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Global Climate Change & Hardboiled Eggs

A hands-on activity to teach young chldren (Kindergarten-4th grade) about the concept of Global Climate Change
Adapted from a program written by Lori Yadin for her "Or Chayyim" curriculum.

This activity can be done with a group of young children/students either in the classroom or at home. Throughout the activity & discussions, be sure to encourage their participation in answering questions and sharing their thoughts.
*See bottom of document for materials list.

Introductory Discussion
(Bullet points represent sample questions to pose or points to make.)

Discuss the idea of change with the children:

• What kinds of things change? (Seasons, people as they grow up, etc.)
• How do we know they're changing? What signs do we see?

• What lives in the trees? In the soil? In caves?

• What does the word community mean? What type of community do you live in?
• How is a forest like a community? (The forest and all of the creatures that live there are part of G-d's community.

• Explain that the entire earth is actually G-d's community and that G-d has asked us to help take care of the earth. We have a Hebrew phrase for being G-d's helpers in protecting the environment: Shomrei Adamah.

Global Climate Change Dialogue/Activity
Place a few eggs and water in a pot. Turn on the stove and begin to heat the pot. While you watch the water start to boil, continue your discussion with the children.

• The earth is very old, and just like us, the earth changes as it gets older. Many of the changes are normal and healthy for the earth.
• One change that is not so good is something called "Global Climate Change." Let's break down that phrase and talk about what each word means.
• What do you think "global" refers to? (When we talk about something "global" it means that it affects everyone on earth.)
• What about "climate"? (Environmental conditions that affect weather, etc.)
• We already talked about the word "change" before. So let's put it all together…
  
  
• So when we talk about "Global Climate Change," we mean that the climate of the earth is changing. In some places this change is less drastic then in others, but overall the change is having a negative effect on the environment.
• One of the worst parts of this climate change is an unnatural rise in temperature in many areas; the earth is warming up! This warming causes changes in our communities and in the communities of plants and animals all over the earth. For example, when the earth heats up, ice sheets will start to melt in Alaska. How do you think that might affect the community there?
• The good news is that there is that many problems have solutions and there are some things we can do to help from continuing to heat up so much. But first, let's look at our eggs.

Turn off the stove (assuming eggs are now hardboiled), and allow the pot to cool. In the meantime, take a raw egg out to show the children.

• Who can tell me about the parts of an egg? (the outer shell, inner lining, egg white, and egg yolk)

Crack open the egg and point out all of the parts as you discuss them.

• What part of the egg protects the yolk? (The outer shell)
• Who knows what protects the earth? Did you know that the earth has a shell? We call it the earth's crust. In fact, the earth has two things that protect it. Who knows what the second is? Hint: It's not attached to the ground! (The atmosphere)
• That's right, the atmosphere. The atmosphere is made up of air and different gases that also protect the earth from things like strong rays from the sun.

Using the diagram, point out the different parts of the earth.

• There is something else that we all walk around with each day to protect us. Who can guess what it is? (Our skin) Our skin protects our insides from things in the outside that might harm it, just like the earth's crust and the atmosphere protect it.
• What changed happen to our skin when we play outside in the sun for a long time? (We might get tan or even burn.) What causes our skin to change? (The sun) It's important to wear sun block to keep us from getting burned.
  
  
• What happens to an egg when the water gets very hot and boils?

Carefully remove an egg, place it in a bowl of cold water, and open it.

• Look how this egg became hard from the boiled water (refer to raw egg for comparison). So we know that the heat of the sun, or the heat of the water will cause change. The heat of the sun causes the earth's atmosphere to change.
• Like most things in life, the sun is usually good, but sometimes does bad things. For example, most of the time we are very good friends but sometimes we may forget to share.
• It's the same thing with the sun. Most of the time it is a great friend to the earth, providing us with light and heat and helping plants grow. But sometimes it traps things into the earth's atmosphere that it doesn't need- like too much heat. This extra heat causes the changes we talked about before in the earth's crust called "Global Climate Change."
  
  
• We also cause changes in the earth's atmosphere. We take deep breaths of oxygen in and we breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. This is what we call a cycle, and it keeps an important balance in the air.
• The problem is that each year there are many more people who live on earth, so we need even more plants to keep the balance.

Use the balance scale to demonstrate:
Place two people figures on one side of the scale, and then show how many plants are needed for earth to be balanced by placing twigs and leaves on the other side. (The people figures should obviously be significantly heavier.) You may even want to have children place a stick or leaf on the scale themselves.

• There are actually many other things we can do to help this balance. It just so happens that I have brought along some Hanukkah candles that have ideas of how we can help heal the earth.

Read the promise letter aloud. (Click Here for pdf .) Explain to the children that they should bring home the letter to sign together with their parents and that they must work together with them to meet their "candle" goals. Encourage them to try one goal for each day of Hanukkah.

As the meet each goal, they may attach that candle to their Hanukkiah and decorate them. After they've completed all of the goals, they can bring their finished Hanukkiah into school with the letter to show their teacher and classmates and receive a "Junior Environmentalist" certificate (Click Here for pdf ).

Materials & Preparation:
Stove top/hot plate (to boil eggs)
Pot (to boil water)
Water (enough to fill the pot and cold water in a separate bowl)
Bowl
Eggs
A Diagram of the Geology of Earth
Balance Scale
People Figures
Twigs and Leaves

Copies of Hanukkiah for students (pdf)
Copies of candles with goals for students (pdf)
Copies of promise letter for students/parents (pdf)
Copies of certificate (pdf)


Download a printable version of this document (Adobe Acrobat PDF)