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How Do Long and Short EM Waves Interact with the Earth's Atmosphere?
https://www.lsop.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2014/10/LongAndShortOfIt.pdf

Little Shop of Physics, Center for Multi-Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes

This is a kinesthetic activity that demonstrates how shortwave radiation emitted by the sun and longwave thermal radiation emitted by the earth interact differently in the atmosphere. It allows students to experience this difference and reinforces their understanding of greenhouse gases as well. Students should have an understanding of shortwave and longwave thermal radiation and of greenhouse gases before doing this activity, but there is a minimal amount of background information about those topics included in this pdf. Additional resources and background information for teachers can be found on the website for the Little Shop of Physics.

This learning activity takes 30min.

Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»


Grade Level

Online Readiness

Topics

Climate Literacy

This Short Demonstration/Experiment builds on the following concepts of Climate Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

Energy Literacy

This Short Demonstration/Experiment builds on the following concepts of Energy Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

Notes From Our Reviewers The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy | Technical Details

Teaching Tips

  • This activity requires a fairly large open space for students to move around.
  • This activity is fairly straightforward but seems somewhat complex when starting. It would be good for students to practice before acting out the entire demonstration.
  • When used at the middle school level, more instructions about the set up should be provided, perhaps with a diagram.
  • In case the students have difficulty seeing the bigger picture while in the middle of the activity, teachers could film a "model" group of students or teachers doing the activity that could be watched later for discussion.
  • It would be helpful to have party hats and/or other props for the game.
  • The instructional pdf includes photos of students doing the activity, but it would helpful to also have a diagram of the greenhouse effect or a "model" video of the activity to get the big picture.
  • Teachers would need to plan how to incorporate this activity into a larger lesson.
  • The link to CMMAP (Center for Multi-scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes) at CSU does not work and as of 2016 this NSF-funded Center is no longer active. The Earth System Modeling and Education Institute (ESMEI) at CSU now does this work.

About the Content

  • In this activity, students physically model the greenhouse effect.
  • Students follow simple rules to model how greenhouse gases absorb and re-emit long-wave radiation while allowing shortwave radiation to pass through.
  • Students can see how this effects the distribution of radiation in the atmosphere.
  • Comments from expert scientist:
    Scientific Strengths: Nicely simulates the difference between how long- and short-wave radiation interacts (or doesn't) with GHG in the atmosphere. A fun looking activity provides good science.
    Suggestions: Some ideas are simplified that they may spread misinformation. It could be made more explicit that some long-wave photons make it out to “Space” without interacting with the greenhouse gas molecules, or after interacting with GHGs. While the difference in motion for the short- and long-wavelength radiation is a helpful way to act these out, it might also help to note that though one is taking fast, short steps and the other is taking slow, long steps, they are traveling at the same speed.

About the Pedagogy

  • This kinesthetic activity allows students to pretend to be the sun, earth, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and electromagnetic radiation.
  • This activity engages students with learning through movement.
  • The teacher should be familiar with the different roles students play and how to coordinate/manage movement.
  • In addition to the kinesthetic activity, questions are included to facilitate discussion.

Technical Details/Ease of Use

  • The activity itself does not require any technology.

Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN

Entered the Collection: July 2025 | Last Reviewed: January 2025

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