Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
UNIT: Energy
LESSON # 3
TITLE: A Model Greenhouse
Summary: This lesson deals with heating in an
NASA Source:
Grade level:
Time:
Children
Learning
Outcomes:
actual greenhouse. The Greenhouse
effect discussed in connection with
global warming uses what happens in an
actual greenhouse as a metaphor for
what carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases do to warm the Earth.
This lesson gives children an experience
of what happens in a model greenhouse
so that they can better understand that
metaphor.
Adapted from NASA “Visit to an Ocean
Planet”
<http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/Ocean_Planet
/activities/ts1hiac1.pdf> and
Education.com’s “Hot Box: What is the
Greenhouse Effect?”
<http://www.education.com/sciencefair/article/physical-science_hot-box/>
3-5
Total time: 70 minutes
Snack & introduction:
15 minutes
Greenhouse activity:
45 minutes
Journal and cleanup:
10 minutes
Children will learn that:
 Plants need light.
 The temperature in a greenhouse gets
higher than the surrounding area.
 The greenhouse gets hotter because it
traps the heat inside.
Children will engage in and thereby
strengthen a number of scientific
practices such as:
 Measuring temperature.
 Inferring that heat energy is trapped
inside the greenhouse.
Children will be able to (cultural goals):
 Relate overall science learning goals
to the context of their schools,
Materials:
for plants need light revisited
Item
Plants
partially
covered with
paper from
Lesson 2
Quantity per
trio
1
for model greenhouse
Item
Quantity per
trio
Clear plastic
2
storage boxes
to cover the
bottom of the
Potting soil
boxes to
about 3 cm
Thermometer
2
2 pieces about
Cardboard
half the length
of the box
Clear plastic
to cover both
wrap
boxes
Heat lamp or
100 watt bulb
in a desk
1
lamp or clamp
light
Word Wall:
Include following words in
discussion (in both English and
Spanish), orally defined in
understandable terms, and
Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
Big Questions:
Lesson format:
National
Standards
Addressed:
families, and community.
 Communicate ideas, collaborate with
other children, and learn in a
personally meaningful way.
 What happens to plants when they do
not get light?
 How does it get hotter in a
greenhouse?
Multimedia presentation, discussion and
hands-on activity.
This activity relates to the following
standards from the Next Generation
Science Standards:
visibly displayed. If possible,
project a large image of the
words (and associated pictures)
on the wall of the teaching area.
 Greenhouse
• Efecto
invernadero
 Thermometer • Termómetro
 Sunlight
• Sol
• Temperature • Temperatura
2-LS2-1. Plan and conduct an
investigation to determine if plants
need sunlight and water to grow.
MS-PS1-4. Develop a model that predicts
and describes changes in particle
motion, temperature, and state of a
pure substance when thermal energy is
added or removed.
DIRECTIONS:
Overview: This session involves three parts and one take-home activity:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Introduce the lesson.
Children examine and discuss plant experiment from Lesson 2.
Children build and test model greenhouse.
Instruction for Take-home Kit/activity.
Steps:
LESSON INTRODUCTION (10 minutes)
At the beginning of the session (during snack, if you provided), ask the children if they
know what a greenhouse is. If someone does, have them share their idea. In either case, you
can say that people use greenhouses to grow plants. The light from the sun heats the
greenhouse and the structure helps keep it warm. After examining their plant experiment
from Lesson 2, they will build a model greenhouse to help understand how it works.
LESSON LEARNING TASKS (55 minutes)
Revisit Plants Need Light Experiment (10 minutes)
Start by reminding children that last week we asked, “What happens if plants do not get
sunlight?” Now we can look at our experiments to see what happened.
Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
Procedure
 Remove the paper clips and pieces of black construction paper. What do the leaves
look like? What color are they? What do you think happened?
 Have children draw pictures of what they see.
Listen as children discuss their experiment, what they observed, and draw conclusions
on what they think happened to leaves when they were covered up and then uncovered.
Encourage them to use terms including sunlight, energy, chlorophyll, and experiment.
 Leave the plants on the windowsill or table top for another week. Water the plants
when needed. Next week, examine the leaves and see what happened to them when
they were able to get sunlight again. Discuss what caused them to turn green again?
Greenhouse experiment (45 minutes)
Procedure
1. Fill the bottom of the 2 storage boxes with about 3 cm of soil.
2. Into each box insert a stiff piece of cardboard into the soil at about half the length of
the box.
3. Use the cardboard to prop up the thermometer. The bulb of the thermometer
should be facing up.
4. Cover one of the boxes with plastic wrap and leave the other uncovered.
5. Place both boxes underneath the heat lamp or light so that they are both the same
distance from the heat lamp.
6. Record the temperature in both boxes.
7. Turn on the heat lamp (or light bulb) and wait 10 minutes.
While children are waiting they can draw their experiment in their journals.
8. Turn off the heat lamp (or light bulb) and record the temperature in both boxes.
Discussion
Ask the children:
 How did the temperatures differ between the covered and the uncovered boxes?
 Assuming the same amount of light got to both boxes, why do you think that their
temperatures were different?
 Which box would you say was similar to the sun shining on the earth's atmosphere
and why do you think that?
Tell children that the effect on the covered box is called the greenhouse effect. In the
Earth’s atmosphere, carbon dioxide acts like the plastic wrap and holds in the heat.
Journaling and cleanup (5 minutes)
Have children complete their drawing in their journals.
ASSESSMENT:
 Ongoing, through the discussion and activities: monitor children’s usage and
understanding of words and ideas related to today’s lesson. Ask supporting questions
to encourage children to make connections. Clarify misconceptions.
Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson




Demonstrations of understanding: do any drawings, writing, theater, etc., display
sophisticated, accurate understanding of today’s lesson? Were children able to make
personal connections to the ideas? Were children able to make connections to prior
lessons?
Take-Home work (assessed following week): did children follow through and discuss
the lesson with their families, bring a related show and tell object, and/or make a
drawing/other art project related to today’s lesson? Did discussion around these things
show continuing understanding of the ideas, including making connections to prior
lessons and to community?
Do children’s understandings, as displayed by their demonstrations of understanding,
questions, and discussion show connections between today’s topic, and the big picture
of the unit topic?
Photograph objects and save drawings brought in for sharing in individual child’s
portfolio. Do the artifacts in the portfolio demonstrate an increasing trajectory of
understanding about the elements of the Earth System over time? Do children show
understanding of climate change? Do children show personal connections, including
self, school, family, and community, to their understandings of climate change?
RELATED NASA ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES:
Visit to an Ocean Planet: Making a Greenhouse
http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/Ocean_Planet/activities/ts1hiac1.pdf
Children observe the greenhouse effect using 2-liter plastic bottles, soil, and water. They
measure temperature changes as well as the effects of soil dampness.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The sun provides the vast majority of energy on the Earth. With the exception of relatively
small amounts of energy provided by geothermal sources and by nuclear processes, all heat
and power sources can be traced back to the sun.
The sun radiates energy in all directions. One part in two billion makes it to the Earth. The
sun’s energy travels to the Earth as light, both visible and invisible as in ultraviolet (UV)
and infrared radiation. When that light gets to the Earth, about half of it is reflected back
into space; 20% by clouds, 5% by the atmosphere and 5% from the Earth’s surface. Most of
the rest of the light is absorbed and turned into heat; 20% is absorbed by the atmosphere
and 49% by the Earth’s surface. A very small percent is converted into chemical energy by
photosynthesis in plants and a very tiny percent is converted directly into electricity by
solar cells. This absorbed light energy is converted into heat; which warms the Earth and
its atmosphere. Some of this heat can escape back to space as infrared radiation. However,
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor trap some of this
infrared radiation and help to warm the Earth.
As heat energy is added to substances their temperature rises. Conversely, when heat
energy leaves a substance, the temperature falls. Temperature is actually a measure of the
Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
heat energy density of an object, which, on a molecular scale, is proportional to the average
energy of motion (kinetic energy) of the molecules.
Sunlight can pass through the glass or plastic of a greenhouse easily. That sunlight hits the
dark soil and much of it is absorbed and turned into heat energy. The heated soil heats the
air in the greenhouse raising the temperature. Since the walls and the roof trap the air in
the greenhouse, the hot air cannot rise out of the greenhouse. As more of the suns energy
heats the soil, the air gets even hotter. This is much like what happens on the Earth in
general. Much of the incoming sunlight is absorbed by the ground and turned into heat
energy. Some of this heat energy is in the form of infrared radiation. The infrared radiation
could go back into space if the atmosphere would let it pass. But greenhouse gases act like
the roof of our model greenhouse and do not let all of the infrared radiation pass into space.
It traps much of that energy in the atmosphere, which raised the temperature.
CULTURAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Energy conforms our universe and everything in it!
The use of energy sources by humans (beyond their own physical capacity) begins with the
energy from the SUN and the discovery of fire!
It is believed that after seeing that curved mirrors were able to concentrate the sun’s rays,
Chinese, Romans and Greeks found that they could use the concentrated energy on any
object. The principle of the so-called "solar heat trap", was further utilized in what is
thought of as the very first attempt to use solar energy to cook!
LESSON CONNECTIONS
This lesson is tied to ideas in other lessons:
In Lesson 1 (The Sun and Temperature), children view a web-based slide show to learn
about the sun and then practice measuring temperature.
In Lesson 2 (Albedo and Plants Need Light), children begin an experiment showing what
happens to plants when light is blocked and do a short activity showing how color affects
the heat absorbed from light.
In Lesson 4 (Solar Cooking and Fire from the Sun), children build a simple solar oven and
use it to make nachos. While the nachos are cooking, children use a lens to focus sunlight to
burn paper.