Option 1: Investigate ambient CO2 levels in your region and in your school. Many Public Health offices have CO2 monitoring devices they can loan to schools. You can also purchase CO2 monitoring devices from science supply vendors.
Option 2: Develop and conduct a survey of your school community to learn what students and parents understand and believe about climate change. Analyze how student responses differ from parent responses and look for other patterns and trends.
Option 3: Play Greenhouse Gas Tag to explore the concept of greenhouse gasses. Choose one student to be Earth, one to be Sun, 10 to be Heat, and five to be Greenhouse Gases. The Heats are allowed to travel to Earth from Sun, but may be tagged by Greenhouse Gases when they try to leave Earth (this keeps them close to Earth, thus warming it). Add more Greenhouse Gases to see what happens. After the simulation, ask students to draw pictures and write an explanation of what they observed.
See Additional Resources for more ideas to enrich this activity.
