Integrated STEM Activity #3: Greenhouse Effect

This week is Earth Day! To celebrate, I will be posting activities that have to do with our wonderful, life-sustaining, and sometimes challenging planet.

Today’s activity is to learn about the greenhouse effect and create a model using materials found at home. Students can learn at their own level. They can even find examples of the greenhouse effect in their own homes!

Integrated STEM Activity #3: Greenhouse Effect

The general idea of the activity is to have kids learn about the greenhouse effect and model it. Essentially, they will be designing their own laboratory experiment! You may want to identify and prepare building materials available ahead of time, or incorporate those decisions into the activity. The discussion questions below can guide you through the activity. It might be helpful to choose the discussion questions that are most suitable and prepare some answers or resources before beginning the activity. This can help keep the activity moving forward, without preventing your kid from steering it in their own direction.

If you are stumped on finding a way to model the greenhouse effect, this activity provides an example that you can adapt or follow directly.

A covered treehouse or platform on a playset is great for modeling the greenhouse effect! Did you ever notice that it gets so much hotter inside the treehouse than outside by the end of a warm day?

Preschool and Elementary:

Science: What do you do to stay warm when you go outside? What is a greenhouse and how does it work? How can Earth’s atmosphere act like a jacket or a greenhouse? What is a greenhouse gas? What activities in your life produce greenhouse gases?

Technology: How can we learn about the greenhouse effect? What technology is used to study the Earth and its atmosphere? How can we measure greenhouse gasses? What technology creates greenhouse gases? What technology helps reduce greenhouse gases? How do we know whether we are looking at a reliable source? 

Engineering: What materials can we find to model the greenhouse effect? How can we hold our model together? How can we measure the effects of the greenhouse effect in our model? What works about our model? What can we improve about our model?

Math: What materials do we need for our model? How could we create a model with even less material? How much did the greenhouse effect change the temperature in our model? How much greenhouse gas is in the atmosphere? How much warmer is the Earth due to the greenhouse effect? 

Middle School and High School:

Science: What is a greenhouse and how does it work? How can Earth’s atmosphere act like a greenhouse? What is a greenhouse gas? What activities in your life produce greenhouse gases? How does Earth’s absorption of sunlight play a part in the greenhouse effect? What evidence do scientists have of the greenhouse effect on Earth currently and throughout Earth’s history?

Technology: How can we learn about the greenhouse effect? What technology is used to study the Earth and its atmosphere? How can we measure greenhouse gasses? What technology creates greenhouse gases? What technology helps reduce greenhouse gases? How do we know whether we are looking at a reliable source? 

Engineering: What materials can we find to model the greenhouse effect? How does our model accurately represent the greenhouse effect? In what ways is our model inaccurate or misleading? How can we improve our model? How can we reduce our production of greenhouse gases?

Math: What materials do we need for our model? How could we create a model with even less material? What is the scale of our model? What would it cost to build a better model? What would it cost to scale up the model for a museum exhibit? How much did the greenhouse effect change the temperature in our model? How much greenhouse gas is in the atmosphere? How much warmer is the Earth due to the greenhouse effect?