Understanding Climate Change

Lab Brief #6

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

The slowest changes are the biggest ones.

What you'll learn

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns. Human activities, especially burning fossil fuels, have increased greenhouse gases and accelerated warming.

Key words

weathering
When rocks slowly break apart from wind, water, and weather.
fossil
The preserved remains or print of a plant or animal from long ago.
climate
The usual weather in a place over many years.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: which will erode faster?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

water
plastic tray

⚠️ Safety first

Mop up spills straight away so nobody slips, and keep liquids away from sockets.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Create a model of the water cycle in a bowl: place warm water in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, put ice on top, and observe condensation and precipitation.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Look for patterns in your observations.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Make a graph or chart showing your results.

Question 1 of 3

What is the difference between weather and climate?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

What is the greenhouse effect?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What causes weathering?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🪨 Every grain of sand on every beach used to be a mountain.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: How Tsunamis Form All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Today's weather, tomorrow's beach, next century's coastline — all this.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Look at the sky for 5 minutes and try to predict tomorrow's weather.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

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Understanding Climate Change

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