In this lesson, students learned the difference between weather and climate, and how the atmosphere protects us from harmful UV rays.
We also explored how greenhouse gases in the atmosphere act like the glass on garden greenhouse, reflecting some of the sun’s radiation back to Earth and keeping us a nice warm average 18 degrees Celsius. The Earth acts like a natural scale to keep these gases balanced, but as humans add more and more Greenhouse Gases, most notably carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere the scale starts to tip.
The class saw this played out by wrapping more and more blankets around a lucky volunteer, warming him up until he protested. This led to a practical discussion on possible solutions to combatting climate change.
