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Climate Change

Kit Overview

The ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’ kit from WILD! Science makes sense of global weather systems and the impact of human activity.
Use real apparatus to conduct scientific experiments and grow edible crops, create rainfall, save your real ice glaciers! Watch oceans rising, create winds, test for carbon dioxide and acid emissions. And much much more…

  • Age Group: 8+
  • Branches of Science: Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Life Science
  • Kit Code: WES/86XL
  • Climate Change Details & FAQS

Grow and eat your own crops, irrigate a desert, create rainfall and see if you can save your real ice glaciers! Watch oceans rising, create and measure winds, measure carbon dioxide and acid emissions. Feel the greenhouse effect. Float icebergs and monitor ocean currents as they melt. The ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’ kit from WILD! Science makes sense of GLOBAL WEATHER SYSTEMS and the impact of HUMAN ACTIVITY. It works just like OUR PLANET, and even looks like it. Use real apparatus to conduct SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS that will STARTLE, THRILL and AMAZE you. Grow and EAT your own CROPS, irrigate a DESERT, create RAINFALL and see if you can save your REAL ICE GLACIERS! Watch OCEANS RISE, create and MEASURE WINDS, measure CARBON DIOXIDE and ACID emissions. Feel the GREENHOUSE EFFECT. Float ICEBERGS and monitor OCEAN CURRENTS as they melt and much more!

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Climate Change help

Climate Change FAQ's

A Mold on seeds is usually due to a combination of very high humidity, high temperatures, still air, and spores of fungi that have come in on air currents. Try again but at step 7 on page 15 leave the small domes off. Airflow retards fungal growth. Wait until the seeds have germinated and started to put out the first leaves, then you can try the experiments from 8 to 11.

If it still happens, leave the whole lid off until the first leaves appear. After the experiments, it’s best to do ‘growing on’ in a well-lit place but out of direct sunlight. Long periods of direct sun can ‘cook’ the plants under the lid. Once the plants have leaves they are much more resistant to fungal attack.

NOTE: The high temperatures at steps 8, 9, and 10 are only for a short while. The seeds and/or plants are safe for this time.

The trick with getting two spinners to work is:
a) do it when there is no wind, cool air temperature AND bright sunshine. Oh no: maybe this means getting up early! Look at it this way – you are doing it for science,
b) make sure the towers (poles) and spinners are centrally located and not rubbing on the inside of the chimneys.
c) if you have a spinner that is a bit off-balance, it will probably still work but you might need to tap the spinner to start it spinning. No need to push – just a tiny tap on the blades will break the friction on the point inside the cap. Otherwise, try and balance the spinner with the tiniest of blobs of sticky tac.
d) if is seems reluctant to start, best not use oil as a lubricant on plastic. Try a drop of water first inside the cap and shake it out. Or a tiny dab of washing up detergent on the point of the post.

e) depending on the air temp outside and the strength of sunlight, it might take 10 minutes to get a ‘differential in air density‘ between the dome and outside. So hang in there …

The trick with getting any spinners to work is:
a) do it when there is no wind, cool air temperature AND bright sunshine. Oh no: maybe this means getting up early! Look at it this way – you are doing it for science,
b) make sure the towers (poles) and spinners are centrally located and not rubbing on the inside of the chimneys.
c) if you have a spinner that is a bit off-balance, it will probably still work but you might need to tap the spinner to start it spinning. No need to push – just a tiny tap on the blades will break the friction on the point inside the cap. Otherwise, try and balance the spinner with the tiniest of blobs of sticky tac.
d) if is seems reluctant to start, best not use oil as a lubricant on plastic. Try a drop of water first inside the cap and shake it out. Or a tiny dab of washing up detergent on the point of the post.
e) depending on the air temp outside and the strength of sunlight, it might take 10 minutes to get a ‘differential in air density‘ between the dome and outside. So hang in there …
The one updraft spinner in this activity has a lot of work to do! The convection currents that power it rising up from below must pull air across the whole ‘planet’ through a much smaller hole than the port over the glacier. Plus, if we had it open,  the air falling through the port above the glacier ( a catabatic wind) also helps force hot air up over the land. When the glacier port is closed, that force is no longer at work. So the spinner in this activity will naturally turn more slowly, and on a hot air temp day, it might not turn at all.
The aim is to see the cold current drop straight to the bottom, crawl along the bottom and on the way as it warms up it will start to rise. As it rises it will start to mix with the middle and top layers of the water far away from the original iceberg.
We found the wider the glass the better the effect until it got too wide. About 10cm max-width. Not too deep either or the current might not hit the bottom. 10cm deep max seems to be good. Really cold water doesn’t help, really warm water messes up the effect too. Make a lot of cubes and have fun experimenting with different water temperatures and think about what your results might mean.
There are a lot of reasons that might be the case.
You don’t say if they are turning but in the same direction. If that is  your problem it means one of two possibilities:
a) the blades on one of the spinners have been twisted up rather than down. Each spinner should be identical.
b) your kit is in draft or slight breeze. Even a slight breeze blowing over the ‘chimneys’ will overcome the gentle opposite spinning forces generated by the updrafts and downdrafts inside the kit. Try and find a less breezy area.
We are guessing however that the down spinner in particular ( over the glaciers ) might not be turning at all?
First make sure both spinners are moving very freely : just blow gently from above into each chimney in turn to make sure each spins freely. Note: they should turn the same way as you are blowing a downdraft.
Make sure that the kit is in the sun, out of any breeze,  and your glaciers are ‘newly frozen’. Leave it and watch from a little distance so your breathing does not create cross winds. The air inside must heat up and expand compared to outside to get the updraft over the land section, and the air above the glaciers must cool down and contract to suck air in as a downdraft. As you can read in the booklet – the ideal cool but sunny days do not happen so often in some countries and seasons. So you can leave this activity for another time when the weather is better.
IDEA: If you are in a cold climate and you have an infra red heating lamp in a bathroom: move the kit to the bathroom and position the kit on a stool or chair directly under the lamp. The colder the room the better and try the lamp as your ‘Sun’. It is the infra red in natural sunlight that powers the kit. We cannot guarantee it will work – but hey it is good science.
There are a number of reasons they might not spin. So lets start a check list:
1) check that they spin freely when you blow on them very lightly. If they don’t spin freely, check the mast or upright is exactly vertical and then make sure the blades of the spinner are not touching the chimneys. NOTE: do not use oil or saps as lubricants, they will actually slow it down.
2) If they spin freely when blown but not in your experiments …
3) the temperature inside the dome must be hotter than outside air ( more than 6° difference is best). On a very hot day outside, the updraft may not develop or be strong enough to turn the turbines. Best on a cool but sunny and very still day. Still not spinning? …
4) WARNING: MUST HAVE ADULT HELP Cool smoke is even more sensitive to air movement than the turbines! Find a small piece of dry cotton rag ( not wool or artificial fibre), a source of flame, and some tongs. You’ll also need a bowl of water to put out the rag.  Lift off the turbines, and set the Dome up in the sun. Light the rag holding it with your tongs, and then blow the flame out and wait a few seconds make a source of ‘cool smoke’. Gently hold the smoke over the glacier side. It should be drawn down into the dome.
5) Teachers may have access to a fine powder called lycopodium. It is used in science to show up sounds and air movement. Shake a little over each chimney. Most talcum powders, flours and starch will not work as they are usually too dense.
If you just can’t get the right sort of day – or if it is too windy, you can do it all indoors. It is not quite as ’natural’ but the idea is the same.
6) Try hot tap water in the ocean ( but NOT boiling.!!)
7) If you have a heat lamp bulb or an old tungsten type light bulb and a desk lamp stand, you now have an ‘artificial sun’. (NOTE: LED bulbs do not work, they do not produce enough heat) Set up the Dome on a table, place the lamp abut 50cm away, turn on the lamp focusing on the middle or the forest side of the dome.  Watch and wait. You might need to adjust distances.