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

Thanks go to the NOAA scientists and educators who reviewed this text.

To view and download these activities, visit: oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/discoverclimate
For more on climate science, climate change impacts, data, and other resources, visit: www.climate.gov

Introduction

How does the Sun power Earth's climate system?

How do the ocean, ice, clouds, and gases in the atmosphere 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?

A climate-literate person understands how Earth's climate system works. They know how to find and use trustworthy, science-based information about climate. And they can make smart, responsible choices about actions that might affect the climate.

These activities will introduce you to Earth's climate system — the forces that drive it and change it, the effects of those changes, and what you can do to keep exploring, understanding, and protecting our planet.

Have fun!

Table of Contents

• Activity 1: The Great Glowing Orb (Build a Solar Heat Engine) — page 2
• Activity 2: The Climate Team (Build a Solar Cooker) — page 6
• Activity 3: Climate Is Our Friend… Isn't It? (Build an Extinction Polyhedron) — page 10
• Activity 4: Climate, Weather… What's the Difference? (Build an Electronic Temperature Sensor) — page 14
• Activity 5: How Do We Know? (Build more weather sensors and set up a home weather station) — page 17
• Activity 6: I Didn't Do It… Did I? (Create 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 society.

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 complicated interactions between different parts of the Earth system.
3. Life on Earth depends on climate, is shaped by it, and also affects it.
4. Climate changes across both place and time, through natural processes and human activity.
5. Scientists improve their understanding of the climate system through observation, research, and computer models.
6. Human activities are affecting the climate system.
7. Climate change will have consequences for the Earth system and for human lives.

For more information, visit: www.climate.gov

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Activity 1: The Great, Glowing Orb

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

What You Will Do: Build 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 parts of our planet. This energy heats Earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere. Strong winds and large ocean currents happen because heat moves from warm places, like the Equator, toward colder places, like the North and South Poles. In other words, some of the Sun's heat energy turns into motion energy.

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

How It Works

Many types of plastic shrink when they're heated. This engine uses strips of plastic attached to a spinning wheel, called a flywheel, which is mounted on a drum that can rotate around an axle (a rod it spins on). When sunlight hits one of the plastic strips, the strip shrinks and pulls the flywheel off-center. This pull makes the drum rotate. As the drum turns, a different plastic strip moves into the sunlight, and the motion keeps going. Meanwhile, the strips that move into the drum's shadow cool down and stretch back out to their original length.

What You Will Need

• An adult partner
• 1 black plastic trash bag
• 2 Styrofoam cups (16 oz.)
• 1 wooden dowel, about ¼ inch across
• 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
• A low-temperature hot glue gun
• A metal file
• A ruler
• A drawing compass
• An unsharpened pencil
• A sharp knife
• Gloves for protection while using the knife

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

How to Do It

Note: This activity should be done with adult supervision.

1. Lay the garbage bag flat on a large surface (the floor works fine) and cut it into strips about 3 inches wide and 10 inches long. You'll need 8 strips for your engine, but cut a few extras for practice.

2. Stretch each plastic strip by holding one end in each hand, gripping it firmly between your fingertips and the base of your palm. Slowly pull the strip until it's a little more than twice its original length and about 1 inch wide. Some strips will probably tear, since garbage bags aren't perfectly even — just be patient and go slowly. Once you have six good stretched strips, cut about 2 inches off each end (the parts you were holding, which didn't get stretched).

3. Measure the width of 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 onto the Styrofoam freezer tray. Using a compass instead of tracing around the cup helps you mark the exact center of each circle. Carefully cut out the circles with the sharp knife. (Wear gloves and be careful!)

4. Build the Fixed Cup: Poke a hole in the bottom of one Styrofoam cup that matches the width of your wooden dowel. Poke a similar hole through the center of the large circle and one small circle from Step 3. Glue these circles to the large and small ends of the cup. Slide the dowel through both holes so about 1 inch sticks out past the large end. Glue both ends of the dowel in place. At the small end, add extra glue around the dowel to form a smooth, rounded bump — this will act as a pivot point for the other cup to wobble around.

5. Build the Wobble Cup: Poke a hole in the bottom of the remaining Styrofoam cup — make it slightly bigger than the dowel so the cup can wobble freely. Poke a matching hole in the center of the last small circle, then glue that circle onto the small end of this cup.

6. Run a 1-inch line of hot glue along the inside rim of the Wobble Cup, and press one end of a plastic strip onto the glue. Hold it in place with an unsharpened pencil until the glue sets. Repeat with the rest of the strips, spacing all eight evenly around the rim with about a ¼-inch gap between them.

7. Slide the Wobble Cup onto the dowel so the small ends of both cups sit close together. Use masking tape to temporarily hold the Wobble Cup centered on the dowel. Then glue the loose ends of the plastic strips onto the Styrofoam circle at the small end of the Fixed Cup. Make sure the strips are pulled snug when you glue them, but not so tight that they drag the Wobble Cup off-center.

8. Carefully cut a 1-inch hole in the center of the plastic lid (wear gloves!). Remove the masking tape, then glue the lid onto the large end of the Wobble Cup, making sure the hole lines up with the dowel. Push a sewing pin into each end of the dowel. Your engine is complete!

9. Use the metal file to cut a small notch into the rim of each can. Set the cans apart so the sewing pins on each end of the dowel can rest in the notches. Spin the engine gently to test its balance. If one side seems heavier, add sewing pins to the opposite side of the flywheel until it balances.

10. Place your finished engine in the sunlight — and watch it spin!

Challenge

How could you make this solar heat engine more powerful?

Think About It

Would strips cut from a white plastic bag work as well as strips from a black one? Should you think about how different colors reflect or absorb heat when choosing plastic for this kind of engine?

Your Solar Heat Engine is really just a model — it's not strong enough to do much real work. But can you think of ways to use it for something useful? Here's one idea: draw a line on the edge of the flywheel (the plastic lid) with a permanent marker. This lets you count how many times it spins around.

You could test how clouds affect the amount of solar energy reaching your engine by counting its spins during one minute on a cloudy day, then comparing that to a clear day. You could also count spins at different times of day to find when solar energy is strongest, or compare spins across different seasons — just be sure to measure at the same time each day for fair results!

If you set up two identical engines — one in Northern Canada and one in Southern Florida — which do you think would spin faster? Hint: Differences in how much solar energy reaches different latitudes (distances from the Equator) is one of the biggest factors that shapes climate.