edge of the flywheel (the plastic lid) with a permanent marker. Now you can count how many times the engine spins around. You could find out how clouds change the amount of heat energy your engine receives by counting spins per minute on a cloudy day, then comparing that to a clear day. You could also count spins at different times during the day to see when the most solar heat energy arrives. You could even compare spins across different seasons — just be sure to measure at the same time each day!

If you could run your Solar Heat Engine in two places at once, do you think it would spin faster in Northern Canada or Southern Florida? Hint: The amount of solar energy that reaches different latitudes (distances from the Equator) is one of the biggest things that controls climate.