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Weather is the state of the air over hours or days. Climate is the average weather of a place, usually measured over 30 years: how warm, how wet, how often it is above 30 °C.

The world has five main climate zones: tropical, dry, temperate, continental and polar. Which zone a place is in depends mostly on its latitude (how far it is from the equator), but also on how far it is from the sea and how high it is.

The greenhouse effect: sunlight passes through the air and warms the ground. The ground gives off heat, and gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour trap some of it. This keeps the Earth warm enough for life.

Experiment: Land ice or sea ice: which raises the sea?

1. In container A, build a 'land' of clay or a stone at one side that sticks out above the water. Container B has no land.
2. Pour the same amount of water into both containers.
3. In A, put 4 ice cubes ON the land (land ice). In B, put 4 ice cubes floating in the water (sea ice).
4. Mark the water level on both containers straight away.
5. Wait until all the ice has melted. Mark the new water levels and measure how much each one changed in millimetres.
6. Fair test: same containers, same amount of water, same number and size of ice cubes, same place.

Container	Start level (mm)	End level (mm)	Change (mm)
A: ice on land
B: floating ice

Questions

1. Draw and label the greenhouse effect: the Sun, sunlight, the ground, the heat and the greenhouse gases.

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2. Name two pieces of evidence that the Earth is warming.

3. In the experiment, which container's water level went up? Explain why.

4. Why is the greenhouse effect needed for life, and why does extra carbon dioxide change the climate?

Sources for every fact on this sheet: echoesof.science/school/climate/sources/

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