Green house effect notes

In this activity, students check and clarify their understanding of the greenhouse effect by drawing and comparing diagrams. After observing a teacher demonstration, students work independently and then in collaborationwith a partner to share and evaluate their ideas and agree a joint view. They then compare their view with the ideas of other pairs of students. This activity is best used to consolidate and to check on learning after students have spent some time on this topic. Learning objectives Students will: • Understand the cause of the greenhouse effect. Sequence of activities Demonstration • Begin with the Classic chemistry demonstrations, number 68), emphasising the observed temperature changes but without providing an explanation at this stage. • Invite students to say what phenomenon is illustrated by the demonstration and then share the learning objective with them. Activity: stage 1 • Hand out a copy of the ’Student sheet’ to each student. • Ask them to draw, by themselves, an annotated diagram to explain the greenhouse effect. Activity: stage 2 Divide students into pairs. Ask them to • Compare their diagrams. • Justify their ideas, where there are differences. • Agree a common diagram which they draw on an OHT or produce a PowerPoint slide. Plenary • Bring together students in a plenary. Ask: • One group to show and explain their diagram to the class using an OHP or a data projector. • Other groups to add to it (from their own diagram) until all key points have...

About these notes: This document uses the interactive IPython notebook format (now also called Jupyter). The notes can be accessed in several different ways: • The interactive notebooks are hosted on github at • The latest versions can be viewed as static web pages • A complete snapshot of the notes as of May 2015 (end of spring semester) are Many of these notes make use of the climlab package, available at