Teaching Climate Change with Experiments
Authors: Ginoudi Athina 
Published: March 2020

&lt;p&gt;Climate change is a complex subject for teachers because it involves many variables interrelated over time and it needs an interdisciplinary approach. This is the reason that teachers are reluctant to introduce climate change topics in their classrooms despite the fact that they recognize their importance. In this paper we propose an innovative model to help science teachers of secondary education to teach climate change by doing experiments that a) fit very well to the national science curriculum and b) demonstrate the basic principles and phenomena behind climate change. The experiments are low cost and easy to be developed in the school science labs.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the teachers training workshops we organized in our district we presented the experiments, along with the supportive educational material, so that teachers can introduce the science of the anthropogenic climate change by using inquiring based learning techniques. Emphasis is given to alter the misconceptions of students. Worksheets with guided questions were prepared to help students explore the topics and clarify the basic science behind.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The topics that are investigated during this experimental educational project are:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&amp;#160;The greenhouse effect and the role of CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; as greenhouse gas: experiments with i) measuring the temperatures of air and CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; in plastic bottles as they are heated by electric lamps and ii) measuring the temperatures of air in two boxes, an open one and a second covered with transparent plastic wrap.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The continental and sea ice melting and the consequences: experiment by studying a simple construction that represents land rising out of the ocean (made with 2 plastic tubs, water, ice and clay). In this way students come up with conclusions about the importance of continental ice.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&amp;#160;The Albedo effect: experiment in which students measure temperatures inside two different boxes (one dark and one light) and brainstorm about the importance of Earth&amp;#8217;s ice and about clounds.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&amp;#160;The water circulation in the oceans and the oceanic streams: by different experiments, studying the water density as a function of temperature and salinity and the corresponding water flow in different mixtures.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&amp;#160;The acidification of the oceans and the consequences for the living organisms: Students conduct a set of acid-base experiments to see what could happen to the pH of the ocean as carbon dioxide levels rise in the atmosphere and in a follow up activity they work on the chemical reaction of CaCO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; with an acid. Then they reflect on the scientific processes of the&amp;#160;effect of global warming on coral reefs and other oceanic organisms.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the workshop teachers expressed their wiliness to include the above approach in their teaching practice as they feel comfortable to teach well-understood and noncontroversial areas of science according to the official instructions.&lt;/p&gt;