Climate Change
Experiment
How Does the Surface Area Effect the
Climate at a Particular Latitude?
By: Lazara Ehrens and
Jessica Loredo
INTRODUCTION
Why Choose this Topic?
• This
Thi topic
t i is
i a fun,
f
easy way for
f
younger students to learn about
weather and climate
• We were curious to find out how using
a flash light could determine how
much sunlight an area will receive
State the Problem
• How can using a
flashlight illustrate
the amount of
sunlight a certain
latitude will receive?
H h
Hypothesis
• As
A th
the li
light
ht reaches
h closer
l
to
t the
th
equator, the surface area will decrease.
Latitude and Climate
INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE
LATITUDEwhere
h
th
the sun
shines
DEPENDENT
VARIABLE
• SURFACE
AREAS
CONSTANTS
- Flashlight being held
the same distance
away
- Flashlight being held
in the same position
p
•
MATERIALS
• Globe
Gl b
• Flashlight
• Index cards
• Paper/Pen
• Tape
• Markers
• Ruler
Methods
• Choose 33-55 latitude points on the globe
globe.
• Wrapp index card around the head of the
flashlight and tape it.
• Hold the flashlight abo
aboutt a foot a
away
a from the
globe at the chosen latitude points.
• Use a marker to trace the amount of light that is
on the globe.
• Measure the radius of the traced circle of
sunlight in order to determine the surface area
sunlight,
area.
The four latitude points
that we chose were:
0°, 20
0
20°, 40
40°, and 60°
60 .
DATA
Latitude
Radius
Surface Area
0 degrees
2.75 cm
23.746 cm²
20 degrees
3.00 cm
28.260 cm²
40 degrees
3.50 cm
38.465 cm²
60 degrees
g
4.75 cm
70.846 cm²
RESULTS
Results
What the results
indicate: As the
latitude increased
and became
farther away from
the equator the
bigger the surface
area was.
80
70
60
Surface 50
Area (cm²) 40
30
20
10
0
Surface area
0
20
40
Latitude (Degrees°)
60
Conclusion
• Thee data and
a d results
esu ts supported
suppo ted
our hypothesis.
• As the light reaches the equator,
the surface area decreases.
Therefore, the closer to the
equator
q
the hotter it is
• Vice versa, as the light reaches
the poles, the surface area
increases.
Factors That Affect Climate
•
This experiment connects to the science concept of climate change
and allows students to see for themselves why the climate changes
in different latitudes.
•
While we were looking at the surface area and latitude relationship,
this experiment can be extended to explain the seasons. The
images on the left can be used in the classroom to help illustrate
and incorporate the experiment to the seasons.
•
“Summer and winter are not caused by the Earth’s changing
distance from the sun. Earth’s orbit is slightly elliptical and is
actually farthest away from the sun when the Northern Hemisphere
is having summer.
summer The hemisphere of the Earth that is tilted toward
the sun receives more direct rays of sunlight and also has longer
days than the hemisphere that is tilted away from the sun.”
•
“When sun’s rays strike Earth’s surface nearer the equator, the
incoming solar radiation is spread over a smaller area than at
higher latitudes. The sun’s rays are more perpendicular near the
equatorial region, causing the area to be warmer than areas at
higher latitudes. Therefore, the higher the latitude of an area, the
smaller the angle at which the sun’s rays hit Earth and the smaller
the amount of solar energy received by the area.”
Summer in the Northern Hemisphere,
Winter in the Southern Hemisphere