Eva Marina Homeschools

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Earth Day | Follow-up 2

A little late, but here it goes.  I’ve decided to focus on Earth and Space for science next year.  I thought I would use Earth Day as a sort of introduction into Earth Science.  We saw a documentary about the natural wonders of the world on Netflix (sorry, can’t remember the name).  We also read Usborne’s See Inside the Planet Earth by Alex Frith.  We picked up the April issue of Click magazine, which was devoted entirely to Recycling.  (Although, truth be told we haven’t read it yet, hopefully soon.)  I found a really good experiment in the book Catch the Wind, Harness the Sun: 22 Super-Charged Projects for Kids by Michael J. Caduto.



This was a very simple project.  Simply cut the top off of two plastic bottles.  Place a thermometer inside each bottle and tightly cover one of them with clear plastic.  Place both bottles next to each other in the sun.  Monitor the temperature of both throughout the day.  Make sure to continue the experiment late into the evening.  Do you think there will be a difference in the temperature within each container?  What do you think will happen once night falls?


This experiment is meant to emulate Global Warming.  The sun’s heat does not escape properly in the covered bottle.  I left the bottles out all day.  I checked the temperature when I brought them in at night and had Ignacio fill in the final data the following morning.  He had a lot of fun checking in on the thermometers.

Disclaimer: Please excuse my dirty garden window; I’m too short to reach the glass.  :)

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