Airplanes and Climate Change

• This lesson about greenhouse gases, the albedo effect, and the impact of aviation on climate includes a simple experiment, worksheet, graphing exercise, discussion questions, and a podcast.

Positives

• The podcast includes a great outline of how contrails heat the atmosphere.
• The experiment is easy to do and illustrates the concept well.
• It talks about fluorinated gases, which are major greenhouse gases but are not commonly discussed.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• There are student pages and teacher pages to download and print.
• You will need thermometers, lamps, containers, and two types of soil or sand for the experiment.
  

Differentiation

• At 8 minutes, 45 seconds of the podcast, Steven Barrett notes that aviation has "positive effects on society." You can use his opinion to start a discussion with your social studies or economics students.
• Math students could use their multiplication skills, graphing expertise, and data analysis know-how to answer questions about the greenhouse gas data presented in the worksheet.
  
• To explore more about the aviation industry, your students can read the following fact sheets from the Stay Grounded Network: efficiency improvements, electric flight, hydrogen flight, biofuels, and synthetic electro-fuels.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.