Discover Your Changing World with NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
An Activity Book

The Discover Your Changing World with NOAA Activity Book was compiled and developed 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

The assistance and expertise of NOAA scientists and educators in reviewing this text is gratefully acknowledged.

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

---

Introduction

How does the sun power Earth's climate system?

How do the ocean, ice, clouds, and atmospheric gases affect how the Sun's energy impacts Earth?

How have plants, animals, and humans influenced Earth's climate?

How might Earth's changing climate affect plants, animals, and humans?

What tools do scientists use to monitor weather, and how is the data from those tools used to forecast weather and climate?

What does it mean to be climate-literate?

A climate-literate person understands the basic principles of Earth's climate system. He or she knows how to find and use scientifically accurate information about climate, and is able to make informed, responsible decisions about actions that may affect it.

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

Climate Science Literacy means understanding both your influence on climate and climate's influence on you and society.

Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science

1. The sun is the primary source of energy for Earth's climate system.
2. Climate is regulated by complex interactions among components of the Earth system.
3. Life on Earth depends on, is shaped by, and affects climate.
4. Climate varies over space and time through both natural and human-caused processes.
5. Our understanding of the climate system improves through observation, theoretical study, and modeling.
6. Human activities are affecting the climate system.
7. Climate change will have consequences for the Earth system and for human life.

For more information, see: www.climate.gov

---

When we talk about Earth's climate, we're essentially talking about the effects of energy from the Sun — and how much of that energy reaches different places on Earth. This energy heats Earth's land, ocean, and atmosphere. Strong winds and large ocean currents result from heat moving from warm regions, like the Equator, toward colder regions, like the North and South Poles. In other words, some of the Sun's heat energy gets converted into motion energy. A Solar Heat Engine is a device you can build that does the same thing: it turns heat energy from the Sun into motion.

How It Works

Many plastics shrink when heated. This engine uses strips of plastic attached to a flywheel (a rotating disk that stores motion energy) mounted on a drum that spins on an axle. When one plastic strip is exposed to sunlight, it shrinks and pulls the flywheel off-center, causing the drum to rotate. As the drum turns, another strip is exposed to the sun, and the motion continues. Meanwhile, the strips that rotate into the drum's shadow cool down and stretch back out.

What You Will Need

• Adult partner
• 1 black plastic trash bag
• 2 Styrofoam cups, 16 oz. capacity
• 1 wood dowel, about ¼-inch diameter
• 1 Styrofoam freezer tray
• 2 straight sewing pins
• 1 plastic lid (from a yogurt, margarine, or similar container), about 4 inches in diameter
• 2 metal food cans, tops completely removed
• Masking tape
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun (low temperature)
• Metal file
• Ruler
• Drawing compass
• Unsharpened pencil
• Sharp knife
• Gloves (for protection while using the knife)

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

How to Do It

Note: Complete this activity with adult supervision.

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

1. Stretch each plastic strip by holding one end in each hand — gripping tightly between your fingertips and the base of your palm — and slowly pulling until the strip is a little more than twice its original length and about one inch wide. Some strips will probably tear, since garbage bags aren't perfectly uniform, so work slowly and be patient. Once you have six stretched strips, trim about two inches off each end (the unstretched parts you were holding).

1. Measure the diameter of the small and large ends of a Styrofoam cup. Using a compass, draw two circles at the small diameter and one circle at the large diameter on the Styrofoam freezer tray. (Use a compass rather than tracing around the cup so you'll know exactly where the center of each circle is.) Carefully cut out the circles with a sharp knife — wear gloves.

1. Build the Fixed Cup Assembly: Poke a hole in the bottom of one Styrofoam cup the same diameter as your wood dowel. Poke a matching hole in the center of the large Styrofoam circle and in the center of one small circle. Glue these circles to the large and small ends of the cup. Slide the dowel through both holes in the cup, leaving about one inch extending past the large end. Glue both ends of the dowel in place, and add extra glue around the dowel at the small end to form a smooth, rounded bump — this will act as a pivot point that lets the Wobble Cup wobble.

1. Build the Wobble Cup Assembly: Poke a hole in the bottom of the remaining Styrofoam cup — slightly larger than the dowel's diameter, so the cup can wobble freely on it. Poke a matching hole in the center of the remaining small circle, then glue that circle to the small end of the cup.

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

1. Slide the Wobble Cup Assembly onto the dowel so the small ends of the two cups face each other closely. Use masking tape to temporarily center the Wobble Cup on the dowel. Then glue the loose ends of the plastic strips onto the Styrofoam circle on the Fixed Cup Assembly. Keep the strips taut when gluing, but not so tight that they pull the Wobble Cup off-center.

1. Cut a one-inch hole in the center of the plastic lid (carefully, with gloves). Remove the masking tape and glue the lid onto the large end of the Wobble Cup Assembly, making sure the hole is centered on the dowel. Push a sewing pin into each end of the dowel. Your engine is complete!

1. File a small notch into the rim of each metal can. Position the cans so the sewing pin at each end of the dowel rests in a notch. Test the engine's balance by spinning it slowly — if one side feels heavy, add sewing pins to the opposite Styrofoam circle until it balances.

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

Challenge

How could you increase the power of this type of solar heat engine?

Think About It

Would strips cut from a white plastic bag work as well as strips from a black bag? When choosing the color of plastic for a heat engine like this, does it matter how well that color reflects or absorbs heat?

Your Solar Heat Engine is really just a model — it isn't powerful enough to do much real work. But can you think of ways to make it useful anyway? Here's one idea: draw a line with a permanent marker at one point on the edge of the flywheel (the plastic lid). This lets you count how many times it spins around. You could find out how clouds affect the amount of solar heat reaching your engine by counting its revolutions per minute on a cloudy day and comparing that to a clear day. You could also measure revolutions at different times of day to see when solar heat energy is strongest, or compare results 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: differences in the amount of solar energy reaching different latitudes are one of the major factors controlling climate.