People send me stuff. My friend Rick was in Eugene, OR recently for a Ducks game and saw this in a store on the shelf. Of course, he had to snap photos and send me an email to tell me all about it.
I got a chuckle out of the “experiment with a model atmosphere” part. Here’s the reverse side:
I did some research to find out who makes this and how it is marketed. It turns out to be from a company called Thames and Kosmos:
|Earth’s Climate & Climate Change
Global warming — the steady increase in Earth’s air and ocean temperatures since the mid-20th century — is one of the most discussed and studied topics in the scientific community today. This kit introduces you to Earth’s climate and the issue of global warming with 23 hands-on experiments.
Since Earth’s formation, its climate has been constantly changing. Periods of warmer climate have alternated with ice ages. These changes happen over long periods of time. During the last few decades, a warming in the climate has been observed everywhere on Earth. While some warming may be due to natural phenomena, scientists predominantly attribute global warming to human influence. This kit gives you the basic knowledge you need to understand the climate, why it changes, and how our actions affect it.
First, learn about Earth’s climate system, weather, and atmosphere by conducting experiments with a model Earth and atmosphere. Explore the hydrological cycle to learn about humidity, clouds, and precipitation. Model Earth’s heat reservoirs, thermals, global and local winds, and ocean currents.
Next, learn how human activity influences the climate with experiments involving carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect. Measure the effects that increased levels of carbon dioxide have on the temperature of air. Learn about how warming affects the Gulf stream.
Finally, investigate the potential consequences of global warming on humans, ecosystems, and the world’s economies. Learn what we can do to protect the climate.
The full-color, 48-page manual guides your experiments. Ages 10 and up.
Intrigued, I decided to have a look at the online manual available here (PDF) The table of contents is telling:
I really wanted to see how they do experiment 21, suspecting they do some variation on Al Gore’s fabricated CO2 experiment, given the included equipment I see. Unfortunately they don’t give a complete manual online lest some enterprising kid decides to just skip buying this and do it at home.
I suspect that experiment 20 fills the plastic globe with CO2, and then they do something like what they show in experiment 8-10:
As we know (but Al Gore still refuses to acknowledge) an experiment like that can’t possibly work they way the Earth’s atmosphere does, which is why they had to fake the results in post-production.
The last item in the manual table of contents (page 46) reveals that this science kit has advocacy as a conclusion:
Economic Consequences 46
How Can We Protect The Climate?
Let’s hope some parents follow this early advice and teach their children to be skeptical detectives rather than followers:
Encourage your child to be a good detective and look closely to see the results of the experiments.